Lakhdar Brahimi, the head of a UN security panel, stressed on Monday the need for vigilance amid growing threats to the world organization.
Vigilance was the order of the day as the United Nations was increasingly becoming a target, Brahimi, chairman of the Independent Panel on Safety and Security of United Nations Personnel and Premises, told UN reporters at a press conference.
"There is no perfect security for the United Nations, and there never will be perfect security," said Brahimi, briefing on the panel's report, entitled "Towards a culture of security and accountability."
The report was not the last word on how to protect the United Nations, because security was the work of every moment, and needed to be improved all the time, he said.
The December 11, 2007 bombing in Algiers, which claimed the lives of 17 UN staff, had shown that the UN system was not working as it should be, Brahimi said, adding, however, that the report definitely did not say who was responsible for that tragedy.
The report, released to the public last week, said the panel had "ample evidence that several staff members up and down the hierarchy may have failed to respond adequately to the Algiers attack, both before and after the tragedy."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced last week that he is setting up a separate group to examine whether any UN staff should be held individually accountable over that attack.
The most important message from the report to member states, the secretary-general and mangers is "you need to be awake all the time," because the UN is now a target for a lot of people for all sorts of reasons, he stated.
In carrying out its probe, the investigators found that the UN is not perceived by a lot of people as impartial, independent and neutral, he noted.
"What's happening in the Middle East has a lot to do with it. But it's not only that," he said.
"I think the perception is that the big powers are using their muscles to influence the United Nations and that the United Nations, not always, but from time to time does not speak on behalf of its 192 members but on behalf of a one, two, three, four or five members," he said.
Brahimi said the UN is definitely protected much better than it was before the 2003 attacks on the world body's offices in Baghdad, which resulted in the deaths of over 20 UN staff members.
Source:Xinhua
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