The United Nations, Friday, added its voice to the growing alarm at lawlessness and anarchy in Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion, accusing British and American troops of breaching the Geneva Convention.
"The coalition forces seem to be unable to restrain the looters or impose any sort of controls on the mobs that now govern the streets," the UN Office of the Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Iraq (UNOHCI) said in a statement from Amman in Jordan.
"This inaction by the occupying powers is in violation of the Geneva Conventions, which explicitly state that medical establishments must be protected, that the wounded and sick must be the object of particular protection and respect, (that medical staff) must be protected and must be free to carry on their duties," it warned.
The alarm comes amid reports that Britain had already started to withdraw 550 medical staff from a field hospital because of the relatively light number of U.K. military casualties.
Fears were that the country may descend into a power struggle following the killing of prominent Shia cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei, who had recently returned to the holy city of Najaf after spending more than a decade in exile in London.
The UNOHCI said that the picture in Baghdad painted by the International Committee of the Red Cross could be summed up in two words "anarchy and chaos."
Concern about the lawlessness in Iraq was also expressed Friday by Britain's International Development Secretary Clare Short, who went back on her pledge to resign from her cabinet post over the launch of the war without a further U.N. resolution.
Short told BBC radio that there "must be a bigger effort" by British and American forces to end the looting, violence and chaos in Iraq. "In Basra, we had some chaos and now there is more order. It is an absolute priority that U.S. troops should bring order to Baghdad, which is obviously a bigger task," she said.
The International Development Secretary refused to say whether the war had been a price worth paying, saying that she accepted collective responsibility as a member of the British cabinet.
"All human beings have different stresses in their priorities and mine is the humanitarian and the reconstruction," she said without saying if she believed that the military invasion had been justified.
[Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle. http://www.palestinechronicle.com
Republished with permission.
Please also read: "Blix: US was bent on war"
In a scathing attack on Britain and the US, Mr Blix accused them of "fabricating" evidence against Iraq to justify their campaign.
by Nicholas Watt, Saturday April 12, 2003, The Guardian
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2881.htm
"The coalition forces seem to be unable to restrain the looters or impose any sort of controls on the mobs that now govern the streets," the UN Office of the Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Iraq (UNOHCI) said in a statement from Amman in Jordan.
"This inaction by the occupying powers is in violation of the Geneva Conventions, which explicitly state that medical establishments must be protected, that the wounded and sick must be the object of particular protection and respect, (that medical staff) must be protected and must be free to carry on their duties," it warned.
The alarm comes amid reports that Britain had already started to withdraw 550 medical staff from a field hospital because of the relatively light number of U.K. military casualties.
Fears were that the country may descend into a power struggle following the killing of prominent Shia cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei, who had recently returned to the holy city of Najaf after spending more than a decade in exile in London.
The UNOHCI said that the picture in Baghdad painted by the International Committee of the Red Cross could be summed up in two words "anarchy and chaos."
Concern about the lawlessness in Iraq was also expressed Friday by Britain's International Development Secretary Clare Short, who went back on her pledge to resign from her cabinet post over the launch of the war without a further U.N. resolution.
Short told BBC radio that there "must be a bigger effort" by British and American forces to end the looting, violence and chaos in Iraq. "In Basra, we had some chaos and now there is more order. It is an absolute priority that U.S. troops should bring order to Baghdad, which is obviously a bigger task," she said.
The International Development Secretary refused to say whether the war had been a price worth paying, saying that she accepted collective responsibility as a member of the British cabinet.
"All human beings have different stresses in their priorities and mine is the humanitarian and the reconstruction," she said without saying if she believed that the military invasion had been justified.
[Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).] Published at the Palestine Chronicle. http://www.palestinechronicle.com
Republished with permission.
Please also read: "Blix: US was bent on war"
In a scathing attack on Britain and the US, Mr Blix accused them of "fabricating" evidence against Iraq to justify their campaign.
by Nicholas Watt, Saturday April 12, 2003, The Guardian
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2881.htm