Bush Demands Strict Check on Relief for Iraq

Calling for strict controls over any shipments of humanitarian aid to Iraq, President Bush declared Tuesday that “we cannot allow Saddam Hussein to divert needed humanitarian aid in order to sustain his army of occupation.”

Such shipments “must be distributed under strict international supervision,” he said.

Coupled with a willingness expressed Monday to look favorably upon an embargo on air shipments to Iraq, Bush’s remarks on the Persian Gulf, at political events in Denver and Los Angeles, reflected a continued resolve to press ahead with his program of trying to pressure the Iraqi president into stepping back from the military occupation of Kuwait.

“We’ve . . . put tight sanctions into effect, while working with the United Nations Security Council to allow food to reach innocent children, mothers, the sick and the elderly,” Bush said Tuesday evening at a fund-raising dinner for Sen. Pete Wilson’s gubernatorial campaign at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel. “We’ve been working with many nations to get relief to the most pitiful victims of this conflict . . . the refugees.”

But in his Denver speech earlier in the day, the President declared: “Let me make clear about any humanitarian aid--emergency food and medical supplies--we might send to the people of Iraq in the future. Should aid become necessary, it must be distributed under strict international supervision, to make certain that emergency aid reaches those Iraqis who need it most.”

A confrontation over such aid has been brewing between Iraq and India in recent days. A ship has left India with food for Indians trapped in Iraq and Kuwait, and Indian authorities have insisted that the vessel be unloaded in either Iraqi or Kuwaiti ports under the supervision of Indian Red Cross officials now on board. Iraq has demanded that its own authorities supervise the unloading--prompting concern that the food would be given to Iraqis and not to the Indians for whom it is intended.

“Saddam’s illegal act has meant misery and suffering for millions: The brave people of Kuwait--victimized, but not vanquished. The hostages held against their will. Those pitiful refugees fleeing Iraq and Kuwait, flooding into neighboring nations ill-equipped to deal with this human tidal wave of tragedy. The poorest of the poor being brutalized by that dictator’s inhumanity. For the Iraqi people themselves--the pain they now experience is a direct consequence of the path Saddam has chosen,” Bush said.

He cited the international support for the U.S.-led opposition to Hussein--transport ships, aircraft and $2 billion from West Germany, $4 billion from Japan, 4,000 French troops, 6,000 troops and 120 tanks from Britain--and an armada, made up mostly of American vessels, that has conducted more than 1,030 interceptions of ships as it enforces an economic and military embargo against Iraq. Then he said:

“The world is simply telling Saddam Hussein: We will not give in to intimidation.”

Although Bush has sought to conduct the business of the presidency in as close to a normal fashion as possible since Aug. 2 when Hussein sent his troops into Kuwait, the invasion and the resulting deployment of more than 150,000 U.S. troops to the region have played a central role in nearly all public remarks he has delivered since then.

Thus, as he has kept to his schedule of campaign appearances on behalf of congressional, senatorial and gubernatorial candidates in the November election, the President has built many of his political addresses around the crisis. His appearance in Denver was in support of the Senate campaign of Rep. Hank Brown (R-Colo.).

On Tuesday, the President defended mixing his message of politics and Persian Gulf, saying: “I am sure every Democrat agrees--we will not allow our political life to be held hostage to a crisis.

“It’s good that politics now are stopping at the water’s edge. But that still leaves a lot of America in between,” he said at the Wilson dinner.