18 July 2001

FICSA Update No. 37 2001

    Security of United Nations Personnel: Good and Bad News

    UN Locally-recruited Staff in Southwest Sudan: Beware of Newspapers

  • You will remember that we reported on the fate of our locally-recruited colleagues in Wau - a town 620 miles southwest of Khartoum - on the basis of an article from the New York Times of 18 June 2001; and that we wrote to Ms. Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of WFP, and Mr. Benon Sevan, United Nations Security Coordinator, for explanations.

  • We received replies from both, and we are glad to share them with our readership.

  • We have been informed that "what is not made clear [in the New York Times report] is that all Sudanese staff were given the opportunity to relocate to Khartoum. It was only those local staff that were not from Wau itself that left with the UN aircraft. The local staff that stayed live in Wau and included not only UN, but also [Médecins sans frontières] workers as well. They have their families and homes in the town, have lived through various local ‘authorities’ and felt perfectly safe in remaining. The last thing they wanted was to be relocated, as that would have meant leaving their property and friends."

  • According to the United Nations Foundation (UN Wire of 9 July 2001), the United Nations relief workers are now returning to Wau.

  • Mr. Sevan added in his letter that a similar situation has occurred in Angola, in the town of Uige. The United Nations has authorized the relocation of all United Nations staff to Luanda. However, local staff from Uige have elected to remain at home.

  • In both cases, the United Nations has applied a policy that FICSA has been promoting for many years and is now finding its way into the United Nations Security Handbook. We welcome this.

  • Ms. Bertini wrote "please rest assured that we fully share your concerns and that we will do our utmost to safeguard all our staff and protect them from an imminent danger".

  • We also welcome the fact that both UNSECOORD and WFP have taken the time to reply to us and to inform, through FICSA, the staff at large.

    FICSA Assists Colleague in a Case of Violence
  • FICSA President Bernard P. Grandjean received an urgent call for assistance from a fellow worker who had been the victim of violence in the office and at home in an African capital and feared for her life. He alerted UNSECOORD and the local security officer At the initiative of, the colleague was evacuated to a headquarters duty station.

  • FICSA wishes to put on record its appreciation and thanks for the speedy action.

    United Nations Security Chief Killed in Bangui, Central African Republic
  • We have the sad duty to report that our colleague Jean-Pierre Lhomme was shot and killed on Thursday, 5 July 2001, in Bangui as he responded to a request for security assistance at the home of a fellow UN worker.

    Rebels Reportedly Tortured United Nations Health Care Workers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Five health workers, all citizens from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, were captured on Monday, 9 July 2001, by Rwandan-backed rebels in northern Équateur province and tortured their whereabouts are still unknown at the date of writing of this Update.

  • The five workers were helping administer a UN polio immunization campaign. According to a UN military spokesperson, the rebels claimed that "the team of vaccinators did not have authorization to be in that region".