Humanitarian disaster looms
Relief agencies acknowledge there has been a slight improvement in the security situation in Baghdad, but as Rasha Saad reports, an aggravated humanitarian crisis is still looming
A lot of work still need to be done to secure humanitarian work in Iraq. "In general, there seems to have been some gradual improvement in the overall security situation, but there are still problems. It is by no means an environment which is no longer dangerous for people or us," said Florian Westphal, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva in a telephone interview with Al-Ahram Weekly.
Westphal believes that there is still work to be done to secure the country's vital facilities.
The ICRC, along with other relief organisations such as Medecins Sans Frontiers and Premiere Urgence, have been alarmed by the chaos which broke out in the country over the weekend after Saddam Hussein's regime abandoned the cities and towns in the country.
Looters, some of them armed, have been ransacking and stealing from all important public facilities. Hospitals have been vandalised, plundered and subsequently abandoned by staff.
On Tuesday, the ICRC temporarily suspended its operations in Iraq because of the "chaotic and unpredictable" atmosphere following the death of one of its team who was caught in a crossfire in the east of the Iraqi capital.
When the difficult conditions in which Baghdad's hospitals had been operating were further aggravated by the breakdown of law and order, the ICRC announced that Baghdad's medical system "has virtually collapsed" because of damage caused by fighting, looting and anarchy.
"The dead are left unattended, and the increasing temperatures and deteriorating water and electricity supplies are raising the risk of epidemics," an ICRC statement said.
The lack of security in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq has affected the population at large, including relief staff.
"If you are in a hospital that has no security against looting, there is no point in providing aid because you don't know if you will be looted too," explained Westphal.
The fact that the majority of relief workers are Iraqi has also had an effect on the humanitarian force.
"Obviously it was been difficult for the 120 or so Iraqis [working with the ICRC] to come to work during the time when there was a lot of chaos and little security. They, like the population of Baghdad, were affected by the security situation. They were afraid, or sometimes it was simply too dangerous, to go out onto the street," commented Westphal.
The Unites States coalition forces were criticised at the weekend for failing to assume their responsibilities as occupying power to prevent the outbreak of anarchy and chaos.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) in conjunction with other human rights and relief organisations issued a statement reminding the United States that, "international law requires that occupying powers must ensure the safety of the civilians in the areas under their control."
In response, perhaps, to this sharp criticism, representatives of US forces met with Iraqis and an ICRC team on Sunday in Baghdad to discuss how to restore water supplies and reestablish hospital services. "We thought the protection of these facilities should be a priority so that basic services can be restored to the local population," said Westphal.
According to Westphal, the ICRC was encouraged to hold meetings of this nature because of its long history in Iraq and the fact that, "we have carried out work [in Iraq] over the past few weeks, so we can provide space for the two sides to meet."
However, there are growing fears that the impact of the humanitarian crisis facing Iraq might be felt for many years after the fighting stops.
According to Westphal, the fact that there was already a humanitarian crisis in Iraq before this war -- as a result of economic sanctions and the impact of two previous wars -- makes this scenario very probable.
"Humanitarian problems which already existed before the war in addition to the consequences of this war make it very unlikely that the [humanitarian crisis] will be solved in a matter of months."
Relief agencies are currently in the process of obtaining an overall view of the situation. But with ICRC activities during the acute stage of the war being restricted to Baghdad, Basra and Arbil, the organisation is only slowly assessing the situation in the rest of the country.
"It is very difficult at the moment to obtain an overall picture of the situation in Iraq and how it has developed over the past two days," said Westphal.
The ICRC, according to Westphal, will continue to focus on hospitals, water and sanitation facilities, while also monitoring the implementation of the Geneva Convention."
The chaos and anarchy which prompted people to flee in their thousands from Baghdad and Nasseriya at the beginning of the week to the border city of Badrah was probably also what caused them to return home on Monday.
"They left Baghdad because they did not want to be in the middle of the war, but now they are going back because they are afraid their houses are going to be ransacked," said Niurka Piniero, spokeswoman of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
According to the IOM, only 3,000 of the original 30,000 people who fled their homes remained in Badrah.
Iranian authorities said on Monday that Iraqi officials had left Badrah and that there was no sign of the Iraqi military or militia groups on the Iraqi side of the border.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also reported that 65 Iraqis and third country nationals were stuck in "squalid conditions" at a transit camp in near Jordan's Al- Karama border post with Iraq.
"The UNHCR has asked the government of Jordan to admit everyone currently located on neutral territory [into Jordan] and to allow them to receive the humanitarian aid they need from camps that have been established in [nearby] Ruweished," said a UNHCR statement.
Some of the recent arrivals were sleeping in their cars, while others were staying in a camp of tents set up by the UNHCR and the Jordanian Red Crescent, but the "sanitation situation is rapidly deteriorating", according to the UNHCR.
According to reports, Jordan has stringent guidelines restricting the entry of Iraqis to its territory and, according to the UNHCR, only six Iraqi refugees have been admitted to the Ruweished camp over the last week.
C a p t i o n : An Iraqi family walks back home to Baghdad after fleeing last week's chaos
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 17 - 23 April 2003 (Issue No. 634)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/634/sc10.htm