19 March 2003
U.S. Outlines Initial Aid for Iraqi Civilians
(U.N. , Security Council members look to post-conflict aid for Iraq) (1220) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- With the prospect of war looming over Iraq, the U.N. Security Council quickly turned a March 19 meeting on the work of U.N. weapons inspectors into a preliminary discussion on humanitarian aid for Iraqi civilians, giving a preview of the work that will occupy the 15-nation body in the near future. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte briefly outlined U.S. plans for meeting the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people to which the United States, he said, is dedicating "significant resources." The United States is sending the largest ever Disaster Assistance Response Team, known as DART and composed of United States civilian humanitarian experts, to the region to assess needs in the field, and it has pre-positioned in the region $16.5 million worth of food rations and relief supplies, including water and purification materials, blankets, and shelter supplies, Negroponte said. Urging nations to contribute to other humanitarian programs, the ambassador said that the United States has contributed "over $60 million to more than a dozen different United Nations agencies including OCHA (Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Assistance), UNHCR (U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees), UNICEF (U.N. Children's Fund), the World Food Program, and the World Health Organization, as well as a multitude of non-governmental organizations." The United States also recognizes the critical importance of keeping the Oil-for-Food program running to meet the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people and will soon present to the council a draft resolution to ensure the continuity of the program, especially the delivery of key supplies such as food and medicine, Negroponte said. The official purpose of the meeting was for the Security Council to receive a report from the chief U.N. weapons inspectors on their work plans to tackle 12 remaining key Iraqi disarmament issues. But with the inspectors withdrawn from Iraq and military action imminent, council members used the international platform to comment on the failure of the inspectors to complete their work or on the pressing need to provide humanitarian assistance to Iraqi civilians. "The fact of the matter is that the situation on the ground will change and so will the nature of the remaining disarmament tasks," Negroponte said. "Considering a work program at this time is quite simply out of touch with the reality that we confront." Nevertheless, all council members commended the work of Hans Blix, executive chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and Mohammed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and their inspectors for the work they had undertaken in Iraq after the council passed resolution 1441 in November 2002. The report on the key remaining disarmament tasks makes clear "the multitude of important issues which Iraq has avoided addressing," Negroponte said. "These are the kind of documents that we would have been able to discuss if Iraq had met the requirements of resolution 1441. But it cannot now lead us to the result this council demanded -- the immediate, peaceful, disarmament of Iraq." The U.S. ambassador said, however, that the documents "may prove useful ... at some time in the future." U.K. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said, "Let us not forget what brought us to this point: the fundamental failure of Iraq to disarm in the face of 12 years of demands, pressure, and pleas from the Security Council and from virtually the whole international community." Greenstock said that "whatever the divisions and resentment (over the impending military action), we the Security Council, we the United Nations have a central role to play on Iraq." The United Kingdom will work to speed humanitarian relief to the Iraqi people, to achieve the earliest lifting of U.N. sanctions, to promote international reconstruction program, and to use all oil revenues for the benefit of the people of Iraq, the ambassador said, and the U.K. also foresees an important role for UNMOVIC and IAEA in verifying the disarmament of Iraq and carrying out long-term monitoring. The U.K. has set aside $110 million for immediate humanitarian provisions and is likely to announce further funding, Greenstock said. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said that the plight of the Iraqi people is now his most immediate concern. "In the past 20 years, Iraqis have been through two major wars, internal uprisings and conflict, and more than a decade of debilitating sanctions," Annan noted. "The country's vital infrastructure has been devastated so that it no longer meets the most basic needs for clean water, health or education. Iraq's must vulnerable citizens -- the elderly, women and children, and the disabled -- are denied basic health care for lack of medicine and medical equipment." Annan said that more than 60 percent of the population depend on food rations from the Oil-for-Food program as their main source of food and yet many families have to sell part of the ration to buy clothes or other essentials for their children. Under international law, the responsibility for protecting civilians in conflict falls on the warring parties, and areas under military occupation are the responsibility of the occupying power, the secretary general pointed out. But he said that "without in any way assuming or diminishing that ultimate responsibility, we in the United Nations will do whatever we can to help." U.N. humanitarian agencies have made preparations. A month ago the U.N. asked for $123.5 million to help displaced persons and provide for humanitarian needs. Only $45 million has been pledged with $34 million received so far, he said. The Oil-for-Food program could be adjusted temporarily to allow the U.N. to continue providing humanitarian assistance during and after hostilities, but the council has to authorize the changes, the secretary general said. "Let me express the hope that the effort to relieve the suffering of the Iraqi people, and to rehabilitate their society after so much destruction, may yet prove to be the task around which the unity of this council can be rebuilt," Annan said. The divisions that arose over whether Iraq had sufficiently cooperated with the weapons inspectors and eventually prevented the council from voting on a U.S.-U.K.-Spanish draft resolution on Iraq earlier in the week were still evident in the debate. However, all council members expressed the willingness to help with the humanitarian needs and rebuilding of Iraq. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, whose government led the opposition to the draft resolution, said that those who support military conflict to eliminate the danger of weapons of mass destruction and eradicate the scourge of terrorism risk failure. But, he said, "over and above our division, we have a collective responsibility ... to recover the unity of the international community." "It is a matter of urgency to prepare now to provide the requisite humanitarian assistance. This imperative must prevail over our differences," de Villepin said. "No country by itself has the means to build Iraq's future. ... It is from the United Nations alone that that the legal and moral authority can come for such an undertaking." (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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