Iraq has expelled four Nigerians and a Bosnian working for the United Nations oil-for-food humanitarian program in Baghdad for what it called an infringement of its national security.
Senior UN officials protested but withdrew the four Nigerians, three men and a woman, for safety reasons, according to letters circulated to the UN Security Council.
The fifth, a Bosnian woman, had left Iraq before the expulsion order, delivered to UN officials on Sunday.
Iraq gave no details of the complaints against the five. The Foreign Affairs Ministry, in a note to the United Nations, said the staff members were persona non grata and should leave the country within 72 hours.
They are not allowed to enter Iraqi territory. This is due to their performing of activities that infringe on the national security of the Republic of Iraq, which are inconsistent with their assigned responsibilities, the note said.
Security Council members were studying the order but some said they suspected Iraq was protesting the entire UN program, which it considers as prolonging sanctions imposed after Baghdad's troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
Mr Benon Sevan, the UN under-secretary-general in charge of the Iraqi program, said Baghdad had not provided any detail or supporting evidence to charges leveled against the five staff members, according to his letter to Baghdad's U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri.
He said the action contravened international accords but he had decided to request the five, whom he described as senior officials, leave purely out of concern for their personal safety and security.