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UN's Algiers Bombing Accountability
Report Is Late, Amid Music for Baghdad
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, August 19 -- As
the UN commemorated the deadly bombing of its headquarters in the Canal
Hotel
in Baghdad five years ago, the supposed deadline had passed for its
report
imposing personal accountability for the deaths from the blast of its
premises
in Algiers last December. On June
24, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he
"accepted Mr. Brahimi's suggestion that a group headed by Ralph Zacklin
urgently examine this question of individual accountability and report
its
results to him within a period of six weeks."
But nearly seven weeks
later, with no report submitted or released, Inner
City Press on August 19
asked Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq
Inner
City Press: on the follow-up on the Algiers bombing of the UN premises,
the
second report, the so-called accountability report, the Brahimi report,
what
was the deadline for it to be done and where does it stand?
Associate
Spokesperson Haq: As you know, there was
a two-month deadline from the start of that body's work; Ralph Zacklin,
as you
know, is the head of that body and he and that group are proceeding
with the
work and as far as I am aware, the report is not finished yet. It’s still in the process of being finalized.
Again, Ban Ki-moon did not announce a two-month
deadline, but rather six
weeks, which has expired. Inner City Press has fielded complaints
that the Zacklin
panel's interviews were disproportionately directed at relatively lower
level
staff, who were not allowed to be accompanied by the UN Staff Union
much less
by lawyers. Personal accountability, indeed.
Ban Ki-moon and violinist, Zacklin accountability report not shown
When the report is belatedly released, watch to see if it takes into
account how concern
about the investment climate in Algeria kept the threat level
artificially low. Even the
redacted Brahimi report issued by the UN raises questions of
accountability. It states for example "the
Designated Official was neither forceful nor persistent with the
Algerian authorities to insist on the security measures
requested of the Government." (Page 25). This
Designated Officer was, in fact, an
official of the UN
Development Program, Marc de Bernis. As
is so
often the case with UNDP, de Bernis
not only didn't press the host country government in any way -- he
allowed
himself and the UN system safety issues to be marginalized. The
UN-released
Brahimi report stated
"As noted in the preliminary
DSS report on the 11 December 2007 attack, all contact by the UN
Designated
Official for Security (DO) and the Security Adviser (SA) with the
national
security authorities occurred through the Director General for Protocol
(DGP)
at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). This restricted contact with
security
agencies was not limited to the UN; diplomatic missions in Algiers also
conduct
their security relations through the DGP/MFA. This is the practice in a
number
of other countries."
Having
access to the preliminary
DSS report, we find in paragraph 7 that
there
was an exception, for "large embassies." Why didn't the UN, with
multiple agencies represented in Algeria, get for itself as much access
as
large embassies of its member states?
At Tuesday's memorial event, the President of the UN
Staff Union stressed "the obligation of
those who
call upon UN staff to serve in difficult and dangerous parts of the
world to
take whatever action is necessary to ensure staff safety and security,
including public relations efforts to cultivate the understanding that
the UN
is a neutral, benevolent organization."
Then a four-movement composition by Steve Heitzog
was unveiled. As played by the Daedalus
Quartet, the music
was moving. Mr. Heitzog's written "Notes" describes "an explosively
ugly chord" then a "delicate
theme pitched in C major that is transparent and healing." One can only
hope.
Several attendees at Tuesday's service mentioned
Samantha Power's book
"Chasing the Flame." Inner City Press' copy is double dog-earred at
page 465, where it is reported that "CNN did have a crew on the scene
who
at the time of the blast had been filming a press conference on the
UN's
de-mining efforts." Multiple sources have told Inner City Press that
Ms.
Power has fielded complaints that it was in fact a different network
which was
the only TV crew in the building at the time. Watch for the errata. And
click
here for Inner City Press' story on Ms. Power's related endeavor funded
by
Ebay's founders, "Chasing the
Flame with Cheese Cubes," a/k/a fondue.
There is also word in the building of a potential
settlement payment to
families of victims of the Algiers bombing. We will continue to dig
into this.
Footnote:
Ralph Zacklin was
previously an Assistant Secretary General in the UN's Office of Legal
Affairs.
That position was re-filled
on Tuesday, with Denmark's Peter Taksoe-Jensen. Inner
City Press had previously on
July 25 predicted that Taksoe-Jensen
would get Nicolas Michel's job atop the Office of Legal Affairs. In
fact, Taksoe-Jensen
will be deputy to Ireland's Patricia O'Brien. When we're wrong, we're
wrong....
Watch
this
site. And this (on
South Ossetia), and
this --
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