US embassy cable - 03KUWAIT2413

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 KUWAIT 002413 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE ALSO PASS USAID/W 
STATE PLEASE REPEAT TO IO COLLECTIVE 
STATE FOR PRM/ANE, EUR/SE, NEA/NGA, IO AND SA/PAB 
NSC FOR EABRAMS, SMCCORMICK, STAHIR-KHELI, JDWORKEN 
USAID FOR USAID/A, DCHA/AA, DCHA/RMT, DCHA/FFP 
USAID FOR DCHA/OTI, DCHA/DG, ANE/AA 
USAID FOR DCHA/OFDA:WGARVELINK, BMCCONNELL, KFARNSWORTH 
USAID FOR ANE/AA:WCHAMBERLIN 
ROME FOR FODAG 
GENEVA FOR RMA AND NKYLOH 
ANKARA FOR AMB WRPEARSON, ECON AJSIROTIC AND DART 
AMMAN FOR USAID AND DART 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: EAID, PREF, IZ, WFP 
SUBJECT:  DART CORRIDOR UPDATE:  MOVING WFP FOOD COMMODITIES 
INTO IRAQ 
 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1.  To reach the monthly tonnage of 487,000 MT of food 
commodities needed for the first nationwide public 
distribution since the war, WFP had hoped to transport 
30,000 MT of food every day into Iraq.  Due to a combination 
of factors, including insecurity on the roads, insecure and 
damaged warehouses and silos, limited reception and storage 
capacity, and irregular arrival of ships at certain ports, 
WFP has not yet reached its daily target, but maintains the 
30,000 MT per day as its goal.  As of 26 May, WFP has moved 
approximately 360,370 MT inside Iraq.  End Summary. 
 
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CORRIDOR DOWNFALLS 
------------------- 
 
2.  The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) had planned 
to move approximately 30,000 metric tons (MT) of food 
commodities per day over five corridors:  Jordan - 9,000 MT; 
Syria/Lebanon - 5,000 MT; Turkey - 6,000 MT; Iran - 1,000 
MT; and Kuwait/Umm Qasr, Iraq - 9,000 MT.  In the past week, 
WFP has averaged a total of about 13,800 MT food per day, 
but on 26 May achieved 21,700 MT, its highest day yet. 
However, WFP maintains 30,000 MT per day as the target. 
 
3.  As of May 26, WFP has moved approximately 360,370 MT 
inside Iraq against the 487,000 MT monthly food requirement 
of the public distribution system (PDS).  Ration shortfalls 
in most areas, however, can be compensated by pre-existing 
stocks in the country. 
 
4.  Due to a combination of factors, including insecurity on 
the roads, insecure and damaged warehouses and silos, 
limited storage and reception capacity identified thus far, 
and irregular arrival of ships at certain ports, WFP has not 
yet reached its target.  The primary impediment is a lack of 
adequate storage space.  For instance, in Baghdad, WFP has 
only 40,000 MT warehouse space, and needs at least 100,000 
MT.  Lack of silo space, because of either insecurity or 
mechanical troubles, for bulk grain is also quite 
problematic.  The Syria and Turkey corridors have been 
particularly hard hit by this problem. 
 
5.  Another obstacle has been changing the documentation on 
Oil for Food (OFF) shipments, primarily for shipments that 
arrived before the war and have remained in ports awaiting 
the paperwork to change the consignee of the food to WFP, as 
well as awaiting U.S. Department of Defense COTECHNA 
inspection.  (Note:  Under the OFF Program, all OFF 
shipments had to be certified by COTECHNA before the vendor 
could be paid.  End Note.) 
 
6.  And finally, lack of security is the root cause of 
several problems.  WFP does not want to store commodities in 
warehouses or silos that are not secure.  The discharging of 
cargo from trucks has been impacted by security concerns, as 
stevedores and other workers are not willing to work during 
the night.  Without 24-hour post and warehouse operations 
trucks take longer to unload, and the turn-around time for 
the trucks increases, which slows down the entire operation. 
 
7.  As each of the components of the supply chain are 
linked, any weak link causes delays throughout the system. 
Consequently, WFP does not expect to reach its 487,000 MT 
goal until early June. 
 
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TURKEY CORRIDOR 
--------------- 
 
8.  From Turkey, WFP had planned to transport 6,000 MT per 
day, but thus far WFP has reached a maximum of 4,300 MT per 
day in bulk commodities.  Its average, however, has only 
been about 3,000 MT per day.  Due to recent security 
incidents and fighting in Kirkuk, WFP had to redirect trucks 
to Mosul.  The Turkey and Syria corridors have suffered from 
inadequate reception capacity and inability to offload bulk 
cargo (grain) quickly, as the offloading has to be done 
manually.  WFP is trying to airlift vacuvators from Brussels 
to assist with offloading the bulk grain in the north.  And 
as previously reported, current silo offload capacity in 
Mosul is limited to 4,000 MT per day. 
 
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SYRIA CORRIDOR 
-------------- 
 
9.  Lack of ship arrivals in Syria has been a limiting 
factor across the corridor.  A ship carrying 14,000 MT of 
rice, procured with the USAID contribution of USD 200 
million to WFP, arrived this week in Tartous and is 
currently discharging.  From Syria, WFP has also been 
dispatching to Mosul, but because of the limited reception 
capacity in Mosul, WFP has redirected these trucks to 
Ba'qubah in Diyala Governorate. 
 
10.  In addition, there are 135,000 MT of OFF bulk wheat 
currently stored in a silo in Syria.  WFP is trying to 
expedite shipment of this wheat into Iraq, but the U.N. 
Office of Iraqi Programs (OIP) says it issued Syria's 
General Establishment (grain board) the appropriate letter 
of credit, while the General Establishment says it never 
received it.  As soon as this issue is resolved, the wheat 
can be transported, but there is no indication as to when 
this might be. 
 
11.  The Syria corridor is averaging about 3,000 MT per day, 
but did achieve WFP's target of 5,000 MT on 25 May. 
 
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JORDAN CORRIDOR 
--------------- 
12.  Jordanian truckers recently asked for additional money 
per ton.  With WFP pressure, the Government of Jordan (GOJ) 
increased the maximum limitation per truckload by four MT, 
which allows truckers to earn more money per trip.  The GOJ 
has also begun to facilitate customs at the ports and 
borders, and has given WFP priority on expediting re-entry 
procedures for trucks returning to Jordan after discharging 
the cargo in Iraq. 
 
13.  Recent concern about the repair of the bridge in Ar 
Rutbah has been allayed.  Bechtel is tasked with the repair 
work and is building a bypass around the bridge before 
repair on the bridge begins.  The bypass construction may 
begin this week and should take approximately ten days. 
Contrary to earlier reports, the bypass will not go through 
the town of Ar Rutbah (where traffic congestion would cause 
significant delays) so WFP truck traffic should be able to 
proceed without problems. 
 
14.  On 27 May, a group of trucks came under fire between 
the towns of Fallujah and Ar Ramadi.  WFP has consistently 
raised security concerns to Coalition forces about this area 
since it began using the Jordanian corridor.  One Syrian 
truck driver was reportedly shot in the leg.  Further 
information about the incident will be forthcoming, but the 
negative impact on use of the corridor has already been 
made. 
 
15.  The daily average from Jordan during the past two weeks 
has been 4,800 MT. 
 
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KUWAIT CORRIDOR 
--------------- 
 
16.  The Kuwaiti ports are relatively full, and container 
congestion has caused delays in sending food forward from 
Kuwait.  Included in the congestion are the 18,000 MT of 
USAID Title II contributions of beans, oil, and corn and 
wheat soy blend.  In order to ease the congestion, the 
commodities are being trucked in the containers and opened 
in Umm Qasr.  Additionally, there have been delays from 
COTECHNA in inspecting OFF commodities entering Iraq. 
 
17.  Another limiting factor of dispatches from Kuwait and 
Iraq is the inability of the Basrah silo to take bulk grain. 
The grain currently inside the silos is mixed with 
quantities of dust, which causes operational problems and 
affects the quality of the grain.  Cleaning of the silo has 
begun under the Bechtel contract, but the date when it will 
become operational is unclear. 
 
18.  Approximately 2,500 MT per day are moving across the 
Kuwaiti border.  Now that there are two ships (Irazu and 
Thor Mariner) at the Port of Umm Qasr, the daily discharge 
rates have risen to over 4,000 MT per day.  Those ships will 
depart at the end of the week, and another two ships arrive 
on 30 and 31 May.  In addition, WFP is bringing in a third 
ship carrying bulk grain that will use the port's mobile 
vacuvators.  The need for the silos in Umm Qasr and Basrah 
will be magnified with the arrival of the bulk wheat in Umm 
Qasr.  The destination of the bulk grain is yet 
undetermined. 
 
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IRAN CORRIDOR 
------------- 
 
19.  Limited cargo arriving in Iranian ports, coupled with 
recent problems with trucking capacity (as transporters 
promised more than they could deliver), have been the 
limiting factors in Iran.  Reaching a high of 1,500 MT in 
one day in early May, the recent average has been only 310 
MT per day.  Most of the food sent from Iran thus far came 
from a 10,000 MT loan of wheat flour and some non-cereals. 
Two ships have arrived in Iranian ports, but the majority of 
the cargo is sugar from OFF contracts, a commodity already 
in good supply for the Iraqi public distribution system 
(PDS). 
 
JONES