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UN Says All Staffers Have Left Iraq
All U.N. international staffers in Iraq have left the country, a day after Secretary-general Kofi Annan said he was pulling them out for safety reasons, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said on Tuesday. "The last plane has taken off from Baghdad to Larnaca, Cyprus. At the end of the operation, more than 300 international staff will have departed," Eckhard told reporters at U.N. headquarters.Boy, that was fast! They must of had their bags packed. The evacuation of all foreign U.N. employees was wrapped up less than a day after President Bush gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave his country with his sons or face war. Saddam on Tuesday rejected that ultimatum. "The withdrawal is considered temporary, and should there not be military action and some other solution to this crisis be found -- some peaceful solution -- we are ready to go right back to work," Eckhard said. Too late, Fred. Better look for another job. Those withdrawn from Iraq included weapons inspectors and support staff from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency, the spokesman said. Also pulled out were U.N. humanitarian workers including those running the oil-for-food program under which Iraq sells oil and uses the proceeds to buy food and other civilian goods. The United Nations estimates that the program is the sole source of food for more than 60 percent of Iraqis. Annan, acting on the advice of the United States, also authorized the withdrawal from Iraq of the U.N. peacekeeping mission monitoring a demilitarized zone along the Iraq-Kuwait border since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. Bet they'll be hanging around on Cyprus with the UN picking up their bar tab, bitching about how if they just had a few more weeks they could of disarmed Saddam. Posted by: Steve 2003-03-18 |
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