2 March 2007
A World Bank staffer was shot in the shoulder at a security check point in Baghdad last week.
Inter Press Service reported that the staffer was "very lucky" to be alive. He has been transported to a hospital in Amman, Jordan due to a lack of available medical supplies, electricity, and treatment in hospitals in Iraq.
This unfortunate incident comes at a time when President Wolfowitz has been pushing for increased World Bank involvement in Iraq. Wolfowitz's unrelenting drive to reopen the World Bank office in Iraq spurred a conflict with the organization's former chief of the Middle East and North Africa region who disagreed with Wolfowitz and subsequently led to the regional head's resignation. The Bank has not worked in Iraq since August 19, 2003, when a Bank staffer was killed at the U.N. headquarters' bombing in Baghdad.
Bank policy is to avoid involvement in a country until the security situation is stable and safe for employees. Some observers argue that Wolfowitz's insistence that the Bank move personnel into Iraq contradicts Bank rhetoric and traditional practice.
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