Iraq Rationing, Panic Buying, Searches Told

Reports filtering out of Baghdad tell of panic buying, rationing and house-to-house sweeps by militiamen hunting food hoarders as Iraq begins to feel the bite of the U.N. trade embargo.

On Saturday, the U.N. Security Council approved military action to enforce the embargo imposed Aug. 6 to punish Saddam Hussein for invading and annexing Kuwait.

It could be weeks before Iraqis really have to tighten their belts.

But even before the sanctions were given sharper teeth, reports out of Iraq said essentials such as cooking oil, flour and fruit have virtually disappeared in the capital city of Baghdad and other areas.

Armed units of the ruling Baath Party’s militia, the People’s Guard, were conducting random checks of stores and homes, looking in freezers and cupboards for surplus stocks, the dissident Kurdish Democratic Party said in a statement released in Nicosia.

The reports were confirmed by sources in Baghdad, where about a quarter of Iraq’s 17 million people live.

Since Aug. 12, when Saddam told the nation to prepare for austerity, hoarding food and profiteering have been punishable by death.

For the last three days, government agents have been conducting a census in Baghdad to prepare for national rationing based on the number of people in each family, according to sources who spoke on condition they not be identified.

Militiamen and soldiers patrolled Baghdad’s streets to disperse crowds of more than five people, the sources said.

Government ministers and the official media have been asking people to reduce their consumption of some foods, while assuring them that Iraq has sufficient stockpiles to last months, the sources said.

Exiled Iraqis and experts have varied opinions about how much food Iraq has on hand and how long it will last. The only certainty is that the country requires imported food bought with oil revenue.

Last year, Iraq spent $2.9 billion importing 75% of what its people ate.

With oil exports, Iraq’s main source of revenue, now largely cut off, the country faces a harsh winter if it does not withdraw from Kuwait.

“The most important thing is the oil embargo,” said Selim Fakhri, a former colonel in the Iraqi army and a leading figure in the resistance alliance in exile.

“Food is still coming in through Jordan, perhaps Yemen and Lebanon. But if Iraq can’t sell its oil, then there will come a time when the country will not be able to pay for anything, even if it can bring it in.

“Without oil, the country grinds to a halt. I give it no more than a couple of months,” he said in a telephone interview from London.