UN approval for humanitarian aid program when war winds down

THE UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution yesterday to restart the UN humanitarian programme which was providing food to 60% of Iraq’s 22 million people once the US-led war winds down.

The resolution gives Secretary-General Kofi Annan control over the humanitarian side of the UN program that uses Iraq’s oil revenues for medical supplies and food for the next 45 days.

Annan stressed that the military situation will determine how quickly the United Nations can return its staff to Iraq to begin distributing the assistance.

He pulled UN workers out a day before the war began last week.

“As far as resuming the operations on the ground, obviously the military situation on the ground will dictate how quickly we get back,” he told reporters yesterday.

The Security Council agreed on the wording of the draft resolution late on Thursday after a week of acrimonious negotiations in the council.

Germany’s UN Ambassador Gunter Pleuger, who chaired the negotiations, called the programme “the biggest humanitarian assistance programme in the history of the UN”, and said quick implementation of the programme was crucial to preventing a humanitarian disaster.

Meanwhile, the first aid shipment that was unloaded in Iraq last night is only of “limited” use while the country remains gripped by war, experts warned.

Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship The Sir Galahad finally docked at Umm Qasr port carrying more than 200 tonnes of emergency supplies including food, water, blankets and medical kits, after days of delays.

The delivery is central to the coalition’s attempts to win the backing of both ordinary Iraqis and opponents of military action around the world.

However, while water and medical supplies are running short in some areas stockpiling means that food is not yet generally scarce.

And after violent and chaotic scenes there are concerns that aid handed out by the military could be going to those who need it least.

The number receiving British Army and Red Crescent deliveries is dwarfed by the one million-plus population in Basra.