The Iraqi government has been sharply criticised by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, who said it had "deliberately failed" to co-operate with the United Nations to feed and care for its people and this behaviour was "unacceptable".
In an outspoken attack on President Saddam Hussein's regime over UN economic sanctions, Mr Cowen said the reason the sanctions remained was "Iraq's rejection of the Security Council demands to allow UN arms inspectors to verify that it is not engaged in the production of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons".
He said the oil for food programme was agreed between the UN and Baghdad to provide for the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people as long as the UN sanctions remained. A report from the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, on the programme's operation for the previous three months had been discussed at a recent meeting of the Security Council under Ireland's chairmanship.
"The Secretary-General's re- port has made it abundantly clear that, through the programme, the government of Iraq is in a position to address fully the nutritional and health requirements of its people, particularly children. That Iraq has deliberately failed to co-operate with the UN to fulfil those needs is unacceptable," Mr Cowen said.
In a written reply to a Dβil question from Fine Gael TD, Mr Enda Kenny, he rejected his suggestion to consider establishing "humanitarian delegations" to visit Iraq to oversee the aid provided under the programme and verify that food and medical care were available to all children and to determine the factual position regarding children's health in that country.
"In the view of the Government the UN humanitarian programme in Iraq is in the best position to verify that food, medical facilities and medical attention are available to all children and to accurately determine the factual position regarding children's health," Mr Cowen said. It would not be "appropriate" for governments to send their own delegations. He had discussed the situation with senior UN officials and was satisfied with how the was being administered. It was the Iraqi government's responsibility to draw up a distribution plan and to place the orders for food and medical supplies. But for the first half of this year, "not a single order was placed by Iraq for medicines".
Mr Annan had reported that "Iraq has made preparation of the distribution plan unnecessarily cumbersome, that it has declined to revise the distribution plan allocations, that it is responsible for slow contracting for essential supplies and has created considerable delays in the opening of letters of credit." He called on Iraq "to co-operate honestly and effectively with the UN humanitarian programme and to look after the interests of its own people".
At the same time Ireland was working in the Security Council to revise the sanctions to alleviate the humanitarian situation "by providing for the normal development of the Iraqi economy".