Acting on a damning report of UN security failures in the bombing of its Baghdad headquarters last August, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan fired his chief of global security, demoted a second senior official, penalized three staff members and received -- but did not accept -- the resignation of his own deputy, his spokesman said Monday.
Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette of Canada offered her resignation in response to a letter to her from Annan expressing disappointment over the security lapses, said the spokesman, Fred Eckhard. But Annan declined it, deeming the failures "collective and not the responsibility of any one individual."
Tun Myat of Myanmar, the global security chief, was dismissed and Romiro Lopes da Silva of Portugal, the deputy to the Baghdad mission head, Sergio Vieira de Mello, who died in the blast, was reassigned to a lesser post in the World Food Program and barred from ever again serving in a security capacity.
On Aug. 19 last year, a car packed with explosives destroyed part of a hotel in Baghdad that was serving as headquarters for the UN.
Twenty-two people died in the attack, which had a devastating effect on the world organization.
The report, produced by an outside panel commissioned by Annan, said UN officials were "blinded by the conviction that UN personnel and installations would not become a target of attack, despite the clear warnings to the contrary." It cleared Annan himself.
The blame lay with security officials advising him, Eckhard said.
Two of the three lower-level officials, Pa Momodou Sinyan of Gambia and Boulos Paul Aghadjanian of Jordan, face internal punishments and are accused of "profound lack of responsibility and ineptitude" for not having installed blast-resistant film over windows. Most injuries were caused by flying glass.
The third staffer, Robert Adolph, is to be reassigned to a non-security position.
The bombing led to Annan removing all foreign staff members from Iraq in October. The organization has been conducting its operations from Jordan and Cyprus and is only now beginning its return to help rescue stalled plans for Iraq's political transition set for June 30.
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