Posted on 09/22/2003 7:30:27 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
The United Nations is re-assessing its presence and security in Iraq after a suicide attack left two people dead, say UN officials.
A vehicle exploded at a police checkpoint near the UN headquarters in Baghdad on Monday killing the bomber and an Iraqi police officer, and injuring at least 12 others.
The UN has already scaled back its operation in the country since the suicide attack on the headquarters on 19 August in which 22 people were killed.
As the pressure continues on the ground, a diplomatic compromise appears closer at the UN's New York headquarters, with France and the United States giving ground over the future role of the organisation.
US President George W Bush, who addresses the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, said it would be helpful to get UN help in writing a constitution for Iraq or in overseeing an election.
And French President Jacques Chirac has said France will not veto a US-backed Security Council resolution on the future of Iraq.
France, with Germany, had been demanding an early transfer of power from the Coalition Provisional Authority to Iraqi representatives.
Blown away
In Monday's attack there was a brief exchange between the bomber and a policeman before the bomb went off, at about 0800 local time (0400GMT), some 250 metres (800 feet) from the UN premises, said US military spokesman Captain Sean Kirley.
An Iraqi police colonel said the car was hurled 10-15 metres by the blast, triggered by about 25kg of explosives.
Local UN workers and security officers were amongst the injured.
Secretary General Kofi Annan, at the UN in New York, said: "We are assessing the situation. We need a secure environment in which to operate. If it continues to deteriorate, our operations will be handicapped."
The BBC's Jill McGivering, in Baghdad, said a scaling back of UN operations was not expected to lead to the UN pulling out of Iraq altogether.
But she said humanitarian programmes could be the worst affected.
Kevin Kennedy, the senior UN envoy in Baghdad until the arrival of Sergio Vieira de Mello's replacement, said: "The new attack shows that Iraq is still beset with conflict and risk, particularly for those who are working to improve the life of its citizens."
Most international organisations working in Iraq have been on high alert since the attack in August.
As a result of the UN's already scaled down operations, the headquarters itself is thought to have been deserted early on Monday.
The blast followed a weekend of attacks in Iraq in which three US soldiers were killed and a member of the Iraqi Governing Council was wounded in an assassination attempt.
Conciliation
President Bush wants the UN to approve a resolution mandating a US-led multinational force for Iraq, endorsing the US-appointed Iraq Governing Council and calling on the Iraqis to offer a clear timetable for setting up democratic institutions.
The US circulated a draft resolution earlier this month but it has not yet been put to a vote, because of fears of a French veto.
Mr Chirac struck a conciliatory note in the New York Times interview published on Monday.
"I have no intention of opposing the resolution," he said.
He set out a two-stage plan for Iraqi self-rule, involving first a symbolic transfer of sovereignty to the existing Iraqi Governing Council.
A gradual ceding of real power would follow over the next six to nine months, Mr Chirac said.
However, he reaffirmed France's position that sovereignty should be "transferred to Iraq as quickly as possible".
A Palestinian bombing every couple of weeks is exactly what Israel has to put up with for years, and the UN has no problem with that.
When it’s UN people getting killed, I guess that’s different in their mind.
Get the UN out of the US and the US out of the UN.
Considering the bombers walk out of UN refugee camps to detonate in Isreal, one might find some grim irony in it.
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