|
|
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
IRAQ: ICRC to continue operating despite office closure
ANKARA, 10 November 2003 (IRIN) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will continue work as best it can despite having announced at the weekend that it would close its offices in the capital, Baghdad, and the southern city of Basra.
"We don't know how long the offices will be closed for, but this has been done for obvious security reasons following the attack on the Baghdad office in October. However, we will continue work, but we will have to reduce our activities," a spokeswoman for ICRC, Antonella Notari, told IRIN from Geneva on Monday.
At least 10 people were killed in a bomb explosion outside the organisation's office on 27 October, sending shock waves through the aid community. "We have been working in Iraq for 23 years and have stayed in the country during the most difficult times, even when others left the country," she said, adding that current security did not allow them to do this.
The Baghdad office was destroyed in the attack and has not been functional since then. The office in Basra was closed late last week. "We have reason to believe that there is also a potential risk for the Basra office too," Notari asserted.
She went on to explain that the effects of this move would mean that relatives of detainees would no longer be able to visit their offices to get news on their loved ones. "We will continue to prioritise visits to detainees and re-establishing family links."
Notari stressed that it was crucial for the ICRC to be accepted and respected in order for its offices to reopen, noting that their closure would also be a big blow to the Iraqi Red Crescent. "It is a big loss for them as we are a big partner for their development, but they will have to find a way of operating under the circumstances. We hope they can do this safely and we will try and support them," she said.
Her comments come just days after the UN asked all remaining international staff in Baghdad to leave. "As we announced last week, the international staff that had been in Baghdad have been temporarily relocated, and will hold talks in Cyprus, so that the United Nations can thoroughly reconsider its operations in Iraq and the security arrangements that it will need to work there," a UN spokesman, Stephane Dujarric said.
On 30 October, the UN said it was moving its international staff in Baghdad to Cyprus for security discussions with a team from its New York headquarters. The announcement came after an independent report found - in the wake of the 19 August terrorist bombing in Baghdad that killed 22 people - security problems and lax procedures in UN offices in the Iraqi capital.
The temporary relocation of the staff from Baghdad does not affect UN international staff working elsewhere in Iraq, mainly in the northern provinces. In addition to this, some 4,000 Iraqi staff continue their work country-wide.
Meanwhile, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) issued a statement saying that recent attacks on aid agencies had "seriously put in doubt the very possibility of providing independent humanitarian aid in Iraq". MSF said it and other NGOs faced tough questions as to whether it would be possible to continue delivering assistance to the Iraqi people in a safe environment.
"Deliberately targeting civilians and independent aid agencies is a war crime. The perpetrators of this attack on the ICRC, an organisation with a long history of providing assistance to Iraqis, confront us with the question whether all aid organisations could be targets. The attack was an assault on the very heart of humanitarianism," a statement issued by MSF said.
The NGO makes reference to an appeal by US Secretary of State Colin Powell calling on aid agencies not to pull out, saying that such action would mean that, if it was taken, "then the terrorists win".
"Publicly making the presence of NGOs a political issue in the ongoing conflict echoes a familiar refrain in speeches by US officials since the start of the 'war on terrorism', for instance when Powell called US NGOs 'force multipliers' in the US-led intervention in Afghanistan," the statement said.
Following the attack on the ICRC, MSF's seven international staff in Iraq were relocated to Amman, Jordan, where they will evaluate ways of continuing work in Iraq. However, the NGO's 60 Iraqi staff continue to run three clinics in Baghdad's Sadr City neighbourhood.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Governance, (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
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
