BAGHDAD, May 13 (UPI) -- The head of a consortium of Iraqi aid groups appealed to international donors to help displaced Iraqis and called on Baghdad to do better in helping its own.
Basil al-Azawi, who heads the aid conglomerate Iraqi Commission for Civil Society Enterprises, called for $127 million in international aid to help internally displaced persons and refugees through the end of 2008, the U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks said.
Azawi also called on the Iraqi government to "shoulder its responsibilities" by drawing on its own resources and plans to assist the estimated 4 million Iraqi refugees both inside the country and elsewhere.
On that front, he called on coordinated efforts between the international and Iraqi aid agencies, saying the overall process lacks transparency.
"We local NGOs have no idea how this (aid) money is being spent. Some organizations present detailed documents on their expenditures, others do not," he said.
The U.N. refugee agency issued an appeal May 9 in Geneva, calling for additional international assistance.
"We will not be able to help hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees and IDPs if we do not receive funding for the remainder of 2008," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.
