Meanwhile, back in Iraq

There are two kinds of government disinformation campaigns, according to Vancouver psychiatrist Dr. Allan Connolly. There is the overwhelming onslaught of information that makes you think nothing else is happening in the world (think Kosovo), and there is silence (think Iraq).

Connolly visited Iraq last year, where sporadic bombing campaigns have continued since the Gulf War and where one million of the country's people, half of them children, have quietly died as a result of UN sanctions imposed in 1991. Connolly saw hospitals in Iraq where world-class medical equiment stood idle for lack of spare parts, and where rows and rows of shelves stand empty of medication. People have even stopped going to the hospital, he says: "When you've brought your third child to hospital to die and the fourth is sick, you don't bother going any more."

Western governments have vested interests in ensuring nobody hears about Iraq, Connolly says. "Any sentient human being who knew what was happening in Iraq would be appalled. So there's this silence in the media. When I went there I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. For eight years this has been allowed to happen. It just gets uglier and uglier and more and more evil."

Connolly will speak tonight (Thursday, June 3) in Room DS-R510, at UQAM, 320 Ste-Catherine East. For more information call Voices of Conscience at 722-5538.

--Jacquie Charlton