BAGHDAD (January 24, 2005) - In a special ceremony at the Baghdad International airport on Monday morning, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi welcomed the first wave of international election observers who will monitor the upcoming national election in Iraq on January 30. It was a medium-size group, consisting of 13 from the Ukraine, 3 from the Fiji Islands, 2 from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and even 1 from North Korea. Kojo Annan, the son of Mr. Kofi Annan, the Secretary General, was the only representative of the United Nations in this group. Mr. Kofi Annan explained in an exclusive interview with the New York Times, that because of the huge financial expenses for the Tsunami disaster and the Oil-for-Food investigation, the U. N. can only afford to send one observer. "I even paid for my son's airplane ticket with my own money," Mr. Annan said.
The ceremony was overshadowed a little bit by the decision of the European Union in Brussels, not to send any "European human shield volunteers" to protect the voting booths in Iraq. In the prewar period in 2002-2003, European human shield volunteers were sent to Iraq to protect Saddam Hussein government facilities by chaining themselves to the building. A spokesman for the European Union explained that although the European human shield volunteers proved to be very effective "against American bombs and rockets," it was "too uncertain" to know how effective they will work now, especially against "modern weaponry outside the Geneva convention" like IED, suicide car bombs and beheading.
Missing in action will be also the venerable former President Carter. He has been a constant figure on the international election observation scene for decades. Since leaving office in 1981, President Carter has observed a total of 2, 189 elections on the planet Earth alone. In an interview with the BBC today, Mr. Carter said, he regretted the absence, but he already planned to "fix the old garage sidings at his home in Plains on this Sunday, January 30, 2005," an important thing that he could not postpone. He wished that Prime Minister Allawi could move the election to a location, closer to his home like Cuba, so that he could do it in an "one-day trip."
