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Humanitarian
Program In Iraq Risks Paralyses
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U.S. sanctions killed half a million Iraqi children despite U.N. humanitarian aid |
UNITED
NATIONS, Feb. 27 (News Agencies & IslamOnline) - The U.N. oil-for-food
humanitarian program, meant to ease the sufferings of the Iraqi people
living under sanctions is now facing financial crisis because of reduced oil
exports caused by political deadlocks among Security Council superpowers, a
U.N. senior official warned.
The
U.N. program that provides food, medicine and other assistance to Iraqi
civilians is facing a "financial crisis" because of a sharp drop
in Iraqi oil exports which fund it, Benon Sevan the U.N.
undersecretary-general in charge of the Iraqi oil-for-food program said
Tuesday February 26.
"I
think we are in deep trouble as far as funding of the program is concerned
... We have no money now for new contracts," Sevan told news agencies
after briefing the U.N. Security Council. "We have a financial crisis
as far as I'm concerned."
Sevan
blamed an oil pricing policy adopted last fall by the U.N. committee
monitoring sanctions against Iraq, and warned that if the committee and the
Iraqi government don't find a solution the humanitarian program could be in
"deep trouble."
Sevan
urged council members in a closed briefing to seriously review the workings
of the committee which vets Iraq's imports to make sure it is not acquiring
goods with a military potential.
"Unless
this is carried out, and carried out most urgently, the effective
implementation of the program may grind to a halt," news agencies
quoted Sevan as saying.
Sevan,
who returned earlier this month from a four-week trip to Iraq to assess the
oil-for-food program, said that the Security Council's sanctions committee
was politically paralyzed on Iraqi policies. Its new initiative of
retroactive oil pricing was delaying bidders for contracts, causing a 24
percent drop in Iraqi crude exports since November.
"At
the same time, I think, the main result has been the reduction in the oil
exports," he said.
The
new policy was orchestrated by the United States and Britain to keep Baghdad
from subverting the humanitarian program and charge the oil contractors
outside the program. The diplomats say there is no intention of altering the
policy, which they see as a success.
Based
on a month-long tour of Iraq which ended on February 10, Sevan noted that
2,089 contracts with a total value of 5.32 billion dollars had been blocked
by the committee, even though many items such as computers" are readily
available in the markets and shops of Baghdad," Agence France Presse
(AFP) reported.
By
the time Sevan completed his report, the committee has placed 10 more
contracts on hold. Almost all the 2,099 holds have been imposed by the
United States.
Iraqi
oil exports have fallen by nearly one-third, to 1.4 to 1.5 million barrels
of oil a day compared with 2.1 to 2.2 million previously. The immediate
result is that the sanctions committee has approved $1.6 billion worth of
Iraqi purchases for humanitarian goods under the program for which the
country does not have oil revenue, he said.
As
of last week, some 1.9 billion dollars was in the escrow account that
finances imports of food, medicine and other goods to the
government-controlled center and south of Iraq, he added.
According
to Seven, all of that money was allotted, but another 1.6 billion dollars
worth of imports was waiting to be funded.
"If
all the holds, with a value of 5.32 billion dollars, were lifted, we would
have a shortfall of 6.9 billion dollars," AFP quoted him as saying.
"We
are in deep trouble as far as funding of the program is concerned,"
Sevan told reporters later.
Asked
how he intended to tackle the problem, he replied: "We're going to slow
down. It's not going to crash like that," AFP said.
Sevan
told the council that Iraq's oil exports were currently around 1.4 million
barrels a day, "some 35 percent lower than the assumed sustainable rate
of export of 2.1 million barrels per day."
Unless
exports pick up, revenue for the six-month phase of the program that ends on
May 29 will be about one billion dollars short of budget, he warned.
Sevan
appealed to all parties, including the Iraqi government, "to make a
determined effort" to resolve the dispute in order to avoid a
disruption of oil exports from Iraq.
The
so-called oil-for-food program began in 1996 to help ordinary Iraqis cope
with sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It initially
provided food and basic humanitarian goods but has expanded to cover public
services such as education and water supply. Funded by oil sales, the
program has become the mainstay of the Iraqi civilian economy.
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