Mine clearance worker shot dead as more NGOs downsize

An international bomb disposal expert for the UK-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG) was shot dead and his colleague seriously injured while driving along a main road towards Mosul in northern Iraq last Thursday. "Their vehicle was clearly marked and MAG is well known in the area," information manager for MAG, Sean Sutton, told IRIN on Tuesday from Manchester, UK. "We are in the process of reviewing the situation to see which work can be carried out safely," he added. Ian Rimell, 53, from the UK, and local employee Salem Ahmed Mohammed were on their way home from work when their vehicle was ambushed on 4 September. "MAG's staff are devastated by the loss of their good friend and colleague," Lou McGrath, MAG's Executive Director, said in a statement. "He was a dedicated humanitarian who worked so well with the local people. Our thoughts are with the families and our prayers are with Salem as he remains in a serious condition. We are further reviewing our areas of operation in Iraq following this attack." The NGO has not pulled out its international staff, but discussions over how its work should continue are being held. Rimell, who was awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM), joined MAG in January 2003 after a lengthy career in bomb disposal. He was married with three children. "He was particularly dedicated to passing on his vast experience to the local staff. Earlier in the day [on which he was killed] Mr Rimmel had cleared a scrap heap filled with ammunition and hidden explosives. He later delivered the valuable scrap for the rebuilding of a local school," the statement added. "MAG is pleading with the authorities and the international community to get a grip on security so that it can be given humanitarian space to continue life-saving work," Sutton said. The NGO has been working in Iraq for more than a decade and has some 700 local staff in the north of the country. Since the end of the recent war, nearly a million explosive items have been cleared by MAG workers. News of Rimell's death came as another NGO announced it was downscaling operations in the country. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has withdrawn all international staff saying that the "security situation and the weak position of the UN," had prompted its decision. "The security situation has affected our work indirectly as possible partners we were supposed to be working with have withdrawn, making our work impossible," the head of NRC's international department, Barte Vandvik, told IRIN from the Norwegian capital, Oslo. "Our decision was based on both the recent big security incidents and the smaller ones too, not just in Iraq but in northern Iraq as well." Vandvik explained that local staff would be paid three months' salary, but if the security situation were to change they would be re-employed. However, he was not optimistic, noting: "Realistically I don't think security will be different in two to three weeks, but the final decision for termination has not been made yet." The NRC was in a position of transition with its work when the decision was made to withdraw international staff. "We were starting up a project with UNHCR, looking at building shelters and were about to become operational but hadn't actually started it," Vandik said. The NGO had signed an agreement with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) last April to be in charge of monitoring the refugee situation and to coordinate humanitarian aid to internally displaced people in the regions of Kirkuk, in the north of the country, and Babil in the south. Other aid agencies have also scaled down operations in the wake of last month's bombing of the UN headquarters in Iraq. The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) has cut international staff by half; Save the Children has said it is reviewing security; Oxfam has closed its operations, at least temporarily, while Handicap International has consolidated its offices.