25 March 2003
Massive Coalition Food Program Ready to Enter Iraq, U.S. Says
(Awaiting clearance of mines from port of Umm Qasr) (840) By Wendy S. Ross and Jane Morse Washington File Staff Writers Washington -- A massive humanitarian operation by the United States and its coalition partners stands poised to enter Iraq as soon as the port of Umm Qasr is opened for traffic, the United States says. "Coalition forces have seized the southern port of Umm Qasr and are working to get this port up and running. It will be a gateway for food and other relief items," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters March 25. Fleischer noted that coalition forces are currently sweeping the port of mines, a necessary prelude to allow incoming humanitarian traffic. Two Iraqi tugboats carrying mines have already been interdicted, he said. "This is a major step in providing humanitarian aid and resuming ration distributions to the Iraqi people," he said. The one impediment to aiding the long-suffering people of Iraq, Fleischer said, "is the removal of these mines." The Iraqi regime, he said, is willing to starve its own people by mining the port to stop humanitarian aid from getting through. "[T]he mines will be moved. The people will be fed," he said. From President Bush's point of view, "the focus on humanitarian aid remains a paramount issue," Fleischer said. "We have prepositioned and made preparations in a number of ways," State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters at his daily briefing March 25. "We've provided $109 million dollars for international agencies to use to prepare to take care of the Iraqi people," Boucher reported, and he said that figure includes $60 million to the World Food Program, which has 130,000 tons of food ready to enter Iraq. The United States is providing another 610,000 metric tons of food worth $300 million, he said, of which 132,000 tons is prepositioned in the region. Coalition forces have three million humanitarian daily rations in Kuwait and other locations for distribution to meet emergency food needs, Fleischer and Boucher said, the largest number of such rations every forward-deployed for contingency use. The spokesmen said 47 members of a 62-person U.S. disaster assistance team now are in the region to plan the ongoing operations, and the International Red Cross is working to repair the water system in Basra, where 40 percent of the water service in that city has been restored. Fleischer said "it remains unclear on who turned the water off for Basra." "Yesterday the U.S. Agency for International Development awarded a contract for reconstruction and management of the Umm Qasr port," Boucher said. "The contractor is already moving experts to the region to begin organizing port services. And U.N. agencies are prepared, when the security situation permits, to move and distribute prepositioned humanitarian supplies through this port." In addition, the United States is "working at the United Nations to pass, on an urgent basis, a resolution to authorize the secretary general to take the steps necessary to sustain the Oil-for-Food Program," Boucher said, noting that food and supplies from that program are already in the pipeline for delivery as soon as it can be done safely and the secretary general has the authority. When asked about proposals reportedly being made by countries in the Middle East to end the war in Iraq, Boucher said: "Peace proposals that leave the current Iraqi regime in place to once again threaten the international community, its neighbors and Iraq's own people are just not workable. "Our message to friends in the Arab world has been and will continue to be: It's time to focus on how best to achieve a more stable region, how to achieve a brighter future for the Iraqi people who have suffered far too long under the vicious tyranny of this regime. "We will continue to consult with our friends in the Arab world, continue to talk to them about how they can best assist in these efforts." "I think first of all there are several things that need to be remembered," Boucher said. "The first is that this conflict arose because the Iraqi regime refused to disarm. It refused to cooperate with the 12 years of United Nations efforts to disarm Iraq peacefully. And it refused to come into compliance with U.N. Security Council resolutions. So, unfortunately, we think the time for cooperative solutions with this Iraqi regime has passed." The U.S. goal, he said, is to eliminate weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the threat they pose to the region and the international community, and to free the Iraqi people from the "brutal and corrupt regime of Saddam Hussein." Fleischer said "an international mission is under way for the purpose of disarming Saddam Hussein and making certain that no one in this regime who has been at the leadership level will again put the world in a position where Iraq will come into possession of weapons of mass destruction." (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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