[lit-ideas] Denmark does the right thing...
- From: "Andreas Ramos" <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 13:18:39 -0700
Intl Herald Tribune
Denmark evacuates Iraqi employees and their relatives
By Stephen Farrell
Friday, July 20, 2007
Denmark has secretly airlifted about 200 Iraqi employees and their
relatives out of Iraq to prevent them from being killed after the
Danes withdraw their ground forces later this summer, the Danish
government said Friday.
Interpreters and other employees of foreign forces are prime targets
for Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias who accuse them of being
collaborators with the Americans.
The last of three secret flights departed Friday before dawn with 80
Iraqis on board, Jakob Winther, a Defense Ministry spokesman, told The
Associated Press.
Last month, Denmark's center-right government said it would offer
visas to Iraqi employees who wanted to apply for asylum.
"Out of concern for the interpreters and their families' security as
well as the security of the Danish base in Iraq, the Defense Ministry
has chosen to inform the public after the interpreters and others had
left Iraq," the ministry said.
Their departure comes a month before the scheduled withdrawal of 470
Danish ground troops from Iraq. They will be replaced by a helicopter
unit of 55 soldiers.
Lengthy lines of Danish vehicles have been seen in recent days
preparing for departure from the huge British military base in Basra.
which serves as a headquarters for Danish and other coalition forces
in southern Iraq.
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