December 4, 2000
Twelve thousand UN personnel have signed a petition seeking a special Security Council session on the safety of staff, more than 200 of whom have been killed in eight years, the UN said Monday. The petition said three of the most recent murders, in West Timor on September 6, "could have been avoided if a more effective early warning system had been in place and preventive measures ... had been provided in a timely manner." Such measures should have included "support from the host government," Indonesia, it said.
The petition was delivered to the president of the Security Council on Wednesday by Bernard Grandjean, President of the Federation of International Civil Servants' Associations.
"Over 200 civilian staff members have been killed and 228 taken hostage or kidnapped in the past eight years," it said. "In the same period, there have been nearly 300 reported violent incidents against United Nations staff, including violent robbery, physical assault and rape," it added.
On October 20, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he would seek an extra 60 million dollars in the United Nations' next two-year budget to improve security of UN personnel around the world. In a report to the General Assembly, he said the United Nations had only nine professionals at headquarters and 60 field security officers responsible for the safety of 70,000 staff and dependents at over 150 duty stations. "This is clearly an untenable situation and urgent remedial actions are called for," he wrote, noting that about 80 duty stations were classified as high-risk.
