UN aid workers resume role in Iraq
United Nations humanitarian agencies in Iraq resumed some of their emergency work in Baghdad over the weekend for the first time since the attack on its Iraqi headquarters.
A truck bomb destroyed the hotel where the UN had been based last Tuesday, killing the UN’s special representative in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 22 others.
Workers from both UNICEF and the World Health Organization are now back in hospitals, while the World Food Programme has resumed its vital work in helping the 16 million Iraqis who were reliant on state handouts for food before the war, as well as those who have been affected by the conflict.
Non-essential UN staff, however, have been moved to Amman in neighbouring Jordan because of the security problems.
And many of the major aid agencies have also withdrawn staff from Iraq. The International Committee of the Red Cross announced on Monday that it would be scaling back its operations after it received a direct threat. Its Baghdad office is now closed, although the charity is looking for new ways to continue operating.
And British-based charity Oxfam revealed today that it believed it was no longer safe for staff to be stationed in the country.
Oxfam’s director, Barbara Stocking, noted today that she hoped the measure was only temporary: “We want to get back in and carry on with the work we have been doing on water and sanitation, but the situation is too unsafe for our staff at the moment.”
She added that the situation had not been easy since the war, but that “at first it was about a lack of law and order, and banditry; in the last few weeks it has been much more targeting of aid agencies.”
Ms. Stocking called for greater internationalisation of the military operation, noting that Oxfam couldn’t integrate with local people if it was associated with the coalition forces under US control.
The UN Security Council is currently discussing the possibility of a new resolution that would allow member states to commit UN-mandated troops to the reconstruction and stabilisation of Iraq.
The sticking point at the moment is whether or not the US will cede control of the military operation to a more broad-based coalition – an issue on which anti-war countries such as France are said to be resolute.
