By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 25 2003 (IPS)

After refusing to provide legitimacy to a U.S.-led war on Iraq last week, the 15-member U.N. Security Council is heading for a new standoff, this time over humanitarian assistance to displaced Iraqis and the creation of a post-war U.S. military authority in Baghdad.

France, Russia, Germany and Syria – four Security Council members who opposed the military attack on Baghdad – have virtually rebuffed Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s plans to initiate a major humanitarian assistance programme in Iraq in conjunction with the United States and Britain.

Under the proposed plan, Annan would take over the authority to run the programme from the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The four countries have expressed reservations over a proposal to revamp the existing ”oil-for-food” programme so that Iraqi oil revenues would be used to fund humanitarian assistance – even as the United States and Britain continue with their plans to set up a military authority to run Iraq.

Nobody is against the provision of humanitarian assistance to Iraqis, Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday. But any changes to the oil-for-food plan, he said, would have to be discussed by the Council’ 15 members.

Iraqi Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri bluntly accused Annan of trying to ”hijack” the programme, which has been handled by the Iraqi government since 1996, and is now said to feed more than 60 percent of the country’s 27 million people.

”I cannot accept this wordplay,” Aldouri told IPS, ”There is no occupying power in Iraq.”

In a statement late in the day Annan emphasized ”the need to maintain the territorial integrity of Iraq and the right of its people to determine their political future and exercise control over their natural resources".

The U.N. chief also agreed that a Security Council resolution would be needed before his agency could take on a role beyond providing humanitarian assistance to Iraq.

Annan also met U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice at the United Nations to discuss the U.N.’s contingency plans for Iraq, adding speculation to rumours that the United States and Britain may want to use the United Nations ”to clean up the mess” after the fighting.

Amid signs of political discord over the future of a post-war Iraq, the United Nations is struggling to establish a humanitarian programme to provide food, water, medicine, electricity and other basic health services to hundreds and thousands of displaced Iraqis caught in the crossfire.

U.N. Spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters Tuesday that there are some 300,000 internally displaced people in the north of Iraq alone.

Annan has summoned a meeting Wednesday of the heads of all U.N. funds and programmes involved in humanitarian relief operations, including the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday that during the last 24 hours it has received reports of ”serious water shortages” in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, which came under U.S. and British artillery fire over the weekend.

According to WHO, about 60 percent of the city’s 1.7 million inhabitants are said to be without access to clean, safe water. ”This is of concern to WHO since lack of safe water increases disease and death rates, particularly among children,” the U.N. agency warned.

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said her agency was ”deeply troubled” by the deteriorating conditions for children in the areas most impacted by military operations.

”The last few days have raised real concern for the welfare of civilians, especially children, caught in the conflict,” she told reporters.

Bellamy said she was particularly worried about Basra, where ”electricity has been knocked out, interrupting water supply. And that puts people at risk from unsafe water.”

Urging the warring parties to put more focus on the humanitarian impact of the conflict, Bellamy said, ”We’ve very concerned about reports of deaths and injuries among children and women.”

”Such losses are tragic and they are unacceptable. But the truth is the world does not have a very clear picture of the humanitarian impact of the fighting. There is a disturbing lack of focus on the civilian population.”

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