Posted on 10/06/2004 11:13:17 AM PDT by NativeNewYorker
New York (dpa) - Two staff unions representing more than 50,000 United Nations employees worldwide asked U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on Wednesday to withdraw the small team now aiding Iraqi preparations for elections next year because of growing insecurity.
In a letter to Annan, the unions said, ``Long gone are the days when U.N. staff were immune from such violent acts. Instead, the U.N. regrettably has become a direct target, one that is particularly prone to attacks by ruthless extremist terrorist factions.''
The letter said that 28 to 32 staff members are already working in Iraq ``on a rolling basis''. Annan has agreed to send a total of 35 people to Baghdad, mostly election experts, to help organize voting for a provisional government before January 31, 2005.
The unions urged Annan not to let their colleagues be taken hostage and threatened with execution ``at the mercy of those who know no mercy''.
The Federation of International Civil Servants' Association and the Coordinating Committee for International Staff Unions and Associations said in the letter that the U.N. is under pressure to return to war-torn Iraq.
Annan himself has been reluctant to deploy large U.N. staff in Iraq because of difficult security conditions. He pulled out the U.N. mission from Iraq after 22 staff were killed by a bomb explosion in August 2003 at their compound in the Canal Hotel in Baghdad. Among the dead was Sergio Vieira de Mello, the special envoy for Iraq.
The current U.N. team in Baghdad is headed by Ashraf Qazi, a former Pakistani diplomat, who replaced Vieira de Mello.
Yahoo. Finally one country that we can count on for not having UN fraud would then be Iraq.
Go ahead Kofi. Make my day.
The elections can be held without you. After all, there is always Jimmah Cartah.
This is precisely why the UN (and Germany and France) are nearly useless in Iraq. They have no stomache to go up against the terrorists. Kerry saying that he is going to have a summit, get the UN, France and Germany on board is like music to the terrorists ears.
Long gone are the days when the UN was staffed with brave individuals fighting for the cause of freedom instead of African's who love to hear themselves blather on with their American educations and cocktail party mentalities.
Someone remind me. Why do we even have a UN?
It makes liberals FEEL GOOD...
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