EU could pay up to Euro 50m in emergency aid for Iraqis

Date: 20/03/03

By David Cronin

JUST six of the EU's 15 governments have made it clear they will provide funding to deal with the humanitarian crisis expected to unfold in Iraq over the coming weeks.

Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden and the UK have contributed or earmarked a total of €23 million in contingency planning for 2003, according to figures compiled this week by the European Commission's humanitarian office, ECHO.

The sum falls far short of the €113 million which the UN has estimated would be needed to aid Iraqi civilians if the war lasts for four to six weeks.

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is due to make a further appeal for more than €1 billion in aid for Iraq in the next few days. OCHA has calculated that this would be required for a conflict which continues for six months.

Speaking to European Voice, ECHO Director-General Constanza Adinolfi said the worst-case scenario would clearly be a lengthy conflict, in which chemical or biological weapons are used. She declined to criticise EU states which have not yet pledged aid for Iraqi civilians: "I understand the political reasons why people don't want to be seen supporting the preparations for a war they are trying to prevent," she said.

The Union's humanitarian aid committee, gathering aid officials from member states, will meet today (20 March) to fine-tune its plan for Iraq.

"You cannot pay with money for the kind of suffering you provoke with military action," Adinolfi said. "Military action is never without damage to the population, even if you don't have huge numbers of people killed or wounded."

ECHO has so far earmarked €15 million for the conflict, but Adinolfi said she "could easily imagine" that it would have to spend €30-50 million in the coming weeks. That would include expenditure on the West Bank and Gaza should the situation worsen there as a result of conflict in the Gulf.

A plan has been drawn up between ECHO and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) for coping with new restrictions on aid deliveries to the occupied territories. Israeli troops have threatened such measures as part of a tighter curfew policy on Palestinian areas in response to the war.

Much of the ECHO aid is expected to be distributed by the Red Cross.

Aid agencies have predicted the number of refugees could be as high as two million, with most entering Iran and Jordan. Figures for the likely number of internally displaced people vary from 100,000 to 300,000.

Adinolfi said a major worry is that a food crisis could be sparked by disruption to the UN's 'Oil for Food' rations, on which 16 million Iraqis currently depend. Another fear is that half of Iraq's 26.5 million population could be deprived of drinking water.

Water-borne diseases are already an acute problem in the country, where one child in eight dies before reaching the age of five.

"My understanding is that there is a willingness by the [US and British] military not to target basic infrastructure," she remarked. "But infrastructure can be hit as a non-deliberate consequence of the bombing. And auto-sabotage by the Iraqi side cannot be excluded. We have to consider all eventualities."

On Tuesday (18 March), Commission spokesman Michael Curtis emphasised that the executive is committed to delivering emergency humanitarian aid to Iraqis. This is separate to long-term post-conflict reconstruction aid.

Chris Patten, the external relations commissioner, has stated it may prove difficult for EU institutions to bankroll the rebuilding of an Iraq devastated by military action without a UN mandate.

Adinolfi added that ECHO will not lose sight of other humanitarian problems in the world now that Iraq dominates headlines.

She argued that the office is adept at working on 'forgotten crises' such as those in several parts of Africa: "Iraq was a forgotten crisis until recently, just like Afghanistan was before the 11 September [2001] events."

Six EU Member States have pledged to provide funding to deal with the humanitarian crisis expected in Iraq following the outbreak of war on 20 March 2003.