AMMAN, Sept 9 (AFP) - The coordinator of aid workers in Iraq Jean-Dominique Bunel said Thursday he has resigned and left the country in the wake of the abduction of two Italian colleagues because he no longer felt safe.
"I have resigned. I was threatened and it was agreed that I was in danger and they rushed me out," Bunel told AFP in a telephone interview shortly after landing in Jordan on his way back to France.
He added, however, that there was "nothing tangible" about the threats, which he described as "details perceived by the guards" protecting offices of relief organisations.
"I am burned out. I am tired and I am in shock," said the former coordinator of the Non-Government Coordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI), which oversaw around 50 NGOs in the embattled country.
Bunel said he also worked for the Italian charity Un Ponte Per Baghdad (A Bridge to Baghdad), which employed his colleagues Simona Toretta and Simona Pari.
The pair were abducted at gunpoint from their offices in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday along with an Iraqi female aid worker and an Iraqi male colleague. Their fate remains unknown and no demands have been made.
Bunel said around 50 expatriates worked for some 50 internationhal NGOs in Iraq and "a good 80 percent of them are leaving over the next 48 hours".
Bunel, who worked for relief missions in Kosovo and other world hot spots for different organisations, said aid workers in Iraq were constantly keeping a low profile.
"I kept a low profile. All of us did. In my case it meant no big cars, no weapons, no signs on the house.
"We also took precautions, we always changed our itinerary, we were followed by unarmed guards and our cars were shabby," he added.
But "a few days ago we got some worrisome indications that forced us to carry weapons and sleep elsewhere," he said, quicky adding that "there was nothing tangible".
Bunel said the abduction of the Italian women "took us by surprise (because) it did not correspond to what we were prepared for".
"What surprised us was their modus operandum, that it happened in broad daylight. It was an impudent act.
"Abducting three girls, it is very exceptional for Arabs," he said.
"At first we thought it was a criminal action, but now we simply don't understand," he added.