UNITED
NATIONS - In the past 10 years, 214 UN staff
were murdered but in only 7 percent of the cases
was
the killer brought to justice. One reason for
this lamentable result was that many victims were
nationals
of the country where the crime occurred and,
unaccountably, governments often appear less vigilant
than they
might be if foreign staff were involved. In a
number of states, working for the UN is frowned
upon.
Louise
Frechette, the deputy Secretary General, addressed
the problem of personnel security at a general
meeting the other day, an annual event devoted
to the subject. Inevitably, the attacks on New
York and Washington came up -- the UN is a declared
target of al Qaeda -- and she mentioned "considerable
fear" that the host city has not seen the
last of terrorism.
"There is also
great unease among
United Nations staff
throughout the world
that they, too, are
more vulnerable than
ever before," she
said. (Osama bin Laden
has called Kofi Annan
a "criminal" and
denounced the Organization
and its members.)
"Such eminently
understandable anxieties
come on top of the
already formidable
risks that United Nations
staff face in carrying
out their mission in
an era when civilians
are targeted for violence,
and when parties to
armed conflict shiow
little respect for
international law or
for relief workers
and others trying to
help the victims," Frechette
said. Four UN staff
lost their lives to
what she termed malicious
acts so far this year
and, in separate incidents,
two were seized and
held hostage.
Local personnel could
be imperiled by their
UN links, yet they
lacked the same level
of protections given
to internationally
recruited staff, she
noted.
Frechette
said that working
for the UN
carries "a certain
amount of risk," but
affirmed that Secretary
General Kofi Annan
was determined to do
everything possible
to provide staff with
the protection they
need and deserve. "The
menace of terrorism
demands us to be vigilant," she
said, pointing to enhanced
security at the New
York headquarters and
improvements in evacuation
procedures in case
of emergency. Similar
steps have been taken
at all UN duty stations.
But
more needs to be
done, she said,
because of "the
increasing number of
everyday threats in
zones of conflict and
disaster."
One
measure was to combat
the tendency
toward impunity for
the perpetrators, "by
arresting and prosecuting
to the full extent
of the law anyone who
attacks, maims or kills
United Nations or associated
personnel."
Evidently, this is
going to be more easily
said than done, since
less than one-third
of he membership are
parties to a convention
on UN personnel safety
that now has entered
into force with 62
states committed to
abide by its terms.
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