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New York, Mar 31 2003
UN RELIEF AGENCIES MOVE HUMANITARIAN SUPPLIES OVER IRAQ'S BORDERS
United Nations relief agencies along Iraq's borders are looking at ways
to bring in humanitarian aid, and the first UN food consignment to enter the
country since the outbreak of hostilities has already crossed over from
Turkey into northern Iraq.
The World Food Programme WFP delivered three trucks with 77 tons of dried
skim milk to Dahuk, northern Iraq, yesterday to help with a nutrition
programme it runs in the Kurdish provinces.
"Now that WFP has already started moving food across the borders with
Turkey into northern Iraq, we are preparing to move the badly needed wheat
flour - hopefully later this week - into northern Iraq," WFP spokesman
Khaled Mansour, told the daily briefing in Amman, Jordan, today on UN aid
activities.
The UN Children's Fund UNICEF is also trying to find ways of moving
urgently needed humanitarian assistance into Iraq across both its northern
and southern frontiers, spokesman Geoffrey Keele said. But two trucks loaded
with medical and educational supplies and material for emergency water
provision were still at Habur Gate in Turkey pending permission to cross
into Northern Iraq, he said.
To the south, in Kuwait, UNICEF was looking at ways to move large quantities
of water under private contract into southern Iraq, where Mr. Keele said the
need for clean water was urgent and the lack of it posed a significant
health hazard for children. Yesterday 13 vehicles were commissioned to go
into the country but only three managed to deliver water to Um Qasr.
Veronique Taveau, spokesperson for the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq (OHCI),
said four delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross had
reached Basra from Kuwait across the front line with the full cooperation of
all parties and delivered spare parts to the main water treatment station,
which is functioning at only half of its capacity.
The UN High Commissioner for the Refugees UNHCR reported that there had
still been no significant refugee movements into surrounding countries. Two
Boeing 747 cargo jets landed in Jordan today with 160 family-size tents
donated by the Japanese Government to add to the agency's regional stockpile
for Iraqi refugees.
In Geneva, UN Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator Ross Mountain said the
UN had 3,500 nationals working in Iraq, and that in the north, the staff
continued to work at almost 100 per cent. The national staff in the south
had been instructed not to go to work or to contact the UN if it put them in
jeopardy, he told a news conference. Meanwhile, discussions were continuing
on the UN's return to all parts of Iraq, with areas such as Basra, where
humanitarian problems were evident, the main focus, he said.
For its part, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNESCO focused on the need to ensure the continuity of education for the
Iraqi children.
Declaring his "deep sympathy with the Iraqi people, whose suffering has
been worsened by the lack of food and drinking water supplies," UNESCO
Director-General Koichiro Matsuura reaffirmed his agency's determination to
"resume as soon as possible, alongside the other eight United Nations
system agencies involved, an active part in the implementation of the
Oil-for-Food programme."
The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously endorsed an adjusted version
of the programme that has allowed Iraq to use part of its oil revenues to
purchase humanitarian supplies, including food that is the sole source of
sustenance for 60 per cent of the country's people.
"Provision of drinking water, food and medicine is an absolute priority,
but we must also be ready to ensure the continuity of the educational
process for the Iraqi children," Mr. Matsuura said in a message read
out at the Amman briefing.
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