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RI In the News - Violence Thwarts Help Needed in Iraq
11/01/2004
Violence Thwarts Help Needed in Iraq
By Steven Komarow and James Cox
USA TODAY
November 1, 2004
USA TODAY
November 1, 2004
WASHINGTON — Sean O'Sullivan set aside his career as a documentary filmmaker to rebuild homes destroyed in the war in Iraq. With a local partner, he co-founded JumpStart International, raised money and hired workmen in some of Iraq's toughest towns, including Fallujah.
But JumpStart will soon be going on without O'Sullivan, 40, or his business partner, Mohayman Al-Safar. O'Sullivan is leaving Iraq after 18 months, afraid that his presence endangers all around him. Al-Safar is already dead, targeted and gunned down in July at age 27.
"It's completely unacceptable, the level of risk," says O'Sullivan, who holds Irish and American passports. "It's basically suicidal to be a Westerner and a humanitarian worker in Baghdad right now."
....
Iraq is not a classic charity case, says Kenneth Bacon, a former Pentagon spokesman who heads Refugees International, a Washington advocate for those displaced by war or disaster. Unlike in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti or other places the West has tried to help, in Iraq there's no starvation or widespread disease. There is no refugee crisis. Still, Iraq is broken on a large scale. Only big contractors and military engineers can fix the electrical grid, oil fields and water and sewer systems. Luring Western experts means six-figure salaries.
But JumpStart will soon be going on without O'Sullivan, 40, or his business partner, Mohayman Al-Safar. O'Sullivan is leaving Iraq after 18 months, afraid that his presence endangers all around him. Al-Safar is already dead, targeted and gunned down in July at age 27.
"It's completely unacceptable, the level of risk," says O'Sullivan, who holds Irish and American passports. "It's basically suicidal to be a Westerner and a humanitarian worker in Baghdad right now."
....
Iraq is not a classic charity case, says Kenneth Bacon, a former Pentagon spokesman who heads Refugees International, a Washington advocate for those displaced by war or disaster. Unlike in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti or other places the West has tried to help, in Iraq there's no starvation or widespread disease. There is no refugee crisis. Still, Iraq is broken on a large scale. Only big contractors and military engineers can fix the electrical grid, oil fields and water and sewer systems. Luring Western experts means six-figure salaries.
Read the entire article at USA Today.
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