Iraq aid 'priority over UN rows'

By Mark Davies BBC News Online political reporter

Concerns about the shape of post-war Iraq should be put to one side in order to address the immediate humanitarian needs of ordinary Iraqis, Tory spokeswoman Caroline Spelman has urged.

There is an "absolute humanitarian imperative" to get aid in

She said debates at the UN were secondary concerns compared to the urgent humanitarian needs on the ground in Iraq.

The international community is considering what role the United Nations should play in post-war Iraq, with the US said to be against giving the UN a mandate to run a future administration.

But Mrs Spelman said the reality would be that coalition forces would have to have the immediate responsibility for delivering aid once the fighting stops.

And she said: "If you are starving hungry or you haven't got access to clean water at that point you are not looking very closely at the beret of the person who is giving you a drink or a parcel of food or putting your electricity back on."

She said it would be would be a mistake "to get hooked up on waiting for members of the security council to swallow their differences and provide us with that resolution before we start rebuilding".

If you haven't got access to clean water you are not looking very closely at the beret of the person who is giving you a drink

Caroline Spelman

"I don't think we can hang around," she went on. "It'll be very volatile in the immediate aftermath of conflict and you need to demonstrate very quickly your seriousness with which you want to help improve the quality of life for Iraqi people."

Mrs Spelman, in an interview with BBC News Online, said it was "an absolute humanitarian imperative" to get the UN's oil-for-food programme back on track. She was speaking before the UN security council debated plans to transfer authority for the programme to Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The international development spokeswoman is critical of what she says is a lack of UK forward planning in terms of Iraq's humanitarian needs in the event of conflict.

"In January we asked whether the department (for international development) had earmarked any contingency funding and got a one word answer: 'no'.

Planning

"We are now beginning to get announcements about contingency funding for Iraq.

Spelman: Clare Short has "boxed herself in"

"For me that underlines that there wasn't enough preparatory work."

She said humanitarian and military planning must go hand in hand, and claimed there was evidence from the situation in Basra of "a lack of strategic planning".

She said the military strategy of skirting Iraq's main towns had changed in relation to Basra, and questions whether the humanitarian effort had been thought out sufficiently in relation to that possibility.

Mrs Spelman also believes that making it clear to the public ahead of the conflict that humanitarian planning was on an equal footing to the military plans would have helped attempts to win public support to tackle Saddam Hussein.

So does she think Clare Short's stated misgivings about the conflict played a part in this alleged lack of planning?

"I do think that her personal concerns had an impact on the leadership that she was providing to DFID in this preparation.

How aid agencies are preparing

"I don't think it's acceptable to give your opposite number one word answers on such an important matter."

And Mrs Spelman believes the international development secretary may have created further difficulties for herself in stating so clearly that another UN resolution is needed for the reconstruction of Iraq.

Amid reports that Washington has a different vision of the UN's involvement in post-war Iraq, Ms Short has said a second UN resolution is "an absolute legal requirement".

Pragmatic

"She has said there must be a UN resolution for the reconstruction because if not in her view the armed forces that remained the country would become an illegal occupying force," said Mrs Spelman.

Ms Spelman is critical of the UK's planning for aid

"I think we need to be a bit pragmatic here. If the war was over tomorrow and Saddam ran up the white flag, then who would actually be on the ground?

"The Iraqi population would expect our armed forces to start putting the water back on the electricity back on because that is what they expect of the troops who have stopped fighting."

Ms Short, she says, has "boxed herself in" on the issue, while adding that it may be her "get out clause" from the cabinet in the future.

Mrs Spelman said a further UN resolution was important, but may come "a little while after the commencement of trying to make things better for the Iraqi people".

The UN would, however, have an important long-term role in Iraq and the wider region in order "to demonstrate to Arab nations that we are not at war with Islam or Arab nations - we are very focused on this one regime led by one man who we believe represents a threat to international peace and security".

Mrs Spelman believes that if the international community needs to adopt a pragmatic approach, so do aid agencies concerned about being seen as part of a "belligerent" force if they work alongside the military to deliver aid.

Imperative

"The aid agencies have got to swallow their pride a little bit," she said.

These are very hungry people, very needy people and I think there is an absolute humanitarian imperative to accept the protection

Caroline Spelman

"There isn't anybody else out there at the moment to protect those aid lorries and it isn't safe to take them in without the protection.

"It's not safe for the soldiers involved, it's not safe for the aid workers and ultimately if it's not controlled it's not safe for the people who've come to get the aid.

"These are very hungry people, very needy people and I think there is an absolute humanitarian imperative to accept the protection."

Mrs Spelman sees the immediate priorities in terms of delivering aid as to provide safe corridors to get relief to southern Iraq, but also to look further north where she says refugee camps haven't been completed and Jordan is reluctant to open borders.

"There could be humanitarian crisis of huge proportions if we aren't ready to deal with this.

"If (Saddam) attacks the Kurds and they head for Turkey, it has the makings of a serious crisis - and it's a long way from where the humanitarian relief is coming in to the south."