Kidnappings, killings and increased fighting in Iraq are forcing U.S. and foreign contractors to slow work in some regions and, in some instances, consider pulling out of the country as their governments recommend evacuation.
Iraqi militia yesterday held about 40 foreign hostages from 12 countries, including seven U.S. contractors and four Italians working as private guards for a U.S. company, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority said yesterday.
Russian contractor Technoprom yesterday said it evacuated its 370-person staff from Iraq because of increased kidnappings, Agence France-Presse reported. Another Russian firm, Interenergoservis, saw eight workers kidnapped and later released but did not immediately plan to leave the country. Both companies were working to rebuild power stations in Iraq.
No U.S. contractors have said they are planning to pull out, said Portia Palmer, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Agency for International Development, a State Department bureau that has awarded reconstruction contracts.
“Right now there are certain areas of the country that are less secure, and in those areas we are not doing work. Safety is first,” she said.
Contractors mirrored that assessment.
“In certain areas of the country the unsettled security environment has affected our activities, but we are operating normally in other parts of the country and expect to resume normal operations … again as soon as possible,” said Sally Johnson, vice president for corporate affairs at Research Triangle Institute, a USAID contractor working to build local government institutions.
“While the security environment has had some impact in some areas, we continue our work,” said Howard Menaker, a spokesman for Bechtel, the San Francisco company that in January won a contract worth up to $1.8 billion for reconstruction work.
Congress last year appropriated $18.6 billion for reconstruction, security and other work in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most reconstruction contracts have gone to U.S. companies, but businesses and workers from other nations are involved through subcontractors, aid organizations or as private employees.
The State Department yesterday said four bodies had been found and it was in touch with families of the seven missing Americans, but it could not confirm the identities of the bodies.
Reconstruction efforts rely on contractors and their civilian employees for rebuilding roads, schools, power systems, oil fields and for providing basic support, including security and transportation.
It’s dangerous work. Houston company Halliburton, a major U.S. government contractor working throughout the country, and its subcontractors have seen 30 employees killed in Iraq and Kuwait, the company said.
The seven missing Americans are employees of Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root. The company yesterday said it could not confirm that the four bodies were the missing workers. But the company was concerned about the rising violence in Iraq.
“Every member of the Halliburton team receives warnings about the dangers of this work but these brutal attacks are unsettling and appalling,” spokeswoman Wendy Hall said.
Aid organizations also are considering their options as security conditions shift. Fadi Fadel, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen working for the International Rescue Committee in Najaf, was taken hostage last week. Melissa Winkler, an IRC spokeswoman in New York, said the group has not decided whether to evacuate its non-Iraqi workers.
“We’re sort of in a wait-and-see mode,” she said.
Other aid groups have ordered non-Iraqi aid workers out of the country.
Reconstruction and other contract work by some nations also may come to a halt.
Igor Ivanov, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, yesterday said his government is preparing to evacuate all of its citizens from Iraq, after the kidnapping and release of some of its citizens.
Germany and France this week also have urged their citizens to leave Iraq, and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said insecurity made it unlikely the world body would send a large contingent to Iraq for the foreseeable future.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
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