Organizations plan to send aid to Iraq

Organizations plan to send aid to Iraq

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Religious organizations are planning to send humanitarian aid to
Iraq to ease people's suffering from the attack launched by the
United States and its allies.

Solahuddin Wahid, the deputy chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama
(NU), the country's largest Muslim group, said on Friday that the
organization had started to collect donations from its members
across the country.

"We will send aid in the form of medicine, which must be badly
needed by Iraqis, and canned food. We will probably dispatch
medical volunteers there also," Solahuddin said.

The NU has yet to decide on whether to send the aid through
the United Nations, the Red Cross or other organizations.

"We will discuss it during an interfaith group meeting on
Monday," he said.

Dien Syamsuddin, the secretary-general of the Indonesian
Council of Ulemas (MUI) who is also the deputy chairman of
Muhammadiyah, said that the religious body was also planning to
collect donations and send humanitarian aid to the Iraqis.

"The aid will be disbursed in the form of goods and cash
within the next one or two months," he said.

MUI conducted the same humanitarian mission for Afghanistan,
Palestine and Bosnia Herzegovina.

Separately, Rev. A.A. Yewangoe of the Indonesian Communion of
Churches (PGI) said that the organization was still considering
whether to dispatch humanitarian aid to Iraq.

"We are currently focusing on our commitment to urge the
United Nations to stop the war in Iraq. We will later send
humanitarian assistance to Iraq, although it will not be easy to
do that," he said.

Several organizations, including the Prosperous Justice Party
(PKS) and the Indonesian Red Cross, are also planning to send
medical assistance and other relief to Iraq.

In the East Java capital of Surabaya, Navy Chief Adm. Bernard
Kent Sondakh said the Navy had opened the possibility of
deploying its warships to carry humanitarian relief to Iraq.

"But it depends on military headquarters. So far, we have not
received an order to carry out a humanitarian mission," he said.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirajuda said that the
government would provide assistance to organizations that
intended to send humanitarian aid to Iraq.

The government will most likely send the aid through the
Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) and the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC), which has access to Iraq and its neighboring
countries of Jordan and Kuwait.

The government earlier said it had no plans to provide
humanitarian assistance for the people of Iraq, saying that it
was the responsibility of the U.S., which initiated the war.