UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan named Ross Mountain of New Zealand as his acting special representative for Iraq, succeeding Sergio Vieira de Mello who was killed along with 21 others killed in the August bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.
At U.N. European Headquarters in Geneva, Annan told reporters Wednesday that Mountain would visit the country, as needed, from the temporary main U.N. base for Iraqi operations in Nicosia, Cyprus, until security improves.
Mountain first joined the world organization in 1973 and, after serving in a variety of positions, was appointed in 1998 assistant emergency relief coordinator and director of the Geneva Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
He headed the OCHA Crisis Task Team for Iraq and last visited Iraq in July.
"I have worked in the Middle East before and it will be a return to dealing with obviously an extremely acute issue," Mountain told reporters. "We have been focusing our work most recently ... in the area of humanitarian and reconstruction and that will of course at this stage, continue to be the focus."
Annan has said he will name a permanent Special Representative for Iraq "very soon," but not until next year.
In a report released Wednesday to the U.N. Security Council, naming Mountain, Annan said that while the core of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq would be set up in Nicosia, "additional UNAMI staff will be deployed to a small office in Amman (Jordan) and to other locations in the region, as required."
The secretary-general said, "It is impossible to forecast, at this juncture, if and when circumstances will permit the full deployment of UNAMI to Iraq."
He said, "Clearly the operation will need to build up incrementally, at a pace and scope that cannot yet be defined."
Annan also said "prudent contingency planning" was necessary "to respond as quickly as possible to requests for assistance from the Iraqi people."
The mission "was expected to consist initially of fewer than 400 staff in total" but since the bombing Annan now envisages "an integrated core team of approximately 40 international UNAMI staff in total ... to be in place by early 2004" which was expected to increase to 100 "once a new special representative has been appointed" and accounting for a personal security detail and immediate front office staff" for the representative.
Annan pointed out the world organization had not disengaged from Iraq since the Aug. 19 bombing but has "carried out a massive amount of assistance," largely through its "heroic" Iraqi staff.
In the report to the council, Annan said very real progress has been made in the past few months in advancing basic human rights, but he added, "At the same time, the dangers posed by insurgents, whose attacks have been growing in sophistication and strength over the past months, are real."
Annan was asked by reporters in Geneva whether he had a timetable for returning international staff back into Iraq.
"No, I cannot have a timetable," he said. "It depends on the security situation. We need a secure environment to operate in and, of course, security is not just necessary for the United Nations staff, it's necessary for reconstruction, it's necessary for ordinary Iraqis and it's necessary for the United Nations and the humanitarian workers."
Said Annan: "As you all know, we had a great tragedy in Iraq last August and we need to be prudent. But as soon as the security situation permits, we will be back."
Asked about a directive by U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz excluding French, German and Russian companies for competing for $18.6 billion in contracts for Iraqi reconstruction, he replied by mentioning the advisory panel of representatives from the Middle East and the Security Council that he recently convened to work on Iraq.
Said Annan: "I have been doing what I can to unify the nations. I hope we will all take steps that are unifying, that bring us together to tackle this important issue in Iraq because no one is interested in a chaotic Iraq in the middle of that region. Stability of Iraq is everyone's business and we should pool our efforts and avoid steps and decisions that are divisive."
Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast, in discussing the report, said the world organization "was not involved in the political process inside Iraq right now."
He said, "It is very important that the political transition process should be fully transparent and fully inclusive."
Prendergast said, "This is an important opportunity to broaden the political base of the Governing Council and the provisional government that will emerge from that by bringing in elements that are not within the process right now and that is principally representatives of Arab, Sunni nationalism and also a broader perspective of Shiite opinion."
Said Prendergast, "We are not in a position to barge in from the side."
