wfn.org | UMCOR plans for Iraq relief assistance

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

April 9, 2003  News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212)870-38037New York
10-21-71BI{208}

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (UMNS) - The United Methodist Committee on Relief is
prepared to offer training and technical assistance to many of the
church-based humanitarian efforts in Iraq, according to the Rev. Paul Dirdak.

Dirdak, who leads the agency, explained those plans when UMCOR directors
gathered April 8 during the spring meeting of the agency's parent
organization, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

In surveying its international professional staff, he reported, "we have
identified five technical competencies which we believe are of such a high
quality that we think our partner agencies will want to make use of our
skills." Such assistance would be provided at UMCOR's expense, he added.

Dirdak said the agency has made a commitment for a communications person with
experience in war zones to be made available to the entire ecumenical relief
community. Other skills UMCOR staff can offer include assessment of shelter,
community economic development, food security, refugee camp management and
youth development needs; help with temporary and permanent shelter
construction; assistance with the procurement, storage and distribution of
food; and advice on secure programs for returning civilians.

UMCOR plans to channel its own humanitarian response to Iraq through partner
agencies there, such as the Middle East Council of Churches. That
organization includes Presbyterian and Chaldean congregations that already
have set up humanitarian programs in their communities.

Dirdak also reported a deepening relationship between UMCOR and Norwegian
Church Aid, facilitated by the Rev. Tove Odland, a Board of Global Ministries
director from Norway. He expects UMCOR will provide direct support to the
Norwegian agency for its work in Iraq.

UMCOR will not open its own field office in Iraq, he said, in part because of
the costs involved and the large number of other relief agencies expected to
set up shop there. The United Methodist agency also has been busy
establishing three other new field offices in the past year - in Afghanistan,
the Democratic Republic of Congo and Manhattan (in response to the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks).

Both Dirdak and the Rev. Randy Day, chief executive of the Board of Global
Ministries, expressed concern about the U.S. Department of Defense's interest
in directing and overseeing humanitarian relief and post-war reconstruction
in Iraq.

"UMCOR has been bold and forthright in insisting that humanitarian aid and
reconstruction be under the United Nations," Day told board directors in his
April 8 address. "It has joined other U.S. and international agencies in
overtures to the Pentagon to separate clearly humanitarian work from military
practice."

Dirdak explained that having uniformed and armed personnel participate in
large-scale distribution of relief supplies or reconstruction efforts would
blur the distinction between combatants and relief workers.

"Relief personnel rely upon their non-combatant neutrality for their safety
and, in many places, safety is becoming perilously thin," he said. "Allowing
soldiers to do what relief workers know far better how to do risks the lives
of relief workers everywhere."

UMCOR is collecting funds to support relief work through its Iraq Emergency
Advance No. 623225-4. Checks can be dropped in church collection plates or
mailed directly to UMCOR at 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115.
Credit-card donations also can be made online at http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/
or by calling (800) 554-8583.

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United Methodist News Service
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