Iraq’s slide into violent anarchy will trigger a humanitarian disaster if US and British troops are unable to fill the power vacuum and reassert order quickly, UN and other aid officials warned yesterday.
The warning came as looting in Baghdad spread from government buildings to hospitals, embassies and private businesses, and the growing lawlessness in the capital prevented the few remaining aid workers there from delivering badly needed medical supplies and water to hospitals.
Adding to the sense of chaos, a suicide bomber blew himself up on the east bank of the river Tigris, killing one marine and severely injuring three others who were manning a checkpoint.
A wave of lawlessness across the country illustrated the potential for the unravelling situation to turn a successful military campaign into postwar disaster in a matter of days as a result of the total collapse of government services.
”From what we have seen in the reports, it appears there is no functioning government in Iraq at the moment,” the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, said. ”We have also seen scenes of looting, and obviously law and order must be a major concern.”
In the central Iraqi town of Najaf, a Shia cleric recently returned from exile in London was murdered by a mob in an attack possibly instigated by Saddam supporters among the population.
With US forces focused on taking on remaining pro-Saddam strongholds in the northern cities of Tikrit and Mosul, Kurdish militiamen took the lead in storming a third, Kirkuk, with support from a few score US special forces troops.
The fall of Kirkuk alarmed the Turkish government which has presented itself as the guarantor for the security of the city’s minority Turkoman population. Washington assured Ankara that it would take control of Kirkuk and persuade the Kurdish peshmerga fighters to leave, and a battalion of US paratroopers and special forces was sent into the city in an attempt to ease the Kurds out. The Pentagon yesterday described the situation as ”fluid”.
Looting was reported to have eased in Basra yesterday, but that may have been because there was little of value left to steal from former government buildings. Residents complained to journalists that armed gangs were getting the upper hand in the southern city and that British troops were doing little to control the situation.
In Baghdad two humanitarian organisations that had operated throughout the war, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Médecins sans Frontières, said their work had been hobbled by the general lawlessness.
MSF halted its work in Baghdad after two of its workers went missing. Amanda Williamson, a Red Cross spokeswoman, said the organisation had suspended its work in the capital after a Canadian employee was killed.
”It’s not possible to distribute medical and surgical supplies or drinking water to the hospitals as we had wanted to. The situation is chaotic and very insecure,” Ms Williamson said, arguing that US troops in the city could do more to help.
”At this stage they could at least do everything possible to protect vital civilian infrastructure, like hospitals and the water supply.”
The intensifying problem of lawlessness was raised yesterday at the war cabinet in London. The defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, told cabinet colleagues that police officers would be sent to Basra.
But only two officers from the Ministry of Defence police will be sent to Iraq’s second city to advise British forces. This prompted criticism that Britain is responding to the immediate crisis rather than implementing well-ordered plans.
Paul Rogers, professor of peace studies at Bradford University, said: ”This is almost laughable. The government appears to be paying lip service to a dangerous situation. If they were to send 200 to 300 MoD police officers to Basra they would be able to start patrols, which would be effective.”
The decision was announced as Hoon told the war cabinet of his grave concern at the collapse of law and order.
Cabinet anxieties were voiced in public by the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, and the international development secretary, Clare Short, in consecutive statements to the House of Commons. Short warned of ”breakdown of law and order”, adding: ”There are reports of a hospital being looted and individuals attacked and in some cases raped … in Basra some water plants have been looted and rendered unserviceable.”
At the Pentagon, an official said he knew of no plans to move civilian or military police to Baghdad in the immediate future. He said the US troops would become a ”stabilisation force”, not a police force.
Major-General Stanley McChrystal said the continuing fighting in Baghdad and the threat of suicide bomb attacks made it difficult to combat looting. ”You can’t do everything at once,” he said. ”Clearly the focus right now has got to be getting the death squads and Special Republican Guard out of the city … Looting is a major problem but it is not a major threat.”
Alex Renton, an Oxfam representative, said: ”We’re waiting on four borders in order to get in there … what we need now is a serious effort made to bring this breakdown in law and order under control. ”There is a duty under international law to provide security and law and order to civilians.” – Guardian Unlimited Â