Aid Agencies Urge Swift Effort to End Iraq Anarchy
Sat April 12, 2003 06:28 PM ET
By Saul Hudson
KUWAIT (Reuters) - Frustrated humanitarian agencies say U.S. and British forces must move swiftly to end lawlessness and looting across Iraq so that full-scale efforts to get food, water and medical aid to the population can begin.
Ramiro Lopes da Silva, the top U.N. humanitarian official for Iraq, said a team of 13 international staff would return to parts of northern Iraq on Monday and the U.N. presence in southern Iraq would be expanded. But, speaking in Jordan, he said security was still a serious problem.
"We may not have large chunks of the country in active conflict but in terms of risk the fact that there is lack of law and order makes it extremely more dangerous than the situation of active conflict between two organized army forces," he said.
The situation remains so dangerous that UNICEF, the U.N. agency seeking to restore water in Iraq, and its sister agency the World Food Program have not been able to even assess the population's needs in any towns further north than the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, just over border with Kuwait.
While UNICEF said it was encouraged it had delivered some water inside Basra for the second day on Saturday, it could not distribute the aid in the center of Iraq's second largest city because it was unsafe.
"The news that there will be some sort of security on the ground is good news for us," UNICEF spokesman Marc Vergara told Reuters. "But it is still difficult because we can only go to specific places."
Da Silva said security was a hurdle to aid flows into Iraq and the reason why most U.N. international staff who evacuated on March 18 still had not returned. Until U.N. agencies return, other aid organizations are unlikely to move into Iraq.
ANGER IN BASRA
Soldiers in Basra distributed a new newspaper written in Arabic -- with a picture of Saddam Hussein's statue being toppled -- to crowds of people desperate for any handout.
"We don't need a newspaper," yelled one man, slamming the paper against the window of an armored car carrying journalists. "We need water, food and power."
Small children caked in dirt ran toward any vehicle -- military or civilian -- which looked as if its occupants would give out food, water or trinkets.
And with loaded aid trucks waiting to ferry medicine, food and water supplies into Iraq, agencies said U.S. and British forces needed to do more to ensure safety for their convoys in the lawless vacuum left by the toppling of Saddam's government.
"We certainly haven't seen any change on the ground," said Cassandra Nelson, a spokeswoman for Mercy Corps.
"Our cars are packed and we are ready to go. We just need the security so that we can go in."
"WE ARE DESPERATE"
Around 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people rely on a United Nations food program that was set up after economic sanctions were imposed following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The program was suspended when U.S.-led forces launched their war to oust Saddam on March 20.
British forces have been delivering some food and providing security at Iraq's largest port in Umm Qasr to allow ships filled with aid to dock.
British troops in Basra said they hoped to start patrols with local police officers soon, and Reuters correspondents in the southern city said there was no evidence of the mass looting witnessed earlier in the week.
Two U.S. planes flew medical supplies from Kuwait to Baghdad late on Friday to help strapped hospitals cope with casualties.
But Iraqis in the capital protested at the lawlessness, and aid agencies said the situation was extremely worrying.
"It's the coalition that should be able to protect the basic infrastructure -- the hospitals and water and electricity systems," said Tamara al-Rifai, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"We believe there is no hospital functioning in Baghdad. We are desperate, frustrated, completely depressed."
(With additional reporting by Christine Hauser in Basra)
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