CESAPI - Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq

The food clock is ticking

As a result of 12 years of devastating sanctions, 60% of the Iraqi population ­ 16 million children, women, and men ­ have relied on the oil-for-food program’s 44,000 food distribution centres for survival. The program was suspended when the U.S. attacked Iraq. See => more on sanctions .

At the onset of hostilities, the average Iraqi household had an estimated 30-45 day food supply. These stocks are beginning to dwindle. The UN World Food Program (WFP) estimates that food shortages will become acute by the end of April without substantial deliveries of supplies.

Mass famine looms unless the food distribution centres are reopened. This necessitates the immediate and full withdrawal of the invading powers.

Aid as a propaganda tool

Televised images of U.S. and British forces distributing food aid in southern Iraq are examples of how the provision of aid has become just another tactic in the U.S.-led war against Iraq, according to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and relief agencies. "What they are doing is not humanitarian aid but a ‘hearts and minds’ operation and that is quite different," said Lewis Sida, Save the Children’s Director of Emergencies.

Separation of military and humanitarian operations

There is always a mixed message when the military distributes humanitarian aid. "It’s highly inappropriate," said Rick Augsburger, Director of emergency response for Church World Service. "Humanitarian assistance needs to be given from a position of impartiality. … There is no guarantee it will be accepted as a humanitarian gesture. Does it put someone at risk in Iraq just for accepting it? I don’t know that it doesn’t."

The Practical Guide to Humanitarian Law ­ a Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders publication - is clear: "Humanitarian action must be independent from any political, financial or military pressures. Its only limit, its only constraint, and its only goal must be the defense of the human being. Relief organizations must therefore be capable of proving that they are independent from any outside constraint, and the relief activities must also be independent from any military, political, ideological, or economic pressures."

Looming threat of mass starvation

Unlike bomb and shrapnel injuries, hunger and the looming threat of mass starvation are invisible.

• One in four Iraqi children under the age of five are chronically malnourished, and six per cent are acutely malnourished.
• Iraq imports 80% of its food.
• 60% of the Iraqi population ­ 16 million children, women, and men ­ are dependent on oil-for-food program rations for bare subsistence. This lifeline was cut when the invasion began.
• Under the oil-for-food program, 16,000 tonnes of food a day were supplied. (The British ship, Sir Galahad, supplied 200 tonnes of food at the end of March. 80 Sir Galahads would have to unload each day just to restore the normal supply.)
• UN agencies estimate that food shortages will become acute by the end of April.
• The UN estimates that 1.5 million Iraqis are without water.

How will Iraq feed its 12 million children?

UN agencies estimate household food supplies will be exhausted by the end of April, and even sooner for the poorest families. NGO relief agencies will provide essential services to refugees, but they cannot begin to address the needs of the general population.

The major problem is not importing food into Iraq, but providing equitable and reliable distribution to the more than 4 million households throughout the country. The World Food Program is the only agency capable of taking on such a massive task, but requires a cessation of hostilities and withdrawal to do so.

As long as this war continues, food distribution will be impossible throughout much of the country. The U.S. administration has little understanding of the crisis and even less will to tend to the welfare of the Iraqis beyond scoring propaganda points.

What is to be done?

Second, a global campaign is needed to call the U.S. and Britain to account. They are the occupying powers and have the legal responsibility to meet the needs of the civilian population. While the temporary reinstatement of oil-for-food shifts responsibility back to the UN, it has no logistic capacity to distribute food aid while the war continues.

So far, the U.S. and Britain have escaped formal censure at the UN. At the same time, the U.S. has worked to block a UN Human Rights Commission resolution calling for a ‘special sitting’ to discuss the humanitarian consequences of the conflict. In the absence of formal censure, the U.S. can avoid responsibility for the entirely predictable consequences of its actions.

Resolution 377   -   The "Uniting for Peace" UN Resolution

Under Resolution 377, seven members of the Security Council or a majority of the United Nations General Assembly can demand an emergency meeting of the General Assembly where there is a "breach of the peace or an act of aggression." Such a meeting could censure the invading powers and demand their immediate withdrawal.

It would be difficult for the U.S. and Britain to ignore such a measure, as evidenced by their recent efforts to block such an initiative.

While individual countries of the Non-Aligned Movement have attempted to raise the issue, global public support has been lacking. Such a call, which may also offer the U.S. administration a face-saving exit strategy - withdrawal to prevent civilian starvation - requires a coordinated international campaign.

For Resolution 377 to succeed, the Canadian peace movement, NGOs, and individual Canadians need to systematically focus on writing or faxing the President of the General Assembly, the Security Council, and leading Canadian political figures including the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Dear Prime Minister, I am deeply concerned about the impending threat of starvation in Iraq. The UN World Food Program is the only agency capable of organizing distribution of food in Iraq and it needs conditions of peace to accomplish this. Please exert all effort to call for an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly to censure the invading countries and formally call for the immediate withdrawal of their forces from Iraq. Please support Resolution 377, the "Uniting for Peace" resolution, and ask that other countries do the same. Sincerely, Your Name

Letters may be sent postage free to:

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bill Graham House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6 800 267-8376 <[email protected]>

Minister of Defence John McCallum House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6 613-996-3100 <[email protected]>

Prime Minister Jean Chretien House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6 613 992-4211 <[email protected]>

Call the Iraq Inquiry Line at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade toll free: 1-866-880-4378

Find out how to contact your MP at: [=>] canada.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html

Jan Kavan President of the Fifty-Seventh Session of the United Nations General Assembly Office of the President of the General Assembly United Nations, New York, NY, 10017 tel: (212) 963 2209 fax (212) 963 3133

Campaign to End Sanctions Against the People of Iraq - www.vcn.bc.ca/cesapi