US embassy cable - 04THEHAGUE351

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 THE HAGUE 000351 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AC/CB, NP/CBM, VC/CCB, L/ACV, IO/S 
SECDEF FOR OSD/ISP 
JOINT STAFF FOR DD, PMA-A FOR WTC 
COMMERCE FOR BIS (GOLDMAN) 
NSC FOR CHUPA 
WINPAC FOR LIEPMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PARM, PREL, CWC 
SUBJECT: CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC) - WRAP-UP FOR 
WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 6 
 
This is CWC-20-04. 
 
---------------------------- 
TOWARDS AFRICAN UNIVERSALITY 
---------------------------- 
 
1.  (U) Nilkanthsing Jagarnath (External Relations Division) 
advised Del on February 6 that Chad is about to ratify the 
CWC.  He was also optimistic that Libya's accession would 
soon bring on board Sierra Leone and Djibouti -- saying that 
Tripoli has bought a measure of influence with them.  Nil 
added that the TS is considering organizing a working lunch 
for African States Not Party in Brussels sometime in the 
coming weeks, and invited Del to participate. 
 
------------------------------ 
COLD COMFORT IN CTBTO JUDGMENT 
------------------------------ 
 
2.  (U) OPCW Legal Counsel Jonathan Kusi is reportedly 
encouraged by the February 4 judgment of the ILO 
Administrative Tribunal on a tenure case at the CTBTO 
(Judgment 2315, re Vorobiev).  While cases brought against 
the CTBTO and the OPCW differ in significant ways, WEOG 
coordinator Ruth Flint told us that Kusi found three elements 
of the CTBTO decision that should bolster the OPCW's own 
legal position against the complaints of former staff 
members.  A layman's understanding of the these points is as 
follows: 
 
-- The ILO/AT did not find that the CTBTO acted retroactively 
in deciding not to renew the contract of the complainant. 
This precedent should be helpful for the OPCW. 
 
-- The ILO/AT did not challenge the tenure policy of the 
CTBTO, but rather its implementation, in failing to cite the 
reason for not renewing the complainant's contract.  However, 
the OPCW did cite the implementation of tenure policy as the 
reason for not renewing some staff members' contracts. 
 
-- The ILO/AT found that the CTBTO did not follow due process 
in failing to provide a copy of the recommendation of the 
Personnel Advisory Panel to the complainant.  Kusi believes 
that the OPCW process was more transparent and did follow due 
process in that regard. 
 
3.  (SBU) Comment:  While we defer to Kusi's legal judgment, 
we are not sure that the OPCW will fare better than the CTBTO 
in future judgments by the ILO/AT.  While the Tribunal did 
not challenge the CTBTO tenure policy itself, it did 
challenge a technical legal issue regarding its 
implementation.  We expect that the ILO may well find other 
lapses of implementation by the OPCW management.  Moreover, 
the ILO/AT noted that the CTBTO had extended the 
complainant's contract while the case was being decided, and 
so did not award moral damages to the former staff member. 
As the OPCW has not extended contracts pending Tribunal 
decisions, it seems more likely that it could be found liable 
for moral damages.  End Comment. 
 
-------------------------- 
BUSTANI REQUESTS EXTENSION 
-------------------------- 
 
4.  (U) Former DG Bustani has reportedly requested an 
extension until March 5 to respond to the OPCW's request for 
review of the ILO/AT decision calling for payment of damages 
to Bustani. 
 
--------------------------------- 
OPTIMIZATION OF CWDF VERIFICATION 
--------------------------------- 
 
5.  (U)  In a brief meeting, TDYer Chris Park discussed the 
ongoing U.S.-TS "optimization" effort with Policy and Review 
Branch chief Per Runn.  Runn flagged several points: 
 
-- He had recently e-mailed to Washington a brief document 
summarizing the outcome of the December optimization 
consultations.  He requested reactions from the U.S. -- 
particularly if we substantively disagreed with his summary 
-- within the next two weeks.  This is important because the 
TS plans to use this summary as a briefing document to help 
 
SIPDIS 
prepare DG Pfirter for his visit to U.S. CWDF sites in early 
March, and would like to ensure that it fairly reflects the 
discussions that were held. 
 
-- The TS has yet to hear from the U.S. on dates for the 
first proposed "case study" site visit to a CWDF.  Park 
indicated that to his knowledge there were no specific dates 
yet, but that April was the most likely timeframe.  Except 
for dates near Easter (roughly, April 8 through 11), Runn 
believed April was feasible.  (Note:  in practical terms, 
this would rule out the week of April 4-10, and would mean 
that TS personnel would be unable to depart from The Hague 
earlier than Monday, April 12, if the site visit were 
scheduled for the following week.) 
 
-- The TS felt obligated to provide a status report on their 
optimization work to the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) at 
its meeting in late August.  Although Runn intended to avoid 
any discussion of the bilateral work with the U.S. or go into 
extensive detail, he anticipated that the TS paper that was 
one of the two bases for bilateral discussions in December, 
as well as the summary of those consultations mentioned 
above, would serve as the basis for the SAB presentation. 
 
-- The TS is also seriously considering a UK suggestion that 
they present a briefing on optimization at an upcoming CW 
demil conference in St. Petersburg.  Such a briefing, he 
stressed, would be at a very abstract level, focusing on 
general principles and approach, and would not touch directly 
on the bilateral work with the U.S.  Park noted that there 
might be mixed reactions in Washington to this idea, and that 
it would be extremely important that the TS not use such a 
presentation to go into details or to do anything that would 
be read as an effort to bring political pressure to bear on 
the U.S. on optimization. 
 
-- Finally, Runn noted that the TS would be preparing a paper 
on optimization for the next EC session.  Again, he 
envisioned a general, top-level document that would avoid 
details, but would be more focused than the reports 
previously produced on this topic.  He plans to provide 
advance drafts to all possessor states for review and comment 
prior to publication. 
 
------------------------ 
NEW HEAD OF BFB SELECTED 
------------------------ 
 
6.  (SBU)  Admin Director Herb Schulz informed TDY'er Park 
that DG Pfirter has recently selected a highly qualified 
Australian national for the P-5 Head of Budget and Finance 
position.  The external consulting firm used to evaluate 
candidates for key posts had rated him very highly, and he 
was number two on the short list.  The 35-year old Australian 
is currently Comptroller for the state of Queensland.  In 
view of the fact that the top choice for the job (a Japanese 
candidate) withdrew at the last minute, the DG has informed 
Ambassador Javits that he will not announce the decision of 
the new head of BFB "until he signs the contract." 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
UK AND GERMAN DELEGATIONS ON MANAGEMENT ISSUES 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
7.  (SBU) German and UK representatives (Beerwerth and 
Matthews) discussed some of their governments' current OPCW 
management-related concerns with TDYer Park, expanding on 
points earlier shared with USDEL.  Although both see OPCW 
management as having improved, there are a number of 
administrative issues that have been raised with TS 
management over the past year where they have seen no evident 
progress.  Beerwerth and Matthews believed that interested 
delegations should press for resolution of these issues early 
in 2004.  Matthews suggested that a joint approach to DDG 
Brian Hawtin might be the best way to proceed, following up 
with Ambassador/DG level discussion only if this proved 
unsatisfactory.  There was agreement that some care needed to 
be taken to a) include issues that did not have any impact on 
OPCW staff, and b) take up issues that did affect the staff 
in a phased or prioritized manner, to avoid creating an 
impression that the major contributors are "stalking the 
staff."  Issues touched on included: 
 
-- Death and Disability insurance:  Beerwerth expanded on 
Berlin's concerns, explaining that in the UN, in addition to 
the basic survivor/disability benefits of the pension plan, 
which he argued are essentially covered by the lump-sum 
payout of the provident fund, the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund 
has a provision for optional, supplemental death and 
disability insurance.  Such insurance is available at 
discounted rates through the UNJSPF, but any costs are borne 
entirely by participating staff.  In Berlin's view, the TS 
claims that they are simply providing a benefit analogous to 
that found in the UN Common System are flatly inaccurate. 
(N.B.:  Beerwerth committed to providing the U.S. with the 
relevant UNJSPF documentation to document this point). 
Berlin also has strong concerns of principle with the fact 
that TS management established and provided this benefit 
without any formal basis or approval of the governing bodies. 
 The UK shares many of these concerns, but is acutely 
conscious of the risk that this may be construed as an 
"acquired right," in which case the benefit may have to 
continue to be provided to existing staff, although it could 
be withdrawn for future hires. 
 
-- Home leave lump-sum payment:  Currently the OPCW follows 
the widespread practice of allowing staff to make their own 
arrangements for home leave travel, and paying them a lump 
sum calculated at 75 percent of the full-fare economy rate 
for such travel.   Research conducted by the Director of 
Verification and confirmed by the Office of Internal 
Oversight has reportedly confirmed that, given modern fare 
structures, this is no longer cost-effective, and the OPCW 
could save a substantial amount (a few hundred thousand euros 
annually) by simply providing tickets directly through its 
travel office.   Resistance to changing the current practice 
is widespread within the TS, however, since staff have become 
accustomed to reaping this substantial windfall.  Beerwerth 
and Matthews were convinced that the current practice should 
be changed and that doing so was within the power of the DG, 
but that he would not act without pressure from member states. 
 
-- Accrued Annual leave: Germany in particular has repeatedly 
expressed concern over the high amounts of unused annual 
leave accrued by staff members (up to six weeks' worth can be 
rolled over from year to year and, ultimately, cashed out on 
separation).  The concern is that, with a maximum tenure of 
seven years, the current policy substantially increases the 
costs of turnover.  Previously, Germany has exhorted the DG 
and senior management to manage this issue better -- in 
effect, to make sure staff use their annual leave rather than 
accrue it -- but they now appear to be considering a formal 
change to the amount of leave that can be rolled over. 
Beerwerth noted that this would require amendment of the 
Staff Rules.  While such amendments are supposed to be 
formally approved by States Parties, the Rules have never 
been fully approved and are being implemented 
"provisionally."   If the DG were to propose an amendment on 
this point, it too could be implemented provisionally pending 
approval. 
 
-- Exchange Rate mechanism: Discussion also touched on OPCW's 
exchange-rate exposure and rules for dealing with it 
(something on the order of 15 percent of OPCW's budget is 
sensitive to the dollar/euro exchange rate).  Beerwerth 
strongly supported following the ABAF recommendation to a) 
use a 12-month average exchange rate to develop the budget, 
and b) update this estimate with a newer 12-month average 
shortly before adoption of the budget by the Conference of 
the States Parties.  Park noted that while this might be more 
accurate than the practice used in the 2004 budget (where 
rates were never updated), it could result in increased costs 
for member states, and might still leave the Organization 
exposed to fluctuations.  He briefly outlined approaches that 
have been used by other organizations to deal with this 
problem, including split currency assessments and forward 
purchasing of currency.  German and UK reps agreed that this 
was an important issue that required further attention. 
 
------------------------------------------ 
SWISS ELECTRONIC DECLARATION DATABASE TOOL 
------------------------------------------ 
 
8.  (U)  Swiss experts provided TDY'er Park with an updated 
version (1.1) of their MS Access declaration tool 
(hand-carried to AC/CB).  The Swiss repeated their invitation 
of last year for U.S. comments on their project, which they 
envision making available to other member states as an easy 
way to develop and maintain declaration data. 
 
----------------------------- 
CHALLENGE INSPECTION EXERCISE 
----------------------------- 
 
9.  (U)  Ruth Flint (Switzerland) announced at the Feb. 3 
WEOG that the challenge inspection exercise to be hosted by 
the Swiss had to be postponed for administrative reasons to 
the autumn. 
 
-------------- 
ILO COMPLAINTS 
-------------- 
 
10.  (U)  Flint also announced that the DG had informed some 
delegations that six TS staff members have filed ILO 
complaints in connection with their dismissal under the 
tenure policy. 
 
11.  (U)  Javits sends. 
SOBEL