AMMAN, April 11: International aide officials criticised US and British troops on Thursday saying their inability to rein in looting mobs threatened to deepen the humanitarian and health crisis in Iraq.
“The picture is a very dark one. There is absolutely no security on the street,” said Veronique Taveau, spokeswoman for the United Nations Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq (UNOHCI).
“There is widespread looting and every official building and most of the U.N. compounds have been looted. Humanitarian assistance will be hurt,” she added.
Taveau criticised US-led troops for turning a blind eye to the lawlessness saying it was a breach of their obligations as an occupying force under international law to prevent chaos.
“The coalition forces seem to be completely unable to restrain looters or impose any sort of control on the mobs that now govern the streets. This inaction by the occupying powers is in violation of the Geneva Conventions,” Taveau added.
Taveau was echoing heightened fears in the international aid community about the damage their efforts by widespread looting across Iraq’s cities.
Looters ransacked offices in the Iraqi capital for a second day after Saddam Hussein’s feared security forces melted away, leaving US forces to fight sporadic battles across the city.
Wivina Belmonte, spokeswoman for the United Nations Children’s Fund, said the aid body’s own UNICEF offices in Baghdad were looted, hampering any future relief efforts.
“The widespread looting and chaos spread to UNICEF’s office with phones, chairs — essentially everything was taken away,” she said.
“The continued chaos in Baghdad is alarming and more generally we are seeing an unfolding picture of too much desperation, too many guns and families living in fear and uncertainty,” Belmonte added.
Peter Kessler, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told Reuters a state of lawlessness could trigger displacement and refugee movements.
“It is absolutely vital that the occupying powers rein in the lawlessness and provide a secure environment. It’s absolutely reprehensible that guards cannot be put outside U.N. agencies so that their assets can be controlled,” Kessler said.
“The current situation is critical and opportunities are being lost by the outbreak of anarchy and looting in some of these cities to actually get aid in,” he added.
Kessler said relief efforts were suffering a setback with looting spreading to U.N. vehicles and office supplies.
“U.N. agencies are not even sure about their current office supplies or their vehicles and to get rolling to get humanitarian aid delivered we have to have assets and other equipment in place,” Kessler said.
HOSPITAL WORK CURTAILED: World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesperson Fadela Chaib said even hospitals were not spared by mobs that only worsened a situation where even medical supplies were running out of stock.
“We have received disturbing reports from Baghdad that the ability of hospitals and hospital staff to do their work is being severely curtailed by the lack of civil order in the city,” Chaib said.
The ICRC said on Thursday a Baghdad hospital was ransacked and that others had closed their doors because of the violence.—Reuters
