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Canwest News Service
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – The Taliban scored another propaganda victory Thursday when the UN decided to relocate more than half of its foreign workers from Afghanistan because it had become too dangerous for them to continue to work there.
The announcement of "short-term relocations" of about 600 of the UN's 1, 100 workers came one week after the Taliban killed five UN international staff during a brazen pre-dawn assault on a guest house where they were staying.
"Although many of the new measures cannot be made public, they will involve short-term relocations for some staff while additional security is being put in place," said Michele Montas, chief spokesperson for UN Secretary General Ban Ki- moon.
"This is not good. The bad guys are already claiming credit for this," said a Canadian civilian in Kabul who requested anonymity because he works closely with the UN and non-governmental organizations in the country. "This is a very bad signal to send to the Afghan people, especially after the election debacle."
Thursday's announcement was quickly followed by an unusually stern warning from the UN's top Afghan representative, Kei Eide, that all United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) workers would quit the country if President Hamid Karzai does not do a much better job tackling corruption and limiting the power of warlords.
Those who thought that UNAMA and other international groups would not leave en masse "whatever happens because of the strategic importance of Afghanistan, " were wrong, the Norwegian diplomat told a Kabul news conference. "I would like to emphasize that that's not true.
"It is public opinion in donor countries and in troop-contributing countries that decides the strength of the commitment. The debate we have seen over the last few weeks and months underlines that we are at a critical juncture."
The sudden withdrawal of UN staff recalled a bombing by a cement truck of the international body's Baghdad headquarters in August 2003 that killed the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil and 21 others. The UN's response to what was al-Qaida's first attack in Iraq was to shut down almost its entire operations.
But officials stress things are very different this time around.
"We should emphasize that this is a temporary relocation, lasting from four to six weeks of non-essential staff while we prepare safer accommodation for staff," said Montas. "This is not an evacuation."
Moving outside the country will be a "minority" of the 600, said Montas, largely non-essential staff who will be away for a few weeks while the UN prepares new "safe houses" for its staff.
"Non essential staff means administrative, personnel and financial staff. We are not moving out any critical staff doing humanitarian or development work, " Montas said.
The UN had done "what we had to do following the tragic events of last week to look after our workers in a difficult moment while ensuring that our operations in Afghanistan can continue," Eide said.
Among the agencies expected to be affected by the pullout will be the World Food Program, which feeds nearly nine million Afghans.
Some of those ordered to leave Kabul were moving forward their vacations. Others are to be based in the United Arab Emirates, about two hours to the west by air, where the UN is establishing a new office. Still others would be moved to safer parts of Afghanistan.
There has been no indication that the UN's decision will affect a few UN international staff recently posted to Kandahar's Dand district where they work within a security bubble created by Canadian troops.
Dand is where Canada has been developing a series of so-called `model villages.' The project to clear the Taliban from an area and then hold it so that economic development can take place has been lauded by the UN, senior American generals and NATO's new secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Until arriving in Dand, the UN had maintained a very low profile in Kandahar. There has therefore been little inter-action with Canadian soldiers or public servants such as diplomats and police officers deployed in the province, which is considered the epicentre of the battle against the Taliban.
Canadians assigned by Ottawa to Kabul live in well protected accommodations. Those that live in Kandahar are housed within army compounds protected by soldiers from Task Force Afghanistan.
When the UNAMA workers, who had been staying in some of Kabul's approximately 90 lightly guarded guest houses return, many of them will reside in a massive, heavily fortified compound. It is expected to be something like Baghdad's sprawling Green Zone, which became the fortress home to thousands of American diplomats and other government workers after U.S. troops invaded Iraq in 2003.
"Securing all those guest houses was a tough thing to do, but this is largely a UN-created management problem," the Canadian civilian with UN ties in Kabul said. "This is a reaction by the UN headquarters in New York. It felt it had to be seen to do something to protect its people."
There was a larger institutional problem, too, the Canadian, who has lived in Kabul for several years, said.
"UN workers have always considered that they were protected by the blue flag and their white vehicles and that is not the case in Afghanistan," he said.
After speaking Thursday with some UN workers who were told to pack their bags, he said: "Feelings are mixed. Some are really angry. They feel cut off at the knees. A lot of people have been doing good work that is now going to stall."
