Washington - Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), a member of the International Relations Committee and Ranking Member of the International Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee, expressed her admiration and support of the protestors who marched in front of the White House against US sanctions against Iraq on Monday.

DC Police arrested more than 100 marchers, many of whom carried signs saying, "Sanctions are Mass Murder" and "Sanctions Suck the Life out of Countries."

The United Nations placed economic sanctions on Iraq after its Aug. 2, 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Officials in Baghdad say that since then, almost 1.5 million Iraqis, including 500,000 children may have died as a result of the sanctions.

Those still alive and suffering are in desperate need of medical supplies and attention. The International Red Cross called the conditions in Iraq, "increasingly desperate."

Commenting on the protest, McKinney said, "The sanctions being held against Iraq do not affect the leaders or the targets as intended by the United Nations. The sanctions should target Hussein and his elite service, rather than the innocent men, women, and children of the country who are powerless to change the brutal dictatorship that victimizes them."

"These US-led sanctions hit the weakest of Iraqi society and victimize them yet again for being powerless and poor. This is certainly no way to effect change in the regime, but rather to prolong its life--as we have amply seen." McKinney concluded.

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