WHERE'S THE BEEF?

A Proposal by the  GOOD OFFICES GROUP OF EUROPEAN LAWMAKERS
cp. 2580  -  1211 Geneva 2  -  Switzerland  -  t+f: 004122-7400362  -  swissbit@solami.com
Geneva, 31 January 2001   (fully hyperlinked on the Internet at: http://www.solami.com/CERES.htm)

SUMMARY        Until 1990, Iraq imported annually some 120.000 tons of beef for a population of over 20 mio.  Since then, for the ordinary inhabitant, beef has disappeared from the market in Iraq, with only chicken and mutton occasionally complementing a previously rich and balanced diet.  Interestingly, the UN "oil-for-food" programme has ruled beef imports neither out nor in.  In light of the extraordinary conditions created by the extreme droughts which visited the region in the past two years, and assuming a gradual reintroduction of red meet to serve the nutritional and health interests of the entire Iraqi population, a pilot project is proposed to be set up within the frame of the applicable resolutions of the UN Security Council and other relevant authorities.  Code-named CERES, this non-exclusive project is initially limited to Iraq's three northern governorates where some 3.5 mio inhabitants, over the first 12 month period, are planned to receive free of charge some 2000 tons of beef through "appropriate local distribution mechanisms" reflecting traditional social structures.  These beef deliveries shall be supplied at market conditions by commercial firms with proper guarantees from countries whose governments, at the appropriate UN level, will have taken the necessary initiatives and/or decisively supported the related decisions.  Like its fore-runner, PROJECT PLATO (www.solami.com/PLATO), this project was initiated by Arab, Assyrian, Kurdish and Turkoman communities in Iraq and abroad on advice by the Good Offices Group of European Lawmakers (www.solami.com/a33a).


1.    "[I]n view of the exceptional circumstances prevailing in the three Governorates" of Arbil, Dohuk and Suleimaniyeh of Northern Iraq, UN Security Council Resolution 986 (1995) (www.un.org/Depts/oip/scrs/scr986), i.e. the "oil-for-food" resolution, stipulates that 13-15% of the revenues generated by the UN-controlled Iraqi oil exports shall be allocated for providing "essential civilian humanitarian supplies as well as rehabilitation activities" ("Distribution plan for phase VIII", 25 July 2000, §2: www.un.org/Depts/oip/dp8pdf/dp8exesum).  Another UN body, the Sanctions Committee established with Security Council Resolution 661 (1990) (www.un.org/Depts/oip/scrs/scr661onu), oversees - and occasionally holds up - the flow of goods, services and funds under this increasingly questioned sanctions regime.

2.    The Memorandum of Understanding between the Iraqi Government and the UN Secretariat of 20 May 1996 (MOU; www.un.org/Depts/oip/undocs/s1996356) allowed SCR 986 to become operational.  As the basis for keeping the UN from bankruptcy and for providing essential civilian goods and services to the Iraqi population, this MOU has been renewed routinely ever since.  Regarding Iraq's northern governorates, the MOU designates the UN Inter-Agency Humanitarian Programme (the "Programme") as responsible for the procurement and distribution of the related goods and services, with the food rations being distributed by the Programme on behalf of the Government of Iraq (Distribution plan, §15ss).  In its Annex I, it also says that "Specific rehabilitation needs in the three northern Governorates shall receive the necessary attention."

3.    Indeed, all this is to be achieved in line with MOU Annex 1 which, while confirming that

"the bulk purchase by the Government of Iraq of standard food commodities and medicine may be the most cost-effective means of procurement",
also specifically states that
"Other materiels and supplies for essential civilian needs, specifically required for the three northern Governorates, may be more suitably procured through the United Nations system in view of technical aspects related to their proper use.  ...
Whenever possible and cost-effective, the Programme shall use appropriate local distribution mechanisms which are comparable to those existing in the rest of Iraq in order to effectively reach the population." (emphasis added)
4.     Iraq's society has deep, strong and still all-permeating tribal roots, self-deluding Western-styled institutions and Western images to the contrary not withstanding.  In its northern governorates, the numerically dominant Arabs and Kurds count some 75 tribes, while most Assyrians and the Turkomans are by now organized more around religious and ethnic institutions and political parties.  All of these constitutive segments of the Iraqi society - and among them particularly the racial, religious or linguistic minorities of the districts of "Mosul, Arbil, Kirkuk and Sulaimaniya" - are beneficiaries of still fully valid but mostly forgotten formal international guarantees.  Providing at least a source of inspiration for fresh ideas and new approaches to persistently festering wounds of the Ottoman Empire breakup, these guarantees precede, go far beyond and are not replaced by the merely humanitarian and protective stipulations of the above and other UN Security Council resolutions.  Written into Iraq's Declaration of 30 May 1932 (www.solami.com/a3a), they constitute the fundamental laws of Iraq which explicitly take precedent over any current or future Iraqi "law, regulation or official action". Interestingly - and for excellent reasons - they have never been formally questioned by any Iraqi Government.  Reflecting the concerns of that time, they pertain to such matters as
-    the right to speak, publish and officially communicate in either Arabic, Assyric, Kurdish or Turkish,
-    the right to private property and international protection against arbitrary expropriation (www.solami.com/a3a.htm#OWNERSHIP),
-    the right to the "free exercise, whether public or private, of any creed, religion or belief,"
-    the enjoyment of government "protection, facilities and authorisation to the churches, synagogues, cemeteries and other religious establishments, charitable works and pious foundations of minority religious communities existing in Iraq", and
-    the right to "maintain, manage and control at their own expense, or to establish in the future, charitable, religious and social institutions, schools and other educational establishments, with the right to use their own language and to exercise their religion freely therein."

5.    Some generations later - and to this date - other, even more basic concerns persist among these internationally "protected" minorities.  Consideration of analoguous rights are thus in order - at least for all those not satisfied with past policies and where they lead to, i.e. the hopelessly dead-locked current situation.  Accordingly, it should not be beyond the pale of imaginative genuine leaders anywhere to recognize the leaders of Northern Iraq's tribes, religious and ethnic communities and political parties as fully and jointly empowered
(a)    to request the United Nations to add beef imports to its food list under the current oil-for-food programme in order to complement the current food diet also, partially, in an urgent response to the additional public health needs following Iraq's severe droughts of the years 1999 and 2000,
(b)    to negotiate and - partially in compensation for other legitimate claims and concerns - to receive prompt delivery of significant beef imports, all charged against the UN's Iraq Account in analoguous application of Section V of the MOU,  and
(c)     to utilize preferably the tribes as well as the religious and ethnic communities as the region's time-tested dominant social structures for securing the equitable, cost-effective and institutions-strengthening distribution of such basic food as beef to each resident.

6.    Without prejudice to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq, the duly elected representatives of all tribes, religious and ethnic communities and - not or - political parties mentioned above are understood to have already expressed, or to be prepared to confirm their full support for the prompt development and implementation of PROJECT CERES.  Under authority of, guidance by and support from the competent UN bodies, it seeks to provide a complementary ration of frozen, canned and/or dried beef of - initially - up to 0.5 kg/month for each resident of Iraq's northern three governorates, contracted for and delivered essentially via Turkey or Jordan to distribution centers chosen and operated by the leaders of the participating tribes, religious and ethnic communities and political parties (the latter serving primarily for complementary food distribution among the public services, including the jointly staffed and controlled security forces).

7.    The Arab, Assyrian, Kurdish and Turkoman tribes and communities of Iraq's three northern governorates are understood to elect - no later than March 21, 2001 - Beef Delegates and a fully empowered Representative for conducting and concluding all related negotiations with the involved UN agencies, interested governments and private suppliers.