
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 19, 1991                   TAG: 9104190313
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times
DATELINE: NICOSIA, CYPRUS                                LENGTH: Medium

IRAQ ACCEPTS U.N. PLAN TO AID REFUGEES

As American soldiers surveyed sites for Western-sponsored refugee camps in northern Iraq, the Iraqi government announced Thursday that it had signed an agreement with United Nations officials to provide international aid to Kurdish and Shiite Muslim refugees within Iraq.

Disclosure of the agreement's details raised the specter of political conflict with the allied operation.

The text of the agreement made no mention at all of President Bush's military relief plan and displayed all the hallmarks of a rival operation. U.N. officials have not hidden their annoyance at Bush for dispatching American soldiers into northern Iraq with neither the approval of Iraq nor agreement by the United Nations.

The U.N. plan differs from Bush's in several key points: It covers refugees along all borders of Iraq, not just Turkey; it has the approval of Iraq; it proclaims the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of Iraq; and it provides for administration by U.N. officials, not allied soldiers or U.N. peace-keeping troops.

Neither plan contains a concrete, convincing way to coax the refugees away from the border areas and eventually back home. Although the American plan will protect the refugees with troops, there is deep skepticism among the Kurds, who believe that once the troops pull out the refugees will be left to the mercy of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

A U.S. diplomat at U.N. headquarters insisted "there's no conflict and no problem" over the plans.

The Pentagon said that more than 5,600 U.S. military personnel and 50 helicopters were involved in the relief operation on the Iraqi-Turkish border.

by CNB