Short defends military over Iraq aid

Short defends military over Iraq aid

There have been chaotic scenes at aid handouts by troops

Chaotic military handouts are worsening the humanitarian crisis in southern Iraq and the relief effort should be handed over to aid agencies, several charities have said.

But the UK's International Development Secretary Clare Short has said the military would have to remain in charge for now.

Iraqis in the south of the country are in desperate need of water, medical aid and in some cases food, aid agencies have said.

Plenty of aid is waiting at the southern port of Umm Qasr and elsewhere. But there have been scenes of near-riots when British troops tried to hand out water and food.

Little aid not delivered by the military has got through at all so far.

Only a Red Cross delivery of medical supplies has got into Basra, and Unicef trucks of water and health kits have made it into al-Zubayr and Safwan.

UN aid staff return to Iraq

Umm Qasr aid effort 'a shambles'

A US military commander said on Friday "significant progress" had been made in getting drinking water through the port of Umm Qasr into southern Iraq.

But one aid worker who made an assessment visit to Umm Qasr described the situation there as "shocking".

Alistair Dutton, of the charity Cafod, said: "As we drove round Umm Qasr [on Friday] people were standing by the sides of the road miming drinking to us - miming holding cups or bottles to their mouths, and everyone was asking for water.

"We sat and talked to one family and they said they'd been able to buy 80 litres of clean water in the last day.

"They emphasised they'd had to pay for it, and they'd paid 1,200 Iraqi dinar, and a monthly salary would be 30,000 Iraqi dinar, so it's more than a daily wage."

He said the way the military handed out relief simply caused confusion.

Mr Dutton said: "We would say we can do it better.

"The way [the military] do it tends to favour those who are stronger and fitter and can get to the front of the queue - or even turn up at all.

"Those who are weaker - who are sick, elderly or perhaps mothers with children who can't get to the distribution point - are the ones who need it most and are often forgotten."

Military responsibility

But Ms Short - who withdrew her resignation from the cabinet after she was persuaded the UN would take over the post-war running of the country - denied aid agencies should take over.

She told the BBC there was a clear "sequence of responsibilities" which meant the military must supply initial humanitarian relief.

Troops would then hand over to the UN, rather than individual aid agencies, she said.

Ms Short said: "Under the Geneva Convention, armed forces when they are belligerents have a duty to protect civilians.

"The very immediate duty when there's still conflict on is for the military to make sure people are protected.

The scale of the numbers that have to be fed in this country... is beyond anything that's been done anywhere else in the world

Clare Short

"As soon as there's enough order, enough safety for the UN to operate, there are stocks pre-positioned all around the country, the UN agency is ready to move in - and that's just beginning in the south."

After that, she said, the "enormous" UN Oil For Food programme - on which an estimated 16m Iraqis rely but which was halted just before the war - would be restarted.

UN administration

The aid agencies were simply not up to the job in Iraq, she said.

"The scale of the numbers that have to be fed in this country... is beyond anything that's been done anywhere else in the world.

"The [UN] World Food Program has very big stocks, this is way beyond the scale of anything Cafod or Oxfam can do."

Ms Short said she then wanted to see the UN putting in place a transitional government and an interim administration.

This remains a point of difference between the UK and US, however - the US has hinted it wants to retain ultimate control of the Iraqi infrastructure and administration.