JANUARY
IRAQ: Weapons inspectors need more time
On the 27th the Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix and the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammed ElBaradei call for more time to carry out inspections. During this month aid agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP) continue pre-positioning food supplies in countries neighbouring Iraq.
IRAQ: Amnesty calls for human rights protection
Amnesty International called on the US and UK leaders on 30 January to acknowledge the responsibility of the international community to protect the human rights of the Iraqi people when they meet this week to discuss the possibility of a military attack on Iraq. "The human rights and humanitarian situation in Iraq is extremely fragile as a result of decades of brutal repression by the Iraqi authorities of dissent and uprisings, including widespread torture and executions; the impact of over a decade of sanctions; the possibility of civilian casualties, refugee outflows and reprisal killings in the event of military intervention," it said in a statement.
FEBRUARY
IRAQ: UNHCR prepares for refugee influx
On 4 February the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, said that while all must be done to prevent a military intervention in Iraq, the UN agency must also be ready for the humanitarian outcome of possible military action and prepared to assist up to 600,000 people. "During the day we buy supplies and then in the evening we pray for peace," he told reporters in Geneva.
IRAQ: Senior UN official in Iran for talks
A senior United Nations relief official has wrapped up a three-day visit to Iran on 20 February, during which he met senior Government officials on the humanitarian dimensions of ongoing events in the region, namely Iraq. Ross Mountain, Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator and Director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva, also met with the UN Country Team and representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Iran during his visit.
IRAQ: Governments offer humanitarian corridors
The Turkish authorities announced that both the ports of Mercin and Iskenderum would be open for normal commercial traffic and possible humanitarian aid but might have reduced capacity due to use of the ports by others in mid-February. While the Kuwaiti port of Shuabah is being utilised currently for military operations, the nearby port of Shuaikha has a large level of available capacity. Included in its facilities is a silo capacity of 250,000 mt while milling and baking capacities exist.
IRAQ: Jordan establishes border refugee camps
Aid workers in Amman, Jordan announce that they are setting up camps on the Jordanian/Iraqi border for the possible influx of refugees in the event of US military action in Iraq. The camp was being established in conjunction with the government of Jordan with thousands of tents erected near the eastern border crossing of Karameh, a few kilometres from Iraq's Treibeel border post. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which spearheaded relief efforts for two million Iraqi refugees during the 1991 Gulf War, estimates that 600,000 Iraqis could flee abroad, with about half going to Iran, and the rest to Turkey, Syria and Jordan.
MARCH
IRAQ: Kuwait says no to refugees
The government of Kuwait has announced on 10 March that it will not admit Iraqi refugees resulting from the war. The government spokesperson, General Ali Al Mu'min, told a press conference that Kuwait would assist Iraqi refugees in camps that will be established inside Iraq. The announcement by Kuwait that it will not admit Iraqi refugees is a serious blow, as the UN's planning figure for Iraqis who will seek refuge in Kuwait is 50,000 and it is easy to imagine scenarios in which the number of refugees heading toward Kuwait would be much larger.
IRAQ: UN staff evacuated
On the 17th UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan orders all UN international staff to withdraw from Iraq and suspend Oil-for-Food Programme, after US President George Bush gives former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein 48 hours to flee Iraq. Two days later Bush announces that the war on Iraq had begun.
IRAQ: EC gives 21 million Euros in humanitarian aid
The EC has announced an initial grant of 21 million Euros (about US $22.3 million) in humanitarian aid following the commencement of military action against Iraq. According to an EC statement on 24 March , the aid consists of redirecting 15 million Euros already allocated for Iraq through the EC's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) 2003 budget, plus 6 million Euros earmarked in two "fast-track" packages currently being prepared using the EC's "primary emergency" procedure.
IRAQ: Norway grants US $21.6 million to alleviate humanitarian needs
One day later Norway also announces a grant of 160 million Norwegian kroner (US $21,622,790), to help alleviate humanitarian needs resulting from war in Iraq, the Royal Norwegian Embassy announced in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Sunday. The contribution was to be shared by the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross/Red Crescent, and NGOs. In a statement to the Norwegian parliament in Oslo, Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said that the UN must be given the main responsibility for humanitarian efforts in Iraq. He added that Norway favours resumption of the Oil-for-Food Programme.
APRIL
IRAQ: NGOs begin entry from Kuwait
After weeks of waiting, aid agencies in Kuwait are finally beginning to cross into Iraq as of 15 April. Many NGOs had stayed put in Kuwait as war erupted across the border, followed by instability and looting, preventing their entry. Some NGOs had made initial visits to Iraq from Kuwait, but most have been restricted to the southern port of Umm Qasr. However, while there are still considerable security concerns in southern Iraq, two more NGOs were set to move into the country. Norman Sheehan, a director of the international NGO War Child, told IRIN in Kuwait on the eve of his departure that he would be heading into the country to look for the best place to set up a bakery. He would first travel to Nasiriyah, and expected to be in Iraq for one to two weeks.
IRAQ: Jordan food pipeline opens
The World Food Programme (WFP) began trucking food in quantity to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on 17 April from its base in Jordan. A convoy of 50 private trucks carrying wheat flour were about 200 km inside Iraq by early evening and were expected to reach the capital by Friday noon. This shipment established a critical humanitarian corridor into Iraq's central provinces, including the capital, which has a population of 5 million. Although the 50 trucks carrying 1,400 mt of flour have no military escort along the road from Jordan's border to Baghdad, WFP said the coalition had been informed and that security assurances had been received.
IRAQ: UN international humanitarian staff return to the north
Six UN international humanitarian staff crossed from southeastern Turkey into Northern Iraq on 23 April, according to UN humanitarian officials in Turkey. The group included Arnt Breivik, the emergency coordinator for the northern governorates for the World Food Programme (WFP), and Andre Laperriere, the head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) for Northern Iraq.
IRAQ: First food delivery about to reach Kirkuk
WFP announced on 23 April that its first food delivery to the northern city of Kirkuk is set to arrive within days. Some 19 trucks carrying 625 mt of lentils and 35 mt of sugar destined for Kirkuk crossed the Turkish border at Habur in the afternoon, with another 11 set to follow.
MAY
IRAQ: War officially over, says Bush
US President George Bush announced on the first of May that the major US-led military campaign in Iraq was over, following the ousting of Saddam Hussein.
IRAQ: WHO confirms cholera outbreak
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday confirmed the first outbreak of cholera in Iraq, in the southern city of Basra on 15 May. Of 38 samples taken to Kuwait for testing from three Basra hospitals, four had tested positive, a WHO spokeswoman, Fedela Chaib, said. But for every four that tested positive, there were probably 400 that had not been diagnosed, she added, as doctors had for weeks been reporting an increasing number of diarrhoeal diseases. The four cases are in addition to 18 others that tested positive in Iraqi hospital laboratories over a week ago.
IRAQ: UN humanitarian staff establish base in Basra
By 5 May the United Nations had established a permanent presence of humanitarian staff in war-ravaged Basra, Iraq's second-largest city. Staff from UNOHCI, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the WFP and the World Health Organisation (WHO) moved from Kuwait to Basra to set up offices and living accommodation in the city. In announcing this development, the UN pledged to coordinate emergency relief efforts, working with NGOs and liasing with local authorities in Basra to evaluate critical needs and provide targeted assistance to the area's most vulnerable people.
IRAQ: UN Security Council lifts sanctions
The United Nations Security Council on 22 May adopted a new resolution on Iraq lifting sanctions imposed almost 13 years ago following the invasion of Kuwait. The resolution - co-sponsored by the US, UK and Spain - also allows for full resumption of oil sales in order to restore economic activity for reconstruction, sets up a government infrastructure under the new US-controlled authority, and calls on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to appoint a Special Representative.
IRAQ: New Special Representative appointed
On 27 May United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, announced the appointment of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN's former High Commissioner for Human Rights, as his Special Representative for Iraq for a period of four months. Prior to his appointment as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in September 2002, Vieira de Mello served as the UN Transitional Administrator in East Timor.
JUNE
IRAQ: UNICEF reopens Basra Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on 18 June that the first of 20 Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres (NRC) currently being refurbished in southern Iraq, and established to tackle malnourishment in children, had now reopened. Allan Dow, a UNICEF spokesman, said the NRC at the Ibn Ghazwan Hospital in the southern city of Basra had been refurbished, re-equipped and restocked, and was now ready to treat the 25 badly malnourished children currently in the hospital. The remaining centres are all expected to resume operations in the next few weeks.
IRAQ: UN revises humanitarian appeal
The UN appealed on 23 June to donor countries to make up an outstanding $259 million in funding needed to carry out its humanitarian relief operations in Iraq through to the end of the year. The amount covers the remainder of the $2.2 billion flash appeal launched in March and unpredicted requirements that emerged during and after the conflict in Iraq from widespread looting and the destruction of hundreds of public facilities. About 88 per cent of the US $2.2 billion had already been pledged.
IRAQ: UN Special representative calls for action on rights violations
On 30 June The special representative of the UN Secretary-General in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, called on the Iraqi people to take the lead in deciding how to deal with the massive human rights violations of the past. He was addressing the opening session of the first national human rights workshop in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, which brought together lawyers and human rights activists from different areas of Iraq with experts from the international community to discuss justice for past human rights violations in Iraq. Human rights groups say huge numbers of people disappeared under the previous regime, and their bodies are only now being found in mass graves. No one knows the exact number of victims, but conservative estimates put the number of those missing at 300,000.
IRAQ: WFP temporary withdrawal from Baghdad warehouse
The WFP was forced to temporarily withdraw in the week starting 23 June from the Al-Hurriya warehouse in Baghdad following ongoing unrest and theft. In the previous week, an organised crowd attacked a convoy transporting WFP food at Safwan in southern Iraq. A vehicle positioned in front of the convoy forced the trucks to slow down while a crowd threw stones at drivers and stole 390 bags of wheat flour. This was the fifth convoy transporting WFP food to be attacked in the area since distribution started. In a related development, a gun battle also took place at WFP's Kimadia warehouse No.1 in Baghdad on 22 June.
