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World Vision Australia Pulls Out Of Iraq
World Vision Australia, the last Australian aid agency operating in Iraq, has decided to end its operations there because it is too dangerous. The organisation says its decision to leave was made before the apparent murder of Care Australia's Iraq director, Margaret Hassan. World Vision Australia chief Tim Costello says the agency had been trying to improve sanitation and help in the rehabilitation of hospital patients. "It's work that now has to be handed back to the local Ministry of Health and the local government bodies there," he said. "Any dollars that we still have will go back to institutional donors, so it's sad that it's unfinished work. "Your first priority is always your own staff and it has just become intolerable and too dangerous." Mr Costello says the agency was the last Australian aid organisation in Iraq and aid workers have mixed feelings about leaving the country. "They're torn between leaving a job that they came to do and people that they've come to love and knowing that this is now a clear policy decision," he said. "It's not a difficult decision to make when you have policies that say, when it gets to this level you simply have to withdraw."Posted by: God Save The World 2004-11-19 |
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