IRAQ CRISIS: Weekly round-up Number 15 for 21 - 27 June 2003

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

Key Humanitarian Developments:

The United Nations appealed to donor countries on Monday to make up an outstanding US $259 million in funding needed to carry out its humanitarian relief operations in Iraq through to the end of the year. The amount covers the remainder of the $2.2 billion flash appeal launched in March and for new requirements that emerged during and after the conflict in Iraq from widespread looting and the destruction of hundreds of public facilities. About 88 percent of the $2.2 billion has already been pledged.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Ramiro Lopes da Silva, made a strong plea on Tuesday for the establishment of a representative Iraqi interim administration, without which he said the world body could not even begin to assess or address the reconstruction needs of the war shattered country. He added that "Without an Iraqi entity being in place, we cannot even begin our task."

Referring to the general feeling of insecurity, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello said: "Commercial activity is restricted as people stay at home, children are not sent to school, and a siege mentality is in evidence. He said: "looting and re-looting of rehabilitated infrastructures is creating a deep sense of frustration among the population and the humanitarian community. Limitation of UN staff movement affects assessment and delivery capacity".

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been forced to temporarily withdraw from the Al-Hurriya warehouse in Baghdad following ongoing unrest and theft. Last week, an organised crowd attacked a convoy transporting WFP food at Safwan in southern Iraq. A vehicle positioned in front of the convoy forced the trucks to slow down while a crowd threw stones at drivers and stole 390 bags of wheat flour. This was the fifth convoy transporting WFP food to be attacked in the area since distribution started. In a related development, a gun battle also took place at WFP's Kimadia warehouse No.1 in Baghdad on Sunday.

The UN Children’s Fund UNICEF announced on Thursday that it had teamed up with five international aid organisations to study the situation in which Iraqi children live, identifying particularly vulnerable groups. The study will focus on the risks to children's well being and the coping mechanisms that exist within their families and communities to help them overcome the current challenges they face in post-war Iraq.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR on Friday appealed for $90.6 million to fund its assistance operations in Iraq, where the agency is helping more than 110,000 refugees mainly from Palestine, Iran and Turkey, and assisting Iraqi refugees and displaced persons who are now starting to return home spontaneously, UNHCR chief Ruud Lubbers said.

For its part, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in cooperation with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and the Ministry of Agriculture, has finalised plans for the upcoming winter grain crop and most signs are encouraging. FAO estimates that Iraq's farmers will plant 1.8 million hectares of wheat and 830,000 hectares of barley, which falls well within the annual average of somewhere between 2.5 and 3 million hectares, spokesman Barry Came said.

The Norwegian Refugee Council, with the assistance of WFP observers, completed assessing all known IDP sites in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Assessments in the city indicate that the water, sanitation and health situations at the sites are in poor condition. Interviews with families suggest that, despite poor living conditions, most are willing to stay in the places they have occupied until the time comes for their return.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been tackling the problem of what they call explosive remnants of war ERW) in Iraq. The first ICRC-sponsored training session took place on Wednesday in Baghdad and was attended by 20 Iraq Red Crescent volunteers. In the southern town of Nasiriya, 40 Red Crescent volunteers were trained on effective presentation techniques, how to gather data and analyse facts and figures on victims and contaminated areas. In the southeastern town Amara, 25 volunteers attended a session on victim data collection.

The Iraqi capital was without power on Tuesday for more than 24 hours after a breakdown and suspected sabotage of fuel pipelines, an official said. Meanwhile, the health infrastructure in Iraq remains fragile and serious disease outbreaks remain probable. Distribution to and administration of medical facilites remains an ongoing problem. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said cases of diarrhoeal disease are abnormally high and MSF staff have started distributing tailor-made diarrhoeal disease kits and training Iraqi staff on cholera testing.

A wide-ranging international meeting convened by the United Nations and for the first time including the United States-run administration in Baghdad agreed on Tuesday to hold a donor reconstruction conference for Iraq this autumn after hearing repeated calls for the speedy establishment of an Iraqi political partner for the process.


CONTENTS:

IRAQ: War victims stake claim for compensation
IRAQ: Interview with former Foreign Minister Adnan Pachachi
IRAQ: Interview with Baroness Emma Nicholson
IRAQ: UNDP acts on Baghdad unemployment
IRAQ: Basra's women have mixed feelings about the new era
IRAQ: UN revises humanitarian appeal

[ENDS]