07/01/07 From TFF website
Appeal for the release of Tariq Aziz in Iraq

By Hans von Sponeck and Dennis J. Haliday



Tariq Aziz, fomer Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq
UN/DPI Photo# 196122C by Evan Schneider
As two former UN Humanitarian Coordinators for Iraq we would like to repeat the appeal we made last year to the US Government for the release of Tariq Aziz, former Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq. Tariq Aziz has been imprisoned for the past 3 years without charges.

During this period his fundamental rights under international law have been disgarded just as in the case of other POWs and political prisoners in Iraq. We are making this renewed appeal for Tariq Aziz because of his poor and deteriorating health and the resulting danger to his life.

We knew Tariq Aziz as the senior-most Iraqi official to whom we turned when our humanitarian work demanded his intervention for the betterment of the Iraqi people.

It was Tariq Aziz who supported us in making the case to the UN Security Council for an increase in the size of the UN humanitarian exemption. It was Tariq Aziz who made it possible for us to collect information on the effectiveness of equitable distribution of humanitarian supplies. It was Tariq Aziz who allowed a critical presentation to the then National Assembly on the human rights situation in Iraq. It was Tariq Aziz who contacted the Kurdish authorities to facilitate our travels across the line of control for talks with the Kurdish authorities. We have known Tariq Aziz as a defender of the Iraqi people's rights and as a person of integrity.

The continued confinement of a sick POW is at the individual level one example of the tragic mishandling of a nation. We are asking the US Government to show statesmanship and release Tariq Aziz on humanitarian, if not legal, grounds.

We turn to all those who have known Tariq Aziz in difficult circumstances to support this appeal, especially former US Secretary of State James Baker and US Representative Lee Hamilton.

We hope that the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Dr. El Baradei and his predecessor Dr. Hans Blix who also served as the last head of the UN Monitoring, Inspection and Verification Commission in Iraq will support this appeal.

We also call on the incoming UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to share our position and use his influence with the US and current Iraqi authorities for the release of Tariq Aziz and other Iraqi POWs.


H.C. von Sponeck
UN Coordinator 1998-2000

Denis J. Halliday
UN Coordinator 1997-98

New York / Mulheim
2 January 2007
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