In letter to staff, Annan outlines steps to improve security for UN worldwide

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced today that he was appointing an independent team of experts to “review the responsibilities of key individuals for the lack of preventive and mitigating actions before the attack on 19 August” which killed 22 persons in the UN headquarters in Baghdad and left scores wounded.

The Secretary-General announced the panel in a letter to all UN staff in which he promised to do his “utmost to ensure that such failures are not repeated either in Iraq or elsewhere.” Besides the work of the panel, he said he would personally review “the serious weaknesses that have been revealed in the management of our security system.” The letter also outlined steps he had taken immediately after the bombing.

Mr. Annan indicated that his letter to staff was in response to the report of a UN-commissioned panel to investigate the bombings – led by Martti Ahtisaari, a former President of Finland – which found the UN security systems to be “dysfunctional” and lacking in accountability.

Mr. Annan’s letter, addressed to “Dear Colleagues," said, “Like all of you, I am gravely concerned at the findings of the Independent Panel which I appointed, after the disaster of 19 August, to look into the safety and security of UN personnel in Iraq. The Panel’s report reveals serious shortcomings in our provision of security to UN staff in Iraq.

“We owe it to all those affected by the attack on our Baghdad headquarters – the dead, the injured, the survivors, and their families – to do our utmost to ensure that such failures are not repeated, either in Iraq or elsewhere. Indeed, we also owe that to ourselves and to each other.”

Mr. Annan said, “I am appointing an independent team of experts to review the responsibilities of key individuals for the lack of preventive and mitigating actions before the attack on 19 August.

“Secondly, I am reviewing the serious weaknesses that have been revealed in the management of our security system,” he said.

The letter outlined other investigations and reviews he ordered immediately after the bombings, saying that the Ahtisaari report would help their work, and he reported that he had ordered the remaining international staff in Baghdad to relocate temporarily for consultations with security staff from UN Headquarters in New York. The relocation of the Baghdad staff had been announced yesterday.

Mr. Annan said, “As Secretary-General, I will spare no effort in acting on the conclusions of the Panel’s report. I deeply regret the systemic failures that it has revealed, and I look forward to your support in our endeavours to rectify them.”