1.

Special report

Iraq

STAFF VOTE AGAINST PLANS TO INCREASE PRESENCE
By Ewen MacAskill and Julian Borger

Guardian (UK)
August 9, 2007

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2144697,00.html

The U.N. Security Council is set to agree a resolution today to expand its role in Iraq despite overwhelming opposition from its staff.

Although the organization often goes into extremely dangerous situations, the U.N. staff association, which represents 6,000 people in New York and 18,000 involved in peacekeeping and other operations overseas, voted unanimously on Tuesday against deployment in Iraq because of the high risks. It also called for the removal of existing staff. The U.N. insisted yesterday that it can go ahead in spite of staff opposition and would be able to find people to fill the new posts.

The U.S. president, George Bush, is pressing the U.N. secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to beef up the U.N. operation in Iraq, which it scaled back in 2003 after a bomb killed its envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 other staff at its Baghdad headquarters.

The Security Council resolution will widen the U.N. role to cover a range of issues from border security to political reconciliation and rehabilitation of former combatants. Although not mentioned in the text, it will open the way for an increase in its Iraq staff complement from 65 to 95 by October. The security council is also seeking $130m (£65m) to build a fortified compound in Baghdad. The US has offered to help with the costs.

The Secretary General could compromise: accepting the new, broader role but to placate employees keep staff increases in Baghdad to a minimum.

The first vice-president of the staff association, Emad Hassanin, said yesterday that the staff vote was intended to provide protection against coercion because most staff are on short-term contracts and vulnerable to pressure. He questioned how civilian staff could expand their duties in Iraq when even U.S. soldiers could not protect themselves.

The staff association voted "not to deploy any additional staff members to Iraq and to remove those currently serving at the duty station in Baghdad until such time as the security situation and environment improves." They noted "the unacceptably high level of risk to the safety and security of U.N. personnel currently serving in Iraq and that the breakdown of law and order in Iraq has created a place where aid workers have become targets and pawns."

The Security Council draft resolution is sponsored by the U.S. and Britain. Mr. Bush was initially cool about involvement of the U.N. in the immediate postwar period but now, amid all the anarchy, has been persuaded that it could play a useful role.

The previous secretary general, Kofi Annan, had also been reluctant to become involved in Iraq, viewing it as a mess of Mr. Bush's making.

The draft resolution proposes that the U.N.'s present limited remit be changed to allow its special envoy, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, of Pakistan, to "advise, support, and assist" the Iraqi government in political, economic, electoral, legal, constitutional, refugee, and human rights matters. Mr. Qazi is due to stand down in October.

2.

SECURITY COUNCIL OKs WIDER U.N. ROLE IN IRAQ

** U.S.-U.K. resolution calls for world body to help bring factions together  **

Reuters
August 10, 2007

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20213661/

UNITED NATIONS -- The Security Council voted Friday to assign the United Nations an expanded political role in Iraq, promoting reconciliation between its rival factions and dialogue with neighboring countries.

The 15-country council unanimously approved a U.S.-British resolution boosting the responsibilities of the four-year-old U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, or UNAMI, whose existing mandate expired Friday.

The new mandate requires UNAMI to “advise, support, and assist” Iraqis on “advancing their inclusive, political dialogue, and national reconciliation,” reviewing their constitution, fixing internal boundaries, and staging a census.

The mission would promote talks between Iraq and its neighbors on border security, energy, and refugees, assist the return of millions who have fled the violence, coordinate reconstruction and aid, and help promote economic reform.

The expanded role is expected to require an increase in U.N. international staff in Baghdad, who currently number about 50 in the fortified Green Zone government and diplomatic compound. Until now, they have been mainly concerned with helping with elections and monitoring human rights.

Washington’s U.N. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, said this week the United Nations was uniquely placed to smooth over conflicts between Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds that have bedeviled Iraqi politics and fueled rampant violence.

Some major Iraqi players, like top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, were willing to talk to the United Nations, but not the United States or Britain, said Khalilzad, formerly U.S. envoy to Baghdad.

SECURITY CONCERNS

By coincidence, the new mandate will come amid a fresh political crisis in Iraq, with nearly half the cabinet having quit, or boycotting meetings.

U.S. and British officials have denied that their aim is to offload Iraq’s political problems onto the United Nations, then pull their forces out.

While Secretary General Ban Ki-moon endorsed the U.N. role expansion at a meeting last month with President Bush, some U.N. rank-and-file staff are concerned that safety issues have not been fully addressed.

Fresh in their minds is the explosion that destroyed the U.N. office in Baghdad in August 2003 and killed 22 people, including mission chief Sergio Vieira de Mello. The blast led to the temporary withdrawal of U.N. staff.

On Tuesday, the U.N. Staff Union called on Ban not to deploy any more people to Iraq and to withdraw those now there. But U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said Wednesday: “We intend to continue with the work that is needed to fulfill our mandate.”