Annan to send election team to Iraq

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced today that the world body will send a team to Iraq to determine whether elections should be held.

“The mission will ascertain the views of a broad spectrum of Iraqi society in the search for alternatives that might be developed to move forward to the formation of a provisional government,” Annan said in a statement in Paris.

“The mission will report to me on its return to New York,” the statement said.

Annan was asked by the US-led coalition and the Iraqi Governing Council to consider sending a team to examine the possibility of holding elections before the return of Iraqi sovereignty on June 30, according to a UN statement.

“I strongly hold to the idea that the most sustainable way forward would be one that came from the Iraqis themselves,” the statement said.

“Consensus amongst Iraqi constituencies would be the best guarantee of a legitimate and credible transitional governance arrangement for Iraq.”

The United Nations said on Friday that a two-person team had arrived in Baghdad for talks with the coalition on various security matters.

It was the first time foreign UN staff had returned to Baghdad since Annan withdrew personnel in October.

Attacks in August on UN headquarters in Baghdad killed 22 people, including top UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. The United Nations has employed Iraqi staff since then.

A UN spokesman stressed that a separate field security assessment would be needed should the secretary-general decide to send in an electoral team.

The head of the world body is in Paris for the opening of the Global Compact conference and was to meet later in the day with French President Jacques Chirac.