Fed: New UN Iraq head says no choice but to operate from Cyprus

AAP General News (Australia)
12-11-2003
Fed: New UN Iraq head says no choice but to operate from Cyprus

CANBERRA, Dec 11 AAP - The United Nations' new humanitarian envoy to Iraq today said
the UN had no choice but to operate from outside the country as long as hostile forces
inside Iraq were targeting aid workers.

New Zealander Ross Mountain said running the UN aid program from Cyprus was not ideal.

But he said the organisation had been left with no alternative.

Mr Mountain, who coordinated delivery of UN aid to East Timor following the 1999 independence
ballot, said the conduct of war had changed over recent years, from fighting only between
soldiers to a situation where civilians were the principal targets.

"We now have a rather strange, new twist," he told ABC radio.

"We seem to be confronting a group of people who are sitting down and actively and
effectively plotting how you target humanitarian workers.

"It's not just the UN. The International Committee of the Red Cross has had to make
a number of tough judgments based on that as well. This is somewhat of a new paradigm
and we are having to worry about how we deal with it."

Mr Mountain was appointed overnight as interim head of UN humanitarian effort in Iraq,
taking over the duties of assassinated head Sergio Vieira de Mello who was killed when
the UN headquarters in Baghdad was blown up in a truck bombing in August.

The UN withdrew its staff and now operates from Cyprus.

Mr Mountain said that was not ideal.

"It's much better to be in the country," he said.

"If we are to go back and have to fortify ourselves in a bunker, we can't do our job
either. We need to interact with the population to do humanitarian work.

"If we are going to do political work, you need to meet with the political leaders
of the different parties and factions and groups.

"Clearly, the situation doesn't allow us to do that either out of Baghdad."

Mr Mountain said the UN still had a presence in Iraq, contrary to popular belief.

He said there were still international staff operating in Northern Iraq plus many local
staff who were continuing to run aid programs.

"We are not going to be out of the business," he said. "The telephone does exist and so on.

"Obviously, we would like to get back as soon as we can but that depends how the situation
evolves. It hasn't been all that promising in the last few days."

AAP mb/sco/br

KEYWORD: IRAQ MOUNTAIN

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