Examination of Witnesses (Questions 1840-1850)
17 DECEMBER 2003
MR EDWARD
CHAPLIN OBE, MS
CAROLYN MILLER,
AIR VICE
MARSHAL CLIVE
LOADER OBE AND
MR IAN
LEE
Q1840 Mike Gapes: What about DFID?
Ms Miller: Perhaps it is one of
the assumptions we should have mentioned before. We had envisaged
that the international community would play a stronger role earlier
on and there are international agencies which are able to do these
things better and more quickly than bilateral donors can do them.
Not everyone can be geared up to do this. As it turned out, it
was very much more an ORHA/CPA led reconstruction effort than
a wider international effort.
Q1841 Mike Gapes: Was that because of
the political disagreement in the UN, or was it because of the
security situation in Iraq?
Ms Miller: It was both of those
factors.
Q1842 Mike Gapes: So some countries actually
actively worked against sending international organisations in.
Ms Miller: International organisations
were prevented from doing a lot of work by the security situation.
They had a humanitarian role, nobody questioned the humanitarian
role.
Q1843 Mike Gapes: What about the political
decision? Were there not also some countries which did not wish
to give legitimacy, as they saw it, to an illegal operation?
Ms Miller: The UN was prepared
to do a number of things, so it had a legitimate role which did
not depend on Member States telling it that it could not go in
and do the immediate work.
Q1844 Mike Gapes: I am not quite clear.
You said that there were international organisations which were
ready and available or would have been. I am not clear whether
it was a political decision not to go in, or whether it was a
security decision. That is what I am trying to get to.
Mr Chaplin: In the area you are
talking about there was no difficulty on the humanitarian side,
except the security problems. The UN was in there from a very
early stage, but at a certain stage they had to withdraw a lot
of their people because of security.
Q1845 Mike Gapes: That is the humanitarian
side. I am thinking about the infrastructure, the rebuilding of
the infrastructure.
Mr Chaplin: If you are talking
about a political role the UN would normally undertake . . .
Q1846 Mike Gapes: My question originally
was: is there a case for an international organisation of some
kind to deal with these infrastructure questions? The answer I
have just received was that there are international organisations
available. I want to know why they were not there and whether
it is purely for security reasons or because of the political
background and difficulties there were within the UN system.
Ms Miller: The UN were there and
played a role immediately and are still continuing to do so now,
through their national staff.
Q1847 Mike Gapes: In the infrastructure
rebuilding?
Ms Miller: Including infrastructure,
power, water. We are funding some of the UN agencies.
Q1848 Mike Gapes: Which agencies are
you talking about?
Ms Miller: UN agencies.
Q1849 Mike Gapes: Which UN agencies?
Ms Miller: UNDP and UNICEF have
been on the ground and were on the ground through the conflict
and afterwards. They have national staff and we have funded them
to do a lot of rehabilitation work. We might have envisaged that
there might have been more of that and certainly the security
situation has been a major factor in restraining them.
Q1850 Mike Gapes: I want to be clear.
Are there political reasons within the UN system why more was
not done to rebuild the infrastructure?
Ms Miller: No, I do not think
so.
Chairman: That seems to be a useful point
on which to finish. When we meet you in late January, I shall
ask Mr Gapes to ask his question again. We will all have done
some more research and maybe there will be a clarification. I
am sorry we have to draw stumps at this stage. We will meet you
again, subject to mutual convenience. We did think that when the
war ended our inquiry would terminate at that point. Somebody
is responsible for causing us a great constriction in our planning
process. We shall be going out to Iraq later in the year. It will
figure very prominently in the work we are doing, particularly
the military element within it and it is intrinsically a fascinating
subject. We look forward to meeting you again to find out what
actually happened. In the meantime, if you could provide not just
additional information on the committee structure, but anything
you think we could receive and read prior to your coming again
to enable us to have a further discussion, we should be deeply
grateful.[4]
Thank you very much for coming.
4 Ev
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