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Murder at the Canal Hotel


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By John Metzler
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

Tuesday, November 4, 2003

UNITED NATIONS Ñ In a scathing indictment of its security lapses and systems failures, an Independent Report on the bombing of the UNÕs Baghdad headquarters, reveals a top to bottom failure in the ways in which the world organization protected one of its most vulnerable outposts. The Report dealing with the August terrorist bombing of its headquarters in which twenty-two staff and visitors were killed including the UNÕs leading official in country Sergio Vieira de Mello, offered an damning indictment of a security system in Iraq which was in a word Ñ Òdysfunctional.Ó

Shortly after the disaster in which Iraqi terrorists hit the UNÕs Baghdad facility,at the Canal Hotel, Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed an independent panel to assess the tragedy and to analyze the gaping failure. The conclusions reached by Martti Ahtisaari, a former President of Finland, and a team of Irish and Finnish security experts, point to a series of serious oversights which quite plainly, were an disaster waiting to happen. The conclusions were hardly diplomatic.

In the searingly poignant forty-page Report, the reader finds a less than reassuring, may I say Òawareness,Ó of realities, despite the UNÕs operating in a high risk environment.

Among the findings of the Ahtisaari Report:

1. ÒThe UN security management system failed in its mission to provide adequate security to UN staff in Iraq. The security awareness within the country team did not match the hostile environment. The observance and implementation of security regulations and procedures were sloppy and non-compliance with security rules commonplace.Ó

2. ÒThe main conclusion of the Panel is that the current security management system is dysfunctional. It provides little guarantee of security to UN staff in Iraq or other high risk environments and needs to be reformed.Ó

3. ÒLack of accountability for the decisions and positions taken by UN managers with regard to the security of UN staff. The UN needs a new culture of accountability in security managemen.Ó

4. ÒThere is no place without risk in Iraq.Ó Though the longtime UN presence is Iraq was focused on humanitarian needs, that in itself was not a guarantee of safety.

A major shortfall was the almost Pollyanna like view that the UN flag in itself was the best defense Ñ this no doubt reflected part of the problem with the recent tragedy at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Defiance of international institutions and humanitarian agencies is commonplace by terrorists and the view that SaddamÕs loyalists would somehow ÒrespectÓ the UN was as foolhardy as it was idiotic.

The explosives-laden truck bomb- sped to a part of the complex just outside the exposed Òsitting duckÓ office of the respected humanitarian figure Sergio de Mello. Some sources feel that many Iraqi guardsÑsome of the same people who worked with Saddam in guarding and might we say monitoring UN HQ Ñ conveniently looked the other way to the suicide attackers.

Later the Report added ÒAt the time of the attack on the Canal Hotel, UN staff had risen to approximately 350 Ñ independent estimates put UN staff numbers in Baghdad as high as 550, with possibly 900 in the country.Ó The Report states flatly ÒThe fact that some agencies were in blatant non-compliance in relation to staff lists led to a difficult situation on 19 August when no one could give accurate numbers of the staff in the Canal Hotel, or account for other staff in the country who could be in danger.Ó

This litany of tragic failure goes beyond incompetence and mismanagement. The UN Staff Union feels that Òthe report raises more questions than it answers with regard to the role of senior UN officialsÓ and feels the Report should be recognized as Òonly the beginning of what must be a thorough and transparent investigative process.Ó

Beyond the obvious, why is this important? Currently the UN hosts 91 hazardous missions globally with 40,000 staff. Given the number of field missions and the threat from terrorism, the Baghdad bombing could be an inspiration to other violent movements. The UN was tragically jolted into the post-September 11th world of terrorism without borders.

John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.

Tuesday, November 4, 2003




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