EU aid workers in Iraq work unprotected to maintain ‘impartiality’

Date: 03/04/03

EU-FUNDED aid workers in Iraq are not expected to receive any protection from the American and British troops seeking to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime.

European Commission spokesman Michael Curtis said this week that relief agencies such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which work as 'partners' with the institution's humanitarian office ECHO, insist on their impartiality from the military.

"Where aid is delivered by soldiers, there is always a risk it will be distributed on a preferential basis and go to particular groups," he explained, adding that non-governmental aid workers are duty-bound to choose which victims to help based on "need alone".

Curtis also stressed that it is vital for aid workers not to become targets, something which could happen if they were perceived as having links with the coalition forces.

"The reasons are not because of high-minded principles but because they have serious operational consequences," he said.

A new report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) criticises a perceived lack of pre-war coordination between international donors, of which ECHO is the largest, predicting there is "a high likelihood for confusion, duplication and waste" as a result.

It contends that the reluctance by key players to share plans was due to strong opposition to a war that lacks a UN mandate. And it quotes unnamed ECHO officials stating it was secretive about its plans before the war for fear that publicising them could have left its partner agencies vulnerable to attack by Iraqi government agents.

"The reluctance of the EU and its ECHO office to identify potential contributions to the relief effort is only the most glaring example of how political considerations obstructed the typical flow of information," the ICG says.

Poul Nielson, the development and humanitarian aid commissioner, has ruled out coordinating ECHO's work with national efforts by the US and Britain. ECHO's neutrality must be preserved, he feels.

MEPs are next week expected to approve a Commission request to release €79 million from an EU 'emergency reserve' to relief work in Iraq.

It is envisaged this money will go to operations carried out by the UN's Children Fund and Development Programme, as well as the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.

At present ECHO has €21 million at its disposal for dealing with the humanitarian upheaval witnessed since the war began - although some is on hold.

EU-funded aid workers in Iraq are not expected to receive any protection from the American and British troops seeking to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime.