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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
IRAQ: ICRC to scale back further
ANKARA, 30 October 2003 (IRIN) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed on Wednesday that it would not be pulling out of Iraq, but would scale back even further, following the attack on its Baghdad headquarters on Monday in which 10 people were killed.
"We are already in the process of scaling back our international staff, but we are not pulling out and will continue to serve the Iraqi people," the ICRC's head of media relations, Antonella Notari, told IRIN from Geneva.
Aid agencies have already scaled back staff following the 19 August suicide bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad that killed 23 people. At present there are no more than 40 ICRC international staff, down from 100, and several hundred local staff working in Baghdad. No figures of future staffing could be given until the present security review was completed.
"We are in the process of reviewing security and we are doing this continuously as we hold operational discussions between Geneva and the staff in Iraq," Notari said. All ICRC staff, international and national, will be asked whether they wish to carry on working under current circumstances.
Asked if Monday's bombing was an indication that the ICRC was perceived as not being neutral, she replied: "We cannot speculate on what people think about the organisation, but we are neutral and we are there to serve the Iraqi people." She added that the Red Cross emblem was the organisation's protection and that it would not resort to any armed protection of any sort.
In a press conference in Geneva, Pierre Krähenbühl, the ICRC director of operations, said they had been shocked by Monday's events. "Our commitment to the people of Iraq remains," he said, "because they are the ones who are suffering and they have been the main victims of recent attacks, including that against our headquarters."
He strongly condemned the attack, which had targeted civilians, as a serious violation of international humanitarian law and called for such violations to stop immediately. "Monday's attack will have an impact on how the ICRC works in Iraq, but not on its determination to stay operational," a statement from the organisation said.
Meanwhile, the International Federation of the Red Cross said it would continue to maintain a presence in Baghdad in support of the Iraqi Red Crescent, but would temporarily relocate most of its international staff to the Jordanian capital, Amman, given insecurity on the ground.
"Operational support to Red Crescent humanitarian activities in Iraq will continue with the minimum of disruption, but following the tragic events of the last few days, we need to re-evaluate our expatriate presence and look at new ways of providing assistance to vulnerable groups inside Iraq," Markku Niskala, the acting secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said in a statement issued on Thursday.
The Iraqi Red Crescent is present and active in all the country's 18 governorates and is continuing its key activities, such as working with the local authorities in the search for and identification of bodies in mass graves, contacting families and assisting with burials, providing the injured with basic first aid and ambulance services, and rehabilitating its four hospitals.
In addition to this, Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), said it would pull its international staff out of Iraq to Amman, Jordan, for two weeks.
A spokesman in Baghdad for the medical aid group previously said he did not think MSF workers would follow other humanitarian agencies who had left the country.
UN security has grown increasingly tight – anyone without a UN identification card has not been allowed onto the compound in recent days. Dirt barriers about 15 feet high protect those at the entrance to the compound from cars driving by on the road.
Other aid agencies are keeping a low profile – most do not drive around Baghdad in marked cars and it is virtually impossible to find signs marking their offices.
US soldiers sit in a 20-foot-high watchtower looking over traffic near a gate at least 200 meters from office areas.
While US officials, including President George Bush, continue to say that the security situation in Iraq is steadily improving, Monday's suicide bomb attacks at the ICRC and three police stations, which killed 34 people and wounded more than 200, has made residents feel increasingly vulnerable.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Human Rights
[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
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