Meeting on Iraqi aid delivery under attack from Baghdad

Date: 16/04/1998

By Mark Turner

AN INTERNATIONAL meeting in London next week on the expanded oil-for-food deal with Iraq has been bitterly criticised by Baghdad and is causing some serious doubts among its European participants.

UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook says the conference should "work out how Europe and others can help the United Nations in swift and effective implementation of the oil-for-food programme."

But Iraq's Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf has denounced the conference as a cynical effort by the UK to use its six-month EU presidency to undermine the UN in favour of Anglo-American policy.

The UN has agreed to allow Iraq to sell $5.2 billion (4.8 billion ecu) worth of oil every six months to generate revenue for essential humanitarian supplies, more than doubling the current $2 billion (1.9 billion ecu) ceiling.

Officials are holding talks with Baghdad, which stands accused by London and Washington of delaying implementation of the deal for political ends.

"Iraq now has the money it needs to buy the food and medicine that the Iraqi people need. We intend to ensure that the Iraqi regime is offered the chance to make the best possible use of the scheme," said Cook in a speech to the Anglo-Arab Association last month. "If they reject that chance, the international community and the Arab world will know who to blame for the suffering of the Iraqi people."

According to Iraq, however, the plan "points to another attempt to incite trouble and crises after notable progress was achieved recently in Iraq-United Nations relations, and following the international cooperation that prevented the military aggression against Iraq".

Baghdad will not attend next week's conference, prompting fears among European aid experts that in practice it may be meaningless - or little more than a political stunt by the UK to soothe ruffled Arab feathers - since the Iraqi authorities control distribution of food and medical supplies in the south and centre of the country.

Adding to these difficulties, Turkey, which has restricted EU lorries' access to northern Iraq since the Union rejected its bid for membership last December, will not attend either.

"It is hard to see how this meeting can achieve very much given the lack of key participants," said one European aid expert, who refused to be identified because of the strict secrecy rules imposed on those attending the meeting.

It is clear, however, that unless the international community finds some way to improve aid distribution, the enhanced UN deal could amount to little in practice. Experts believe that only half of the supplies which were meant to have been delivered a year ago had reached their destination by early 1998.

Iraq claims it can only produce 4 billion ecu worth of oil every six months and needs to invest 300 million ecu in increasing capacity. Furthermore, there is concern over how the international market will react to the sudden arrival of new stocks.

While organisations such as the International Red Cross, the Red Crescent and the European Community Humanitarian Office are trying to fill in some of the gaps, they insist that they cannot compensate for all the scheme's shortfalls.

In the meantime, many Iraqis remain chronically undernourished and without basic resources, leading to increasing international condemnation of the sanctions regime.

Preview and reports of an international meeting in London, April 1998, on the expanded oil-for-food deal with Iraq.