Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=4/10/03

TYPE=Special English Feature

NUMBER=7-28625

TITLE=SPECIAL ENGLISH BACKGROUND REPORT Aid Efforts in Iraq

BYLINE=Robert Brumfield and Jerilyn Watson

TELEPHONE=619-2585

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Arditti

CONTENT=

This is _________with a VOA Special English Background Report.

Even as Iraqis celebrated in Baghdad Wednesday, fighting continued in parts of the city and other areas of Iraq. The situation has delayed humanitarian aid efforts. On Wednesday the International Committee of the Red Cross suspended its work in Baghdad for at least a day. Gunfire hit two Red Cross vehicles as American and Iraqi forces battled on Tuesday. A Canadian Red Cross worker was killed.

A Red Cross spokeswoman says conditions in the hospitals in Baghdad are terrible. There are many people wounded, but few supplies to care for them. Red Cross workers took supplies to one hospital in the city earlier this week. But the spokeswoman says the Medical City Hospital has no water or power. Only a few operating rooms can be used.

Another agency, Medecins sans Frontieres -- Doctors without Borders -- has been assisting at al-Kindi General Hospital in Baghdad. The group has had some success in getting supplies into Iraq.

There were difficulties, though, for the World Health Organization. The United Nations agency said thirty-eight tons of its medical supplies were being delayed in Jordan.

In southern Iraq, two Australian ships with tons of wheat were too large to enter the country's only deepwater port, at Umm Qasr. But British aid ships have arrived. British troops have brought water to the city and nearby Safwan. Some thirsty people fought each other for the containers of water.

In northern Iraq, the U-N World Food Program has said food supplies will be gone in about three weeks. Among other problems, the U-N says two-hundred-sixty-six-thousand people in the north have left their homes in search of safety.

A few days ago, the United States added more money for international efforts to buy food for Iraqis. Officials say the added money will be enough to feed twenty-three million people for almost a month. The United Nations has renewed its international appeal for more than two-thousand-million dollars for emergency humanitarian aid to Iraq.

In Washington, United States officials debate how to provide aid in Iraq when the fighting is over. Some at the State Department and the Agency for International Development want civilian aid workers involved. They say they fear that other governments and international aid organizations will not want to work with the military.

This is ___________ in Washington.