Five leading U.S. humanitarian organizations have clashed with the Bush administration in recent weeks over the Pentagon's role in the rebuilding of Iraq, saying military oversight jeopardizes their work and puts aid workers at risk.
Late last month, IRC, CARE and WorldVision Inc. all declined to participate in a $35 million program to rebuild schools and health clinics administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, a State Department agency that in Iraq reports to an authority established by the Pentagon.
Kevin Henry, CARE's advocacy director, echoed Bartolini's concern, saying his organization turned down the offer to participate in the USAID initiative for fear of "losing our credibility and putting our staff at greater risk."
last week, Save the Children and Mercy Corps, a Portland humanitarian organization, objected to a demand that all contact with journalists be filtered through USAID in order to qualify for the same development program turned down by CARE, IRC and WorldVision.
The media restriction, which one NGO official called "unprecedented," was imposed soon after USAID Director Andrew Natsios told a forum of InterAction, the largest alliance of American humanitarian groups working overseas, that NGOs fulfilling U.S. contracts are "an arm of the U.S. government" and should do a better job highlighting ties to the Bush administration if they want to continue receiving funds for overseas projects.
According to an NGO executive who asked not to be named because his group is involved in dealings with USAID, "The Bush administration is having real problems in Iraq and doesn't like the bad press. They think NGOs are behind it, whispering into the ears of reporters."
Typical. Controlliing the message (to who? Us!) is more important than schools and food for children.
Meanwhile, the missionary NGOs are experiencing no such difficulties. From Robert Gee of the Austin American-Stateman:
For hundreds, perhaps thousands of American evangelical Christians, Iraq is fertile ground for humanitarian relief work -- and introducing Muslims to the story of Jesus.
It's great that the Iraqi people are being helped, whether by missionaries or not. On the other hand, it's not hard to imagine how some in this country would react to aid that came from the Red Crescent and included verses from the Koran.