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Tuesday, April 8, 2003

The session was hastily called Sunday but U.N. officials cautioned it was just one of a series of meetings Annan has been having regarding the Iraqi crisis. He met last week with the five traditional regional groups of member states and the Arab League.

"I wanted to discuss with them the developments on the ground and also to discuss the post-conflict situation in Iraq, regardless of how the war ends," Annan said as he entered U.N. headquarters, coinciding with reports from Baghdad U.S. troops had entered one of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's palaces.

"Of course we would also have to see what the post-conflict environment would be. But the council has been discussing informally and I have had Rafeeuddin Ahmed working as my adviser on this issue of post-conflict Iraq, doing some thinking about it, and he will be available to talk to the council members as well."

'Brainstorming'

Ahmed was indeed at the briefing, described by U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte as one on "contingency planning, brainstorming and serving as a focal point for thinking" of a role for the U.N. system, "on the question of post-conflict issues, that this is not talk about specifics about a role or anything like that at this particular time."

Afterwards, Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, announced the Secretary-General told the 15-member panel he had formalized Ahmed's role by appointing him as his special adviser.

"As he has done over the past two months, Ahmed will continue to consider possible United Nations' roles in post-war Iraq and their legal, political, operational and resource implications," the spokesman said. "The Secretary-General and the members of the council agreed that any role beyond the coordination of humanitarian activities in Iraq, and other activities mandated by existing resolutions, would first require a new mandate from the Security Council."

Eckhard said the council members "welcomed Ahmed's appointment and expressed satisfaction at the start of a dialogue with the secretary-general on a subject which would acquire added urgency in the weeks to come."

Ahmed, a former Pakistani diplomat and a 30-year veteran of the U.N. System, has been advising Annan since February. The secretary-general said he discussed the appointment with them previously.

'Thinking About the Future'

"His role will be -- actually he has been doing it already -- thinking about the future, thinking about what is likely to happen and what the likely U.N. role will be, and also to be available to the council members and all the members involved, to exchange ideas and then give me some advice," said Annan before the meeting.

Eckhard told reporters, "In our contingency planning we've considered things that we feel we can't do; things that we could do but might not want to do and things that we could do and are prepared to do. So that's a little private list as we wait for the council to decide."

When asked how his views about a post-conflict Iraq differed from what the leader of the coalition wants -- the United States -- the secretary-general said there were ongoing discussions both in Washington and among member states, and between U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"There has been a series of discussion where the European Union has come up firmly on the side of greater U.N. involvement," said Annan. "I do expect the United Nations to play an important role, and the United Nations has had a good experience in this area, whether it is the issue of political facilitation leading to the emergence of a new or (of an) interim administration. We have done quite a bit of work on reconstruction, working with donor countries and with other U.N. agencies."

The Bush administration has said the military should take the lead in post-conflict Iraq.

Bringing Legitimacy

"You have seen the work the United Nations has done in human rights and the area of rule of law," said the secretary-general as if delivering a sales pitch for the world organization. "So there are lots of areas where the United Nations can play a role, but above all the U.N. involvement does bring legitimacy which is necessary, necessary for the country, for the region and for the peoples around the world."

Asked if he was "resigned to the fact that the United Nations will not play a role like it did in East Timor or Kosovo" where it was the administration, Annan cautioned: "Each crisis has its own peculiarities. Iraq is not East Timor and Iraq is not Kosovo."

"There are trained personnel (in Iraq), there is a reasonably effective civil service, there are engineers and others who can play a role in their own country. And as we have said before, Iraqis have to be responsible for their political future, and to control their own natural resources, and whatever one can do to help the emergence of a new leadership or a new situation is what one should focus on."

As for how he regards the role of the Pentagon-appointed head of the new Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, retired U.S. Gen. Jay Garner, and the meetings he has been having in Kuwait on setting up an interim government in Baghdad, Annan said, "I gather they see it as part of the war effort and eventually to try to pacify the situation and secure the environment before one moves onto the next stage."

In Amman, Jordan, U.N. relief agencies painted a grim picture of humanitarian needs in Iraq.

The World Health Organization said hospitals in Baghdad and elsewhere were overwhelmed by the numbers of casualties. The U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF said a humanitarian clock was ticking with each passing day, and the World Food Program predicted it would have to move in massive amounts of food next month.

"We have all seen some very disturbing pictures of child victims of this conflict - children with burn injuries, a young boy lying in a hospital bed, both his arms blown off," said Fadela Chaib, the WHO spokeswoman. "Those who are injured and survive may end up in hospital needing treatment for third degree burns, or having limbs amputated and never again being able to run properly or play."

While reporting many hospitals were running short of supplies of medicines, anesthetics and basic equipment, she also expressed concern about the psychological impact of conflict.

The physical and psychological damage of conflict could take years to heal, and were likely to leave many permanent scars, Chaib said.

"One can only wonder what an eight-year-old child in Baghdad might be imagining about the daily nightmare he or she is witnessing," said UNICEF spokeswoman Wivina Belmonte. "The pictures we see on our televisions show us the most immediate, most stark images of children - hurt and injured in the conflict. What is more difficult to show, but which has its own devastating effect is the lack of water, the poor and deteriorating health conditions, and the trauma each child is living."

Convoy

She said a convoy of 11 trucks was dispatched across the border from Kuwait to towns in southern Iraq, including Basra, Safwan and Zubair, with each truck carrying urgent supplies such as thousands of liters of clean water and life-saving medical supplies.

The U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, quoting the International Committee of the Red Cross, reported that all Baghdad hospitals were under extreme pressure, with the influx of injured at Al-Yarmouk hospital reaching 100 people per hour Sunday. The water situation generally remained critical in the city as pressure in the network dropped, spokesman David Wimhurst said.

In New York, WFP Executive Director James Morris went before the Security Council to discuss hunger in Africa, but inevitably told the panel the needs in Iraq would be the largest undertaking the agency ever had.

"We pre-positioned enough food in the countries on the perimeters of Iraq to feed up to 2 million people for 30 days," he told the panel.

For the first 30 days of WFP's six-month plan for Iraq, which will require $1.3 billion for logistics, food and communications, the agency was focusing on refugees and internally displaced persons, or 2 million to 4 million people. In the second through fourth months, that responsibility was to be expanded to also include the entire 27 million population.

"Iraq is interesting in that 60 percent of the people of Iraq rely entirely on the central government for food and 100 percent of the people of Iraq rely on the central government for part of their food," Morris told the ambassadors. "The country has had a successful public distribution system with 44,000 outlets distributing food" through proceeds from Iraq's oil revenues monitored by the United Nations.

"We would look at helping to be sure that there was a steady pipeline of adequate food resources available to feed the entire population of Iraq for months two, three and four," he said. "As months five and six come along, we would assume the oil-for-food program would be fully back in place, administered by the government of Iraq and that our responsibility would be to continue to look after refugees, IDPs and people who are very vulnerable. We feed about 700,000 people in Iraq who are very vulnerable."

He listed orphans, pregnant and lactating women as among them.

Morris earlier told reporters WFP already has identified about $110 million worth of supplies in existing contracts under the Oil-for-Food operation that can be shipped within the next 45 days. When he got before the council, he expressed hope the panel could extend the initial period.

Copyright 2003 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

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