When the red cross flag is seen as a terrorist target

AMMAN, JORDAN--It may be only an hour's flight from the hell of Baghdad, but this tranquil capital seems like it's a world away. For humanitarian aid groups forced to flee Iraq (news - web sites), bland limestone office buildings and plush hotel lobbies here provide a temporary outpost from which to try to sustain at least some relief efforts. "We're operating by remote control," says Roger Guarda, who heads the Iraq mission for the United Nations (news - web sites) Development Program. "We stayed in Somalia, Sierra Leone, and Liberia (news - web sites). Iraq is one of the only countries where we evacuated." snip

The traditional symbols of neutrality and peace--a Red Cross flag, a light-blue United Nations armband--now practically mark aid workers as targets for suicide bombers and kidnappers who don't differentiate between military and civilians, a distinction already blurred by the military's own humanitarian role. "All of these symbols that protect you elsewhere don't apply in Iraq because people see us as an extension of the military," says one civilian aid worker who recently pulled out of the country. "You've got military personnel driving civilian cars and in civilian clothes going to a village and saying, 'I'm with the military, and I'm here to fix your water treatment plant,' and then I show up two days later and say, 'I'm here to fix your water treatment plant.' "

Even those experienced in conflict zones are asking themselves: Is it worth the risks? For an increasing number, the answer is no. Though groups say there is still a need for humanitarian work, they are quick to point out that Iraq is not a developing country, and it has many of the basic capabilities--for instance, doctors to provide vaccines to children and government ministries capable of dealing with emergency situations, such as tainted water or disease outbreaks. Given the dangers, many aid groups are wondering if their money and efforts wouldn't be better directed elsewhere. Remarks one aid official in Amman: "Iraqis have the capacity, and we are not their saviors."

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