SUNS  4344 Monday 14 December 1998



UNITED NATIONS: AT LOGGERHEADS WITH ETHIOPIA

United Nations, Dec 10 (IPS/Thalif Deen) -- The United Nations and Ethiopia have stepped up their war of words over the expulsion of 38 U.N. staff members from the African nation.

Ethiopia has accused the staffers - who are of Eritrean origin - of being spies for Eritrea, which currently is engaged in a border dispute with the Addis Ababa government. The U.N. Secretariat rejects the Ethiopian accusations and says expulsion of the staff members is unjustified and based purely on the grounds of their Eritrean origin.

Political tension between Ethiopia and Eritrea has existed ever since Eritrea became an independent nation state in May 1993 leaving Ethiopia landlocked. Eritrea formerly was a province of Ethiopia and fought a war of independence for more than 30 years.

Now the U.N.'s Legal Office has jumped into the latest dispute and charged the Ethiopian government with violating the UN charter and showing disrepect to the privileges and immunities to which all UN employees are entitled.

"The matter had burdened the Organisation administratively and financially and had created a human tragedy by personally and professionally uprooting the staff concerned," says Ralph Zacklin,
Assistant-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs.

Zacklin says Ethiopia took the drastic step of declaring the 38 staffers 'persona non grata' even though that action - used mostly against diplomats - was not applicable to the United Nations or its
employees. Besides, Zacklin adds, such persons cannot be expelled from a host country without the United Nations being given a chance to investigate the allegations and decide whether their was any violation of privileges and immunities.

Azanaw Abreha, a senior diplomat from the Ethiopian Mission to the United Nations, says he is astonished that the U.N.'s Legal Office has, in effect, indicted his government for allegedly violating human rights and its international obligations.

"That was not called for, particularly when matters of national security were involved," he says.

"The U.N. Secretariat does not operate in a political vacuum," Abreha points out, "The Assistant Secretary-General's statement lacks the neutrality and professionalism expected of any U.N. organ or department on matters arising from conflict involving two member states of the Organisation."

Abreha says the problem is not a simple issue of a misunderstanding between the Ethiopian government and the United Nations. "It is a national security issue with its genesis in unprovoked Eritrean aggression and the illegal activities of some Eritrean staff members." he says.
"Those Eritrean staff members were active members of the major clandestine network established to destabilise Ethiopia."

Abreha also says that relevant agreements required staff to refrain from activities which might reflect on their position as international civil servants.

Privileges and immunities are granted in the interest of the United Nations and its agencies, and not for individuals themselves, he says. The code of conduct for U.N. staff states, among other things, that political activities, including acceptance or solicitation of any financial contributions must be regarded as improper conduct for an international official.

The headquarters of the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), one of the U.N.'s major regional bodies, is based in the Ethiopian capital which also is home for one the largest U.N. conference centres in Africa.

The staff members who have been expelled were working for ECA and other U.N. agencies such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

The staffers and their families in Ethiopia were asked to sell their belongings and leave within one month, Zacklin said. He also pointed out that senior officials of the Ethiopian foreign ministry had told the U.N. employees that they were being expelled "because their presence in Ethiopia was deemed incompatible with the national security interests of the country."

"Those actions raised the most serious concerns for the U.N. system," Zacklin told a meeting of the U.N. Administrative and Budgetary Committee here. "Ethiopia cannot take unilateral action without giving the Secretariat the chance to investigate the allegations."

The Legal Counsel says that the accusations were formulated in general terms and detailed information on the charges has not been received to allow an investigation.

"The United Nations rejects any unsubstantiated allegation," but he concedes some of the staff members have said they had contributed to charitable organisations to support development in Eritrea.

In its latest note, the Ethiopian government again repeats the allegations and says that for security reasons, it is not prepared to share information with the United Nations on the matter.