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18/04/2003
Coalition accused of failing 'humanitarian obligations'
The charity Save The Children has accused Coalition forces of not fulfilling "their basic humanitarian obligations" after a plane filled with humanitarian supplies was not given permission to land in northern Iraq.
The organisation said that it had been trying for more than a week to fly in medical supplies sufficient to treat around 40,000 people. The aircraft was also carrying emergency feeding kits for malnourished children destined for the northern town of Erbil.
Save The Children claim that a US military official told the charity that "no aid flights will be permitted until the area is safe", however, the UN has declared Erbil a safe and secure area.
The charity's Emergency Programme Manager, Rob MacGillivray, said: “The doctors we are trying to help in Mosul have been struggling against the odds for weeks to continue saving lives, but now the help we have promised them is being endlessly delayed.
"The lack of cooperation from the US military is a breach of the Geneva Conventions and its protocols but more importantly the time now being wasted is costing children their lives.”
Under the Geneva Conventions occupying forces are obliged to protect civilians and open up space for humanitarian relief work.
Save the Children have the largest presence of any British aid agency in the region and has 60 Kurdish staff based in the north.
(GMcG)
The organisation said that it had been trying for more than a week to fly in medical supplies sufficient to treat around 40,000 people. The aircraft was also carrying emergency feeding kits for malnourished children destined for the northern town of Erbil.
Save The Children claim that a US military official told the charity that "no aid flights will be permitted until the area is safe", however, the UN has declared Erbil a safe and secure area.
The charity's Emergency Programme Manager, Rob MacGillivray, said: “The doctors we are trying to help in Mosul have been struggling against the odds for weeks to continue saving lives, but now the help we have promised them is being endlessly delayed.
"The lack of cooperation from the US military is a breach of the Geneva Conventions and its protocols but more importantly the time now being wasted is costing children their lives.”
Under the Geneva Conventions occupying forces are obliged to protect civilians and open up space for humanitarian relief work.
Save the Children have the largest presence of any British aid agency in the region and has 60 Kurdish staff based in the north.
(GMcG)
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