West has poor plans for post-war aid, say MPs

The West has failed to make adequate plans to deal with a humanitarian crisis in Iraq in the wake of a war, MPs said yesterday. The Commons International Development Committee warned: "The indication is that the scale of humanitarian need will drastically outweigh the funds available."

Clare Short, the Secretary of State for International Development, will today more than double the aid budget set aside for Iraq. Ministers will set aside an extra £6.5m for "contingencies": £3m will go to aid agencies, while £3.5m will be allocated to the United Nations.

A report by the committee warned that the scale of the humanitarian disaster following a war "may well exceed the capacity of the international system". It also demanded that ministers publish their humanitarian action plans.

Meanwhile, graphic evidence of Saddam Hussein's reign of terror was revealed yesterday as human rights activists published accounts of rape and torture in Iraq.

Indict, which campaigns for President Saddam to be tried for crimes against humanity, released victims' descriptions of their treatment by security forces. Jim Mahon, a senior researcher for Indict, said Iraqis testified that President Saddam's sons supervised torture and killings. He quoted one survivor describing how Qusay, the leader's youngest son, watched as 30 men were fed into a shredding machine.