CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): WRAP-UP FOR

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 THE HAGUE 002766

SIPDIS

STATE FOR AC/CB, P/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 LIEPMAN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/04/2013
TAGS: PARM PREL CWC
SUBJECT: CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): WRAP-UP FOR
WEEK ENDING 31 OCT 2003


Classified By: Ambassador to the OPCW Eric M. Javits. Reasons: 1.5 (B,
D)

This is CWC-116-03.


1. (SBU) Summary: On Oct. 30, U.S. delegation members met
with OPCW officials to discuss the status of upcoming ILO
Administrative Tribunal actions stemming from the OPCW tenure
policy. Additional points on side-bar discussions at the
Eighth Conference of States Parties are also provided for the
record, covering FRG Schedule 2A transfers, DOC/PSF site
selection, Finnish destruction assistance to Russia, the
Working Capital Fund, and Swiss comments on electronic
declarations.

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Meeting with OPCW Legal Experts
--------------


2. (SBU) U.S. Delegation members met October 30 with OPCW
Deputy Director-General Brian Hawtin, Human Resources Branch
Head Eva Murray, acting Legal Adviser Isaac Minta and Legal
Counsel Jonathan Kusi to discuss upcoming ILO Administrative
Tribunal actions concerning the OPCW. We asked whether
lawsuits disputing the OPCW tenure policy were on the ILO AT
docket for its winter term, and if so, whether the OPCW had
obtained copies of the complaints. We stressed that as the
largest contributor to the OPCW budget, the U.S. has a strong
interest in these cases, and proposed that the OPCW and U.S.
identify points of contact to coordinate strategy and follow
developments at the ILO AT.


3. (SBU) Minta said that no suits against implementation of
the tenure policy had yet been filed with the ILO. He
anticipated that this would be done at the Tribunal's next
session, scheduled for November 3-21. He recalled that the
tenure decision had been made in April 2003. The OPCW's
internal Appeals Council had recommended suspending
implementation of the new tenure policy, but the Conference
of States Parties had given clear instructions to Director
General Pfirter to proceed. Therefore, Minta said, the DG
would formally decline the Appeals Council's recommendation
in the coming days, press ahead with implementation, and the
first staff members would leave their positions on November

15. Minta said that these inspectors could not file claims
until they had left their positions.


4. (SBU) Once the ILO AT takes up the tenure cases, Minta
said the process will take the better part of a year, as the
OPCW has the opportunity to reply to the complaints, the
complainants then submit a rejoinder, and finally the OPCW
may make a surrejoinder - with extendable 30-day time periods
between each step in the process. Therefore, he said, the
Tribunal will continue to consider these cases at its
April-May 2004 session. He judged that the earliest feasible
decision would be in July. He dismissed as "wishful
thinking" OPCW Staff Council expectations that this could be
done by February 2004


5. (SBU) Besides the tenure issues, Kusi and Minta noted
that two older cases involving the OPCW were presently on the
agenda of the ILOAT winter session. One was the complaint of
Ruth Mohlenkamp, a former D-1 who had been moved into a P-5
position. The other involved 27 staff members classified as
P-3's appealing for their positions to be re-designated as
P-4s and grieving the designation process. Minta voiced
confidence that the worst case scenario in the latter case
would be an ILOAT mandate to once again run the process of
designating positions P-3, as opposed to P-4, but that there
would be no financial judgment against the OPCW.


6. (SBU) We reiterated our desire to keep in close touch
with the Organization's legal team, noting that it was just a
question of time before the ILOAT took up tenure suits
against the OPCW. Hawtin and the others welcomed this
proposal and expressed appreciation for U.S. interest. Minta
suggested the U.S. may want to consider filing its own amicus
curiae brief.

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SCHEDULE 2A TRANSFERS - FRG
--------------


7. (S) On the margins of CSP-8, Manfred Ruck of the German
delegation informed the U.S. Del that the FRG had managed to
resolve the two discrepancies in which it was involved --
cases where Morocco and Tunisia, respectively, had declared
significant imports of Schedule 2A chemicals from Germany but
where Germany had declared no corresponding export. In both
cases, the source of the discrepancy was reporting error by
the importing state party; i.e., that the transactions did
not take place. This probably means that a transfer of some,
presumably more anodyne chemical, did take place, and the
wrong CAS number was reported. FRG Ambassador Olbrich held
this up as an example of why the Executive Council should not
get involved in clarification of such discrepancies, arguing
that if the effort to secure action at the September EC had
succeeded, it would have been embarrassing for all considered
and harmed the credibility of the OPCW. The U.S. disagreed
with Olbrich's assessment.

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DOC/PSF SITE SELECTION - PRC VIEWS
--------------


8. (U) During the Conference, U.S. Del members had a lengthy
discussion with two members of the Chinese delegation on the
topic of site selection. The Chinese conceptual
understanding of the U.S. approach was fairly weak, and Del
members worked to explain it thoroughly. PRC concerns seemed
to boil down to two issues: 1) the possibility of collusion
and/or purely political targeting of inspections by other
States Parties, and 2) (possibly an even bigger worry)
holding down the number of inspections they have to host --
currently running about 10 per year. The U.S. noted the
inherent limitations on collusion and the measures worked out
with the Swiss to guard against it. However, it did not
appear that Chinese fears were fully assuaged. The U.S.
offered to try to arrange for a team to visit Beijing and
brief the proposal, but the Chinese response was equivocal.
(Note: The concern about the number of inspections China may
face seems to have been stimulated or exacerbated by a TS
presentation during the National Authorities weekend, which
documented trends in global chemical industry over the last
ten or twenty years, noting significant migration of activity
from Europe to the Pacific Rim, projecting it forward for
some period of time, and translating this into numbers of
inspections. End Note.)

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DOC/PSF SITE SELECTION - NEW ZEALAND VIEWS
--------------


9. (U) On the same topic, Simon Rae (New Zealand) noted
that, given the numbers of DOC/PSF facilities in China and
the U.S., it may not be possible to get a credible inspection
intensity in either of those countries. As a result,
suggested Rae, it might make more sense to pacify the Chinese
by moving to a different exponent to "discount" numbers of
inspectable facilities in the formula. Rae suggested using
0.6 vice the current 0.3. He noted that the countries of
greatest interest tend to have about 20-40 DOC/PSF
facilities, and that, while the change in exponent would
substantially reduce impact on China, it would not have too
much effect on these middle countries, and very little at all
on the smallest.

--------------
FINNISH DESTRUCTION ASSISTANCE TO RUSSIA
--------------


10. (U) The Finnish Ambassador informed us during the
Conference that the Finns have been in discussions with the
Russians about providing assistance. They had grown
concerned about the Russian Munitions Agency's ability to
coordinate and handle assistance, and learned that the RMA is
in fact an extremely small group of people, arguably
overburdened. The Finns offered to provide support to help
them with planning and coordination, but were turned down.

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THE WORKING CAPITAL FUND
--------------


11. (U) During the budget discussions at CSP-8, the issue
arose of once again seeking a provision allowing repayment of
any borrowing from the Working Capital Fund be made at the
end of the following year, rather than at the end of the year
in which the borrowing occurred. Special Advisor for budget
issues Ali Asghar announced that this 12-month extension had
not helped the TS, that the WCF was still essentially
useless, and that the TS needed at least 36 months to repay
any borrowings to make the WCF a useful tool. Ashgar's
explanation behind the 36-month interval basically ties in
with the historical payment pattern for Article IV/V income,
in which very little comes in the year in which the activity
takes place, the bulk of the money comes in the following
year, and about a quarter comes in the year after that.
Director of Administration Herb Schulz made a pitch for
doubling the size of the WCF, and getting a 36-month
repayment window. Even without the Program Stabilization
Fund, Schulz thought that the funding problems for the OPCW
then could be adequately addressed.

--------------
SWISS ON ELECTRONIC DECLARATIONS
--------------


12. (U) The Swiss Delegation informed the U.S. Del at CSP-8
that Switzerland had experimented with one of the beta
versions of the U.S. CTFS Read-Write tool, and was
disappointed. They noted that it may read and write CTFS,
but they did not find it suitable for most of the things they
wanted to do with their declarations. As a result, the Swiss
have developed a Microsoft Access application for their own
use that allows them to input declaration data (manually),
print out forms, run queries, and export the data
electronically, although it is not clear whether this
includes at present the ability to spit out an ASCII-format,
CTFS-compatible file.


13. (U) The Swiss are pleased with their product, and
believe that it may be just the thing for many smaller
countries that might find the U.S. CTFS tool daunting. They
want to make it available to other states parties, though
they are wary of crossing our bow, since they perceive CTFS
to be an American pet project. They are inclined to perceive
their database as complementary to CTFS, but are clearly a
little apprehensive that the U.S. will see it as unwanted
competition. They are also considering adding full CTFS
read/write functionality. The problem, however, is that this
would require a more serious programming effort, and periodic
patches or updates as the file structure evolves. The Swiss
do not have the in-house capacity for this, and might have
difficulty financing it unless they charged a fee for copies
of the program. The U.S. Del requested a copy of the program
to share with colleagues in Washington for evaluation, and
was told that the Swiss del would bring two copies on CD to
the November industry consultations for our use.


14. (U) Javits sends.
SOBEL