- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tuesday February 15 1:47 PM ET Second U.N. Aide in Iraq Resigns in Protest By Hassan Hafidh BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A second senior U.N. humanitarian official in Iraq has resigned in protest at the failure of U.N. relief programs in Iraq, Western diplomatic sources in Baghdad said Tuesday. They said Jutta Burghardt, head of the World Food Program (WFP) in Iraq, handed in her resignation Monday. She followed Hans von Sponeck, the top U.N. official in Iraq, who said Monday he was quitting for the same reason. In Rome, a WFP spokesman confirmed that Burghardt had resigned but said she had taken the decision for personal reasons. ``It is a personal decision to leave and go back to work for the German government,'' Francis Mwanza, spokesman for the U.N. world food body, told Reuters. The WFP is linked to the oil-for-food program, which allows Iraq to sell oil to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian needs for the Iraqi people. The WFP also distributes food aid to nearly one million needy Iraqis affected by the tough U.N. sanctions imposed on the country for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Von Sponeck, whose resignation takes effect March 31, is in charge of the U.N. oil program, which is intended to ease the impact of the sanctions on the Iraqi people by ensuring supplies of essential goods. The sources said Burghardt resigned because she felt the U.N. humanitarian program in Iraq was a failure. She also opposed the latest Security Council resolution offering to ease U.N. sanctions against Iraq if Baghdad allowed disarmament monitors to return. Baghdad has rejected the resolution, saying it is time to lift the crippling economic sanctions imposed on the country in 1990 for its invasion of Kuwait. Both von Sponeck and Burghardt are Germans. Von Sponeck, a career U.N. official, has angered Britain and the United States by criticizing the sanctions and saying the humanitarian program has failed to meet the needs of Iraq's 22 million people. Von Sponeck Says He Resigned For Personal Reasons Von Sponeck said that he had resigned for personal reasons, not because of pressure from Washington and London. ``It is certainly not because of pressure. I primarily think I must leave now for personal reasons,'' von Sponeck told Reuters Tuesday. ``I hope that who ever replaces me would have a very short assignment here,'' he said, meaning that he hoped that the sanctions would be lifted and the program would be terminated. He said that he had resigned because he could not remain silent on the failings of the U.N. humanitarian program. ``I think time has come when I come out to say so and when I do that I must be able to face the consequences...that I must then accept to leave the position,'' he said. Von Sponeck told Qatar-based al-Jazeerah satellite television that other U.N. officials shared his views on the suffering of the Iraqi people. ``Well, everyone here in the U.N. is concerned over the inadequacy of the performance of the oil-for-food program ... That is not just my view,'' he said. ``So I'm not at all alone in my view that we have reached a point where it is no longer acceptable that we are keeping our mouths shut. ``Our support, my support, my commitment is for the Iraqi people as a group of deprived people whose tragedy should end.'' Von Sponeck repeated earlier remarks that deprivation in Iraq was also partly due to ``a tightly controlled state with many limitations.'' - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
