Two organisations representing more than 60,000 United Nations staff members urged Secretary-General Kofi Annan to pull all UN staff out of Iraq because of the "unprecedented" risk to their safety and security. In a joint letter to Annan, the staff organisations cited a dramatic escalation in attacks in Iraq and said the United Nations regrettably "has become a direct target, one that is particularly prone to attacks by ruthless extremist terrorist factions." "Just one staff member is one staff member too many in Iraq," they said. "We ... appeal to your good judgment to ensure that no further staff members be sent to Iraq and that those already deployed be instructed to leave as soon as possible."
Annan pulled all UN international staff out of Iraq a year ago, following two bombings at UN headquarters in Baghdad and a spate of attacks on humanitarian workers. The first bombing, on August 22, 2003, killed the top UN envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 others. In August, the secretary-general allowed a small UN contingent to return to Baghdad and imposed a ceiling of 35 international staffers, but he has been under pressure to increase the number to help Iraq prepare for elections in January. Robert Weisell, president of the Federation of International Civil Servants' Associations, and Rosemarie Waters, president of the Coordinating Committee for International Staff Unions and Associations, said they understand "the extreme political pressures calling for the presence (and an increased one at that) of the UN in Iraq." "While we understand that the people of Iraq deserve the support and assistance of the international community, we cannot condone the deployment of UN staff to Iraq in view of the unprecedented high level of risk to the safety and security of staff," the letter signed by the two presidents said. "Last year, we witnessed the tragic death of 22 colleagues in Baghdad," they said. "We do not wish to witness the same again. We do not wish to contemplate the thought of UN staff being subject to hostage-taking and threatened with execution at the mercy of those who know no mercy. We do not believe that we should wait for such extreme acts to realise that the time for deploying UN staff to Iraq has not yet arrived." |