By Caroline Overington
Sydney Morning HeraldMarch 29, 2003
The United Nations Security Council has agreed to restart the UN oil-for-food program, which provides food and medicine to 60 per cent of Iraq's people. The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, suspended the program in the days before the war. As the humanitarian situation in Iraq worsened, the Security Council had been unable to agree on how the program would be managed during the conflict.
Russia, which is a permanent member of the Security Council, is opposed to a US plan to use Iraq's oil money to pay for humanitarian aid, saying such aid was necessary only because the US had launched an "illegitimate" attack on Baghdad. Under the terms of the new agreement, the UN will manage the oil-for-food program for the next 45 days, which will allow Mr Annan to authorise the delivery of food and medicine to the Iraqi people, while a longer-term solution is worked out.
Germany's ambassador to the UN, Gunter Pleuger, said a new resolution aimed at restarting the program would be introduced overnight and would likely be passed unanimously. "We had a good consultation, and it seems we have found agreement on the resolution," Mr Pleuger said. The US President, George Bush, and the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said after a meeting at Camp David yesterday that the adoption of the resolution was crucial. "This urgent humanitarian issue must not be politicised," Mr Bush said.
"The Security Council should give Secretary-General Kofi Annan the authority to start getting food supplies to those most in need of assistance." Agreement came after an acrimonious meeting of the Security Council, which culminated in the United States ambassador, John Negroponte, striding out of the council chamber. Mr Negroponte was angered by the Iraqi envoy, Mohammed Aldouri, who accused the US, Britain and Australia of trying to exterminate the Iraqi people.
Mr Aldouri implored council members to stop the war in Iraq, saying the "real war of extermination will kill everyone and destroy everything". "Regret will be of no use," he said. "If the [debate about supplying humanitarian aid] is important, then halting the war is even more important."
He said he could "not believe that they [Britain, the US and Australia] are shedding tears over the future of Iraq". Mr Negroponte left the chamber when Mr Aldouri said the US had been "hoodwinked" into believing that the Iraqi people would welcome US forces "with flowers". After the incident, Mr Negroponte said: "I did sit through quite a long part of what he had to say but I decided I'd heard enough."
Earlier, a majority of speakers at an open debate on Iraq condemned the US decision to go to war with Iraq, but Mr Negroponte said: "We disagree profoundly with those who still avoid the central issue. The responsibility for the current situation lies in the hands of the Iraqi regime." He said the US had given "much thought to the future of Iraq" and added that the US "aspires to liberate, not to occupy". Russia's UN envoy, Sergei Lavrov, said the "unprovoked military action ... cannot, in any way, be justified" and was a "serious political mistake".
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