Weekly Update 5
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NO:5 United Nations Office of the 5-12 MAY 2003 Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq following up with the coalition on the need to establish law and order as a matter of urgency. WFP Executive Director James T. Morris visited Baghdad on 11 May. Mr. Morris met with representatives of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Affairs (ORHA) in Baghdad to discuss arrangements between WFP and ORHA. Addressing the press after the meeting Mr. Morris informed that by June the Public Distribution System (PDS) would be operating again. Mr. Morris used the occasion to remind donors that WFP still requires about one third of the US$1.8 billion required for the six month emergency operation. Mine risk education in Zardahal Three assessment missions have been conducted to Mosul. During these visits, the 1. KEY DEVELOPMENTS coalition confirmed to the UN the start of the $20 ex-gratia payments to teachers and police. The UN presence throughout Iraq is Recent elections have had a stabilising effect, increasing. The second wave of 55 although lawlessness and gun possession is still international staff to Baghdad will arrive on 14 a problem. Only a small number of NGOs are and 15 May, bringing the total to 75. There are active in Mosul. The main airport, which has the now over 100 staff in the Three Northern capacity to receive aircraft the size of C-130, IL Governorates (3NG), including the Centre 76 and C-17, should be operational in about two team, which is to establish its presence in weeks. (see www.unjlc.org). Kirkuk and Erbil in coming days. In Basrah, the UN team continues to expand, with a A UN humanitarian assessment mission to permanent presence of 76. Kirkuk on May 8 found that there are no major problems of water supply and health structures. General insecurity, however, is a constant However, there is a reported shortage of obstacle to humanitarian operations. In vaccines and medicine for chronic diseases. Baghdad, shooting is heard day and night. The sanitation situation is of considerable Looting is continuing and appears to be concern. The security situation is stable but becoming more organised. Some incidents may unpredictable. The market is open and active, constitute wilful sabotage of key installations. prices are high but generally cheaper than in the Facilities delivering essential services which have 3NG. Fuel is in short supply. Prices of liquid force. There is no increase in numbers of War, fell under the control of Kurdish local confirmed cases of cholera in the Basrah area. authorities. Identifying whether the source of the cholera infections are a result of contaminated water is a In the immediate aftermath of hostilities in Iraq, priority. Press reports of cases in Baghdad are and following the collapse of the Iraqi unconfirmed. The incidence of other diarrhoeal government and governmental agencies, a diseases continues to be of concern and is being number of incidents affecting all communities, closely watched across the country. including looting, destruction of property and forced expulsions, occurred in Iraq’s major cities. UNDP reports that dredging in Umm Qasr This has also led to some movement of has commenced. It is estimated that the depth population within the country. will be 9 metres by end of May, and 13 metres by the end of June. Three generators have been Since mid-April, in Kirkuk city, a noticeable procured to provide lighting needed for night-time number of Arab families have been expelled from operations in order to receive humanitarian their homes by those who claimed ownership of shipments. The first WFP vessel carrying 14,000 property, mainly Kurds. Other Arab families, MT of rice docked at Umm Qasr on 9 May and is fearing reprisals have also decided to leave the offloading. city and its surroundings. As well, Arab families who have been forcibly resettled by the former regime in Kurdish areas during the arabisation 2. POPULATION campaigns have also taken the opportunity to MOVEMENTS return to their respective areas of origin. The influx of Kurd returnees appears to have Internally displaced people heightened tensions with other ethnic groups, such as Turkomans, in the city; the increase in The actual caseload of IDPs in Iraq remains the population appears to have contributed to price subject of some debate. Between 700,000 and 1 rises for basic goods. million people are estimated to be internally displaced in Iraq. Their geographical distribution Information about the extent of displacement of is uneven with 600,000-800,000 estimated to be Arab families remains sketchy and reports from located in the North and 100,000 to 300,000 in the press cannot be confirmed. Reports indicate the Centre/South. Ethnic groups living in that during the first two weeks of April 2003, northern Iraq have suffered from several waves nearly 2,000 Arab residents from the northern of displacement over the past 30 years, mainly localities of al-Muntasir, Khalid, al-Wahda and due to repression by the Iraqi government and its Umar Ibn al-Khattab left their homes under policy of arabisation, and to a lesser extent to duress or otherwise, and took refuge in tents and inter-ethnic Kurdish fighting. Prior to the recent homes of fellow tribal members in the village of war, the vast majority were hosted in Sa’ad bin Abi Waqqas and its vicinity. Other communities and around 18,000 remain in need reports indicate that Arabs have been displaced of assistance, in public places and camps. This around Makhmour district when over 1,000 has been generally regarded as the “IDP Kurdish families driven from the area in the caseload” in the north. Shi’ite Arab populations 1970’s and 1980’s decided to return. An NGO in the south of Iraq have also been displaced assessment estimates hundreds to several from their homes due to government actions, thousands of Arabs currently displaced in Diyala particularly after the Gulf war and its programme Governorate. Some families may have left of draining the marshes. temporarily their area of residence after Working with local authorities and NGOs in the many refugees are also keen to return home. A north, the UN is assessing the communities questionnaire is being circulated to the caseload which host large number of displaced. The to establish intentions for return. results will inform assistance plans for the gradual and orderly return of families to their UNHCR continues to follow up on the now 1,400 place of origin, including support for communities Iranians opposite Dehloran. where the displaced are returning as well as for Arabs who are likely to be displaced from their 3. OIL FOR FOOD homes. In the Centre and South, IOM is continuing with assessment and follow up on PROGRAMME (OFFP) UPDATE reports of IDPs using recently contracted governorate focal points (NGOs). Locations UN agencies and programmes have identified include: Anbar, Baghdad, Missan, Ninewa and goods in 293 contracts worth $802 million as Wassit. Early indications are of 30,000 IDPs, but shippable by 3 June 2003. Most of these goods this figure may reduce after more detailed are in the food ($356 million) and electricity ($204 assessment. It is not clear that there are newly million), agriculture ($119 million) and health ($81 displaced since March, or part of an older million) sectors. displacement. The full picture of IDPs with host families will emerge as assessments continue. Around 300,000 MT of food under the OFFP have reached alternative delivery locations Third Country Nationals (TCNs) outside Iraq. Around 30,000 MT of food was delivered inside Iraq to a range of locations in the TCNs continue to seek transit assistance to their North, Centre and South of Iraq. UNICEF has home countries through Jordan and Syria at the received at its warehouse in Mersin (Turkey) a rate of 37 per day. Sudanese remain the largest range of goods including vitamins, medical group leaving Iraq. Insecurity inside the country supplies, generators, various spare parts, continues to be the most frequently cited reason educational supplies, water and fuel tankers, for leaving. IOM, ICRC and UNHCR are wheel loaders, chlorine gas, pumps, tyres and jerry cans. Some of these good have already coordinating the identification, registration and been delivered to the 3NG. WHO has onward transfer of TCNs in southern Iraq to dispatched around $263,000 worth of supplies border points where they can transit to their from Suleymaniah to Baghdad. Additionally, home countries. around $1.9 million of supplies has been Refugees distributed from warehouses in the 3NG to medical facilities in these governorates. On 6 May, a joint UN security and humanitarian mission travelled to Al Tash (Anbar) refugee The UN independent inspection agents (Cotecna camp, housing Iranian Kurds. Water and power Inspection, S.A.) have established a presence in supplies in nearby Ramadi are unstable and this ports in Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Kuwait, and is having an impact on supplies to the camp. In have started authentication of goods received by discussions with refugees in the camp, some the UN agencies and programmes, both under claimed that the main reason for the departure of 13% and 59% accounts, based on advice from the 1,000 refugees who are now stranded in no- UN agencies and programmes. man’s land at the Jordanian border has no relation to security, but rather to hopes of The complete weekly update of 13 May of resettlement abroad. Of the 12,000 remaining in implementation of resolutions 1472 and 1476 4. KEY SECTORS: NEEDS The cholera situation in Basrah is stable. The coalition forces have supplied 100 MT of chorine AND RESPONSE gas, and ICRF 47 MT into Basra Governorate to meet the shortage.