IPS/IRAQ/OCTOBER 1992

[PeaceNet Middle East Team]

From: <pnmideast>
Subject: IPS/IRAQ/OCTOBER 1992

/* Written 12:07 am  Oct 30, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "IRAQ: Kurds face fuel and food shor" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: IRAQ: Kurds face fuel and food shortages as Winter looms


an inter press service feature

by john roberts

suleymaniyah, iraq, oct 27 (ips) -- winter is fast approaching and
kurds in kurdistan, northern iraq are for the second year running
facing drastic fuel shortages and the risk of starvation.

''we are suffering; we are afraid,'' said a shopkeeper in
halabja, the ruined town that became a synonym for terror when it
was destroyed with chemical weapons by iraqi president saddam
hussein four years ago.

''there is a lack of food. the winter is very near. there is no
fuel,'' added jamal mustapha nader. behind him was the collapsed
concrete remains of a shop he had owned in halabja's main street.
reconstruction could wait, survival is more important.

it should not be like this. for the past 18 months, perhaps as
many as 100 voluntary organisations and international agencies
have been trying to create some sort of economic normality in the
northern and north-eastern regions of iraq now ruled by the freely-
elected kurdish government in irbil.

yet it is clear that once again the almost one million iraqi
kurds face an aid crisis. for the second year in a row, seed
deliveries have been too few and too badly organised to ensure
that the traditionally-rich lands of iraqi kurdistan can feed
themselves.

''more emergency food will have to be distributed by this
winter,'' said one veteran aid worker. ''and the lack of planting
means we may very well be back here a year from now to hand out
food aid.''

a major factor is the lack of fuel. for more than a year, saddam
has mounted a partial fuel and food embargo against the iraqi
kurds, cutting supplies of diesel oil, gasoline and heating fuel
to around one-fifth of normal peace-time supplies. then, in july,
this fuel embargo was made total.

a year ago, stocks were just high enough to ensure that most
homes in kurdistan's major cities and refugee camps could receive
at least the bare minimum of heating and cooking oil necessary to
keep the worst of the harsh kurdish winter at bay. this year, the
total embargo began when there were no stocks at all.

''the most urgent thing is fuel. without fuel there is no
agriculture,'' says noshirwan mustapha amin, until recently, a
close aide of iraqi co-leader jalal talabani.(more/ips)

iraq: kurds face fuel and food shortages as winter looms(2-e)

iraq: kurds (2)

mohammed taufiq, minister of foreign aid in the new kurdish
regional government chosen after last may's multi-party elections,
told ips: ''we need 15 million litres of fuel for three months --
and that's just the minimum for the cities.''

yet fuel is also needed to keep the tractors running so they can
both harvest and distribute existing crops and plant the seed for
next season's spring crops.

one problem is that the cost of fuel for a farmer taking his crop
20 kms to market can often outweigh the price he will get for his
cereal or vegetables when he gets there.

by western standards the fuel is not expensive, 20 litres of
diesel costs only around 150 iraqi dinars or seven dollars and
fifty cents at current exchange rates. but here, that amounts to
three weeks' wages for a teacher or a month's pay for a labourer.

in addition, lack of storage facilities means that much of the
produce of iraqi kurdistan -- a naturally rich food growing area --
is likely to go to waste. the region has just enjoyed a generally
good harvest, but the food has to be sold and eaten quickly, since
it cannot be exported in significant quantities.

turkey will not let it in, because of united nations sanctions
against the whole of iraq, whilst it cannot be sold openly to
saddam's iraq because of baghdad's economic embargo against the
minority kurdish population.

thus there are piles of rotting tomatoes going to waste across
iraqi kurdistan while poverty-stricken families literally have no
money to buy food.

the u.n. is preparing to bring in 60,000 tonnes of stocks --
mostly fuel and emergency food rations -- in a major relief
effort, although it is not yet certain when and how this will
reach kurdistan.

on oct 17, the united nations made an agreement with the iraqi
government in baghdad and the following day, after talks with
voluntary agencies in the kurdish areas, announced it would take
in the supplies via areas controlled by saddam's armed forces.

the aid workers feared this would lead to further delays and to
severe distribution problems so that many people, particularly in
outlying mountainous areas, might not get their rations before
winter sets in.

then washington, apparently for electoral reasons, moved to block
implementation of the agreement with baghdad. saddam was not to be
involved in the distribution.

relief aid will probably now have to be brought in through
turkey. but there has been so much delay that whatever route is
chosen, it appears increasingly likely that aid deliveries will
not begin until november. and that, aid workers say, could prove
too late.(end/ips/ip/jmr/cpg/92)