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Reuters | Sky News |  PhotosSunday March 30, 03:30 PM |
Weakest Iraqis missing food aid By Suleiman al-Khalidi
AMMAN (Reuters) - U.N. and other relief agencies have criticised the
way food is being distributed under U.S. and British forces' supervision
in southern Iraq in which strong Iraqis have grabbed food at the expense
of the weak.
Over the past few days, hundreds of Iraqis have been shown on
television scrambling near Basra for boxes of food aid, sent from Kuwait,
while troops tried to control them.
"We want to see aid delivered to the most needy in a way that has human
dignity and we don't think that only the strongest should get aid...This
doesn't conform to any standard of human respect," Martin Dawes, a
spokesman for the United Nation Childrens Agency (UNICEF), told Reuters on
Sunday.
"I have not seen aid that is going to hospitals or a mechanism to
ensure the same people don't come back," he added.
U.S. troops, intent on ousting President Saddam Hussein, have been
advancing on Baghdad in the centre of the country. But much of the south,
including the city of Basra, is not under their control and it is too
dangerous for U.N. agencies and non-governmental organisations to enter.
A U.N. spokesman said aid distribution must not be used as a publicity
stunt for political gain rather than feeding hungry people.
"This whole notion of soldiers giving aid boxes to people off the back
of a truck looks nice for cameras," said David Wimhurst of the UN Office
of the Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq (UNOHCI).
"But the actual scenes that ensued were pretty bad. This creates a
semi-riot. You have no way of getting to know where this aid is going to
end. It may be sold or simply held by the strongest."
Wimhurst said food distribution must be organised, taken over by
impartial civilian aid organisations as soon as possible, and involve
local people.
"The best way of doing aid is to involve community elders and
especially women. Women traditionally care for households and they know
their families' needs," he told Reuters.
"One of the key issues, apart from handing out the aid is to maintain
the dignity and humanity of those receiving it," he said.
International aid group Oxfam said distribution by the military made
Iraqi civilians targets by Iraqi soldiers.
"The problem is that aid distributed this way can be dangerous," said
Alex Renton, citing reports of firing by Iraqi troops on civilians when
receiving bread from British soldiers.
Almost all aid agencies have said southern Iraq is still too dangerous
for civilian relief teams, but they say the U.N. must take control of
humanitarian work when the fighting ends. |
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