UN orders more staff out of Iraq

More UN staff have been ordered out of Iraq by Secretary-General Kofi Annan following the second bombing at the world body’s headquarters in Baghdad in a month.

“This is not an evacuation, just a further downsizing and the security situation in the country remains under constant review,” UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

“Meanwhile our essential humanitarian activities in Iraq continue, thanks to the efforts of our more than 4,000 national staff in the country,” he said.

At the time of the August 19 bombing in Baghdad, which killed 22 people, there were about 300 international staff in the capital and another 300 elsewhere in Iraq. Annan then ordered that the international staff be cut significantly.

“Today there remain 42 in Baghdad and 44 in the north of the country and those numbers can be expected to shrink further over the next few days,” Eckhard said.

Following the second bombing outside the UN HQ on Monday, he said, “The secretary-general on the advice of his security coordinator has ordered a temporary redeployment of UN international staff in Iraq.”

That bombing killed an Iraqi policeman and injured 19 others.

Eckhard said the staff ordered to leave the country would leave in the next two days and go to Amman, the Jordanian capital. He refused to say how many international staff would remain in Iraq.

A UN official said top officials have been discussing a further reduction in staff since the second bombing.

The official said it was unlikely the United Nations would totally evacuate its international staff.