Scribbles

This news article sums up the recent terrorist attacks against the UN:

In 2007, Al-Qaeda and its affiliates have threatened or targeted U.N. officials and peacekeepers in conflict zones in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and southern Lebanon, where six U.N. peacekeepers were killed in a bombing in June. Even before the Algiers attack, the United Nations was already investing millions of dollars in fortifying its facilities and convoys in response to threats in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But the Algiers attack — the deadliest for the United Nations since insurgents bombed its Baghdad headquarters in August 2003 — provided a blunt reminder of how vulnerable the international organization is. (…)

Since the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, I have always believed that we, international humanitarian organisations, will become the soft targets. As the “hard targets”, e.g. the UK and US foreign missions, isolate themselves, lock themselves up behind walls of concrete, we -humanitarians- can not. While often the streets of US embassies are barricaded, our work is on those streets, in the field, working with the people.

We -humanitarians- are working in the most remote places, often as the only expats around. How easy does that make us as a target? Any malicious group who wants international press, only needs to kidnap or kill one of us, and they get plenty of international press… And that was only talking about terrorism. How about just plain crime and banditry?

To give you an idea, WFP (UN World Food Programme) had 36 people killed, injured or detained this year only… That is a sharp raise from the previous years.

We’re in for a rough ride… How much do we protect ourselves? With what financial implication? For example, a typical field 4×4 vehicle costs about US$25,000. But working in a high risk area will easily add US$15,000 in ballistic blankets and HF/VHF radios for security measures.

How much risk is acceptable, to the organisations, and to the staff themselves? How much do those security measures isolate us, and disables us from doing the work we are set to do: work with the people.

Picture courtesy Fayez Nureldine, AFP/Getty Images