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I've just emailed this letter to The Guardian:
Letter to the Editor
The Guardian
26 April 1999
David Sharrock (April 24, “Iraq is falling apart.
We are ruined”) refers to a report by Kofi Annan, UN
Secretary-General, in February 1999 indicating that $275m
of supplies and medicine from the UN’s Iraqi oil sales
programme have not been distributed from Iraqi government
warehouses. He then quotes an unnamed ‘officer in the
relief field’ as believing that this is being done
deliberately by the Iraqi government.
Sharrock does not cite the reasons given in Annan’s
report for the stockpiling: 'lack of modern managerial
tools', 'poor working conditions within the warehouses',
'lack of transport for moving the supplies', 'the rigid
hierarchy in the Ministry of Health administration which
makes it difficult for functionaries to approve deliveries
without approval of superiors'; over-prescribing by
physicians and the Iraqi Ministry of Health's desire to
prevent waste of medicines by controlling supplies more
tightly; and 'superiors may have deliberately withheld
supplies in anticipation of emergency needs' after tensions
increased as of September 1998. This last point refers to
bombing by US and British air forces.
It should also be noted that, in June 1998, the
World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended increased
stockpiling of medicines. According to Annan at the time:
‘WHO has indicated that a more substantial reserve is the
only practical solution to the procurement cycle with a
delay of some four to five months before the start of
arrivals’. Annan also reported Iraqi government subisidies
of around 80% of the cost of medicines for public purchase.
While the Iraqi government does impose terrible suffering
on many Iraqis in some areas, it is not at all clear that
this is one of those areas.
----------------------
Dr. Eric Herring
Department of Politics
University of Bristol
10 Priory Road
Bristol BS8 1TU
England, UK
Tel. +44-(0)117-928-8582
Fax +44-(0)117-9732133
http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Politics
Eric.Herring@bristol.ac.uk
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