[LINK] Fwd: HUMANITARIAN CRISIS LOOMS IN IRAQ BECAUSE OF BREAKDOWN OF LAW AND ORDER - UN

[Antony Barry]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "UN News Service" <UNNews at un.org>
> Date: Thu Apr 10, 2003  5:00:24 AM Australia/Canberra
> To: <news11 at list.un.org>
> Subject: HUMANITARIAN CRISIS LOOMS IN IRAQ BECAUSE OF BREAKDOWN OF LAW  
> AND ORDER - UN
> Reply-To: <UNNews at un.org>
>
> HUMANITARIAN CRISIS LOOMS IN IRAQ BECAUSE OF BREAKDOWN OF LAW AND  
> ORDER - UN
> New York, Apr  9 2003  3:00PM
> United Nations relief agencies warned today that looting and the  
> breakdown of law and order in Iraq threatened to unleash a  
> humanitarian crisis as their operations were obstructed, and they  
> called on the occupying military forces to afford the necessary  
> security for their aid work to function.
>
> The collapse of civilian authority in the two largest cities, Baghdad  
> and Basra, must be addressed by the occupying military forces, which  
> have responsibility under international humanitarian law to maintain a  
> secure environment for the civilian population, a spokesman for the UN  
> Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq (UNHCOI) told the  
> <"http://www.un.org/apps/news/ 
> infocusnewsiraq1.asp?NewsID=485&sID=9">daily briefing in Amman,  
> Jordan, on UN humanitarian activities.
>
> The very difficult conditions in which Baghdad hospitals were now  
> operating had been further exacerbated by the breakdown of law and  
> order, which was preventing access to medical facilities by hospital  
> staff and other essential service workers, David Wimhurst said.
>
> Health workers, water treatment technicians and generator maintenance  
> crews must be provided safe access to their places of work and the UN  
> urged all parties to the conflict to guarantee access to medical  
> facilities for all health and essential service, Mr. Wimhurst added.  
> The longer the situation remained out of control, the more difficult  
> it would be to start humanitarian relief operations, and the greater  
> the delay in beginning the work of reconstruction.
>
> Representatives of UN relief agencies echoed those concerns in their  
> reports.
>
> "Before this conflict took place,  
> <"http://www.unicef.org/noteworthy/iraq/">UNICEF (UN Children's Fund)  
> had networks and systems inside Iraq that helped us achieve our  
> life-saving vaccination campaigns, nutrition campaigns and work in  
> education," UNICEF Representative to Iraq Carel de Rooy said. "What is  
> horribly worrying about the looting, chaos and breakdown of order is  
> that those systems we counted on may completely disappear or > collapse."
>
> The World Food Programme  
> (<"http://www.wfp.org/index.asp?section=2">WFP) said it had undertaken  
> to provide food for up to 27 million people - the entire Iraqi  
> population - for a period of four months, a major enterprise for which  
> its staff had been preparing the complex logistics for months.
>
> "However, we need to operate in a safe environment in order to deliver  
> food successfully," spokesman Maarten Roest said. "Unless law and  
> order prevail, it would be extremely difficult to guarantee the  
> required food aid - 480,000 tons - reach the people."
>
> Referring to the reported looting of warehouses in Basra, "the very  
> warehouses which WFP is aiming to replenish for the May distribution,"  
> he said WFP operations did not seem possible under such circumstances.
>
> The UN High Commissioner for the Refugees  
> (<"http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/iraq">UNHCR) said it was very  
> concerned about the general lawlessness and feared that growing chaos  
> in Iraq's cities and the precarious humanitarian situation could  
> combine to spark a flood of refugees.
>
> "We urge the occupying forces to take immediate measures to restore  
> and maintain law and order and to ensure that humanitarian assistance  
> flows to those who need it," spokesman Peter Kessler said.
>
> The UN Population Fund (<"http://www.unfpa.org/">UNFPA) said pregnant  
> women in particular were increasingly in danger, as local hospitals  
> reportedly struggled to cope with large numbers of war casualties,  
> medical supplies ran low, many operating theatres were no longer  
> usable, and law and order seemed to be breaking down.
>
> Available reports indicated that miscarriages, premature deliveries  
> and caesarean sections have risen sharply since the start of the  
> conflict, spokesman Ziad Rifai said.
>
> The World Health Organization  
> (<"http://www.who.int/features/2003/iraq/briefings/wednesday9/en/ 
> ">WHO) reiterated its alarm of recent days at reports from Baghdad of  
> serious civilian casualties and growing pressure on hospitals and  
> health workers. Electricity supplies were erratic, standby generators  
> were being overworked to the point of collapse, and many hospitals  
> were running short of clean, safe water, spokesperson Fadela Chaib  
> said.
>
> Staff were working extremely long hours in unimaginable circumstances  
> and some vital surgical and medical supplies were running short, she  
> added. Without clean water wounds could not be cleaned and could  
> readily become septic, and without electricity vital equipment could  
> not operate.
>
> WHO was flying in 50 surgical kits, due to arrive in Amman, today or  
> tomorrow with sufficient anaesthetics, surgical equipment and medical  
> disposables, such as bandages and syringes, for 5,000 surgical  
> interventions and several days post-operative care, she added.
>
> The agency said reports from much of the rest of central and southern  
> Iraq were even worse than from Baghdad, and it was extremely concerned  
> about the situation in Nasiriya, Najaf, Karbala and many other towns  
> where there had been conflict, where water and power shortages were  
> also reported, and where the health needs had not been assessed.
>  2003-04-09 00:00:00.000
>
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