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POLITICS: U.N. Workers Question Headquarters Security

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 21 2003 (IPS) - One of the first known terrorist attacks on the United Nations occurred when the late Ernesto Che Guevara, a disciple of Cuban President Fidel Castro, was at the headquarters building in New York City to address the General Assembly session in December 1964.

The charismatic Argentinean-born Cuban revolutionary, still venerated by guerrilla fighters and their sympathisers throughout the world, was at the podium in the cavernous Assembly hall when his speech was momentarily drowned out by the sound of an explosion.

Anti-Castro forces in the United States, backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), had mounted an insidious campaign to stop Che Guevara from speaking.

A 9-cm U.S.-made bazooka was fired at the 39-storey U.N. building next to the East River while a noisy CIA-inspired anti-Castro, anti-Che Guevara demonstration was happening outside the building on New York’s First Avenue.

But the anti-tank rocket launcher – presumably not as sophisticated as today’s shoulder-fired missiles and rocket-propelled grenades- missed its target and fell into the river.

One newspaper report at that time described it as ”one of the wildest episodes since the United Nations moved into its East River headquarters in 1952”.

After his speech, Che Guevara was asked about the attack aimed at him. ”The explosion has given the whole thing more flavour,” he joked, as he chomped on his Cuban cigar.

But in these days of multiple suicide bombings and growing attacks on international institutions, no U.N. staff member is willing to joke about a possible hit on the world body’s headquarters in New York.

Asked about Sunday’s killing of a U.N. relief worker in Afghanistan, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters that the United Nations is no longer sacred.

”We have seen bombs and attacks go on all around us, and we have also seen the United Nations itself and the blue flag targeted directly,” he said.

Annan said that even ”neutral” humanitarian organisations such as the Red Cross and the Red Crescent are no longer immune from attacks.

”We are living in a very difficult and a dangerous world … I think measures are being taken to ensure that we have better protection and better security for our staff.”

”I can assure you that, in my contacts with the (U.N.) ambassadors around this building, they are very conscious of the dangers we live in,” he added.

But Guy Candusso, vice president of the U.N. Staff Union, thinks management is not doing enough to protect the nearly 5,000 employees who work in the headquarters building. ”We made two proposals to the management, both of which were rejected,” he told IPS.

The first proposal was that all persons entering the U.N. premises should go through metal detectors. The second was that all staff should have gas masks in case of a chemical or biological attack.

Currently, there are no security checks on diplomats, U.N. staff members and resident correspondents who enter the building. U.N. security officers also do not inspect any of the vehicles ferrying the 191 permanent representatives to the building almost every day.

”If a permanent representative should refuse to have the vehicle inspected, allow the representative to pass and enter, but note the delegation, name, date and time and report it…” says a management message to security officers.

”Security is as strong as its weakest link,” said Candusso, arguing that the management is dead wrong to make exceptions. ”Everyone, including ambassadors, entering the building should be subject to security checks,” he added.

The U.N. diplomatic community, conscious of its privileges and immunities, recently protested a smoking ban imposed by the secretariat.

When the ban came into effect Sep. 1, Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavarov was quoted as saying: ”The U.N. secretary-general can by all means tell his underlings what to do, but not members of diplomatic missions. The U.N. building is owned by all the member nations, while the secretary-general is just a hired manager.”

Annan said Thursday that growing new threats will compel him to demand additional resources to strengthen security in New York and in U.N. operations overseas.

But Candusso said the recent report from a panel of experts, headed by former Finnish president Maarti Ahtisaari, had pointed out that the security budget has already skyrocketed: from about one million dollars to about 75 million dollars.

”You can increase security spending even up to one billion dollars, but that is not going to resolve the problem,” Candusso added.

”We have a dysfunctional security system – and no one seems to be accountable for what’s going on. There has to be accountability at all levels of management – from the bottom to the top,” he said.

Candusso also said the management seems to be ”looking for scapegoats downwards- not upwards”.

In a videotaped message last November, the head of the al-Qaeda terrorist group, Osama bin Laden, denounced the United Nations as an agent of the United States and ”nothing but a tool of crime”.

Since then, the world body has been hit by two suicide bombings, both in Iraq. The first bomb on Aug. 19 claimed the lives of 22 staffers, including Under-Secretary-General Sergio Vieira de Mello, who headed the agency’s operations in Iraq.

At least 150 others were injured in the bombing, many severely.

The second attack took place Sep. 22, unnerving U.N. employees further. An attack on the Red Cross in October claimed the lives of more than 20 people, mostly Iraqis.

Following the bombings, two U.N. officials, Ramiro Lopes da Silva, acting special representative of Annan in Iraq, and Tun Myat, U.N. security coordinator, were forced to step down in early November.

But no one at the highest levels of management in New York has been held accountable for the breaches of security.

Asked about this, Annan said: ”We should not create the impression that we are going after a witch hunt in situations where there’s a lot of trauma and we are dealing with a tragedy.”

But he admitted that investigations so far have indicated there has been ”serious negligence”.

Last month the U.N. chief named a four-member team of experts “to determine accountability at all managerial levels at headquarters and in the field”. The team is headed by Gerald Walzer, a former U.N. deputy high commissioner for refugees.

”We will take action,” Annan added, “but I do not want to pre-judge the outcome of the investigation.”