PRESS BRIEFING ON DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH DETAINED STAFF MEMBERS

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING ON DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH DETAINED STAFF MEMBERS

At a Headquarters press briefing today to mark the Day of Solidarity with Detained Staff Members, Staff Committee President Rosemarie Waters called on governments to ratify the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel. The Convention, adopted by the General Assembly in 1994, had been signed by 43 Member States. Seventeen countries had ratified it. But the Convention needed 22 ratifications to enter into force.

Former Under-Secretary-General and hostage negotiator, Giandomenico Picco, also addressed correspondents on the occasion and answered questions on staff security.

Proposing other security measures for staff, Ms. Waters said security awareness must be raised throughout the United Nations system and that staff must be trained in the field. On that particular issue, the press could be very effective by continuing to cover the situations where United Nations staff were in danger and to highlight the perils of peacekeeping missions throughout the world.

She said 219 civilian staff had died since 1992 while serving the United Nations; 130 staff members had been taken hostage in 43 separate incidents in 1994; and at least 55 staff members were detained or missing -- some cases dating back to 1976.

She recalled that at the First Summit on International Security and Independence, held at Headquarters on 25 February, Secretary-General Kofi Annan had painted a bleak picture of United Nations staff increasingly being the targets of aggression and violence.

Promoted by the Staff Union's Committee for the Security and Independence of the International Civil Service, Ms. Waters said the Day marked the date of abduction, 13 years ago in Lebanon, of Alec Collet, a staff of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). His whereabouts were still unknown. Mr. Collet's wife, Elaine, a Headquarters staff member, was at today's press conference.

"In his honour, we honoured all of our colleagues today in similar situations", she added.

Continuing, she said the annual observance of the Day underscored the need to resolve the cases of missing staff members and ensure the release of those detained.

In a brief introduction, former Under-Secretary-General Picco said the conduct of international relations today was changing dramatically. People now had the courage to speak the truth. Some of the old taboos had collapsed.

One of those taboos was the belief that the principle of impartiality worked. Impartiality did not work. Those who abused United Nations personnel did not care about the principle of impartiality because they did not believe in it. Credibility was most important.

Asked who should be blamed for undermining United Nations's impartiality, Mr. Picco said there were two sides to a coin. The United Nations staff must be more credible, not impartial. Citing his experience in hostage negotiations, he said, "People wanted credibility -- being prepared to stick by what you say and live by your commitments and your principles. That was how to get an edge".

Asked why only 43 countries had signed the Convention so far, Mr. Picco said such conventions ratified an already existing mood in the international community; they were not really the beginning of something, but the end of a process. It would have been more rewarding if more than 43 out of 185 States had signed the Convention. It was a weak one, and there was no reason why States would not sign it.

He said many countries often confused power with sovereignty. Governments and States gave up sovereignty every day when they entered into bilateral agreement. They got better deals for their own people from such agreements, and their own people, in turn, gave such governments more legitimacy, thus more power. Most governments or States often pretended to be defending their sovereignty when, in fact, they were defending power.

A correspondent wanted to know if there were differences between the new Convention and the Vienna Convention. Ms. Waters said there was actually very little difference between the two. The new Convention did not more extensively cover United Nations staff than the Vienna Convention. However, it did add a component of staff for the broader family of all organizations.

Asked to speak directly to the American political leadership which was essentially southern and suspicious of those from the north, immigrants and international organizations, Mr. Picco said the tendency to indulge in plot theories was worldwide, especially among groups and individuals who were basically insecure and weak. By devising plot theory, such groups basically justified their impotence.

Such attitude was not particularly characteristic of the American south, but of many other groups confronting the unknown, he continued. The fear of the unknown was common all over the world. There was no desire to want to know, what they did not know, and that was very sad.

"To know more about what I don't know today is probably one of the reasons why I would like to be alive tomorrow", he added.

Asked why attacks on United Nations staff had been increasing, Mr. Picco said terrorist groups today had greater access to information and to other

Staff Committee Briefing - 3 - 25 March 1998

groups suffering from the same inferiority complex than they did a decade ago. They abused people to prove something to themselves.

Asked what concrete solutions she had to security threats to staff, Ms. Waters said the Summit on International Security of Staff had decided that the United Nations needed to take a much more proactive look at the issue. By the time the issue of staff security came up, people had already been damaged in some way, either they had been detained or killed.

One method being explored was the creation of a handbook for staff in the field so that they could learn how to better protect themselves, Ms. Waters continued. Other proposals included security training for staff on field assignments; providing adequate information on local political and social situations; security coordination through the establishment of an inter-agency body; and debriefing and stress management counselling after field assignment.

She said the Secretary-General had been requested to personally initiate calls to all governments to ratify the Convention. Only the Secretary-General could impress it upon States the importance of United Nations staff in the field. They were there to do a job, and they were not there for political reasons.

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