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U.N. Aide Who Quit in Protest Plans
Report on Airstrikes on Iraq
By Colum Lynch
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, February 17, 2000; Page A23
UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 16¡VHans von Sponeck, one of two
senior U.N. officials who resigned this week to protest
the
impact of economic sanctions on Iraq, said today he will
present a farewell report on the devastation caused by
U.S.
and British airstrikes on Iraqi territory.
The career U.N. official from Germany, who is
responsible for
overseeing the distribution of humanitarian goods in
Iraq,
infuriated U.S. and British officials by writing a
similar report on
airstrikes last year. Von Sponeck's decision to revisit
the issue
before his March 31 departure was viewed by American
officials as a parting act of defiance against the
allied powers,
which have pushed for his removal for months.
In a telephone interview from his office in Baghdad, von
Sponeck said he and Jutta Burghardt, a fellow German who
is
head of the World Food Program in Iraq, resigned after
concluding that a U.N. Security Council resolution in
December provided false hope that the suffering of
ordinary
Iraqis would soon be eased.
"I do not want to be associated with a Band-Aid that is
inadequate to end the plight of the civilian
population," von
Sponeck said.
U.N. officials in New York originally claimed this week
that
Burghardt's departure was coincidental. But she told
reporters
in Baghdad today that she was quitting in solidarity
with von
Sponeck. "I fully support what Mr. von Sponeck is
saying," she
said.
The United Nations and the Iraqi government are at an
impasse over the December resolution, which offered to
suspend some sanctions if Iraq cooperates with a new
arms
inspection commission. Iraq has refused to allow the
inspectors to return.
Meanwhile, U.S. and British jets patrolling "no-fly"
zones in
northern and southern Iraq have been responding to
antiaircraft fire with almost daily airstrikes.
State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said von
Sponeck's plan to report on the airstrikes underscores
his
tendency to exceed his authority and to rely on Iraqi
propaganda. "He has a habit of reporting Iraqi claims of
casualties from the air attacks without having the
ability to
verify those claims," Rubin said.
While conceding that he relied heavily on Iraqi sources
for his
previous report, von Sponeck said U.N. staff workers
witnessed 23 of the 99 airstrikes investigated by his
office. He
said he personally witnessed three attacks.
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