PRESS BRIEFING BY UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COORDINATOR

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COORDINATOR

“We are good targets, and in fact, also soft targets because there is no protection”, Benon Sevan, United Nations Security Coordinator, told correspondents at a press briefing at Headquarters this afternoon.

In assessing the current state of the United Nations security management system, he recalled that when he began in his post seven years ago, the office had but two staff members. Today there were nine for 150 missions. Mr. Sevan stated that it was now “a full-time job requiring full-time attention with a full-time component of staff resources”.

He said he still felt the arrangements were “makeshift”, in trying to deal with demanding situations around the world. As evidence, the Security Coordinator cited the fact that only three culprits in the 177 cases involving the violent death of United Nations system personnel had been brought to justice by their national governments.

Regarding the recent killings in West Timor and Guinea, he said he believed the Organization had not gone beyond expressions of sorrow. Continuing, Mr. Sevan said, “We just cannot allow civilian personnel to go to extremely dangerous places where governments will not send their own troops”. The fact was that civilian staff were in place before peacekeeping operations started, and that they remained behind even after troops left the scene.

The danger of being killed was not the only problem, he pointed out, since there was a new phenomenon in which some 240 staff members had been taken hostage or kidnapped since January 1994. This situation was the reason the Secretary-General had issued his report on Safety and security of United Nations personnel (document A/55/494) pursuant to General Assembly resolutions 54/192 of 17 December 1999 and 54/249 of 23 December 1999.

According to the Secretary-General’s report, the Office of the United Nations Security Coordinator, created in 1988, needed to be strengthened. The purpose was to professionalize the United Nations security management, and to provide training to the staff so they could go to places with security arrangements which had been missing. Unfortunately, the trust fund for training established by the Secretary-General and financed almost entirely by the Government of Japan, had spent more than one half of the $1.2 million.

In addition, Mr. Sevan called for funding to obtain the best and most compatible equipment for security management. Further, he wished to bring about and establish “a line of authority -- discipline -- which is also lacking”. It was imperative for the United Nations to have a well-managed security system to provide the necessary assessments for missions and prior to sending staff members to dangerous areas.

Sevan Press Briefing - 2 - 23 October 2000

Some governments would be surprised by the size of the expenditure proposed, which the Secretary-General put at $30 million per year. Mr. Sevan believed that amount was required because there had been very little invested on security. His office budget was only $600,000 per year. “People don’t realize the problems involved unless they see it in the Secretariat News”, he added.

Were the security measures that he was talking about conditional on getting $30 million? one correspondent asked. The money requested would be for the next biennium budget, Mr. Sevan replied. The Secretary-General was calling for a staff component of 18 people in New York, and 60 in the field, with an increase in the number of security officers in the field to 100.

Another correspondent wanted to know if the Security Coordinator thought the funding would be provided. He responded that, in his view, if there was no money, no people should go to the mission.

A correspondent requested an accounting of how many places Mr. Sevan felt were secure for staff. He said he did not like to depend upon the host government for the security and safety of staff, because people were sent to areas where there was no government. “We also send people to areas where the government itself is in a situation where it cannot protect itself”, he said. It was not sufficient to say the primary responsibility lay with the host government. By having the necessary security assessment, preventive measures could be taken, or a decision could be made not to send staff to areas where security measures were not in place.

Answering a question on why the increased resources were being sought now, Mr Sevan said he thought the Secretary-General was the first to see the magnitude of the problem of security arrangements because of his previous experience as a Security Coordinator. He also pointed to the concern of Deputy- Secretary-General Frechette. But there were others in the Secretariat who looked more closely at ledgers than at the overall requirements. In fact, he said, expenditures for security had decreased.

A correspondent referred to the petition of global staff on the safety and security of staff, presently with more than 10,000 signatures and due to be given to the Security Council. Mr. Sevan said he welcomed the efforts to sensitize people about security matters, but also took note of the fact that very few staff members attended the annual tribute to mission staff killed. He called on staff to make more of a commitment. He closed by noting that follow- up was crucial, and delegations must wake up to the problem, not only when one of their nationals was killed, because “when anyone of us is hurt, we all get hurt”.

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