| GENEVA — Church aid agencies working in Iraq are pulling out international staff, reviewing their programs in the face of continuing violence, and in at least one instance, considering suspending operations altogether, the Geneva-based Action by Churches Together (ACT) International alliance announced on Thursday.
“The hostage taking in Iraq, combined with an escalation of hostilities in general, have compelled DanChurchAid (DCA) to seriously re-consider its international presence in Iraq (Basra),” said Lennart Skov-Hansen, relief coordinator of the Danish aid agency which is a member of ACT, a global network of churches and relief organizations.
DanChurchAid has decided not to continue its activities in Iraq for the time being and a final decision about suspending DCA’s activities will be taken by April 30 after a “thorough consideration” of the situation and after consultation with its partners and donors, ACT noted.
“The security situation has deteriorated during the last couple of weeks,” Skov-Hansen said in an ACT statement. “There is little expectation that the situation might improve much before July 1st, when the Coalition Force is handing over the governing of the country to the Iraqi people.”
Another ACT member, the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC), is continuing its program in Iraq, as is the Middle East Council of Churches. But one IOCC international staff member has been “pulled out temporarily from Baghdad due to the deteriorating security situation and the growing threat on the lives of foreigners after a number of kidnapping incidents,” ACT reported.
All foreign staff of Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) based either in Basra or Baghdad have been temporarily withdrawn, though Iraqi staff members in the two cities continue implementing programs.
A series of bombings on Wednesday, apparently suicide attacks, targeted three police stations in the Basra, with many of the dead and injured, children traveling in buses on their way to school. A fourth attack south of Basra is said to have killed three Iraqis and wounded five British soldiers.
Norwegian Church Aid “had planned for the return of the Basra international staff this week after reports from various sources that the situation in Basra had been relatively calm compared to other parts of the country,” said Ellen Dahl, NCA’s program coordinator for Iraq. “But in view of the recent developments, we have postponed our plans to return the international staff members.”
Meanwhile, ACT member Christian Aid reported that a survey it had commissioned showed that life is “worse” for many poor people in Iraq. “Poor Iraqis suffered enormously under Saddam Hussein’s regime, yet the present stage of reconstruction is in some ways even more difficult. During the Saddam years, the war was at the front line; now it has moved into their own streets,” the report stated.
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