UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations must beef up its security system to protect UN personnel and humanitarian workers, concluded a special meeting of experts on Friday, who also said the neutral image of the United Nations had been damaged in Iraq.

“After Baghdad: UN workers under the gun” was the theme of the summit on staff security meeting organized by the UN Staff Union.

“The UN name, the UN flag, the colour of blue — none of these are any more protection for us,” said Salim Lone, former director of communications for the UN mission in Iraq. “And what is worse, they are actually now becoming targets. This is a very sobering realization.”

Lone was in the UN compound in Baghdad on Aug 19 when a bomb attack claimed the lives of 22 of his colleagues, including Undersecretary-General Sergio Viera de Mello, who headed the mission.

The president of the General Assembly called the tragedy “a defining moment for the United Nations”, although it was not the first time that UN workers died on duty. More than 2,000 civilian staff and peacekeepers have been killed since the founding of the United Nations, with 141 losing their lives this year.

All speakers agreed that one of the most important points was local attitudes towards UN missions in the field. “We have to really look on how we are perceived,” said Steven Johnson, representing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“We may wish every act of the UN to be seen as neutral and impartial,” but, he added, the United Nations is sometimes perceived as “hitting people over the head with sanctions and then the next day (we) expect them to welcome (us), when (we) provide them with food. We have to understand it does not work that way.”

He also criticized the high concentration of Western personnel on humanitarian missions.

“We should actually encourage third world nationals to also go, with the funding of donor countries,” Johnson said. He recommended employing organizations like the Iranian Red Cross and the Ethiopian Rescue Service as a way to “de-Westernize the perception of aid.”

“We must make sure that none of our international institutions are seen as working in the interest of the big powers,” stressed Lone. “This is a crucial challenge for the Security Council, for the General Assembly and the Secretary-General, as well as all the staff.”

He pointed out that in Iraq, the United Nations was viewed as a part of the occupying power. A recent report from a panel of experts headed by former Finnish president Maarti Ahtisaari described the UN security management in Iraq as “dysfunctional”.

After the attack in Baghdad, the secretary-general called upon all UN agencies and programmes to conduct in-depth reviews of security measures.

This reorganization will be completed by “the end of next year, probably”, Undersecretary-General Catherine Bertini told IPS. “We want to approach the member states for an increase in security funding January or February next year.”

One of the first measures to be taken is the installation of anti-shatter film on all windows of UN facilities in New York — a point that the Ahtisaari report regarded as crucial. The film cuts down on flying glass fragments in case of an explosion, and is expected to cost about a million dollars, said Bertini.

“We are also going to review the issue of people coming in and out of the building,” Bertini told IPS. Currently there are no security checks on diplomats, UN staff members and resident correspondents at headquarters. She added that the UN building in Vienna had a very sophisticated security system, which may be a model for the UN headquarters in New York.

“We are going to get what is appropriate,” Bertini said. “We can look at other high rises, but of course we have certain special issues as United Nations.”

Several speakers called upon member states to ratify the convention on the safety of the United Nations and associated personnel. So far, only one-third of the member states signed the convention, which came into force in 1999.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.