Taiwan can help with desperately needed relief work in Iraq in the wake of US-led strikes against the country, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said yesterday.
"They can be of great help, especially through financial contributions," said Geneva-based ICRC Spokesperson Antonella Notari in a phone interview.
The International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) have called on its members to finance its relief work in Iraq with the aim of collecting US$80 million, the IFRC has announced.
Notari said the donations received so far were a "good response," while stressing financial assistance instead of donating goods may be the most effective way to help with relief work in Iraq.
The ICRC is the only international charity organization currently operating inside Iraq. Around 100 staffers are deployed in the field in the northern part of Iraq, Baghdad and the southern city of Basra, Notari said.
Notari described the ICRC staffers' movement as "very restricted," adding that the organization has not had any "figures from the field" on casualties.
The top priority for ICRC field workers is to visit hospitals in "quiet moments" to help supply badly needed medical materials, backup generators and bladder tanks to enable institutions to cope with a possible breakdown in the water or power supply, Notari said.
Notari's comment comes at a time when the government and various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are boosting humanitarian assistance to Iraq and its neighboring countries.
Premier Yu Shyi-kun told the legislature yesterday that any budget supporting humanitarian aid in Iraq would sail through the legislative chamber.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦) said the ministry is slated to host another coordination meeting with over 20 local NGOs on Friday morning in an attempt to streamline planned humanitarian aid.
Kuo Hsiu-ling, director of marketing and resources development at World Vision Taiwan, said World Vision is supporting a kitchen at the a camp close to the Jordan-Iraqi border.
World Vision field worker James Addis gave a harrowing account on Sunday of foreign nationals forced to flee Baghdad in the wake of war.
"Nasreldin Khalid, a 40-year-old Sudanese man, describes leaving everything in Baghdad. As we chat he finds the questions I'm asking more and more uncomfortable. He breaks down and begins to cry when he says he has not been able to contact his family in Sudan. They do not know what has happened to him," Addis wrote in an e-mail obtained by the Taipei Times.
Sudanese refugee Yonis Adam, 33, said he wanted to return to Iraq after the war.
"I have a strong feeling for the Iraqi people. They're tired of war. I don't know whether they like Saddam Hussein or not but I do know they want to live in peace," Adam was quoted as saying in Addis' e-mail.
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