Members of the U.S. 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Echo Company protect a military installation south of Nassiriya in central Iraq yesterday. - ReutersAMMAN, (Reuters):
AN ENTHUSIASTIC response by EU states to an appeal for Iraq humanitarian aid means the European Union will spend 327 million euros ($352 million) to help Iraqis through the war, a top EU official in Amman said on Monday.
Robert van der Meulen, head of the European Commission in Amman, said member states have pledged around 227 million euros, above and beyond this month's decision by the Commission to spend 100 million euros on relief for Iraq.
"We already have a steady stream of aid flowing into Iraq since 1991, but in light of the worsening situation now, we need to move in more money as soon as possible to support the Iraqi people," van der Meulen told Reuters in an interview.
Britain, Spain, France and the Netherlands were the main contributors, he added.
The EU's executive Commission earlier this month announced it had allocated 21 million euros for Iraq and would ask the European Parliament and member states to endorse a request for additional 79 million euros from the EU's emergency reserves.
Van der Meulen said he expected a decision to be taken in early April to release the 79 million euros.
So far 21 million euros has already been committed to ensure basic items such as medical supplies, tents, blankets and food are available for displaced Iraqis.
The funds would be disbursed by ECHO, the Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office which channels aid through various non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
ECHO was considering Jordan as a main aid corridor to take relief supplies into Iraq, as aid agencies needed quick access to civilians caught in the conflict, van der Meulen said.
"We are in consultations with Jordanian authorities on such an aid corridor as we anticipate a difficult situation in Baghdad and other parts of the country ahead of us," he said.
Aid organisations already inside Iraq had limited access and faced security problems, commission officials in Brussels said.
"They have so far been able to operate perhaps with a limited capacity and we have seen security difficulties inside Baghdad, for instance to visit hospitals to carry out assessments," said Javier Menendez Bonilla, who is in charge of the Commission's aid operation in Iraq.
The main concern of Commission aid officials in Brussels was the lack of access to water in southern parts of Iraq, especially Basra where they said 50 percent of population has no water, they told reporters.
The food situation looked better, they said, mainly because the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food programme had distributed enough food before it was suspended to feed people for up to eight weeks.
"There is a fear that the humanitarian situation could get worse before it gets better. But the situation is not catastrophic and we hope it does not become so," said Michael Curtis, spokesman for EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Poul Nielson.
