Saddam’s man stays in Brussels

Date: 30/04/03

By David Cronin

IRAQ'S EU envoy is to remain in Brussels for the time being, despite the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Chargé d'affaires Riyadh Alweyes said that, unlike the UK, Belgium has opted not to shut down the Iraqi embassy.

"Like most other countries in the world, Belgium is waiting to see what the new government in Iraq will be," he told European Voice.

Although Alweyes has been an accredited diplomat with the EU institutions, he has "no political contact" with them any longer, he added. "Our activities are consular, not political. There is no government to give us instructions."

Despite Saddam having been deposed, Alweyes' offices continue to display portraits of the former dictator. An aide told this newspaper that the embassy has not been officially informed that there has been a change of leader.

Meanwhile, the European Commission's humanitarian office (ECHO) is planning to open an office in Baghdad in the next few weeks. Constanza Adinolfi, director-general, said a number of ECHO staff have been sent to the Iraqi capital to study the possibility of moving the headquarters for its relief efforts for the country from Amman in Jordan to Baghdad itself.

Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner Poul Nielson is due to discuss this when he holds talks in Iraq with representatives of the UN and aid agencies, such as the Red Cross, next week (5-8 May).

The Commission was due to send an aircraft carrying medical equipment for Baghdad hospitals today (30 April) but this was cancelled at the last minute.

The first EU-funded humanitarian airlift to Iraq, it had been granted authorisation by US and UK forces to land in Iraq but the Commission said that detailed flight instructions needed for security reasons had not been received.

The aid was due to be carried in a Belgian air force C-130 plane, which had been scheduled to depart from the country's military airport Melsbroek at 8.30am, seen off by Commission President Romano Prodi and Belgian premier Guy Verhofstadt.

MEPs at yesterday's foreign affairs committee meeting also heard a prediction by Ross Mountain, the UN's deputy emergency relief coordination chief, that "food at household level" in Iraq would last only for a week or so.

The World Food Programme, he said, is working on delivering an "unprecedented tonnage" to meet the population's basic nutritional requirements.

On the provision of health care, Mountain identified uncertainty over who will pay local doctors and nurses as something which the US-UK 'coalition' needs to address: "If people are to go to work, they would expect to get at least the modest salaries they were getting before. This is a challenge for the coalition."

Iraq's European Union envoy is to remain in Brussels for the time being, despite the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime.