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| Down Under |
| New Zealand to pull army engineers from Iraq in September |
| 2004-04-03 |
| New Zealand will pull its army engineers out of Iraq in September but they may return later, Prime Minister Helen Clark said Friday. New Zealand has 60 army engineers based near Iraq's southern city of Basra, where they are repairing water systems, power facilities, buildings and other infrastructure. New Zealand's defense forces deployed in the Solomon Islands, Afghanistan and Iraq are ''pretty stretched at the moment,'' Clark said. The engineering team will return from Iraq at the end of their one-year tour in September, avoiding a rollover term of another six months, she said. Clark said New Zealand would consider other ways to help Iraq's return to full sovereignty. ''But we may then come back and do the same thing (reconstruction) again''' she said. ''That ... for example, has been the case with the SAS (elite commando troops) in Afghanistan.'' In December 2001, New Zealand sent commando units to Afghanistan for 12 months to support the international war on terror. A commando unit returns to Afghanistan this month for a six-month term to help stabilize the nation as it heads toward general elections in June, Clark announced last month. ''It is my very strong view that the international community should not turn its back on that country as it struggles to return to some form of stability,'' Clark said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |