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Iraq
Few U.N. Foreign Employees Left in Iraq
2003-09-30
Not that they did very much good while they were there.
More than 30 foreign employees of the United Nations left Iraq over the weekend after Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent them home because of security concerns, leaving just 50 non-Iraqi workers behind, a U.N. spokesman said Monday. The number of foreign workers will continue to fluctuate, spokesman Fred Eckhard said at a news briefing.
50 non-Iraqis on UN per-diems ought to keep a couple of restaurants going, at least.
The United Nations had 300 foreign employees in Baghdad and another 300 elsewhere in Iraq before an Aug. 19 car bomb killed 22 people at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. Annan later ordered the number reduced to 42 in Baghdad and 44 in the north. Annan ordered further cutbacks last week following a second bombing, but did not say how many of the remaining staffers would leave. Eckhard has said the United Nation’s humanitarian work should continue, with limited international supervision, using its 4,233 Iraqi employees.
Now there’s an idea, letting the Iraqis work for themselves.
But Annan has indicated that if security does not improve, he might not allow the world body’s international staff to return in sufficient numbers to do more, adding that the United Nations would be prevented from helping Iraq write and adopt a new constitution and hold elections.
Darn. Drat. Shoot. Heck. Fudge.
The U.N. Staff Union, representing 5,000 staff members worldwide, has called for the suspension of U.N. operations and the withdrawal of all U.N. staff in Iraq because of the "unacceptable risks." Officials running the U.N. oil-for-palaces food program say the staff cutbacks have made it difficult for them to get ready for the phasing out of the program by Nov. 21.
I think Mr. Bremer knows how to phase it out.
Benon Sevan, who runs the program that gave the French Iraqis lots of loot a lifeline when the country was under U.N. sanctions before Saddam Hussein was ousted, said the United Nations would meet the deadline and hand over any remaining activities to the U.S.-led coalition. Iraq exported 3.4 billion barrels of oil under the program, generating some $65 billion in revenue, according to the United Nations. Nearly $27 billion in humanitarian supplies were delivered to Iraq under the program.
And the remaining $38 billion? Where did that go? Wonder what it will take to get an AP reporter to ask that question?
Posted by:Steve White

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Posted by: Paul   2003-9-30 9:13:38 PM  

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Posted by: Super Hose   2003-9-30 8:53:06 PM  

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Posted by: Ptah   2003-9-30 5:55:33 PM  

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Posted by: Old Patriot   2003-9-30 2:13:15 PM  

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Posted by: mojo   2003-9-30 11:08:50 AM  

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