U.N. Urges Sanctions Committee to Lift Holds on Iraqi Supplies

Food supplies now adequate, but other supplies needed

By Judy Aita

Washington File United Nations Correspondent



United Nations -- While there has been considerable improvement in the
supply of food and medicine for Iraqi civilians under the oil-for-food
program, U.N. officials are appealing to the Sanctions Committee to
review the program's oversight procedures and release contracts for
electrical and other supplies. Without those supplies, they say, there
will be no major improvement in the living conditions of ordinary
Iraqi citizens.


Tun Myat, U.N. humanitarian aid coordinator for Iraq, said at a press
conference October 19 that he has outlined for the Sanctions Committee
the new observation mechanism the U.N. now has in place in Iraq that
can provide information to the committee that supplies for such
sectors as electrical, transportation, sanitation and agriculture will
go for civilian use and not be diverted for use by the Iraqi military
or Baghdad regime.


"In a number of sectors such as nutrition and health there has been
considerable progress," Myat said. "The food distribution system that
is applied in Iraq...is second to none, a very good, very efficient
system. It now ensures that over 2,470 kilocalories of energy of food
is being made available to every man, woman and child in the country."


"Normally that should be sufficient to sustain life and make people's
livelihoods more palatable, but the fact is, of course, people have
become so poor in some cases that they cannot even afford to eat the
food that they've been given free," he said.


For many Iraqi civilians the oil-for-food rations represent the major
part of their income because their normal income has been greatly
depleted by the complete devaluation of the Iraqi currency, Myat
explained. In order to sustain their livelihoods they sell part of the
food that they get in order to buy clothes, shoes, hats or whatever
else they require.


"You can give them all the food and medicine they want, but the
overall condition is not going to get better unless the other
accompanying basics like housing, and electricity and water and
sanitation are also put back. That is what we are all about on the
moment," he said.


Over 36 percent of the application for supplies for the electricity
sector is on hold by the Sanctions Committee, Myat said. Those holds
are becoming a major problem.


When the program started three and a half years ago, it was processing
about $1.3 billion in food and medical supplies every six months. In
the current six-month phase the U.N. program is handling over $7
billion in food, medicine and supplies for other sectors including
sanitation, agriculture, electricity, telecommunication and housing.
Since the oil-for-food program began Iraq has sold about $33 billion
in oil under U.N. supervision to purchase the supplies as well as
offset the cost of running the program and to contribute to the
compensation fund to pay reparations for losses caused by the invasion
of Kuwait.


The U.N. is concerned by the amount of so-called "holds" placed on
orders by the Security Council Sanctions Committee which oversees the
program. Secretary General Kofi Annan recently sent a letter to the
committee expressing his concern over the holds which affect mostly
critical parts for the other sectors and therefore affects the overall
impact of the program on civilians. Myat said purchase requests
totaling $2.25 billion are on hold.


"Some of the items are critical and without passage will not have the
desired impact we would like to see in the humanitarian situation," he
said.


U.S. officials, which have placed a large number of the holds, said
that they try to lift the holds as soon as it is clear shipments are
for civilian use, but often there is insufficient information on the
purchases. That, they point out, is the responsibility of the supplier
and the governments where the supplies originate.


Asked about the increase in independent humanitarian aid flights going
into Iraq in the past few months, Myat said that the an "inordinate
amount of attention" has been paid to the flights which give "little
more than moral support."


"In an average month Iraq imports up to 150,000 to 200,000 tons of
food and other material under the oil-for-food program. Huge
quantities are needed to feed a population of 23 million people," he
said.


Myat said he is aware that whiskey and other items are coming into the
country, but he pointed out they are not coming from the oil-for-food
program.


"Iraq also has its own sources of income and this is something people
tend to confuse," he said. The U.N. supervised oil sales are "not the
only money available to the government. Other forms of sales that
don't come under the (oil-for-food) program can be undertaken and I
can only surmise that a lot of the goods...might be coming another
way."


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