IRAQ: Food Waits For Fighting to End

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Mar 31 2003 (IPS) - The World Food Programme of the United Nations is preparing to launch a massive relief operation in Iraq – but only after it has become safe for humanitarian workers to go in.

"More people have died in humanitarian work of the United Nations than in UN peacekeeping operations," Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) James T. Morris told media representatives in London Monday.

"We cannot put our humanitarian workers at risk," he said. UN workers were the last out of Baghdad, and there are still a large number of Iraqi workers of the WFP within the country, Morris said.

"While the conflict continues the prime responsibility for providing humanitarian assistance lies with the belligerents and with the occupying forces," Morris said. He dismissed a demand made by British Labour MP and former actress Glenda Jackson Monday that the UN should open a food corridor into Baghdad if the coalition forces lay siege to the city.

Morris said the WFP programme, whenever it can be implemented, would be independent of the military. "I do not see a situation when the WFP would use the military to do our distribution."

Morris acknowledged also that the WFP would "get into places that are most secure earliest" and that "the longer the conflict lasts, the more difficult it will be for our people to go in there."

Given the difficulties with humanitarian assistance that may be offered by the U.S. and British forces, it seemed from what Morris said that the prime responsibility for providing food during conflict will lie with the Iraqi government.

The Iraqi government has done a good job with food distribution over the last few months, Morris said. Food has been distributed through 44,000 distribution points in Iraq, of which 33,000 are in south and central Iraq. The WFP has been directly involved in distribution through the 11,000 points in the north, Morris said.

People have been given four to seven weeks of extra food through these centres over recent months, Morris said. But the clock is now ticking for Iraqis. "About 60 per cent of Iraq’s 27.1 million people depend entirely on food through the public distribution system and 100 per cent depend partly on food through this system," Morris said.

The WFP has launched an urgent 1.3 billion dollar appeal to fund a massive food aid operation in Iraq. Its planned operation could be the largest humanitarian operation in history.

"We have already started building a lifeline for the Iraqi people," he said. "Every day that passes without orders for food, ships and trucks could be another day of suffering for Iraqi civilians," he said. "We cannot afford to lose time." The WFP has received commitments so far for only a fraction of its projected needs for Iraq. For the moment lack of resources and the continuing conflict stands in the way of the WFP intentions, and food for the people.

A six-month contingency plan has been drawn for Iraq. The first month provides for feeding up to two million refugees. Over the next three months it plans to provide extensive food and relief supplies within Iraq. In the last two months it plans to re-launch its own supply chain and scale down emergency operations. It hopes then to focus on a potential caseload of five million who would be particularly vulnerable or affected by the war.

The WFP hopes to move 1.6 million tonnes of food commodities into Iraq over the six-month period.

"It is a logistician’s nightmare," says Khaled Adly, WFP regional director for the Mediterranean, Middle East and Central Asia. "We will have to allow for a complex matrix of unknowns and uncertainties: the duration of the war, the intensity of war operations, the state of mills and roads in a few weeks from now."

The WFP does not know when this six-month operation will kick in. "We cannot predict our response absolutely," Morris said. "But we have 42 years of experience of dealing with a situation like this. We are confident that this is what we need to do." Morris added, however, that "if it goes on for a very long time, then our assessment will change."

There would be many authorities to negotiate with, including the military, port authorities, the government, and regional authorities, Morris said. "But history shows that people are usually willing to cooperate for humanitarian purposes," he said. "We have had success working in Afghanistan in often hostile conditions."

The WFP is getting considerable assistance from Syria in its efforts to secure food for Iraqis. "We have tenders out in the region for supply of 200,000 tonnes of food, " Morris said. "We also have a lot of food waiting on the sea."