UNITED NATIONS, Feb 14: US and UN officials agreed on Thursday that in case of war against Iraq, the United States — as the occupying power — would initially have responsibility for the care and feeding of the Iraqi people.
International aid workers in Iraq likely would be pulled out of the country ahead of an attack but the United States would be expected to quickly invite relief groups back in as areas were secured by the military, US officials said.
The military would be obliged to take care of ordinary Iraqis under the 1944 Geneva Convention on civilian rights in wartime, said Kenzo Oshima, the UN emergency relief coordinator.
“An occupying power must permit civilians to live a normal life ... and ensure the requirements of food and supplies to the civilian population,” Oshima told a news conference.
He briefed reporters after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan met Security Council diplomats to discuss plans for what many UN officials refer to as “the morning after” in Iraq.
Both the United Nations and the United States have been working for months on plans for dealing with Iraq’s hungry, wounded and homeless in the event of war.
But UN officials have been hesitant to discuss the moves publicly for fear they might make it seem war was inevitable.
The United Nations disclosed on Thursday that it was also looking at a possible role in rebuilding a post-war Iraq.
A new UN task force on Iraqi reconstruction, led by Rafeeuddin Ahmed, a Pakistani national and former associate administrator of the UN Development Program, has been set up to deal with the devastation caused by a possible war.
Mark Malloch Brown, head of the UN Development Program, said recently that rebuilding Iraq could cost up to $30 billion over three years and eventually soar to up to $100 billion.
Both Washington and UN agencies, working with private aid and humanitarian agencies, began months ago to solicit funds and move food and supplies to countries bordering Iraq.
The United States has so far committed $18 million to planning, much of it in the form of donations to UN agencies such as the World Food Program. US Ambassador John Negroponte said on Thursday Washington would provide another $40 million for such planning.
US humanitarian groups, however, called the Bush administration’s planning inadequate and complained it would not make a commitment to help civilians in the event Baghdad used chemical or biological weapons.
Mary McClymont, president of InterAction, an alliance of 160 US-based humanitarian groups, said the administration had been unwilling to share its plans with nongovernmental groups.
“Administration officials have told us they do not plan to take responsibility for the care and protection of Iraqi civilians should these weapons (weapons of mass destruction) be used during the war,” McClymont said in a statement.
A US government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States is making “a pretty clear commitment to help the Iraqi people”.
“Military planners take into consideration a variety of factors ... including the potential weapons that an enemy might employ. And civilians on the battlefield is a part of that planning,” the official said, without elaborating.
Iraq’s people are particularly vulnerable because most of its food supply is managed by the United Nations under the UN oil-for-food program, put in place in 1996 to ease the impact of sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The program allows Baghdad to import civilian goods with the revenues from its oil sales.
The United States has outlined plans for a two-year military occupation of Iraq in the event of an invasion, and would use Iraqi oil revenues to pay the costs of the Iraqi people’s needs.
ISRAELI MINISTER: Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz predicted on Friday that a US-led attack on Iraq would take place at the end of this month or early next month, at a meeting with 200 Israeli mayors in Tel Aviv.
He also said the United States had promised to stop Iraq from firing missiles towards Israel at the start of the campaign.
“The estimates of the defence ministry are that a US operation will not begin before late February or early March,” Mofaz told the meeting, according to a defence ministry spokesman.
The possibility of an Iraqi retaliation against Israel is “very slim”, he added, at the mayors’ gathering to discuss security arrangements in the event of a US war on Iraq.
“The Americans have assured Israel that at the start of the campaign they will intervene in western Iraq to prevent missiles being fired” towards Israel.
“If Iraqis manage nevertheless to fire a missile or two, we have today a double defence system to intercept them,” Mofaz said.
Local press reports said Mofaz has been openly critical of security preparations in some towns and cities, arguing that intense preparations had frightened citizens unnecessarily.
Officials have also been trying to play down the danger, criticizing press headlines advising Israelis to start stocking up on water and other vital supplies as the government appealed for calm.
At the same time, Israel has called up reservists and readied its Israeli-made Arrow anti-missile defence system.—Reuters/AFP
