BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq on Wednesday accused five U.N. aid officials it expelled from Baghdad of being involved in acts that infringed on its national security.
``Iraqi authorities have evidence that the five U.N. staffers have carried out acts that violate their assignment in a way that infringes on Iraq's national security, so they were expelled,'' Foreign Minister Dr. Naji Sabri told al-Shabab television.
The five staff members, four Nigerians and a Bosnian, were in the headquarters of a large observation unit in the U.N. ''oil-for-food'' humanitarian program that monitors distribution of supplies. Iraq has long opposed the program as a prolonging of sanctions, imposed in August 1990, when it invaded Kuwait. (Read photo caption below)
Sabri also said Iraq had expelled a Dutch national working for the United Nations a week ago for taking photographs in public. U.N. officials in New York said the Dutchman was employed by the Swiss company Cotecna, which inspects authorized goods entering Iraq and is under contract to the United Nations.
But Benon Sevan, the U.N. undersecretary-general for the Iraqi program, said treaties covering U.N. officials abroad did not allow expulsions as those involving diplomats. Iraq had to give precise reasons for the expulsions after which U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan would review them.
But in this case, according to a letter he sent to Iraq's U.N. ambassador Mohammed Aldouri on Tuesday, he withdrew the staff, fearing for their safety. Iraq, he said, had ``not provided any detail or supporting evidence.''
The three Nigerian men and one woman left for Jordan on Tuesday and the Bosnian woman had been reassigned and was out of Iraq before the expulsion order was issued.
Sevan will brief the U.N. Security Council on the incident on Thursday. Several members believed the expulsions were part of a campaign to undercut the U.N. operation and had little to do with spying.
Under the oil-for-food program, Iraq sells oil and buys food, medicine and other goods under U.N. supervision. The plan, instituted in December 1996, aims to ease the impact of sanctions.
PHOTO CAPTION:
An Iraqi soldier uses his binoculars to look at the Iraq-Kuwait border line, which was demarcated in 1993, on Thursday, Aug. 30. 2001. Iraq has complained that the U.N. observer mission, known as UNIKOM, fails to report the nationality of planes that violate the demilitarized zone. (AP Photo/Jassim Mohammed)
- Aug 30 3:38 PM ET