UN to send team to Iraq to help organize elections for next year [View All]

[LauraK]

16 July ? The United Nations is sending an electoral team to Baghdad early next month to help the newly constituted Iraqi Governing Council organize elections for next year "hopefully as early as possible," the top UN envoy to Iraq said today.

"Now, in other areas, the building of new democratic institutions, but more particularly in the political arena, the UN will be playing a very active role," Sergio Vieira de Mello, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative, told Syrian television in Damascus, where he met with Syrian President Bashar al Assad and Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara.

Mr. Vieira de Mello stressed the world body's humanitarian role - "If there has been no humanitarian crisis in Iraq, one keeps forgetting it is thanks to the United Nations' work there" - and its part in reconstruction with the hosting of a conference in October where donors will support the UN in assisting the reconstruction efforts in Iraq.
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