Iraq Will Ask Donors to Make Good on Pledges

Accusing international donors of using the violence in Iraq as an excuse for not sending aid, officials of the interim Iraqi government will plead today at a conference in Tokyo for nations to deliver faster on their promises.

Iraq, meanwhile, will be told to spend the money it has been given by the United States.

A year ago, 30 nations meeting in Madrid pledged $13.5 billion in reconstruction aid to Iraq, to be delivered over four years. As of September, only $1.3 billion had been collected, according to the State Department.

Part of the delay was due to technicalities. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund could not lend money until Iraq had a sovereign government, and some donors were reluctant to send money until the U.S. occupation officially ended in late June.

Now, the worsening security climate in Iraq has made some donors wary of pouring money into an unsafe and unstable environment, particularly because much of the U.S. money that has been approved for Iraq remains unspent.

“It does put us in an awkward position to complain about the slow pace of other countries’ commitments,” said Bathsheba Crocker, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Moreover, since the Madrid donors have until 2007 to make good on their pledges, they are under no technical obligation to pay up now. But the Japanese hosts of the meeting, as well as Iraqi officials, will try to persuade donors to quickly honor their pledges to get more money flowing into the country before elections scheduled for January.

“Most of these countries are using the security circumstance as an excuse” to not fulfill their pledges, Abdul Zahra Hindawi, Iraqi Planning Ministry spokesman, said Tuesday. Spending the funds would help bring security and stability to Iraq, he said.

“At first, they refused to infuse these funds until Iraq became a sovereign country,” he said. “Now Iraq is sovereign, awaiting national elections to take place early next year. We are trying to persuade these donating countries to speed up the process.”

The United States, which is promising to take a backseat to Iraqi government officials at the Tokyo conference, does not plan to solicit new pledges for Iraq, “though of course we would welcome them,” a senior State Department official said last week. Instead, the focus will be on spending the money more quickly, the official said.

Of the $18.4 billion Congress approved last year for reconstruction -- separate from the funds pledged in Madrid -- just over $1 billion has been spent. To pick up the pace, the Bush administration won permission from Congress last month to reallocate $3.5 billion that had been earmarked for long-term projects. The majority is to be spent instead on security, with other money to bolster the oil sector, election preparations, and Iraqi employment -- projects the administration hopes will show more immediate results for the Iraqi people.

In Tokyo, the donors may be asked to fill the gap left by that $3.5 billion by giving money for electricity and water projects, Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage told Congress last month.

To spur donors to action, the two-day conference will be structured like an American political fundraiser, with the best access accorded to the countries that give the most. Today’s meetings will be open to all donors, regardless of whether they have fulfilled their pledges. But Thursday’s meetings will be limited to those that have made good on their promises to donate to the trust funds for Iraq, which are being administered by the World Bank and the United Nations. Countries that give $10 million may have a seat on the steering committee.

“In order to have your seat at the table, you have to put your ante in,” a second State Department official said. Officials declined to name the nations that had not made good on their pledges. They noted that some governments might take longer to win approval from their legislatures for the aid packages, and some have a slow bureaucratic pace.

Moreover, the United States is still pushing other wealthy nations to fulfill aid pledges made to Afghanistan, Liberia and Bolivia.

The State Department is also soliciting contributions for an international African peacekeeping force for Darfur, Sudan.

Efron reported from Washington and Sanders from Baghdad.