Iraq

Food-for-oil program draws to close today

UNITED NATIONS - As the United Nations winds up its seven-year humanitarian program for Iraq, its executive director expressed confidence the U.S.-led coalition will be able to manage the multibillion dollar operation.

The U.N. Security Council decided May 22 to gradually shut down the oil-for-food program, which had been feeding 90 percent of Iraq's population, and transfer responsibility for its functions to the coalition today.

In his final report to the Security Council, Benon Sevan said Wednesday that during the seven years the United Nations ran the oil-for-food program, Iraq exported $65-billion worth of oil.

Sevan said $31-billion worth of food and medicine has been delivered to the Iraqi people, and $8.2-billion worth of humanitarian goods will be delivered in the coming months, he said.

"We did a good job under very difficult circumstances," Sevan said. "We were caught up between different groups at different times, shifting political interests, shifting economic interests."

The program was established in December 1996 to help ordinary Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It quickly became a lifeline for 90 percent of the population.

The program allowed the former Iraqi regime to sell unlimited quantities of oil, provided the money went primarily to buy humanitarian goods and pay reparations to victims of the Gulf War.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan suspended the program in March on the eve of the U.S.-led military campaign that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. On May 22, the Security Council lifted economic and trade sanctions and ordered a six-month phaseout of the program.

The coalition gave assurances Monday that Iraqis will continue to receive food and other goods through June.

"What happens after June 2004 with the public distribution system, that's up to Iraqi officials themselves to decide at that point," said U.S. diplomat Steven Mann, the coalition's coordinator for the handover of the program.

ANNAN TO REPORT TO SECURITY COUNCIL: United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday that by the beginning of December, he will submit a report to the Security Council on how he planned to continue operations in Iraq. Annan also said he planned to appoint an envoy "fairly shortly" to oversee operations in Iraq.

TRUCK BOMB KILLS 5: A truck bomb exploded near a Kurdish party office Thursday in Kirkuk, killing five people and wounding 30 in an attack local officials blamed on Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaida. It was the second bombing this week against Iraqis who cooperate with the U.S. occupation.

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