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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

IRAQ: UN takes stock 10 days after blast

BAGHDAD, 29 August 2003 (IRIN) - The United Nations in Iraq continues to take stock and regroup, 10 days after a truck bomb attack on its headquarters here killed 23 people and injured more than 80.

Remaining staff members are working and sleeping in tents or in well-guarded hotels around Baghdad. Many went on two-week vacations. Various UN agencies are now working out of rows of white tents, prefabricated offices and containers following action to set up computers and retrieve files from the devastated building.

Those who remain are discussing whether to move the UN headquarters into an existing hotel or build an office of prefabricated buildings at Baghdad International Airport, which is heavily guarded by US troops, Robert Painter, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the greater Baghdad area told IRIN.

Those staff remaining would work on "essential tasks" in the coming weeks, Kevin Kennedy, the acting humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, told IRIN in Baghdad. The problem was deciding what was "essential", he said.

"We’re focused on taking care of the dead and injured and taking care of our staff," Kennedy added. "We’re also re-establishing operations and re-establishing our base. The Canal Hotel was a hub of activity, with NGOs, Iraqis, and everyone coming to visit us."

Already, much of the rubble from the blast has been removed and buried by US military bulldozers. But the headquarters building was hit so hard; it has been declared unsafe.

Some of the political and diplomatic work the UN was doing had had to be postponed because many of the people working on such issues were killed or injured in the blast, Kennedy reminded IRIN. The UN secretary-general's special representative to Iraq, and one the UN's top diplomats, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was killed in the blast.

Ramiro Lopes da Silva, the humanitarian coordinator for the UN in Iraq, has been appointed temporary special representative. Kennedy is standing in for da Silva.

The UN had planned to start focusing on typical post-conflict reconstruction in the coming weeks, said Painter. Such work usually includes training for employment and elections, human rights projects, post-conflict reconciliation and good governance.

Now, with debates in Washington and New York about the UN's role in Iraq, it seemed as if things might be changing; a donor conference scheduled for mid-October might clarify things, Painter said. "I don’t know what’s going to happen next," he added. "It’s really hard to say. But the range of programmes will not be as broad as they were in the past."

Many UN programmes are run by Iraqis, including, for the most part, the Oil-for-Food Programme, operated under sanctions against Iraq for the last 12 years. "Iraqis are doing the bulk of the work, but people will take stock to see what the essential tasks are," Kennedy said.

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003