Press Briefing for Arabic Regional Media
Humanitarian Assistance Overview
Coalition Press Information Center
Hilton Kuwait Resort Hotel
Manqaf
State of Kuwait
March 30, 2003
Michael Marx, Team Leader, USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART)
Bill Garvelink, Deputy Assistant Administrator,
USAID Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance
Dr. Skip Burkle, Deputy Assistant Administrator,
USAID Bureau for Global Health, and
Chief Medical Officer for the DART
Regina Davis, Chief Food Officer for the DART
Transcript:
(1:00 p.m. Kuwait local time)
Mr. Garvelink: We all represent the United States Agency for International Development, the United States Government agency that provides humanitarian and development assistance around the world. USAID and the Department of State have assembled the largest disaster assistance response team that has ever been put together. The purpose of the Disaster Assistance Response Team is to manage the effort of the United States Government to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people. The Disaster Assistance Response Teams are composed of more than 60 technical experts from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Department of State, the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Public Health Service. Mr. Marx is the head of the Disaster Assistance Response Teams.
Today the United States Government has provided more than 100 million dollars to United Nations agencies and to non-governmental organizations to provide humanitarian assistance inside Iraq when conditions permit. The Disaster Assistance Response Team has pre-positioned emergency relief supplies for more than a million people here in the region. The U.S. Government is also providing more than 600,000 metric tons of food, valued at about 300 million dollars. About 100,000 tons of that food is already in the region.
The U.S. Government has just provided a grant valued at ten million dollars to the World Health Organization to strengthen the Iraqi health system. USAID has also provided a grant for eight million dollars to UNICEF-the United Nation International Children's Emergency Fund--for water and sanitation activities especially focused on women and children. That's a general overview of what the U.S Government has provided so far in humanitarian assistance. I'll let Mr. Marx talk about the specific activities of the DART.
Mr. Marx: I want to quickly go over what a Disaster Assistance Response Team is and what it does on the ground. It is the U.S. Government's operational element to provide humanitarian assistance worldwide. The mandate of the DART team is to save lives and reduce suffering. Although the team has been formed specifically for Iraq, we have proven success around the world, from Afghanistan, to Kosovo, Mozambique and dozens of other humanitarian crises. For this particular response, we have been planning for the last four months and coordinating with the military civil affairs troops, as well as with the international humanitarian community, the UN, international organizations and non-governmental organizations.
In order to meet the potential needs of any humanitarian crisis, we've assembled experts on this team. This expertise includes medical care-I have four physicians on the team, engineers in shelter and water sanitation, logistics officers, food distribution specialists, and specialists in dealing with refugees and displaced people. We've also assembled stock piles of commodities to meet the needs of a population of one million. This is just a small piece of the international humanitarian community's overall effort to coordinate commodities. These commodities include blankets, plastic sheeting for shelter, water storage tanks, small water jugs, hygiene kits and medical kits to meet the needs of a population of ten thousand for three months. We've stockpiled many of these items, as well as water purification units so that we can turn dirty water into clean, drinkable water very quickly. Priorities when responding are: water sanitation, the health system, food, and small repairs to the infrastructure in order to expedite humanitarian assistance, and shelter.
Some of the main roles that the DART team will play are to coordinate U.S Government relief activities, as well as facilitating the humanitarian response-that's all the way from civil affairs on the ground now in insecure environments to what the international civilian humanitarian relief community will do once the security situation stabilizes. We also have a very robust assessment capability. We've carried out only two assessments in Iraq so far, both in Um Qasr because of the security situation. As the situation stabilizes and the combat operations cease, we will push the teams farther into Iraq to assess the humanitarian needs.
Finally, the largest role the DART team plays is to provide resources to the international community-both financial resources, to international organizations as well as non-governmental organizations, and commodities. We are here to meet the needs. We are prepared, and we've been planning and coordinating with the international humanitarian community over the last few months. Thank you.
Ms. Davis: Good afternoon. The food system that currently exists in Iraq, which is referred to as the Public Distribution System, feeds every single person inside Iraq. That's about 25.8 million people, which equals 470,000 tons per month. The public distribution system, as I am sure you are aware, was funded from the Oil for Food Program under the auspices of the United Nations. Just to give you some kind of perspective on how much food that is: last year at the height of (the fighting in) Afghanistan, the needs were 50,000 tons per month.
Iraq's public distribution system was providing food right up until the war started, so that it is our estimate that there was four to six weeks' worth of food in the homes when the war started. It is the DART's intention to try to revive this system that is currently in place. We are not trying to invent new systems. The food that Mr.Garvelink spoke of earlier-600,000 tons that the United States is sending, with some already on its way-will go into helping to support this existing public distribution system until a new Security Council resolution can be approved.
To assist in this process, we have several food officers on our DART who will work in Iraq. There will be one for each region of the country; that's a total of four, plus we have a couple of others--one each in Cyprus and Rome-so we have an extensive network of DART members who are working to ensure that there is no break in the food pipeline during this gap period until the Oil for Food program is back on line. The United Nations World Food Program is helping to ensure that the parts of the program that were directed by the Government of Iraq for bringing in the food will continue to work. So, when Mr. Marx and Mr. Garvelink spoke about the international organizations, for food it is the UN's World Food Program. DART is working very closely with them to make sure that the needs are covered.
Dr. Burkle: Because we have limited time, I am only going to go over highlights of the health program. As Mr. Marx stated, we are quite robust with heath specialists. I will briefly state some of the specialty areas we have to do assessments, covering all the issues that might arise in health. We have people who are specialists in emergency medicine, pediatrics, international health, mental health, public health and preventive medicine, epidemiology, internal medicine and information medicine. The DART team is primarily geared for its preventive medicine. A surveillance system exists so that we can identify or reestablish a surveillance system to identify early any potential outbreaks of disease.
Certainly, as Mr. Garvelink stated, the initial grants that we have been planning for a long time with UNICEF and WHO address exactly those issues to ensure that we can identify and control disease outbreaks. These are quite robust grants. Also, we have a system to restore the chronic pharmaceuticals. We are concerned that some of the stocks may be looted, or don't exist in peripheral areas, so people who have diseases such as diabetes and asthma and high blood pressure will have the proper medication. In our DART stockpiles we have the WHO essential medical kits and oral re-hydration salts and other items to handle any immediate outbreaks of gastro-intestinal diseases.
Q: (Kuwait TV) Is there any coordination between your organization and the Kuwaiti government or any other organization here in Kuwait?
A: (MM) Certainly what we try to do is coordinate with all available humanitarian response organizations which would include the Kuwaiti Red Crescent, as well as the Kuwaiti Government, to make sure that humanitarian assistance is delivered in the most effective and efficient way possible.
Q: (Arab Times) What is being done to alleviate a potential humanitarian disaster in Basra, particularly the problem of water shortage?
A: (MM) There are several things that are being done to meet the needs in Basra. First, because of the unstable situation up there, it's very difficult for the international humanitarian community - the civilians - to get into Basra. However, there are organizations like the International Committee for the Red Cross that have sent some of their delegates, their workers, into Basra to try to make repairs on the water purification plant in order to start the repairs necessary to provide water.
In addition, we have been working with several international organizations, as well as with the civil affairs soldiers from the coalition forces, in order to get commodities moving into the area as quickly as possible.
Q: (Al Anbaa) Is the US aid going to continue even after Saddam Hussein, or are they going to stop after the war?
A: (BG) Today, we're spending most of our time talking about the relief assistance of the United States government. There is another side to USAID, which is reconstruction assistance; and that will continue on for a very long time. Those are the people who look into economic development, reestablishing infrastructure, building hospitals, roads, ports, and rehabilitating those sorts of activities - and providing and supporting health and education services. So that will be the longer term arm of the U.S. government and the long term planning. That's not this group here; it's another group of people.
Q: (Danish News Agency) What is the time line you expect for these activities? What is your assessment for cities in the north such as Nasriya and Najah?
A: (MM) To give you a time line would be almost impossible. It is very event driven. It depends on the security situation. The international humanitarian communities, the civilians, civilian organizations, have to make up their own minds on what security situation is acceptable for them to go into. It's really going to depend on the situation, and I can't give a satisfactory answer to that. I know that every one of the organizations is very anxious to move in, just as quickly as possible. As far as the situation in the north, I should have mentioned that, with my DART team, I have two other field teams, one located in Amman (Jordan) right now, and another one located in Turkey. My northern team, my Turkey team, is watching the situation and coordinating with local NGOs in northern Iraq to make sure that there is no humanitarian crisis that has not been addressed. So far, the reports are fairly positive.
Q: (Kuwait TV) Three questions: The first one is what are you doing with regard to the high mortality rate for Iraqi children, especially since there's been a lot of suffering for Iraqi children during the sanctions years. The second one, with regards to the effects of chemical exposure, based on Iraq's past use of chemical weapons during Saddam Hussein's long time in power, is there anything that can be done for the children for that?
A: (BG) I think we all know that the whole (Iraqi health care) system has been quite fragile for the past decade. A lot of this has to do with the water sanitation system. Most of the reported mortality/morbidity among children is related to diarrheal kinds of diseases, related to problems with water and sanitation. Obviously the DART team, being a relief organization, is prepared to provide clean water as soon as possible, from any means. We have a number of different groups to go with that. If, indeed, we provide the clean water, for the most part those diarrheal diseases will not occur. From the curative standpoint, yes, in the WHO medical kits in the stockpiles, if the disease occurs, we can respond to that. And, again, we would be implementing that through international organizations, NGOs and what have you. So, we have the stockpiles. The important thing is to get (the material) in there.
(In response to question off-mike) In response to this gentleman's question about what we know about in other cities, I only know something about Basra and Nasriyah. Certainly, our civil affairs teams do report that the main problems are with water and the lack of medications. Food is less of a problem, and they do have basic stores of food for about eight months, but with very few perishables. So, for some of those stocks that we do have available, like basic antibiotics, oral rehydration salts, some dressings, sterile gloves, and things like that, we can provide something.
Q: (Kuwait TV continued) The third question concerned the matter of exposure of children to Saddam's chemical and biological weapons.
A: (BG) That's a good and an interesting question. For those acutely exposed, such as in Halabja in the past, it's really more an issue of rehabilitation, and there have been ongoing programs to involve those children. I think there's another arena of chemical exposure, and that's the low volume - almost imperceptible - that may be in the population from industry producing this material, and that's very, very difficult to assess, and may not present any symptoms for a long time. It's not something that the DART is involved in, except possibly in an assessment role, but I am aware that there are plans to look at that long term, but I don't think that I can comment any further here for the DART.
Q: (Al Watan) I heard on the news that there will be supplementary water from Kuwait sent to Iraq, and I'm wondering why you're not using any of the rivers to provide water for the Iraqis? Isn't the river water any good?
A: (BG) Well, it's clear that a fair amount of the Iraqi population has been using, quite honestly, dirty water from the rivers; but we get varied reports whether they have the means to boil it. That is a problem with fuel availability. Now, the dirty water - of course, not. The relief agencies, not just the DART, have the ability to purify that water, but it is a slow process, a cumbersome process. The pipeline that is anticipated - I believe to open today or tomorrow, from Kuwait, I think will be of tremendous, tremendous advantage to Um Qasr, and that will probably solve the water problems there. That is potable water that we know is clean. The real issue is not only to get a source of water - if you have a source of water, there are many different ways to make it clean.
Q: (CNN) Four days ago, we were told at a background briefing that moving forward is event driven. Has anything changed since then? Have you been able to move forward in any way? Do you anticipate being able to do that in the next few days?
A: (MM) We have not moved forward. We have sent two assessments in to Um Qasr, where we were able to look at the food situation, look at the health situation, the water, electricity in the area; but our team is a team of civilian humanitarians, and we are not trained, equipped or organized to operate in a combat environment. The international organizations are in the same position. The UN Office of Security (UNSECORD) has not conducted assessments to allow the United Nations in. Each individual humanitarian organization needs to make its own decision on what level of combat, what level of security they will accept to get in there. Right now, it is not possible for the DART team to move north of Um Qasr. Now, that isn't to say that we're not working with the civil affairs troops. We are. We're coordinating with them in order to make assistance available to those in need.
Q: (ABC News) With respect to the longer term reconstruction program for Iraq, that you mentioned earlier, there's been an international outcry over the means by which the contracts were awarded and the closed bidding process that was done for those contracts. Specifically, I mean that only six U.S. companies, some of whom - people have pointed out - have very close ties to the current U.S. administration, were allowed to bid on those contracts. Further, British and Australian companies, whose troops are fighting alongside U.S. troops in this war, were given no means by which to bid on those contracts for long term reconstruction. Is that system, of awarding contracts for rebuilding Iraq, going to stand? Does USAID have a position on how those contracts were awarded?
A: (BG) I'll just make a very brief comment on that because that, again, is not among the activities that this group works on; but, having spent a lot of time in my career with USAID on this, I can say that they followed the standard process for contracts that are bid. There is something called the Federal Acquisitions Regulation that governs how the United States Government does business. Those regulations were followed.
Q: (KUNA) Do you provide aid to Iraqi prisoners of war, because there must now be a few thousand of them, and if so how many of them are there now to your knowledge?
A: (MM) That actually falls outside of our mandate. That's more in the coalition forces' mandate, so I can't comment on that.
For more information on USAID's humanitarian relief efforts in Iraq, please visit www.usaid.gov/iraq/.
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