UN Security Council approves resolution to protect UN staff

Evelyn Leopold

Spurred by the bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, the Security Council on voted unanimously for ways to improve protection for U.N. and other aid workers around the world after a day of tense talks between Mexico and the United States.

The Mexican-drafted resolution, co-sponsored by France, Germany, Russia, Bulgaria and Syria, was first circulated in April and then taken out of mothballs after the bombing of the U.N. headquarters on Aug. 19 that killed 23 people and injured many others.

It urges nations to prosecute perpetrators of crimes against U.N. workers and those from other relief or nongovernmental organizations engaged in humanitarian efforts. It says states should adopt laws ensuring that violence against humanitarian workers is treated as a war crime.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the council it was the obligation of everyone «to protect those working under the blue flag and to bring to justice those who attacked and armed them.»

He said the resolution sent a message to those who believed they could advance their cause by targeting aid workers.

While there was little disagreement on the purpose of the resolution, a mention in the document of the new International Criminal Court drew objections from the Bush administration, which vehemently opposes the Netherlands-based tribunal.

Mexico and its allies dropped specific mention of the court, whose statutes spell out what a war crime is. But they then faced U.S. objections about defining war crimes.

Diplomats said that underlying debates on the resolution was bitterness among some council members over U.S. positions on Iraq as well as on the International Criminal Court, with France and Mexico especially challenging the United States.

«The basic bottom line is that the resolution has to state in clear and unequivocal terms that an attack against humanitarian workers is a war crime,» Mexico’s U.N. ambassador, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, said.

The action had put the United States in a difficult position. Vetoing or even abstaining on the resolution so soon after the deadly Baghdad blast would be difficult to explain, diplomats said.

From Associated Press.