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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ed Huang who wrote (23994)	3/29/2003 11:01:57 PM
From: BubbaFred	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25898

Turkey insists on plans to send soldiers to northern Iraq Sat Mar 29, 4:19 PM ET story.news.yahoo.com ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the United States that the country would make up its own mind on whether to send troops into northern Iraq (news - web sites) as Kurdish groups controlling the breakaway region advanced on the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Defying international criticism, Turkey has announced contingency plans for strengthening its military presence in northern Iraq, fearing local Kurds may declare an independent state and set an example for their restless cousins in Turkey's southeastern corner. But it has so far failed to convince Washington, which has repeatedly called on Ankara to stay out of northern Iraq, fearing that a massive deployment of Turkish troops would complicate its own military campaign against Baghdad. Iraqi Kurds, meanwhile, have threatened to fight the Turkish army, amid worries that Ankara will seek to curb the autonomy they gained at the end of the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites) when the region was taken out of Baghdad's control. In an address to parliament, Erdogan said Ankara was willing to listen to its key ally as long as its security interests were not undermined, but hinted that Turkey would act on its own if it perceived a threat. "It is natural for Turkey to respond positively to demands from its allies, as long as its sensitivities are protected," Erdogan said. "We do not want to doubt that our sensitivities would be taken into consideration by our allies, but no one should doubt that we will do what is necessary as an independant and sovereign state if a situation which hurts our sensitivities emerges," he asserted. He underlined that Turkey did not intend to invade Iraqi territory. His warning came as Turkish diplomats and US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, just back from meeting Iraqi Kurdish leaders, failed to achieve a deal in two hours of talks here to gap differences over Ankara's plans for northern Iraq. Speaking to reporters, Khalilzad described the meeting as "very good", and said the talks would continue next week, the Anatolia news agency reported. The Turkish-US negotiations have taken on renewed urgency as Iraqi Kurds, with the help of US forces, edged closer to Kirkuk, which Ankara has repeatedly warned them to stay out of. Iraqi troops were forced to abandon their frontlines and retreat towards Kirkuk for the second time in recent days and fighters from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) advanced at least seven kilometres (four miles) towards the town, an AFP correspondent said Saturday. Militiamen from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) consolidated their positions within 16 kilometers of Kirkuk after government forces retreated. Iraqi Kurds have said they want Kirkuk for their "capital", but under US pressure have pledged not to declare independence. On Friday, Turkey's National Security Council appealed to the United States to take into account Ankara's security concerns in northern Iraq, adding that Turkey stood ready to send its own troops into the region. Earlier in the week, the head of Turkey's influential army, General Hilmi Ozkok, announced that the army would send troops into northern Iraq in coordination with US forces if a small Turkish force already there was unable to deal with security threats. Turkey, the only Muslim member of NATO (news - web sites), has maintained a military presence in northern Iraq since 1997 to hunt down Turkish Kurdish rebels hiding in the region. Turkey says extra troops might be needed to deal with a wave of refugees or to stop Turkish Kurdish rebels crossing into its territory.

To: Ed Huang who wrote (23994)	3/29/2003 11:19:34 PM
From: BubbaFred	Respond to of 25898

UN re-launches oil-for-food in Iraq but humanitarian effort still blocked LONDON (AFP) - The United Nations (news - web sites) has relaunched the oil-for-food program in Iraq (news - web sites) and a British naval ship has finally brought the first relief supplies but the humanitarian aid program is still riddled by huge question marks. Non-governmental aid agencies are standing by on Iraq's borders but are unable to go in since the US-British military coalition wants to distribute humanitarian aid itself, aid workers said Saturday. Meanwhile, the southern city of Basra, where people are running low on water, is a battle zone, stopping even military-carried humanitarian aid from going in. And the main question may be whether the Western alliance that all but broke apart over the war in Iraq can heal itself and come together over the issue of rebuilding Iraq. This political front is a tense one. British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) returned Friday from a trip to the United States having failed to convince US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) that the UN should have a lead role in running post-war Iraq. Julie Smith, European analyst for the London-based think tank Chatham House, told AFP that Blair lost important clout with the Bush administration when he failed to win a resolution endorsing the war against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime, accused of harbouring weapons of mass destruction. Now Bush's administration, mistrustful of a politically divided and bureaucratically slow United Nations, wants post-war Iraq ruled under the direct control of the US military, even if it sees a role for the United Nations in distributing humanitarian aid. Blair's backing for the UN forming a representative government in post-war Iraq aligns him with France, something that will hardly endear him to the Americans. The Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution to allow the resumption of humanitarian aid for Iraq through its "oil-for-food" programme. The United Nations also launched a 2.2 billion dollar urgent appeal, its biggest ever, to buy supplies for the Iraqi people. An estimated 60 percent of the Iraqi population of 22 million depends on the "oil-for-food" programme for daily supplies. The programme under which Iraq is allowed to sell oil to buy certain basic supplies -- under UN supervision -- was suspended on March 18 just before the war began. The four-page resolution, which gives UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) the power to get the programme under way, describes the US and British forces in Iraq as "the occupying power," responsible for the civilian population under international conventions. Non-governmental aid agencies are angered over the US insistence that aid must at first be provided by the military. "We want to see the United Nations given the full mandate to do the job, as they have done many times before," said Alex Renton, on the Jordanian border with Iraq for British aid organization Oxfam, which specializes in water, sanitation and infrastructure. "Military action and humanitarian aid do not go hand in hand," he said. "A soldier with a gun in one hand and a loaf of bread in another is a dangerous thing," he added, referring to the possibility of drawing hostile fire. The British naval ship the Sir Galahad became Friday the first relief vessel to reach Iraq since the war began, docking at the port of Umm Qasr after mines were cleared. Renton said coalition soldiers were now distributing powdered milk for children, but if this were not mixed properly with clean water it could cause diarrhea, and in the current conditions in Basra, diarrhea can kill. story.news.yahoo.com