Global Policy Forum

By Evelyn Leopold

Iraq has expelled five U.N. aid officials -- four Nigerians and a Bosnian -- for what it called an infringement of its national security, the United Nations reported Tuesday. In response, U.N. officials protested but withdrew the four Nigerians, three men and one woman, citing safety reasons. The fifth, a Bosnian woman, had already left the country before Iraq's expulsion order, delivered to U.N. officials in Baghdad Sunday.

Iraq's Foreign Affairs Ministry, in its note to the United Nations, said the five officials from the U.N. "oil-for-food" humanitarian program were "persona non grata" and should leave the country within 72 hours. "They are not allowed to enter Iraqi territory. This is due to their performing of activities that infringe on the national security of the Republic of Iraq, which are inconsistent with their assigned responsibilities," said Baghdad's note, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

The expulsion order from Iraq and a letter in response from Benon Sevan, the U.N. undersecretary-general in charge of the U.N.-Iraq oil-for-food humanitarian program, were distributed to U.N. Security Council members Tuesday. Council members were still studying the order but some said they suspected Iraq was protesting the entire U.N. operation, which it considers as prolonging sanctions imposed after Baghdad's troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990.

Sevan said the Iraqi government had "not provided any detail or supporting evidence to charges leveled against the five staff members," according to his letter to Baghdad's U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri.

The four Nigerians are: Denis Nwachukwu, head of an observation unit that inspects authorized goods arriving in Iraq; Abioy Awopatu Lawrence, head of the U.N. reports section; Nnenna Uchagbu, a legal adviser and Roberts Onebunne, a reports officer. Ljiljana Miletic, a Bosnian data analyst, had been reassigned and left the country earlier, Sevan said.

Sevan said the action contravened international accords but he had decided to request the five leave "purely out of concern for their personal safety and security." But he said the staff members were protected under an international treaty covering U.N. officials abroad. If they acted improperly Iraq needed to give U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan details of the charges against them.

"The secretary-general would then decide on his response," Sevan wrote. The five staff members were described by Sevan as senior U.N. officials in the oil-for-food program, under which Iraq sells oil and purchases food, medicine and a variety of other goods under U.N. supervision.

The plan, instituted in December 1997, is aimed at easing the impact of sanctions on ordinary Iraqis.

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