US accused of blocking medical relief plane/Save the Children told BBC
Radio from Arbil/aljazeera/19,April

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Saturday 19, April, 2003/Last Updated: 2:56AM Doha time, 5:56PM GMT
US accused of blocking medical relief plane

A British aid agency accused the United States on Friday of disregarding the plight of children in northern Iraq by refusing to allow a plane full with medical supplies to land in the city of Arbil.

Save the Children argued the validity of US claims that it was unsafe to land at Arbil, which is between the oil-rich cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, saying the city was “as safe as many parts of London.”

"I can only guess that is because they have other priorities because the suggestion that it is not safe is very difficult to
accept,"Save the Children representative Brendan Paddy told BBC
Radio from Arbil.

photo:
A United Nations convoy of trucks with food aid heading to northern Iraq passes through the Turkish border town of Silopi on April 16

“Medical supplies have to come in from the outside and at the moment that doesn’t seem to be happening,”Paddy said, adding that American flights were having daily access to the area.

But a US military spokesman in the Gulf told BBC that while the area around Arbil was not exposed to danger for military planes because they could defend themselves, it was risky for civilian planes.

He said he hoped the Save the Children plane could land“within days.”

The plane is ready to depart from Britain carrying medical supplies that are enough to help 40,000 people for three months. Iraqi hospitals, including those in Mosul, are in dire need of essential medical and food supplies, especially after they were either damaged by the fighting or looted following the collapse of the Iraqi government.
Save the Children accused the US on Thursday of violating the Geneva Convention by refusing to allow medical supplies to enter Arbil. The convention states that the occupying forces are obliged to protect civilians, restore law and order and facilitate humanitarian relief.

"What is more difficult to understand is not the ignoring of the Geneva Convention but ignoring the plight of the kids that we're seeing every day in Mosul," Paddy said.

In the meantime, 11 UN trucks carrying 102,000 litres of drinking water for thirsty Iraqis entered Iraqﾝfrom Iran on Friday, the first time such an aid operation took place across the border between the two countries which were engaged in a devastating eight-year-old war in the 1980s.

A UN official said the aid convoy, which used the route of Shalamcheh in southwestern Khuzestan province, was supplied by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

UNICEF incorrectly said in a statement earlier this week that nine of the 12 trucks had crossed on Wednesday.

The convoy was destined for the southern city of Al Faw where the water would be handed to a local religious leader who would be in charge of distributing it to the population.

Due to bureaucratic delays in neighboring Iran, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has failed to send 100 tonnes of food, including vegetable oil, to distressed Iraqis for several days.

Iran could serve as a major relief route if clearance for convoys was obtained at the border, allowing aid to flow freely to northernﾝ Iraq. WFP has stockpiled 13,000 tonnes of food in Iran for hungry Iraqis. Iran closed its border with Iraq since the US-led war in Iraq started on March 20 to avoid an influx of refugees similar to what happened in the 1991 Gulf war.
--- Al Jazeera with agency inputs