UN: UN agencies yesterday expressed support for a Swiss proposal to hold a meeting in Geneva to discuss the humanitarian consequences of a war on Iraq.
The Swiss Foreign Minister, Ms Micheline Calmy-Rey, who put forward the idea on Monday, has yet to issue invitations. Switzerland would like the Middle East, Europe and the US to participate as well.
While all humanitarian agencies express the hope that war can be averted, they have made contingency plans if there is war. However, they do not have the funds to deal with a humanitarian crisis.
The spokesman of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Mr Yussuf Hassan, said the agency was far from ready for a refugee crisis.
"I think we are going to face a lot of difficulties. We simply aren't ready for a major displacement at this particular moment."
Mr Hassan said the threat of war "has put us in a very difficult situation of preparing for a crisis that has not yet taken place".
The agencies would rather be focusing on existing emergencies, he added.
Mr Hassan and other normally tight-lipped UN officials broke silence after the UNHCR head, Mr Ruud Lubbers, revealed to the World Economic Forum last week that he had been asked to prepare aid for 600,000 Iraqi refugees.
Mr Lubbers said "there's not one government who has come to me with money" for assistance programmes. "My impression is simply that they are not prepared for that."
During a pledging conference in Geneva in December the UN appealed for a modest $37 million. To date only small change and a promise of $15 million from the US have been received.
In spite of the lack of cash, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq (UNOCHI) has drawn up a plan in co-ordination with other UN agencies, who have divided up responsibilities.
The World Food Programme is pre-positioning food in neighbouring countries to provide sustenance for 900,000 people for three months.
The UN Children's Fund is preparing to deal with sanitation and water if Iraqi utilities are bombed. The World Health Organisation is making arrangements for medical aid and UNHCR for refugees and asylum-seekers.
Within Iraq, the Red Crescent Society, which has sub-offices in each of the 18 Iraqi provinces, has assumed the task of primary local co-ordinator.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which is the lead agency for the Red Crescent, has been trying to operate as independently as possible.
It is shunning the US military's humanitarian operations centre in Kuwait and UN agencies which are equated with sanctions in the eyes of most Iraqis.
Mr Stephen Johnson, deputy head of UNOCHI's humanitarian section, said: "The UN is \ criticised for having not been prepared. Now that we are prepared, we seem to be in danger of not being funded."
The pressure on the UN agencies to prepare for a massive emergency in Iraq is placing under serious strain their programmes elsewhere in the world, including Afghanistan, Ivory Coast and Angola.
