User:John Z/drafts/Hans von Sponeck

Hans Christof Graf von Sponeck was born 1939 in Bremen, Germany, the son of Hans Graf von Sponeck. He served as a UN Assistant Secretary-General and UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq. In 1957 he was one of the first conscientious objectors in the Federal Republic of Germany. He studied history, demography and physical anthropology in Germany and the USA. He joined the UN Development Program in 1968, and worked in Ghana, Turkey, Botswana, Pakistan and India, before becoming Director of European Affairs.

Serving thirty-six years with the UN, he succeeded Denis Halliday as UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq in October 1998, heading all UN operations, overseeing about 500 international and 1,000 Iraqi wokers, managing the Iraqi operations of the Oil-for-Food program. Like Halliday earlier, and with Jutta Burghardt, head of the UN World Food Programme in Iraq, Von Sponeck resigned in February 2000, in protest of the international sanctions policy toward Iraq. Von Sponeck and Halliday wrote an article in The Guardian explaining their position, accusing the sanctions regime of violating the Geneva Conventions and other international laws and causing the death of thousands of Iraqis.

He was equally critical of the "smart sanctions" policy a couple years later: "What is proposed at this point in fact amounts to a tightening of the rope around the neck of the average Iraqi citizen. The so-called 'new' sanction policy maintains the old bridgeheads of the current sanction regime: the oil escrow account remains with the UN, market-based foreign investment in Iraq will not be allowed and an oil-for-food program stays in the hands of the UN."

In June 2005 he served as an expert on the World Tribunal on Iraq, convened in the spirit of the Russell Tribunal.

His earlier work as a resident representative in Pakistan and elsewhere, led to him becoming, like Halliday, a highly respected figure within the UN. After his resignation, he sought funds for his anti-sanctions work from firms seeking to do business with Iraq. His actions came under some scrutiny from the Paul Volcker Committee, which held that he had not broken any rule, but recommended tightening the rules.

Von Sponeck was awarded the 2000 Coventry Peace Prize by Coventry Cathedral and the City of Coventry, the 2000 Humanitarian Award from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the 2003 Bremen Peace Award of the Threshold Foundation.

Works

 * Human Development - Is There An Alternative?, New Delhi, November 1997


 * Numerous papers and articles in German and English in professional journals and magazines on subjects of environment, social change and methodological/conceptual alternatives in development, sanctions and humanitarian exemptions

from

German
Hans-Christof Graf von Sponeck (* 1939 in Bremen) ist ein deutscher Diplomat und Autor von verschiedenen politischen Büchern. Von 1968 bis 2000 war er an verschiedenen Einsatzorten für die Vereinten Nationen tätig, zuletzt in Bagdad (Irak). Er ist Sohn des von den Nationalsozialisten in der Folge des 20. Juli ermordeten Generalleutnants Hans von Sponeck.

Leben
Der Sohn einer badischen Grafenfamilie mit Offizierstradition über mehrere Generationen verlor als Fünfjähriger in Folge der Gerichtsverfahren um die Ereignisse des 20. Juli 1944 seinen Vater. Im Jahr 1957 war er einer der ersten Kriegsdienstverweigerer der neu gegründeten Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

Karriere als Diplomat
Sponeck studierte in Deutschland und den USA Geschichte, Demographie und Anthropologie. Nach einer von 1966 bis 1968 dauernden Mitarbeit in der Deutschen Stiftung für Internationale Zusammenarbeit begann er 1968 eine Diplomatenkarriere bei den Vereinten Nationen. Im Dienste des UN-Entwicklungsprogramm UNDP waren - neben den Zentralen in New York und Genf - unter anderem Ghana, Pakistan, Türkei, Botswana und Indien seine Einsatzländer. Ab Mitte 1998 trat er in Nachfolge von Denis Halliday als Koordinator für humanitäre Fragen seinen Dienst in der irakischen Hauptstadt Bagdad an. Dort hatte er unter anderem die Verantwortung für das UN-Programm „Oil for food“ („Öl für Nahrungsmittel“).

Im Februar 2000 reichte er aus Protest gegen die Sanktionspolitik des UN-Sicherheitsrates, die er verantwortlich für das Sterben mehrerer hunderttausender irakischer Kinder sah, seinen Rücktritt ein. Er tat dies gemeinsam mit weiteren UN-Spitzenbeamten in Übereinstimmung seiner fachlich-diplomatischen Einschätzung der Lage vor Ort mit seinem Vorgänger, wie aus einem von ihnen gemeinsam verfassten Artikel in der britischen Zeitung The Guardian hervorgeht. Graf von Sponeck hatte zuletzt den Rang eines Beigeordneten UN-Generalsekretärs.

Kritiker im Ruhestand
Nach seinem Rückzug aus der Diplomatie versuchte er, die Öffentlichkeit über die prekäre humanitäre Lage im Irak, die bereits im Vorfeld des US-geführten zweiten Golfkriegs dort die Notlage der Bevölkerung ausmachte, aufzuklären. Neben Beiträgen in Zeitungen und Büchern verfasste er gemeinsam mit dem Genfer Journalisten Andreas Zumach das Sachbuch „Irak - Chronik eines gewollten Krieges“, das 2003 erschien. Im gleichen Jahr würdigte man ihn seitens der Bremer Stiftung „Die Schwelle“ mit dem „Bremer Friedenspreis“. Neben weiteren Auszeichnungen erhielt er im Jahr 2000 den Coventry Friedenspreis der englischen Kirche.

Im Juni des Jahres 2005 nahm von Sponeck als Fachkundiger an dem in der Tradition der Russell-Tribunale stehenden „Welt-Tribunal über den Irakkrieg“ teil. Das 58-köpfige Gremium aus Juristen und Kriegszeugen, dem er angehörte, sammelte mit Arundhati Roy als Sprecherin der Jury in Fortsetzung der Sitzungen in Brüssel und New York am Tagungsort Istanbul drei Tage lang Aussagen und Analysen zur Zeitgeschichte des letzten Irakkriegs. Sprecher betonten, es gehe nicht darum, Schuldige zu benennen, sondern Aufklärung voranzubringen.

Kontroversen
Im Oktober 2005 gab es im Zuge des Untersuchungsberichts der Volcker-Kommission Gerüchte und Verdächtigungen auch gegen Graf von Sponeck, den höchsten verantwortlichen Beamten des „Öl für Nahrungsmittel“-Programs der UNO. Der Abschlussbericht der Untersuchungskommission besagte, dass Sponeck nicht gegen geltende Regeln verstoßen habe. Der Bericht macht jedoch deutlich, dass die Regeln so hätten sein sollen, dass sein Verhalten einen Verstoß dargestellt haben würde. In einem Interview der „taz“ betont von Sponeck, dass es der Firma Bauer um die Lieferung von Milchpulver, also einen ganz legitimen Teil des „Öl-für-Nahrungsmittel“-Programms gegangen sei. Wenn es zum damaligen Zeitpunkt schon verschärfte Regeln gegeben hätte, hätte er zugunsten der notleidenden Familien womöglich bewusst gegen die Sanktionspolitik des Sicherheitsrats verstoßen. Sein Rücktritt 2000 sei eine bewusste Entscheidung für die primäre Verantwortung gegenüber den Menschenrechten gewesen.

Auszeichnungen

 * 2000 Coventry Friedenspreis der englischen Kirche,
 * 2001 Humanitarian Award des Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committees in Washington
 * 2003 Bremer Friedenspreis der Stiftung „Die Schwelle“

Schriften

 * (mit Andreas Zumach): Irak - Chronik eines gewollten Krieges. Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2003 ISBN 3462032550, 158 S.
 * Rüdiger Göbel (Hrsg.): Bomben auf Bagdad - nicht in unserem Namen. Kai-Homilius-Verlag ISBN 3-89706-888-5, 418S.
 * Human Development - Is There an Alternative?, Neu Delhi, 1997,
 * Ein Anderer Krieg - Das Sanktionsregime der UNO im Irak, 2005, Hamburger Edition, auch in English (2006), Arabisch (2005) und Spanisch (2007)

Weblinks

 * Perlentaucher: Kurzbiografie


 * Sponeck-Interview (FAZ-Net vom 24. Februar 2001)
 * Welt-Tribunal über den Irakkrieg (Telepolis 28. Juni 2005)
 * Artikel über die Gefahr des politischen Doppelstandards des Westens (Zeitfragen 18. Dezember 2006)
 * „Die Schwelle“: Friedenspreisträger Hans-Christoph von Sponeck

es:Hans Christof von Sponeck

gtrans
Hans-Christof Graf von Sponeck (* 1939 in Bremen) is a German diplomat and author of several political books. From 1968 to 2000 he worked at various locations for the United Nations, most recently in Baghdad (Iraq). He is the son of the Nazis in the wake of the 20th July Murdered Lieutenant General Hans von Sponeck. Contents [Verbergen] 1 Life 2 Career as a Diplomat 3 Critics retired 4 Controversies 5 Awards 6 fonts 7 Sources 8 External links

[Edit] Life

The son of a family with badisch Graf officer tradition over several generations as a five-year-old lost in the wake of the court order the events of 20th July 1944 his father. In 1957 he was one of the first conscientious objector of the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany.

[Edit] Career as a Diplomat

Sponeck studied in Germany and the United States history, demography and anthropology. According to a 1966 to 1968 constant involvement in the German Foundation for International Cooperation 1968, he began career diplomats at the United Nations. In the service of the UN Development Program UNDP were - in addition to the headquarters in New York and Geneva - including Ghana, Pakistan, Turkey, Botswana and India use their countries. From mid 1998, he joined in succession by Denis Halliday as coordinator for humanitarian issues in his service to the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. There, he had, inter alia, the responsibility for the UN program "Oil for food" ( "Oil for Food").

In February 2000, he handed a protest against the sanctions policy of the UN Security Council, which he was responsible for the deaths of several hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children saw his resignation. He did so together with other UN senior officials in his expert assessment of the diplomatic situation on the ground with his predecessors, as one of them jointly written article in the British newspaper The Guardian shows [1]. Graf von Sponeck least had the rank of Assistant UN Secretary-General.

[Edit] Critics retired

After his retirement from diplomacy, he tried to inform the public about the precarious humanitarian situation in Iraq, already on the eve of the US-led second Gulf War where the plight of the population, enlighten. In addition to articles in newspapers and books he wrote jointly with the Geneva journalist Andreas Zumach the book "Iraq - A Chronicle of a wanted war," appeared in 2003. In the same year he was honored by the Bremer Foundation "The Threshold" with the "Bremen Peace Prize." Among other awards he received in 2000 the Coventry Peace Prize of the English Church.

In June of 2005, as adopted by Sponeck Expert at which in the tradition of the Russell Tribunals following World Tribunal on Iraq war "part. The 58-member panel of lawyers and witnesses of war to which he belonged, collected by Arundhati Roy as a spokesperson for the jury to continue the meetings in Brussels and New York on the venue Istanbul three days of testimony and analysis on contemporary history of the last Iraq war. Speakers emphasized that it was not about to nominate culprit, but education forward.

[Edit] Controversies

In October 2005 there were in the course of the investigation report of the Volcker Commission, rumors and suspicions against Graf von Sponeck, the highest responsible official of the Oil for Food "Program of the UN. The final report of the Investigation Commission said that Sponeck does not violate any applicable rules thereof. The report makes it clear that the rules would be so that his conduct represented a breach would have. In an interview with the "taz" [2] of Sponeck stressed that the company Bauer to the supply of milk, that is a very legitimate part of the "oil-for-food" program was gone. If it is at that time already tightened rules would have been had he in favor of the needy families may not be aware of the sanctions policy of the Security Council failed. His resignation of 2000 was a conscious decision for the primary responsibility towards human rights have been.

[Edit] Awards 2000 Coventry Peace Prize of the English Church, 2001 Humanitarian Award from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington 2003 Bremen Peace Prize of the Foundation "The Threshold"

[Edit] Writings (with Andreas Zumach): Iraq - A Chronicle of a wanted war. Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Cologne 2003 ISBN 3462032550, 158 p. Rüdiger Göbel (Ed.): Bombs in Baghdad - not in our name. Kai-Homilius-Verlag ISBN 3-89706-888-5, 418S. Human Development - Is There to alternative?, New Delhi, 1997, Another War - The UN Sanctions Regime in Iraq, 2005, Hamburger Edition, also in English (2006), Arabic (2005) and Spanish (2007)

[Edit] Sources ↑ translation of an article by Guardian Sponeck and Denis Halliday, 29 November 2001 ↑ report interview about the Volcker Commission (taz October 29, 2005)

[Edit] External links Literature by and about Hans-Christof von Sponeck in the catalog of the German National Library Perlentaucher: Short Biography Sponeck Interview (FAZ-Net, 24 February 2001) World Tribunal on Iraq war (Telepolis June 28, 2005) Articles about the danger of political double standards of the West (Current Affairs December 18, 2006) "The Threshold": Peace laureate Hans-Christoph von Sponeck Categories: Administration Lawyer | Diplomat | Author | non-fiction | pacifist | Human Rights | man | German | Born 1939