May 12 2004 at 12:33PM
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Baghdad - The planned pullout of Russian electricity workers from Iraq after the killing of a colleague and the kidnapping of two others has set back plans to rebuild the country's battered power industry, the head of electricity generation said on Wednesday.
Russian workers were involved in three key power station projects that had already been delayed because of the security crisis in the country amid warnings from the industry of 14-hour power cuts in the summer, said head of power generation Mohsen Hassan.
"There is a lot of work to be done in the current maintenance period but now there is a problem from the attacks and kidnapping," Hassan said.
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"This has given us a severe problem and stoppage of the work," he said. "Our target will be affected accordingly.
Russian firm Interenergoservis said it planned to evacuate about a third of its 340-strong staff by next Monday after a worker was shot and beaten to death and two others were kidnapped.
The three were returning to Baghdad after working on rebuilding an electric power plant located about 50km south of the Iraqi capital when they were attacked.
A group of Russian, Belarussian and Ukrainian workers were briefly taken hostage in Iraq last month.
One was released immediately and the others within 24 hours after the gunmen learned that most of them were from Russia - a country that furiously opposed the United States-led invasion of Iraq. Hundreds of Russians were pulled out in response to that incident.
Hassan said last month that work on refurbishing some 25 key power plants and building more than 10 new ones had been badly hit by the departure of foreign experts, while badly needed supply deliveries have been unable to reach the plants because of attacks on convoys.
Hassan said then there was no chance of reaching a target of generating 6 000 megawatts in July when oppressive temperatures in Iraq can exceed 50°C and electricity use surges because of demand for air conditioning. - Sapa-AFP
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