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Anti-Empire
The Saker Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Public InquiryInterested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
Human Rights in IrelandIndymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
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US/K aid is a joke ... it wouldn't feed the people of Basra for 1 day national |
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news report
 Thursday March 27, 2003 11:52 by kokomero
 500 tons = 500,000kg assuming 333g of food or other material per person this would barely feed the people of Basra for one day. The aid by sea is a farce, the US/K forces are shipping huge quantities of food and material to their troops every day by road from Kuwait. Given the 150,000 troops they are probably moving in tens of thousands of food and war material per day! The 500 tons of aid is a pittance and a joke and is pure propaganda! Why don't they ship material in by road if they are serious about relief! I suggest they are not and this is a ruse to starve the Iraqis out on the quiet while depicting themselves as saviours and availing of photo opportunities along the way. Aid ship delay after mines found It was due to dock in the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr on Thursday, paving the way for more supplies to follow. But the British Royal Navy has confirmed it has been delayed after the discovery of two mines, found outside the areas of water already "swept" by clearance teams. Air Marshal Brian Burridge, Commander of the British Forces in the Gulf, said the mines had now been detonated. It is the second time the ship has been delayed after its original arrival scheduled for Wednesday was hampered by bad weather. The locals clambered aboard and began throwing the supplies out of the back BBC foreign affairs correspondent Mike Williams BBC foreign affairs correspondent Mike Williams told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It was too dangerous to fly helicopters out to the ship carrying one of the essential elements of this operation - the journalists. "I can't stress enough how keen the military is to show this humanitarian effort. "It is part of an important message to the people of Iraq." Air Marshal Burridge said: "Make no mistake, the threat [of mines] is real." "This proves Saddam's regime has attempted to stop essential stores and humanitarian supplies from being delivered to his own people," he said, adding that it also showed the Iraqi leader's "total disregard" for civilian shipping. 'Drop in the ocean' Specialised Royal Navy vessels are being used to detect mines, as are specially trained marine life, including dolphins. Divers from both the British Royal Navy and the Australian Navy were also involved, said Air Marshal Burridge. Among the Sir Galahad's supplies are water, sugar, lentils, chick peas, rice, tea and milk powder. Also on board are medical supplies, 2,400 blankets and 8,200 packs of "dislocated civilian" rations.
Once the food is unloaded at Umm Qasr, it will be moved forward to "safe" areas of Iraq. But the BBC's Matthew Price, on board the HMS Ark Royal in the Gulf, said Sir Galahad's aid was a "drop in the ocean". It will bring so-called "bolt food" - rice, lentils, chickpeas and water, as well as medical packs. Before the war, the United Nations estimated 60% of Iraq's 27 million people were dependent on food aid. It is now feared the country needs the largest humanitarian operation in history. Chaos Chaotic scenes greeted lorries distributing food parcels in Iraq on Wednesday. Mike Williams told Today a seven-vehicle convoy from the Kuwaiti Red Crescent had been escorted in by the UK military but was hijacked and looted just a few hundred metres over the border. "The locals clambered aboard and began throwing the supplies out of the back." Patrick Nicholson, of aid agency Cafod, told the programme he was appalled. "It was everything you shouldn't do in delivering aid - parcels being thrown off the back of trucks, the strongest getting all the aid and the weakest and most vulnerable, the women and children who have been suffering for the past 12 years, getting nothing." Humanitarian concerns are mounting in the southern city of Basra, where people have been without electricity and water since Friday. Mr Nicholson told Today the 1.5 million population was "starting to drink from the river, from open sewers". "They are going to have dysentery, diarrhoea, possibly cholera." The Sir Galahad is a Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship from Marchwood port near Southampton. A previous Sir Galahad was bombed in 1982 in the Falklands.
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Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4Iraqi Shi'ite Muslims tell the US/UK thieves to go home , they don't want their Aid.
us/k knew that Basra population 1.3 million
is difficult to leave as a refugee.
one must carry between 5 and 9 litres of water a day.
after four days the risk of serious contamination of water and sewage supplies affects both young and elderly.
they die.
either quickly or slowly.
perhaps they will just have shorter lives.
the EU doesn't buy US rice because it is contaminated.
Dolphins don't like being used to look for bombs.
The most popular CDE social group Xmas present 2002 in the 20€ price range was an action man in uniform riding a dolphin.
it is sickening.
Flashback:
Clare Short, the British Government's "International Development Secretary" when she announced the GB£9m "humanitarian aid budget" for the Brit-bombed Afghanistan, somehow kept a straight face and lauded the money as a "significant step".. "a huge help".
£9m spread between the twenty-two million people of Afghanistan worked out at just 41 pence per person.
That wouldn't even be enough money for Short to buy herself a copy of the Guardian newspaper to read the latest puff-piece on herself.
By contrast to Short's "huge" £9m donation, the Brit Govt spent some £1.2bn on the Afghanistan War in the form of military hardware etc.
So far, Gordon Brown has generously "set aside" some £2.75bn for the latest War (on Iraq).
Short will no doubt be asking for world applause when she announces her next tin-pot donation to the latest war-devastated people - the Iraqis.
These "donations" don't even come in the form of real money - they normally involve seedy arrangements between the British government and British businesses, who are paid with taxpayers' money to "donate" their useless and overstocked products.
Short is pure evil, IMVHO.
From today's London Independent (28/3/03):
"Gordon Brown [the British finance minister] nearly doubled the budget set aside to cover the rising costs of the military campaign in Iraq yesterday.. The increase means the Ministry of Defence has £3bn to spend on the military campaign..
Clare Short's department has already spent £50m preparing an aid programme for Iraq, and has set aside £40m for reconstruction."
An "aid" budget of £90 million - albeit largely already spent on "administration" and the awarding of dodgy kickback "re-construction" contracts, when shared between a nation of 24,001,816 people (CIA: July 2002 est.), works out at the princely sum of £3.75 per man, woman and child. Not much for the 12 years they've all spent living on a UKUSA sanction-based starvation plan.
But, nevertheless, almost enough to buy each and every one of them a packet of Benson and Hedges.
Meanwhile, the Oil Reserves of Iraq, estimated at some 283bn barrels of crude @ US$30 a barrel has a potential worth of some US$8.49 trillion.
We see the wider picture, Ms Short:
Do the Right Thing - Top Yourself, Now!