Iraq cries out for help from donors

Iraqi interim leaders issued a cry for urgent help from donor countries on Tuesday as aid only trickles through and violence rages ahead of the United States-led coalition’s June 30 deadline for the handover of power.

“Iraq needs your help now,” interim Planning Minister Mahdi al-Hafidh told a meeting of the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq and the Donors Committee.

He called on donors to “activate financial promises”.

A total of $33-billion was pledged at the first donors’ conference in Madrid last October.

$1-billion of it was earmarked in February to the fund.

Seventeen projects and programmes valued at $230-million have so far been approved, United Nations officials said.

World Bank officials have said $500-million should be committed to specific projects within two months.

Hafidh told the about 200 representatives of 40 countries and international bodies including the UN and World Bank that Iraq signed on May 15 a first grant agreement with the bank to print 60-million school books at a cost of $40-million.

The bank said a second agreement worth $60-million would be signed by the end of the month to rehabilitate more than 700 schools.

Five more countries, including Italy, Finland and France, have joined the Iraq donor committee bringing in an unannounced amount of fresh aid, officials said on the first day of the two-day event in Doha.

“We were invited for the first time and France pays great attention to events in Iraq,” French Ambassador Alain Azouaou said.

The committee, set up in February, comprises Australia, Britain, Canada, the European Commission, India, Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, Norway, Qatar, Sweden and the US.

The panel is open to all states that contribute at least $10-million to the Fund Facility for Iraq.

Hafidh spoke of the “immense challenges” facing Iraq, notably “high levels of crime, kidnapping, rampant violence”, just 33 days before the coalition’s deadline for the return of sovereignty.

He accused extremists, foreign and local, of “damaging infrastructure, threatening citizens … becoming an obstacle to development on all levels, lowering economic activity and slowing the pace of rehabilitation of Iraq”.

But the minister also listed achievements such as opening 2 400 schools, 240 hospitals, 1 200 clinics and one million telephone lines — 20% more than under the ousted Baathist regime.

UN special representative for Iraq Ross Mountain noted progress in the field — several hundred schools rehabilitated, five million children vaccinated against measles in March and April, 11 000 Iraqi refugees helped to return home from Iran and Saudi Arabia, nine million litres of water tankered to Baghdad, Basra and Fallujah daily at peak and 40 000 people employed mainly in water and sanitation schemes.

“Hundreds of partnerships have been formed with ministries, local authorities and civil society to deliver goods and services that impact and benefit the lives of millions,” said Mountain.

“Amid the daily media diet of bombs and slaughter, we here need to recognise that there are significant positive developments,” he added.

Hafidh said: “A great start has been made but Iraq needs help to step up the operations on the ground. Today we, donors, international organisations and Iraqi officials must move more quickly to fulfil the hopes of the Iraqi people for a better life.”

The World Bank outlined schemes ready for implementation in the second half of 2004. They include $100-million to $120-million of emergency infrastructure projects for Baghdad and other urban areas to be followed by a further $200million to $300-million for power, transport and telecommunications.

In parallel, a $20-million pilot scheme will start for community infrastructre in rural areas.

And an agriculture project is also to follow at an estimated $70-million. — Sapa-AFP