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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
IRAQ: NGO suspends operations after Nasiriyah bombing
BASRA, 14 November 2003 (IRIN) - The UK-based Caritas NGO has temporarily suspended operations in the southern city of Nasiriyah after 13 of its workers were wounded, one of them seriously, in a suicide bomb attack on the Italian police base on Wednesday.
Sixteen Italian military and police personnel, two Italian civilians and eight Iraqis died and a further 79 were wounded in the attack.
"This is shocking and unacceptable, and this is also not accepted by the Iraqi people," Caritas's director for Iraq, Faiq Bourachi, told IRIN on Friday from the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Dr Hassan, the seriously wounded Caritas worker and director of the Nasiriyah Well Baby Centre, remains in hospital. The centre for supporting sick and malnourished babies is run jointly by the Iraqi Red Crescent and Caritas, which is a partner of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development.
The other 12 Caritas workers suffered glass-related injuries, when the force of the blast blew the windows out in the centre, which was destroyed. "This is a huge catastrophe for us and the Iraqi people we are working for," Bourachi said. "We are trying to find another location to work from, but have to stop working for the time being," he explained. The Caritas office is some 150 metres from the Italian headquarters in Nasiriyah.
Seven of the injured were released on Thursday night, however, five others are still receiving emergency medical treatment. There are some 22 baby centres being operated across the country by the two aid agencies. "Our workers are committed, dedicated and loyal and they want to continue, but security must improve too," said Bourachi.
The wounded were taken to a nearby hospital, which Bourachi described as being in a very bad state. "We had to send medical supplies and equipment from our warehouse in Baghdad to the hospital so that people could be treated properly," he said.
Other NGOs working in the area expressed concern over security. "We are shocked at the bombing not just because we are an Italian NGO but in terms of the security situation after what happened to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) two weeks ago," Emiliano Bertoldi, program manager of the Italian Un Ponte per (A bridge to) NGO, told IRIN in the southern city of Basra, citing the attack on the ICRC in Baghdad in which 12 people were killed last month.
"We are trying to work on neighbourhood projects and trying to stay safe at the same time," he added.
"It was a tragic event in which many Italians and Iraqis were killed," field office director for Save the Children NGO, Mark Fritzlen told IRIN in Basra. "We personally think it was the military which was targeted to increase instability.
There were some people from an NGO injured because they were situated close by and we are watchful and we make judgment on a day to day analysis," he added.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has expressed dismay at the car bombing in Nasiriyah. "He expresses his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of this attack and to the government of Italy," a UN spokesman in New York on Wednesday quoted him as saying.
The spokesman, Fred Eckhard, reiterated Annan's belief in the need for the rapid transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people, according to a UN statement. A clear timetable for the handover of power to the Iraqis would help to reduce tensions somewhat, and this view had not changed, Eckhard stated.
Theme(s): (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
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