IRAQ: RUSSIAN POWER PLANT WORKERS LEAVE IRAQ AFTER TWO EMPLOYEES KILLED IN AMBUSH.

Record ID: 648439

  • Title: IRAQ: RUSSIAN POWER PLANT WORKERS LEAVE IRAQ AFTER TWO EMPLOYEES KILLED IN AMBUSH.
  • Date: 27th May 2004
  • Summary: (W3) BAGHDAD, IRAQ) (MAY 27, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. GV/GV/PAN: GROUP OF RUSSIAN WORKERS FROM INTERENERGOSERVIS LEAVING THEIR HOUSE AND WALKING TO THE BUS; RUSSIAN WORKERS HUGGING EACH OTHER GOODBYE; RUSSIAN WORKERS STEP INTO BUS (3 SHOTS) 0.34 2. (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN WORKER SPEAKING: "I am leaving for Russia today; we've completed our contract. I have worked two months here, but it's getting dangerous here. The management asked me to stay for another 10 days, but I called home and it's a complete disaster there, so I am leaving." 0.57 3. MV: RUSSIAN WORKERS HUGGING EACH OTHER (2 SHOTS) 1.10 4. (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN WORKER LAUGHING AND HUGGING ANOTHER WORKER, BEGINS BY RECITING SOME POETRY: "They will not offer you to put heavy stones on your shoulder; to live with such people is to be like a soldier, and you need so little to wipe away the sweat." HE THEN SAYS: "It is great what we have constructed here and we have done it." 1.27 5. GV/MV/LV/PAN: MORE RUSSIAN WORKERS GOING INTO THE BUS; ONE OF THE WORKERS HANDS A PIECE OF PAPER TO SOMEONE THROUGH THE WINDOW; BUS LEAVING THE AREA (3 SHOTS) 1.55 6. GV: ANOTHER BUS LEAVING, WORKER WAVING GOODBYE FROM THE BUS; BUSES LEAVING AND HEAVY IRAQI POLICE SECURITY (2 SHOTS) 2.18 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 11th June 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVAQYH8V6CYSZKLPXSN9ZJX9XF0
  • Story Text: Russian power plant workers leave Iraq after two
    Russian workers and two Iraqis die in an ambush.



    About 90 Russian workers evacuated Baghdad on
    Thursday (May 27) after two employees were killed in an
    ambush the previous day.

    An Emergencies Ministry aircraft left Russia early on
    Thursday morning to pick up the Interenergoservis workers
    and fly them back to safety. They are due to arrive in
    Moscow on Thursday evening.

    One worker said he was glad to be going home.

    "I am leaving for Russia today; we've completed our
    contract. I have worked two months here, but it's getting
    dangerous here. The management asked me to stay for another
    10 days, but I called home and it's a complete disaster
    there, so I am leaving."
    Some 234 Interenergoservis specialists are currently in
    Iraq. Another plane was due to evacuate more of them on
    Friday.

    Two of the company's employees were killed on Wednesday
    (May 26) when the bus taking them to work was ambushed and
    riddled with bullets.

    At least five of their workmates were injured, some of
    them seriously. Two Iraqis, described by Russian media as
    the bus driver and a guard, were also killed in the attack.

    A surgeon at Yarmouk hospital said one of the Russian
    workers was dead on arrival whilst the other died of this
    wounds shortly after he got there.

    Employees of Russian firms in Iraq often come from
    other former Soviet states.

    Two Russian engineers working for Interenergoservis
    were abducted for about a week in Iraq earlier in May after
    their car was ambushed. One of their colleagues was shot
    dead. Eight employees were also held and released last
    month.

    The firm evacuated 109 workers after the abduction
    incident.

    Russian Television said that the 13 employees on the
    bus were moving for safety reasons into accommodation at
    the power station, among the last workers to be transferred.

    Russia, along with France and Germany, opposed the
    U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein.

    Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that
    Moscow wanted assurances that a credible transitional
    government would be formed before it could back a new U.N.

    Security Council resolution sponsored by the United States
    and Britain.


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