Stewart Stogel, NewsMax.com
Monday, July 14, 2003

The United Nations, an organization whose stated purpose is to promote world peace, finds itself in an embarrassing internal political war.

The staffer's comments reflected views on an increasingly bitter confrontation between Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the United Nations Staff Union.

The union represents more than 5,000 career and professional workers in New York and overseas.

Annan today carried through on a threat to shut down the offices of the union's 11 member executive board inside the U.N.'s 38-story Secretariat building.

The move came as a reaction to the union's decision to delay the election of a new executive board.

The board officers, who serve two-year terms, saw their mandate expire on July 3. An internal controversy over election polling monitors forced the delay, according to Guy Candusso, a union vice president.

"This has happened many times before. This is nothing new," explained Candusso.

What is new, says Candusso, was the U.N.'s intervention in what was considered an internal union matter.

"In the past, the U.N. continued to recognize the old officers until new ones were elected," Candusso pointed out.

This time however, the U.N., under recently appointed Under Secretary-General for Personnel Management Catherine Bertinni (U.S.), is going by the book.

As such, the U.N. informed the union last week that until new elections are held, no union executive officers would be dealt with.

Annan then ordered all courtesies that had been extended to the union's executive board, such as offices, telephone service and computer access, to be suspended.

The secretary-general then went a step further. He ordered the members of the union's executive board to report back to their old U.N. staff jobs.

Under the union's agreement with the U.N., the executive officers had been given paid sabbaticals to attend to union affairs.

Annan terminated that agreement, at least temporarily.

In a news briefing last week, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric denied the U.N. was "shutting down" the union.

Dujarric insisted that Annan's moves were solely due to the fact that election mandates for the union's executive board had lapsed.

Dujarric pointed out that the U.N. would recognize the election of new executive officers and "invited" the union to arrange for such elections.

He explained that while the mandate of the executive officers had lapsed, the mandate of "unit representatives" or shop stewards (35 total), had not and the U.N. would continue to deal with them individually.

Farhan Haq, an assistant U.N. press spokesman, repeated that position on Friday.

Internal Memo Suggests Otherwise

Late Friday, NewsMax was presented with an internal U.N. memo that casts doubt on the UN's "public" position.

A memo from Denis Beissel, officer-in-charge of the U.N. Office of Human Resources Management, to Michael Sassar, the presiding officer of the union's executive board, dated July 3, 2003, stated:

"As you know, the two-year term of office for the 40th Staff (Executive) Council and the (35 member) Staff Committee will come to an end July 3, 2003. Consequently, the release for staff representational activities of the members of the Staff Committee of the 40th Staff Council will come to an end."

Candusso insisted that the U.N.'s statement of continuing to deal with union shop stewards was "not true" and explained that Annan had shut down the entire union administration, leaving its membership in a vacuum.

The result has been confusion not only in the union leadership, but amongst the rank-in-file as well.

"Tell us what is going on. We have heard nothing from the union," complained one U.N. staffer to this reporter.

Because the U.N. recognizes no court, there is little recourse for the union to take.

One option might be for the 191-member U.N. General Assembly to act. The GA however, is in recess until mid-September.

The other choice is the less formal arena of public opinion.

Union officials explain they intend to highlight their problems to the mass media and perhaps interject those issues into the frequent formal and informal encounters Annan has with reporters around the world.

One issue already raised by the union is nepotism, which it says is on the rise throughout the entire U.N. system.

U.N. staff regulations prohibit any nepotism in the world body's many departments. They do however grant "exemptions" when other equally qualified candidates cannot be found for an opening.

Union officials point out that Inman Riza, the son of Iqbal Riza, Annan's chief of staff, recently landed a position working for the secretary-general's special representative for southern Lebanon.

When asked what qualifications set Riza above other candidates for the position in Lebanon, U.N. spokesman Haq responded that he didn't know. He added that several more days of "research" into the matter might be needed for an explanation.

The Riza appointment is one of many examples of how U.N. management flouts its own rules, union officials say.

Annan, who has managed to remain above the fray while traveling in Africa, returns to the U.S. this week.

When asked what happens when the secretary-general finally arrives back at U.N. headquarters, one union official responded: "Who knows? Maybe we can embarrass him into negotiations."

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