Aid Agencies Bracing for Crisis by Caroline Hawley BBC News 1:29pm 20th Mar, 2003   19th March, 2003    Vulnerable Iraqis could face starvation and disease.    International relief agencies are preparing to deal with what they say could be a humanitarian disaster triggered by a US-led invasion of Iraq. Aid workers say they expect up to three million people to flee their homes - about 600,000 of whom may seek refuge in neighbouring countries. However the agencies warn than efforts to help them are being hampered by a shortage of funding from donor countries. Tens of thousands have already fled the northern Kurdish city of Arbil - close to the government-held area - and the UK charity Save the Children says it does not have the resources to care for all of them. The situation has not been particularly forthcoming and we have had to borrow money    Ron Redmond,UNHCR    "There has been a severe lack of money for humanitarian preparations, as a result (those) people are going to be out in the open and won't have essential supplies," Save the Children spokesman Brendan Paddy told BBC News Online.    The United Nations - which is focusing on refugees outside Iraq - says it has received about a third of the $123m it has sought.    "The situation has not been particularly forthcoming and we have had to borrow money," said Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).    HUMANITARIAN FEARS    Oil-For-Food rations which 16 million people rely on have been suspended . UN draft report predicts up to 2 million may flee their homes    UN has received just over a third of the funds needed to prepare for crisis.    Aid agencies' race against time    Mr Redmond said that about half of the 600,000 estimated refugees could to Iran. The other half may go to Turkey, northern Iraq, Syria and Jordan.    The BBC's Caroline Hawley in the Jordanian capital, Amman, says, says the UNHCR had hoped to set up facilities for 35,000 people in the country - but because of funding problems they can only accommodate 10,000. Our correspondent says another problem is that Jordan - which is already hosting many refugees - is reluctant to take in more. "The Jordanian authorities don't want a big influx of Iraqis coming here that it can't get rid of," she says.    Staying on    The UN aid official in charge of Iraq, Ramiro Lopez da Silva, said war would trigger a catastrophe in a country already crippled by more than a decade of sanctions. In the short term, food would be urgently needed to feed some 10 million people, while Iraq could face widespread starvation and epidemics in the worst case scenario, he said. "If we have to live through intensive phases of bombardment we will stay on the ground floor and hope for the best, Roland Huguenin Benjamin,ICRC.    With UN staff leaving Iraq, most emergency relief inside the country is expected to be provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the local Red Crescent.    Roland Huguenin Benjamin, an ICRC worker in Baghdad, told the BBC's World Today programme that Iraqis fear that the coming conflict will be worse than the 1991 Gulf War.    "Some who have may have relatives in a village have moved out - but for the rest there are no other solutions other than staying here," he said. He said ICRC staff were determined to stay in Baghdad throughout the crisis.    "We have set up mattresses on the ground floor and sandbags in front of the windows. "If we have to live through intensive phases of bombardment we will stay on the ground floor and hope for the best," Mr Benjamin said.    UN News 19th March,2003    UN Children's Fund warns of war's disastrous potential for Iraqi youngsters    The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) issued a stark warning today that the most vulnerable of Iraq's children may not have the strength to survive the impact of war.    "Conflict could very well have disastrous consequences for Iraqi children," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said. "Malnourished children, children who have not been immunized, children who are displaced from their homes - all these children are at very high risk."    Noting that children make up half the population of Iraq and that UNICEF had carried out nutrition and immunizations programmes to boost the resilience of the most vulnerable children, Ms. Bellamy added: "But still the questions remains, will they be strong enough to survive?"    There was no way of knowing how many children might perish during war or its aftermath, since that would depend on how long war lasts and how it affects civilian infrastructure, Ms. Bellamy said. But, she warned, "children will die in this war. That's a fact. The question is how many children we can protect. That has got to be a priority for all of us now."    UNICEF said it had positioned thousands of tons of emergency relief supplies in Iraq and neighbouring countries to help mount a rapid response, including essential medicines, water purification tablets, therapeutic milk and other life-saving supplies.    Following the withdrawal of UN international staff from Iraq on Tuesday, UNICEF's work in the country is now in the hands of its 160 national staff members. Visit the related web page
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