IRAQ: U.N. Fears its Workers May Become Targets

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 24 2003 (IPS) - A senior U.N. official says that security concerns inside Iraq include the possibility that the agencies’ humanitarian workers could be singled out for guerrilla attacks – just like U.S. and UK soldiers.

The United Nations is ”concerned”, U.N. Coordinator for Iraq Ramiro Lopes Da Silva told reporters Monday, because ”we may be targeted one day”.

”The situation (in Iraq) is not fully under control.”

Since the United States is currently the occupying power in Iraq, the United Nations says that U.S. military forces are primarily responsible for security inside the war-devastated country.

But Washington has been more pre-occupied with the growing number of attacks on its troops.

According to published reports, about 91 U.S. soldiers have been killed since the ouster of the Saddam Hussein regime in early April. Additionally, about 102 American soldiers were killed during the fighting in March and April, for a total of 193.

Da Silva complained that the ”lack of security” has continued to inhibit the work of U.N. humanitarian workers in Iraq.

But this insecurity is now being aggravated by fears that the Iraqis may also turn their anger on the United Nations, whose 12 years of sanctions against Saddam’s regime caused immense suffering to citizens. The sanctions were lifted by the U.N. Security Council only last month.

Da Silva said U.N. workers still faced ”severe restrictions” on their movements inside the country. ”We have parts of the country where U.N. staff cannot operate. I am afraid it is going to remain so for a while.”

Asked if humanitarian workers were being viewed as part of the UK-U.S. coalition, Da Silva said, ”The concern exists”.

The United Nations has also suffered heavy casualties in Afghanistan, where humanitarian workers – some of them working for de-mining agencies – have been kidnapped and killed by remnants of the Taliban, which was ousted from power following U.S. military strikes in October 2001.

Since the fall of Baghdad in April, Iraq is being governed by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), administered by the United States in its capacity as the occupying power.

On Tuesday, representatives from all U.N. funds and programmes will gather for an informal meeting on the reconstruction and recovery of Iraq.

The meeting, to be chaired by the administrator of the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) Mark Malloch Brown, will also include representatives of the CPA, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development and Iraqi officials.

Participants are scheduled to discuss the political, security and socio-economic situation in Iraq, how to coordinate aid efforts and plans for the nation’s budget and currency.

International human rights groups have suggested that security issues should take precedence over economic issues at the gathering.

According to Da Silva, ”looting and re-looting of rehabilitated infrastructures is creating a deep sense of frustration among the population and the humanitarian community”.

”Given the magnitude of the task and the need to re-train the Iraqi police, the (U.N.) agencies recognise that the situation is unlikely to improve quickly,” he added.

At a special meeting to assess Iraq’s humanitarian needs on Monday, the United Nations launched an appeal for an additional 259 million dollars for the remaining six months of 2003.

The money is in addition to the 2.2 billion dollars the agency sought in April as emergency aid, including about 1.1 billion dollars earmarked for food aid. About 88 percent of the target was raised and has been spent, according to the United Nations.

The meeting was also attended by representatives of the CPA, the World Bank and the IMF.

U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette told delegates that the CPA bears the primary responsibility for the welfare of the Iraqi people, including the provision of public services.

”The assistance activities carried out by U.N. agencies complement those of the Authority itself,” she said.

Once Iraqi institutions have regained their ability to care for the civilian population, ”our humanitarian assistance efforts will come to an end”, she added.

”We hope that most, if not all, of this transition process can take place before the end of this year, hand-in-hand with a steady increase in recovery and reconstruction efforts,” Frechette said.

But according to a senior U.S. senator, the administration of President George W. Bush has so far refused to say how long it will stay in Iraq.

”It’s time the president goes to the American people and tells them the facts,” Senator Joe Biden, a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said last week.

”And the facts are that Johnny and Jane (U.S. soldiers) ain’t coming home anytime soon.”