Bush isn't that interested in the poor Iraqis:
Aid groups say US shut them out of post-invasion plan
By Robert Schlesinger, Globe Staff and Geneive Abdo, Globe Correspondent, 2/18/2003
ASHINGTON - Key nongovernmental relief organizations say the US government has cut them out of its planning to provide food, shelter, and security in Iraq following a US invasion, prompting concern over the adequacy of preparations for what could be a vast humanitarian crisis.
According to government officials and others familiar with US military plans, relief organizations would flood into parts of Iraq immediately after an attack. But aid workers say if war breaks out in the next three to four weeks, they will not have sufficient resources inside Iraq to execute such a plan.
They say the US government has so far refused to grant them licenses to enter Iraq to bring in food and medical supplies. Without such preparations, they fear a humanitarian disaster could be on the horizon, including widespread starvation and disease, aggravated by ethnic and sectarian tensions and the threat of reprisal killings.
In contrast to the 1991 Gulf War, military planners hope to avoid mass destruction of Iraq's infrastructure to allow a quick and relatively low-cost rebuilding effort.
However, aid specialists say, even short-term interruptions to water and sewage services, electrical supplies, or the state-run food rationing system could spark a crisis beyond the means of international aid groups and the US military.
The US government says it has prepositioned food, medicine, and other supplies at strategic locations around the region, backed by extensive relief plans.
''They've got a very articulated system for bringing in the NGOs and interacting with them in the immediate aftermath of hostilities,'' said Loren Thompson, a military analyst with the Lexington Institute who has been briefed on the plans. ''Who knows if it will work.''
General Tommy Franks, who heads US Central Command and who would lead allied forces in an Iraq war, would administer the country immediately after the war, US officials have said.
Last month, the Defense Department created an Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, which will ''develop the detailed plans that [Franks] and his subordinates will draw on in meeting these humanitarian responsibilities,'' Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week.
The office is run by retired Army Lieutenant General Jay Garner, who held a senior position during humanitarian relief operations in northern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War. Garner's office is called ''expeditionary'' because he and his staff would deploy to Iraq if hostilities commence.
A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that workers from the US Agency for International Development would operate under military command during the initial stages of the recovery.
The military would designate ''secure zones'' inside Iraq as US troops advance, allowing aid organizations to flow in after any military movements.
''They've got to secure these zones before the NGOs go in there,'' said Retired Air Force Lieutenant General Thomas G. McInerney, who was briefed on the plan by Pentagon officials last week. ''It's not going to be easy, but it's going to happen fast.''
Feith said that the new office ''is charged with establishing links with the United Nations specialized agencies and with nongovernmental organizations that will play a role in post-war Iraq. It will reach out also to the counterpart offices in the governments of a coalition countries and ... to the various Free Iraqi groups.''
But many in nongovernmental aid organizations and other analysts fear that the planning is too little too late.
The plans ''are quite well-advanced; there are good concepts,'' said Alton Frye of the Council on Foreign Relations. ''But the implementation phase even in the prewar, where you have to establish contacts with people and institutions, is ... still a gleam in the eye.''
Kenzo Oshima, the UN's chief for humanitarian affairs, said Thursday that a war could create 600,000 to 1.5 million refugees and asylum seekers, with 1 million others internally displaced.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told the Security Council that the UN is planning to feed up to 10 million Iraqis, the New York Times reported.
A likely scenario during the early days of an attack, according to aid workers and former US military commanders, is that the US military would first destroy Iraq's air defense and radar communications systems, cutting off electricity and preventing Iraq's army from communicating among its troops.
''My guess is that the Pentagon is struggling with how much infrastructure to take out,'' said Kenneth Bacon, president of Refugees International, an aid group in Washington, D.C. He said that the United States would prefer to preserve the electrical and water systems to minimize the financial burden from rebuilding the country.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, testifying last week before the House International Relations Committee, said that he did not anticipate Iraqi devastation.
''Most of the infrastructure will be intact,'' he said. ''The plans that we are looking at for the after would include using the institutions that are there but purged of Saddam Hussein's cohorts, and build on what's there and put in place a new government.''
Feith said that US government groups are ''vetting Iraqi officials to determine with whom we should work.''
Nongovernmental aid groups also say they have been hampered by US sanctions that forbid relief workers from entering Iraqi territory without authorization from the US Treasury Department.
Although they are hopeful some licenses will be issued to enter Iraq within next few weeks, they say the number of workers and the amount of supplies that will be allowed into Iraq during the early stages of the war are inadequate. They expect a shortage of workers, expertise, and supplies - everything from tents, medicine, and food - that could be rushed in behind advancing US troops.
''We can't move on an emergency response with sanctions in place,'' said Sandra Mitchell, vice president of the International Rescue Committee. ''Unless the sanctions are lifted, any licenses which will be released in the near future will likely be restrictive and will not provide us with the independence we need to do contingency planning in the field before the war begins.''
Mitchell said the Pentagon has refused to work with aid groups to draw up contingency plans. But Frye said ''they're about to start hearing from relevant elements of the government.''
He said the administration would have seemed dishonest if it publicly planned for ameliorating the consequences of war while insisting that a decision to wage war had not been taken.
An interruption of food supplies is considered one of the most serious threats to Iraqi civilians. About 16 million Iraqis, or 60 percent of the population of 24 million, rely completely on food rations, distributed by the Iraqi government and financed through the sale of oil through the UN's oil-for-food program.
Any interruption in supplies would lead to severe malnutrition, according to humanitarian groups. A study last month by the International Study Team determined that 500,000 of Iraq's 13 million children suffer from malnutrition.
Another area of concern is the water supply system. Wastewater treatment facilities need electricity to operate. In an attack, UNICEF said that about 39 percent of the population will need to be provided with potable water by treatment plants powered by generators.
A lack of clean water, as well as lack of wastewater treatment facilities, probably would lead to a dramatic increase of diseases such as diarrhea and typhoid fever.
Globe Correspondent Bryan Bender contributed to this report.
This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 2/18/2003. |
