United Nations: With the possibility of a military strike against Iraq increasing by
the day and US soldiers conducing war games in Kuwait, the UN Observer Mission in
the demilitarised zone between Kuwait and Iraq has ordered evacuation of its
civilian staff, after border fences were found cut at many places by suspected
American marines.
The peacekeeping force, which has about 200 observers and 775 Bangladeshi military
support units has been placed on "red alert", which means they would be confined to
their bases and stop patrolling the zone, reports said.
The United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission (UNIKOM) was established after 1991
Gulf war to man the 16 km deep and more than 300 km long demilitarised zone to keep
peace between Iraq and Kuwait.
Sources at the United Nations said the civilians number around 230 and some of them
have already left the zone. Others are expected to leave shortly.
The action to evacuate civilians to Kuwait city and stop patrolling of the area came
after the observers reported that Kuwait workers cut the border fence between the
two countries at least at 35 places and some of the cuts were big enough to drive
through military vehicles.
The United Nations has said workers in the civilian dress had cut the fence, but
some of them identified themselves as US marines.
The world body's officials said it is breach of the Security Council resolution,
which prohibits military personnel from entering the zone and have informed the
headquarters about encroachment by US military and a letter was sent on March 9 to
the Council.
PTI
