By Joel R. Charney
04/13/2003
This story ran on page E11 of the Boston Globe.

AS THE United States celebrates military victories in Iraq, the civilian death toll will continue to climb unless the coalition moves quickly to provide a secure humanitarian space for relief workers.

Despite gains on the battlefield, insecurity plagues Iraqi civilians. The lack of order in areas under effective coalition control, such as Basra, has created an anarchic situation in which the population cannot get access to basic services, especially clean water and health care. In Baghdad, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, the two agencies that remained in the city to support the city's hospitals and to treat wounded civilians, suspended operations because, in the words of the Red Cross, the situation is ''chaotic and unpredictable.'' Although the Red Cross has started working again, its personnel are still having difficulty gaining access to wounded civilians and the delay in reaching them is likely to prove fatal.

British commanders in Basra are finally starting to crack down on the looting that is plaguing the city, after earlier turning a blind eye on the grounds that the destruction of government property, including schools, reflected the healthy venting of anti-Saddam energy. US soldiers in Baghdad were deployed to topple statues of Saddam Hussein rather than provide protection to civilians who need medical care. The coalition doctrine stressing force protection above all is leading to de facto disregard for the consequences of disorder and violence for Iraqi civilians.

As UNICEF's Iraq representative, Carel de Rooy, argues, failing to establish basic order threatens government services and systems with collapse. The humanitarian community is counting on these systems to feed, vaccinate, and educate the Iraqi people once order is restored. Further, looted property includes valuable infrastructure that the United States and its allies will have to replace if a functioning Iraqi government administration is to be reestablished.

The United States and Great Britain must establish basic order so that life-saving humanitarian assistance can be delivered. The irony is that the World Food Program, UNICEF, and the major operational nongovernment organizations, such as the International Rescue Committee and Oxfam, are poised to provide assistance as soon as the security situation permits. Supply and readiness are no longer the issues. The paramount issue is local-level security.

Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, having effectively destroyed the Iraqi government in three weeks of war, the United States and Great Britain, as the occupying powers of Iraq, are now responsible to use ''all the means at [their] disposal'' to ensure that the civilian population can access food and health services.

But as Refugees International and other agencies anticipated before the onset of hostilities, the imperative to defeat Saddam Hussein's government and to find and decommission weapons of mass destruction has been so consuming that a local-level security vacuum has been created in areas that the military has swept through. Local policing and security for humanitarian workers are not priorities for the US military, and the Iraqi police do not constitute a viable immediate alternative, as it was so dominated by Baath Party elements. Little Iraqi policing capability is likely to survive the destruction of the government.

The United States must provide security for relief workers, either through direct policing or by supporting reliable local police forces. This includes guarding relief supply warehouses and food distribution points, escorting convoys of high value relief supplies, and demining key access routes and locations where civilians are seeking safety.

If the coalition military forces are unable to guarantee security, then the immediate introduction of military police from coalition countries is required. The policing capabilities of Great Britain and Canada in postconflict environments have proven especially effective, notably in the Balkans, and they have the political will to support the coalition military effort by utilizing this capacity in Iraq.

Each passing day of anarchy and lack of order results in more unnecessary deaths and suffering for Iraqi civilians. With a simple solution at hand, this suffering is unacceptable and detracts from the political and humanitarian impact of the coalition military victory.

Joel R. Charny is vice president for policy at Refugees International.

Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.