Humanitarian Aid

The director of the United Nations' World Food Program yesterday outlined a six-month, $1.3 billion emergency plan to feed the people of Iraq but said that continued war would prevent U.N. workers from entering much of the country to carry it out. "Clearly we will not go into places that are not safe and secure, where our people will be at risk," program director James T. Morris said at a news conference here. The first wartime deliveries of U.N. humanitarian aid already have crossed into Iraq.

From France to Indonesia to Russia, in the offices of national leaders and in the streets, a loud international chorus yesterday condemned the attack on Iraq. French President Jacques Chirac said he regretted an action that started without U.N. support and predicted it would have serious consequences. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin said the attack was being carried out "against world public opinion, against the principles and norms of international law. " Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri denounced the attack, and China called it a violation of the U.N. charter.

With tons of relief aid piling up, independent aid groups are growing frustrated by their inability to get it across the border into northern Afghanistan. Last week, U.N. relief agencies shipped more than 1,100 tons of humanitarian aid from this former Soviet republic into Afghanistan - a successful start, some U.N. officials say. "We should be grateful for being given the corridor we have now," said Mike Huggins of the World Food Program, a U.N. agency. But Gil Gonzalez-Foerster and other representatives of non-U.

THE AMERICAN Red Cross is one of more than 170 national Red Cross or Red Crescent societies. These national societies, which handle domestic disasters, are independent but are "recognized" by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC, which is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, is the founding body of the Red Cross. All its officers and most of its field workers are Swiss. The ICRC conducts the international war-relief operations that have made the Red Cross so justly famous, including prisoner visits, humanitarian aid, and the like.

DURING the airdrops of food and medicine to those escaping to safer ground in Afghanistan, some observers from aid groups have complained that they are doing more harm than good since the merchandise is stolen and sold in the marketplace, or they couldn't be retrieved due to hostilities. Although it was considered a difficult task at the start, America has at least put forth an effort to help the starving, for which we should be commended. Instead of finding fault, the other people assisting those in need should be extending words of appreciation and concentrating on ways and means of getting the urgent supplies to the people.

Driven by the need to keep relentless pressure on Taliban forces, the United States is stepping up efforts to help opposition Afghan fighters in several parts of the country. Defense Department officials said, in essence, yesterday that any enemy of the Taliban was a friend of the United States. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: "Now we are starting to work on some Taliban targets that are arrayed out in the field against folks that we would like to help.

Cattle are the lifeblood of the Turkana people, lanky nomads who roam arid northwestern Kenya. Cattle provide milk, and cattle provide wealth. Without a dowry of cattle, a Turkana man cannot obtain a wife. These days, there are no cattle roaming the scorched beige desert of the Turkana district, where the rains have failed for two years. "The drought has been going on a long time," said Ayana Etelon, a Nakurio village elder who wore a woven cloth skirt, sandals made of old tires, and a circular steel blade around his wrist, useful in close combat.

This once-sleepy border post best known as the home village of former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin became a thriving town thanks to the millions of dollars in relief aid that flows through it. "When I came here in 1993, this was a ghost town," said David Taban, the area representative for Norwegian People's Aid, one of the humanitarian organizations that use Koboko as a staging area for relief work in nearby southern Sudan. Now, Koboko's dusty streets are lined with offices of relief organizations, transport companies, bars, restaurants, and retail shops.

Recalling another development plan on Sansom The controversy over the 1600 block of Sansom Street (Inquirer, March 20) reminds me of a similar controversy over another block of Sansom 30 years ago. At that time, a few of the opponents got together to fight a then "unknown" developer who had plans to demolish the block. Today's version of the block, the 3400 block of Sansom Street, would not have happened without the cooperation of the Redevelopment Authority (RDA), the city and some concerned citizens.

President Clinton yesterday urged Serbs to follow the example of this former Yugoslav republic and "reject the murderous rule" of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. To a cheering crowd that stood in pouring rain, Clinton said they, their southeastern European neighbors, and the rest of the world would be better off without Milosevic. Standing 300 miles from Belgrade, Clinton said, "We want Serbia to be a part of the new Europe. But Serbia must reject the murderous rule of Mr. Milosevic and choose the path that Slovenia has chosen, where people reach across the old divides and find strength in their differences and common humanity.