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Humanitarian Contingency Planning

Volume 400: debated on Tuesday 4 March 2003

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To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what contingency plans have been made to assist the civilians of Iraq in (a) water supplies, (b) food and (c) medical treatment after military conflict. [100082]

Operational humanitarian organisations have made a range of contingency plans to assist civilians with water food and medical treatment in the event of conflict in Iraq. My Department is in close contact with several such organisations, including Un agencies, the Red Cross/Crescent and NGOs. We also discuss regularly with the armed forces the importance of minimising the extent of civilian suffering, and the limited humanitarian assistance the military could provide during any period before UN agencies/NGOs were operational.