INTERNATIONAL PROGRESS ORGANIZATION -- INFORMATION SERVICE

COMMITTEE TO SAVE THE CHILDREN IN IRAQ DELIVERS HUMANITARIAN GOODS TO IRAQ

Baghdad / Vienna, 8 July 1991/P/K/12824c

Yesterday, 7 July 1991, the Committee to Save the Children in Iraq delivered foodstuffs, medicines and medical equipment on board of an Aeroflot freight plane to Iraq. The plane was chartered for humanitarian purposes by the United Nations Executive Delegate for the Humanitarian Programme in Iraq, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan. This was made possible through the good offices of Austrian President Dr. Kurt Waldheim. The Austrian Head of State was briefed on the Committee's urgent needs by Professor Hans Koechler of the International Progress Organization, a founding member of the Committee to Save the Children in Iraq.

The humanitarian shipment was made possible by donations from Action Medeor, the pharmaceutical company Schering, the Swedish relief organization Jacob's Letter, the Doctors' Initiative Essen (Germany), the Emergency Aid Lindau (Germany), and other  humanitarian groups. The flight was accompanied by members of the Committee to Save the Children in Iraq, among them Dr. Margit Fakhoury of Doctors' Initiative Essen (Ärzteinitiative Essen) and Ms. Muriel Mirak-Weissbach, coordinator of the Committee. With special permission from the United Nations Executive Delegate for the Humanitarian Programme in Iraq, the Aeroflot freight plane flew directly from Frankfurt am Main (Germany) to Baghdad where the shipment was received by a representative of the Chaldaean Church of Iraq. His Beatitude Raphael I Bidawid, Patriarch of Babylon (Chaldaean Church of Iraq), is a founding member of the Committee to Save the Children in Iraq and supervises and coordinates the distribution of the humanitarian goods in Iraq.

More details of the humanitarian mission will be made available upon the return of the accompanying delegation to Germany.