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 Home > News & Policies > March 2003

For Immediate Release
March 29, 2003

Global Message

SPECIAL HUMANITARIAN EDITION

KEY POINTS

  • Our enemy in this war is the Iraqi regime, not the people who have suffered under it. As we bring justice to a dictator, we are bringing humanitarian aid in large amounts to an oppressed land.

  • The current humanitarian situation in Iraq is difficult, because of the policies and actions of the Iraqi regime over the last two decades. The situation varies from place to place within Iraq.

  • To date, however, there have been only limited humanitarian consequences of the war itself because, to the extent possible, we have gone to great lengths to identify, locate and protect humanitarian and key infrastructure sites.

  • The United States is currently providing $140 million to international aid agencies to help the Iraqi people with relief and post-conflict rehabilitation and 610,000 metric tons of food, worth $300 million.

  • To assess needs and coordinate efforts, the United States has deployed a 62-person civilian disaster assistance response team (DART), the largest of its kind ever. Among the DART's roles is to facilitate the work of non-governmental organizations, which will deliver significant aid in Iraq.

  • On March 28, 2003, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution modifying the Oil-for-Food program to help jump-start resumption of food and medicine shipments and launched its largest appeal ever for humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people.

  • The regime has a history of creating humanitarian crises that increase the suffering of Iraq's people and make the provision of relief much more difficult, and there is evidence they are doing such things now.

  • There are a number of other destructive steps Saddam Hussein's regime may take, including laying mines to prevent ships from providing humanitarian relief to Iraq; co-locating military assets and civilians; deliberately targeting civilians; encouraging ethnic violence; destroying Iraq's infrastructure; and using chemical or biological weapons against Iraqi civilians and Coalition forces.

  • The Iraqi people are beginning to see the great compassion of not only the United States, but other nations around the world who care deeply about the human condition inside that country. Our coalition will stand with the citizens of Iraq in the challenges ahead.