09 June 2000
Iraq Oil-For-Food Program Extended
(Netherlands questions Iraqi actions toward aid shipments) (1050) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- The Security Council June 8 voted unanimously to extend the Iraq oil-for-food program for another six months. Under the resolution, Iraq can sell an unlimited amount of oil under U.N. supervision. The proceeds are to be used to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies to ease the effects of sanctions for Iraqi civilians. It also allows Iraq to spend $600 million during the next six months for spare parts to upgrade its oil industry, which is in disrepair after 10 years of sanctions. The resolution also sets up a system to expedite the delivery of items for water and sanitation projects. It adds the items to a list of supplies that can be approved by U.N. officials without going through the council's Sanctions Committee. The vote came less than an hour before phase seven of the program was set to expire. The delay over the resolution -- co-sponsored by the United States, France and Great Britain -- was the result of negotiations over whether to include a request for a review of the humanitarian situation in Iraq. The measure was not included in the resolution. The council meeting also provided the opportunity for council members to air differences over the effects of the sanctions on Iraq's humanitarian situation. Ambassador Arnold van Walsum of the Netherlands indicated that a review of the sanctions situation might be helpful, not to assess the negative aspects of sanctions, which are evident, but to "shed light on some inexplicable actions on the part of Iraqi authorities." "My delegation continues to be puzzled by the Iraqi government's recurrent practice to adopt measures that harm its own people," van Walsum said. "At first sight, the measures may seem totally irrational, but they probably made some sense if seen in the light of the Iraqi government's attempts at convincing the international community that the only way to improve the humanitarian situation in Iraq is to lift the sanctions altogether ... or register disapproval of a country that is trying to help the Iraqi people." Describing the problems Dutch non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are having getting aid to Iraqi civilians, the ambassador said that it is as if Iraq only wants to have dealings with countries that do not approve of sanctions and continuing efforts to rid Iraq of its chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic weapons. "It is surprising to see to what lengths the Iraqi government will go to make this point, he said. "NGOs have been prevented from supplying Iraq with humanitarian goods solely, as we must presume, on account of their being based in the Netherlands." "In one such instance a Netherlands-based NGO tried to ship 72 tons of dried skimmed milk to Iraq," van Walsum explained. "It was instructed by Iraq's ministry of health to indicate a shelf life of one year instead of the customary 2 years. After the shipment arrived in Iraq a sample was tested. Six months later the NGO was informed that the consignment was rejected." "Counter checks were made in the Netherlands and a third country and nothing was found wrong with the milk powder. But the Iraqi decision was declared final," the ambassador said. Because of the arbitrarily reduced shelf life and the fact that it was in Iraq, the $300,000 shipment will have to be destroyed," van Walsum said. Other Netherlands NGOs have had similar experiences, the ambassador said, but they will probably keep on trying to get humanitarian aid into Iraq "because the Iraqi people must not be made to suffer because of the actions of their leaders." British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock took exception, with charges that coalition aircraft of the U.S. and Britain patrolling the no-fly zone in Iraq bombed civilian sites, exacerbating the humanitarian conditions. "At no time in the past, now, or in the future has or will the United Kingdom bombed the civilian infrastructure of Iraq," Greenstock said. "The action we take in the no-fly zone ... is to protect the civilian population of Iraq from repression by the Iraqi government." "The military action we take is purely in response to attacks on our aircraft in the no-fly zones which are patrolling without intent to bomb anybody or anything," the ambassador said. Greenstock explained that the "increased use of ordinance in the past few months is because the Iraqi ground forces and air force have attacked our aircraft, -- coalition aircraft -- more than 650 times in that period and we have been responding to defend ourselves." U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham echoed Greenstock's explanation of the intent of the countries whose planes patrol the zone. Coalition aircraft patrol the no-fly zone because of "concern for the difficult circumstances the people of Iraq find themselves in while the Iraqi Government fails to comply with Security Council resolutions," said Cunningham, who is the deputy U.S. representative to the U.N. "It is disingenuous to suggest that the limited military operations of our aircraft in self-defense against military targets which threaten them somehow impacts the overall humanitarian situation," the U.S. Ambassador added. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was at U.N. headquarters earlier in the day to address the Special Session of the General Assembly on Women. Afterwards she was asked to comment on charges made by Iraq during the session that U.S. policies toward Iraq were causing extreme hardship and psychological problems for the Iraqi women. "The psychological damage to the women of Iraq is created by Saddam Hussein who keeps his society under total control," the secretary said. "No one but Saddam Hussein is suppressing the people of Iraq." "The way to make sure women can participate fully in their society is for there to be the ability for everyone in Iraq to be able to state their views," she added. "The United States has supported the oil-for-food program and continues to do so. There is a lot of oil now being pumped" that will enable Iraq to buy needed food and medicine, Albright said. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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