The UN is hopeful elections in Iraq can be held on schedule in January 2005 despite escalating violence -- but the level of UN electoral assistance will depend on security, the top UN envoy to Iraq says.
Iraq's new deputy UN ambassador, Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi, warned Tuesday that terrorists are determined to disrupt the vote and he urged the world's nations to send troops to protect an expanded UN staff which he called essential for holding the country's first free elections.
But Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, the UN special representative to Iraq, said the security situation will be the overriding factor in determining how many UN international staffers can return to Iraq. Currently, there is a ceiling of 35 UN staff in the country, which al-Istrabadi called inadequate.
"It's always desirable to have more people on the ground than circumstances permit, but given the specific security circumstances in Iraq, we have to be careful -- mindful of the safety of the people we deploy there including the electoral people," Qazi said.
"We are all looking forward, despite the constraints under which we operate, to ... fair elections, credible elections, inclusive elections, being held by the due date," the UN envoy said.
Qazi and al-Istrabadi spoke at a Security Council meeting called to discuss Secretary-General Kofi Annan's latest report on Iraq which warned that violence could make it more difficult to create the conditions for successful elections.
The UN envoy repeatedly stressed that the Iraqi Electoral Commission is in charge of the election process -- not the United Nations -- and he said it was encouraging that the country's prime minister, Ayad Allawi, has expressed determination to hold the election by Jan. 31.
Qazi wouldn't be drawn out on when or whether the United Nations might beef up its election unit, calling staff safety ``an overriding imperative.''
"We are operating at the margins of acceptable and prudent risk within the current security situation," Qazi said. "We may be operating with less people than we would ideally like to have on the ground. But our presence is nonetheless effective."
A blast on Aug. 19 last year outside the Baghdad headquarters of the UN headquarters killed 22 people, including the chief UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. Annan ordered all international staff to leave Iraq after a second attack on the building last October.
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