Saturday, August 19, 2023

Remembering the attack on the UN in Baghdad 20 years ago

 



The UN notes, "The 19 August attack is commemorated annually by World Humanitarian Day." Along with Sergio, the following also died in the attack: Raid Shaker Mustafa al-Mahdawi, Rick Hooper, Jean-Selim Kanaan, Basim Mahmood Utaiwi, Saad Hermiz Abona, Arthur Helton, Alya Amad Sousa, Manuel Martin-Aor, Omar Kahtan Mohamed al-Orfali, Fiona Watson, Nadia Younes, Gillian Clark, Khidir Saleem Sahir, Reham al-Farra, Leen Assad al-Quadi, Reza Hosseini, Christopher Klein-Beekman, Emaad Ahmed Salman al-Jobory, Ranilo Buenaventura, Ihssan Taha Husain and Martha Teas.  Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) reports:

Iraqi and United Nations officials on Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of a deadly attack on the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.

The Aug. 19, 2003, truck bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, which housed the U.N. headquarters in Iraq at the time, killed 22 U.N. staff including the head, Sergio Vieira de Mello, a rising U.N. star. It was the deadliest terrorist attack against U.N. staff in its history.


KURDIASTAN 24 notes:


Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs Fuad Hussein and the UN envoy in Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert took part in the commemoration event, which also marked World Humanitarian Day.

[. . .]

Foreign Minister Hussein described the bombing as “one of the tragic days” in Iraq’s history.

“That tragedy marked a change in the way humanitarians operate,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message on Saturday, highlighting the threats that humanitarians still face.

An Islamist radical group dubbed Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the attack. 


UN aid worker Elpida Rouka survived the attack and she offers:


A young 25-year-old barely two years into the UN at the time, I was in equal measure bright-eyed and bushy tailed practically cajoling the Executive Director of the Iraq programme to take me along on that August mission to Baghdad. I was naive about the workings of the world, not always a pretty sight, and the organization’s role therein. 

Other than the personal cost, I suffered latent PTSD that manifested years later, and the personal cost to so many, I had not yet realized the cost to the organization. Baghdad changed everything for the UN. How we do things. Who we are. What the world thinks of us. What we think of us. 

I could not fathom why late Secretary-General Kofi Annan did not order the UN out of Iraq; years later, when I worked in his Cabinet, we made our peace. And yet I myself returned to Iraq four years on, not as an aid worker but as part of a political mission, a continuation of sorts of what Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN Special Representative in Iraq, who died in the attack, and his team had started that fateful summer. I had at last “consciously” embraced the UN blue.

Canal will always serve as a reminder, albeit a tragic one, of what the UN blue flag, for the first time a direct target of a terrorist attack, represents or must represent. 

I am now about the age many of those we lost on that day would have been. They embodied the spirit of the UN flag, defying risk, rising above politics, speaking up for those whose voices were silenced, talking truth to power, challenging more powerful groups when those are wrong, pushing against all odds and going back. 

They and everyone else we have lost and keep on losing since in too many conflicts where we have failed to bring about peace will continue to serve as a compass to course-correct, lest we forget that the oath of office encompassed the preamble of the UN Charter: “We, the peoples…”  

Several missions - Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Syria - and physical and emotional scars later, I continue to carry my scorched and shrapnelled UN laissez-passer from that August 2003 to remind me exactly of that.

It is hard to tell whether 20 years on Canal has any meaning to the outside world or even to the younger generations of international civil servants, other than to the survivors. In many ways the nature of conflicts and UN engagement therein has changed significantly in two decades, with modern peace operations set in increasingly complex, constantly shifting, high-risk multipolar settings with involvement of non-State actors and violent extremists, asymmetry of use of force, spillover of conflict beyond borders, great power fallouts and ensuing deepening of global mistrust. 

Operating behind T-walls [protective concrete barriers that surround UN compounds in conflict-affected countries], out of sandbagged fortified compounds, in armoured vehicles, clad in PPEs [personal protective equipment] and wary of extended exposure to the locals is often considered the norm. 

At the same time, the organization is challenged to be accountable to its own and to those they serve. We still have many lessons to learn from Canal when it comes to the latter, for our missions to be fully prepared for the worst, for our staff to be conscious of the complexities of the places we are deployed in, and for our leadership to be able to clearly communicate what it is we are doing there.

The same goes for the Member States which at times present us with impossible mandates. Yet the UN’s response to Canal was right in one major aspect: the UN did not abandon the Iraqis on that day, and in doing so it acknowledged the sacrifice of those who lost their lives in the pursuit of truth; those who remain a moral compass.


At The World Humanitarian Day website, survivor Khaled Mansour shares:


The terrorist attack against the UN headquarters in Baghdad devastated me on the one hand, but it also radically reconfigured the way I think of my life and of the humanitarian aid effort. 

I was in my car, heading back to the office, and just a few hundred metres away from the building when it was bombed and quickly collapsed. I was not physically harmed, but the psychological injuries were immense. Colleagues whom I worked with only a few hours earlier were either pulverized, or the remains of their bodies lay under sheets in the parking lot. I am still sometimes haunted by the blood and body parts I touched as I groped my way along darkened corridors shrouded in dust. I spent the rest of the afternoon and the evening driving with an Iraqi colleague around Baghdad to check on the wounded, put them in touch with their families and comfort them. 

I was very angry at the UN, at the stupid, murderous terrorists, and probably ultimately at myself for having survived while 22 others did not. This is what I found out through months and years of psychotherapy and self-reflection. Looking back at what happened, I still feel sad at the huge loss of lives and potential, but I have also learned a great deal, and I was able to go back to work in conflict areas and think more critically of why this happened and whether it could have been avoided at all. 


Addressing the anniversary in Baghdad was the United Nations' Special Representative of the Secretary General, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert:


Excellencies,

Colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning, Sabah-al-Kher.

We are here to commemorate, with great sadness, the 20th anniversary of the attack on the then-United Nations headquarters in Baghdad: the Canal Hotel.

Twenty-two lives were lost in the blast, including that of then-Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Sérgio Vieira de Mello. And, let us not forget, many more were injured or impacted in other ways, including by the loss of dear colleagues and friends.

Now, while this attack targeted the United Nations, the horror it represented was not contained within the parameters of the Canal Hotel.

Instead, the incident was an early swell of a tidal wave of violence, which went on to tear through the country, bringing unimaginable pain and suffering to too many Iraqis.

And, so, as we gather for this sombre occasion, we must remember all those who lost their lives to conflict in Iraq.

Now, as I said on many occasions, many of a memory must not be static. Rather, it should compel us to act; to recommit to doing all we can in pursuit of peace and stability.

This is all the more fitting given that, today, we are also marking what has come to be known as World Humanitarian Day. And, in doing so, we acknowledge the people across the world who are working – sometimes in the most challenging of circumstances, and at great personal risk – we acknowledge the people who are working to assist those in dire need.

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

As flagged in my recent briefings to the Security Council, the past 20 years have brought about change in Iraq. Few would deny that it has been a very rough road. But throughout these years, the United Nations has not given up on its efforts to contribute to peace and stability in Iraq.

Meanwhile, from this site, which was once covered by the rubble of the Canal Hotel, the Al-Qanat Social Rehabilitation Centre has been born. The Centre provides, as explained already in advance of this gathering, both in- and out-patient treatment for substance abuse. 

And, yes, it is a very good example of a public service tailored to communities in need. And, with plans from the Ministry of Health to further expand the Centre, more patients stand to benefit from specialized, rehabilitative treatment.

In the meantime, the Iraqi Government has expressed its determination to step up service provision across the country, and to bring solutions to major challenges – whether related to water security, electricity, governance, or financial, economic and social reforms. And, we are hopeful that more and more rays of light will break through the darkness still clouding the lives of too many Iraqis.

Now, the wounds created by the 2003 attack – and the violence that came after it – run deep. And, the truth is: they may never fully heal.

But, while remembering the pain is difficult, we have a duty to never forget our colleagues who lost their lives. And, this commemoration may also act as a reminder to us all of our role in nurturing the conditions for the safety, security and prosperity of all Iraqis. 

Today, I wish to extend my deepest sympathy to those who are missing colleagues, friends and loved ones not only today, but every day.

Let us all do our part to embody the values of peace and tolerance for which those who lost their lives in the Canal Hotel attack stood. As my colleague Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, recently said: We cannot bring back those taken from us. But we can honour their memories by doing everything possible to support those continuing their work.

Thank you.


UPI notes today is significant in Iraq for another violent event, "In 2009, two massive bomb attacks killed at least 95 people and injured more than 600 others in Baghdad. It was said to be the worst attack in the region since the U.S. military gave control of the country's security back to the Iraqi government."


In other news, ASHARQ AL-AWSAT reports:


Photos of US military convoys moving in separate cities are circulating on the local media in Iraq amid reports that the Shiite factions are “aware of an imminent operation, and have been asked to avoid escalation.”

However, Major General Yahya Rasool, spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, denied in a televised statement any US military movements.

In turn, a government official told Asharq Al-Awsat that the alleged movements “are limited to locations outside the Iraqi border.”

But three Iraqi figures, including a leader in an armed faction stationed in northwestern Iraq, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US was repositioning its troops in the region, in preparation for a military operation outside Iraq.

The leader noted that the armed factions believe that the strategic objective of the operation was to “change the rules of engagement with the Russians in Syria.”


If accurate, that could have huge global implications and, in fact, could be how the US government changed the conflict between Ukraine and Russia from a proxy-war (for the US) into a direct confrontation between the US and Russia.


The following sites updated:




 

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