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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (6127)	8/27/2003 11:20:15 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793587

Why am I not surprised? This NGO is a British-Based left wing one. They sneered on their way out. Oh, well, some more Toyota 4runners will be for sale cheap in Baghdad. Citing Safety Concerns, Relief Agency Pulls Out of Iraq By KIRK SEMPLE [T] wo American soldiers were killed in Iraq today and the international relief agency Oxfam said it had pulled its non-Iraqi personnel out of the country because of the worsening violence there. An Oxfam spokesman cited "a growing deterioration of the security situation" in Iraq, including the recent attacks on the United Nations headquarters there and the Jordanian Embassy, in explaining the agency's decision. "What we're doing is temporarily withdrawing international staff," said the spokesman, Brendan Cox of Oxfam GB, the agency's Great Britain division, which is coordinating the Iraqi operations. "We hope to go back in as soon as the security situation allows." Beginning on Monday, nine staff members were relocated to Amman, Jordan, leaving 53 Iraqi staff members to carry on the agency's work in Iraq, he said. In the latest American deaths, the military said, two soldiers were killed in separate attacks, one in Baghdad and the other in Falluja, a city to the west of the capital. In Falluja, one soldier from the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment was killed and three were wounded by "an improvised explosive device," the United States Central Command said in a news release. About 35 minutes later, in Baghdad, a soldier with the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade was killed and two others were wounded when their convoy was also attacked by an "improvised explosive device," the Central Command said. The military offered no further details about the attacks. The soldiers' deaths today raise the toll to 142 from all causes among members of the American armed forces in Iraq since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations there on May 1. A total of 280 have died since the start of the war on March 19. Mr. Cox said Oxfam GB's directors were influenced by the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad last week, which killed 23 people and wounded at least 100, and a car bombing earlier in the month outside the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad, among other factors. Other governmental and nongovernmental organizations have also been assessing the security risks of maintaining a presence in Iraq, particularly in the aftermath of the United Nations bombing The United Nations evacuated some of its personnel from Iraq after the bombing, while the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European Commission, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Save the Children UK and the Swedish government's Rescue Service Agency have said they are reducing the size of their staffs in the country, Reuters reported. Earlier this month, Doctors Without Borders relocated several of its workers to Kuwait from the southern Iraqi city of Basra after riots broke out there, an agency spokesman in New York, Kevin Phelan, said today. In pulling its foreign workers out of Iraq this week, Oxfam did not go quietly. The agency spokesman said the organization was urging the United Nations to take over the lead political role in Iraq. "We think that if the U.N. is given a lead role, it will be easier for the United Nations to demonstrate that sovereignty is coming back to the Iraqi people," said Mr. Cox, the Oxfam GB spokesman. nytimes.com