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Security Council Mulls Iraqi Expulsion of U.N. Staff
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Concerned over Iraq's expulsion of five U.N. officials from Baghdad, the U.N. Security Council scheduled a private briefing on Thursday in an attempt to ascertain Baghdad's reasons for the action, news agencies reported.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has, on its own, withdrawn several staff members from Iraq "for their own safety" after Baghdad made "allegations" against them, Iran's official news agency, IRNA, reported the United Nations Information Center (UNIC) as saying Thursday.
"On September 2nd, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry informed the Office of the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq that it had declared five international U.N. staff members working in Baghdad as persona non grata, and that was because the Foreign Ministry said they were involved in activities that infringed on the national security of Iraq," UNIC quoted U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva as telling reporters in New York.
In a letter to Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Benon Sevan, the head of the U.N.'s Iraq program, wrote, "I very much regret that, despite our request, the government of Iraq has not provided any detail or supporting evidence to charges leveled against the five staff members."
"In light of these developments it was decided that for their own safety the staff members leave Iraq as soon possible," said Silva.
He noted that the three staffers who had been in Iraq at the time of the declaration are now in Amman, while the others were not in the country when Iraq called for their expulsion.
Meanwhile, the U.N. and its personnel operating in Iraq, received a stern warning from the regime Thursday against any new attempts to damage national security after the six U.N. employees were expelled, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
U.N. envoy Mohammad al-Douri said the expulsion should "serve as a lesson for U.N. personnel, the United Nations ... and the foreign state which enlisted international employees to serve its own purposes and damage Iraq's security."
The Iraqi diplomat in New York, whose remarks were reported by Iraq's official news agency, INA, did not specify the nature of the activities that prompted Baghdad to expel the U.N. employees working with the "oil-for-food" program.
They included a Dutch employee, who was ousted last week, as well as four Nigerians and a Bosnian woman who left the country earlier this week.
"Relations between thousands of U.N. personnel working in Iraq and the Baghdad government are good so long as these employees operate in keeping with the task entrusted to them," Douri said.
Baghdad's Foreign Minister, Naji Sabri, said on Iraqi television Wednesday that the country had proof the five "had offered services to countries hostile to Iraq."
He said U.N. staff members are duty-bound to respect the sovereignty of the country they work in, and are limited to their assignments; they are not to leak information they receive and are not to cooperate with other countries. "These conditions were breached by those employees," he said.
Sabri said Iraq was within its rights to expel the U.N. staff. "Those staffers have contravened accords of immunity and privileges, and not Iraq," he said.
"The many wrongdoings of the U.N. employees, who were serving the goals and policies of enemy states of Iraq, are shame enough for the United Nations," he said.
Sabri did not name any countries allegedly involved in the activities. Asked if the U.N. officials had been spying, he said, "It is something within this frame - the frame that harms the security of the country, the national security of Iraq."
The U.N. monitors Iraqi oil sales and the use of the proceeds to buy humanitarian goods.
The Iraqis suffer severe shortages of food and medicines due to an 11-year sanctions regime imposed upon them, and are subjected to routine U.S.-British air strikes. Over one million Iraqis, over half of whom are children, have died since the imposition of the sanctions.
The oil-for-food program bars Iraq from trading freely and has been said by high-ranking U.N. officials to be failing in providing adequate sustenance and relief for the Iraqi people.
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