UN Staff Oppose Proposed Iraq Resolution

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 8 (IPS) - The U.N. Staff Council, representing 25,000 staff members, unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday calling on Secretary General Ban Ki-moon not to deploy any additional staff members to Iraq and to remove those currently serving at the duty station in Baghdad.

The resolution cites the "unacceptably high level of risk to the safety and security of U.N. personnel currently serving in Iraq," and stresses that, "the breakdown of law and order in Iraq has created a place where aid workers have become targets and pawns."

"The security situation in Iraq is getting worse every day," Emad Hassanin, first vice president of the Staff Union, told IPS.

Against this backdrop, the U.S. and Britain are circulating a draft resolution aimed at expanding the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

A small U.N. contingent has been in Iraq since August 2004, after Kofi Annan, former U.N. secretary-general, pulled all U.N. staff out of Iraq in October 2003. The U.N. withdrawal came after two bomb attacks at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad which resulted in 22 staff members deaths.

Annan issued a report following the bombings in 2003. Ban issued a situation report in June 2007. "According to the reports the situation is worse now," Hassanin said, stressing that "nothing has been done to improve security of staff since 2003." In fact, a mortar exploded in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone during Ban's televised press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in March.

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