Far less than a half of an expected number are leaving, say ministerial spokesmen. There were 816 on initial evacuee lists, but a majority determined to stay and go on with their duties in Iraq. A mere twenty five out of a total 320 employees of Russia's private Interenergoservice Co. agreed to leave Baghdad, says Alexander Strakhov of the Russian Embassy to Iraq. The situation worries him, the diplomat said to Novosti. A company employee got several bullet wounds 90 kilometres off Baghdad, yesterday. No details of the drama have reached the embassy for now. The man had urgent surgery in a US hospital, and is out of fatal danger. Mr. Strakhov hopes the incident will convince other company workers to leave.
Terrorists seized three Russians and five Ukrainians-all Interenergoservice men employed at a thermal power plant in Baghdad-early this week, and released them the next morning. The kidnap was a sheer misunderstanding, said their captors. That was a first attack on Russians in Iraq.
Among the evacuees are four employees of the Gorky Autoworks, one of Russia's biggest automotive companies. The men appeared in Iraq three months ago to receive export batches of their company's cars and get service stations going. The Gorky Autoworks has three current contracts with Iraq to supply 5,000 Volga cars and 3,280 lorries, company spokesmen said to Novosti.
Evacuation will go on tomorrow, with a flight or two to get seventy Russians and people from other CIS countries out of Baghdad, announced a ministerial officer.
Coalition forces will do all they can to ensure Russians' safe evacuation, reassures Alexander Vershbow, US Ambassador to Russia. He is glad explicit understandings have been made to arrange emergency flights, he said to newsmen in Moscow today.
