CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC) - WRAP-UP FOR

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.

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TOWARDS AFRICAN UNIVERSALITY
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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.

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COLD COMFORT IN CTBTO JUDGMENT
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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.

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BUSTANI REQUESTS EXTENSION
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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.

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OPTIMIZATION OF CWDF VERIFICATION
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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.

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NEW HEAD OF BFB SELECTED
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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."

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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.

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SWISS ELECTRONIC DECLARATION DATABASE TOOL
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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.

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CHALLENGE INSPECTION EXERCISE
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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.

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ILO COMPLAINTS
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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