CWC: WRAP-UP FOR TWO WEEKS ENDING JULY 25, 2008

UNCLAS THE HAGUE 000644

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR ISN/CB, VCI/CCA, L/NPV, IO/MPR,
SECDEF FOR OSD/GSA/CN,CP>
JOINT STAFF FOR DD PMA-A FOR WTC
COMMERCE FOR BIS (ROBERTS)
NSC FOR FLY
WINPAC FOR WALTER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PARM PREL CWC
SUBJECT: CWC: WRAP-UP FOR TWO WEEKS ENDING JULY 25, 2008

REF: THE HAGUE 609

This is CWC-33-08

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SUMMARY
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1. (U) Meetings at the Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have ground to
a standstill for the summer holidays. The delegation
hosted IO/MPR's Lynette Podolsky on July 14-15 to
look into recruitment and staffing issues for
American citizen employees at the OPCW. The new
facilitator for Article VII implementation called a
meeting on short notice July 15 to solicit views from
delegates before they disappear on vacation. Also on
July 15, the Director of International Cooperation
and Assistance, Kalimi Mworia, and the Dutch
Ambassador held a meeting on the Program for Africa,
attended by more donors than African States Parties.

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IO/MPR VISIT
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2. (U) On July 14 and 15, Lynette Podolsky (IO/MPR)
visited The Hague to discuss hiring of U.S. citizens
by international organizations, including the OPCW's
Technical Secretariat (TS). She and Delrep met with
Ron Nelson (Director, Administration) and Sherrin
Hill (Recruitment Officer) to discuss recruitment and
staffing issues. Nelson and Hill explained the OPCW
recruitment process. They also provided updated
information on the number of U.S. citizens working in
the TS. Nelson and Hill noted that the OPCW receives
a lower number of applications from the U.S. compared
to other countries, and they suggested raising
awareness of OPCW jobs among potentially-qualified
applicants through circulating vacancy notices to
Designated Labs, Chemical Weapons destruction and
storage facilities.


3. (U) Podolsky and Delrep also met separately with
Bill Kane (Head, Industry Verification) and Michael
Luhan (Head, Media and Public Relations) to discuss
their experiences with the recruitment process and
working in the TS. Podolsky was particularly
interested in ideas on where IO/MPR could focus
recruitment efforts for OPCW jobs. Kane suggested
reaching out to industry organizations as well as
professional publications for chemists and chemical
engineers.


4. (SBU) The Del hosted an informal round table for
other U.S. citizen TS staff to meet Podolsky and
Delreps. Four professional-level staff participated;
participants included two recently-hired staff (from
the Verification and the Inspectorate divisions) and
two more veteran staff (from the Inspectorate and
Administration divisions). All four candidly shared
their views about the recruitment process --
including frustration at the process's length (six to
nine months) and the apparent advantages given to
"national candidates" -- and working at the TS. The
two newer staff expressed concern about the lack of
support offered by the TS in relocating and adjusting
to life in The Hague. The four participants (as well
as many of the other U.S. citizen staff who had been
contacted but were unable to attend the meeting) all
expressed interest in having more regular interaction
with the Del and supported holding future round
tables or brown bag lunches.

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ARTICLE VII CONSULTATIONS
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5. (U) On July 15, the new facilitator for Article
VII, Said Moussi (Algeria) chaired his first
consultation unexpectedly. While the TS did not make
a formal briefing on the status of Article VII
implementation, Legal Advisor Santiago Onate was on
hand to answer delegations' questions. Moussi said
in his opening remarks that he wanted to hear
delegations' views on how to proceed with continuing
to implement the Article VII action plan (C-
8/DEC.16).


6. (U) The South African delegate said that African
States Parties have made a lot of progress in Article
VII implementation since the last Conference of State
Parties (CSP). However, more assistance, especially
with preparing legislation, is needed for States
Parties to fully implement their Article VII
obligations. He suggested that those States Parties
which have successfully completed the process could
assist other States Parties regionally or sub-
regionally. Italy indicated its readiness to provide
assistance but stressed the need for States Parties
to be willing to receive assistance and to fulfill
their obligations. The French representative said
that the performance indicators in the draft 2009
budget give a good basis for supporting the Article
VII action plan and should be incorporated into any
possible decision to be adopted during the next CSP.


7. (U) Delrep asked for the Legal Advisor to provide
his views on the current TS program of support,
specifically what is and is not working. Delrep also
raised the possibility of OPCW partnering with
regional organizations. Onate provided a detail
response, predicated on his acceptance of the
evaluation made by the Second Review Conference
(RevCon) on Article VII implementation. Referring to
the good progress in Article VII implementation since
the action plan was adopted in 2004 and drawing a
parallel to Universality efforts, Onate said that
only the most difficult cases have yet to start
implementing their Article VII obligations. He said
that there needs to be a better understanding and
diagnosis of the problems States Parties encounter;
the TS currently sends questionnaires to National
Authorities, but these do not often elicit concrete
responses.


8. (U) Onate said that while the TS is limited to
interacting with National Authorities, they do not
usually have the political keys to push legislation.
Focusing on legislators and political leaders is most
effective, and Onate described efforts to engage the
Inter-parliamentary Union as somewhat successful. He
noted that the TS could benefit from the support of
States Parties pushing Article VII implementation on
a bilateral basis with governments.


9. (U) Onate shared his view that large regional
meetings are of limited value, saying that the TS has
found a targeted, tailor-made approach to be most
effective. He reported that the Netherlands will be
funding a technical assistance visit to Sierra Leone
in the near future and that a similar trip is being
planned for Guinea. However, Onate stressed the need
for follow-up contact and said again that States
Parties with resident diplomatic missions can be more
effective than the TS in this regard.


10. (U) Following up on Onate's comments, the Russian
delegate suggested that the next TS report on Article
VII implementation should include a table showing the
different needs of States Parties. This would help
States Parties to determine how they can best focus
their assistance. In response to a German question
about the need for high-level political contact
between the OPCW and non-compliant States Parties,
Onate reported that Amb. Oksana Tomova (Slovakia,
Executive Council Chair) recently sent letters to
States Parties as outlined in recent CSP decisions
(C-10/DEC.16 and C-12/DEC.9).


11. (U) The French delegate suggested that regional
"champions" might be designated to support the TS and
assist neighboring States Parties. She also
suggested that States Parties could assist the TS in
advance of visits to States Parties through providing
contacts or other support as needed.


12. (U) The Iranian delegate stated that more work
has been done on implementing Article VII than any
other article of the Convention and stressed the need
to implement all of the Convention, specifically
citing articles I and XI. Despite Onate's statement
that the TS sees Article VII as encompassing all of
the Convention's provisions, the Iranian insisted
that his government would not accept stressing
Article VII while ignoring Article XI obligations.

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PROGRAM FOR AFRICA BRIEFING
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13. (U) On July 15, Amb. Maarten Lak (Netherlands)
and Kalimi Mworia (Director, International
Cooperation and Assistance (ICA)) held a meeting to
discuss the Program for Africa. The heads of the
ICA's three branches each presented ideas on how
their activities could support the Program for
Africa. In addition to four African delegations
(Algeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Sudan),a number
of current and potential donors (including a number
of WEOG delegations, Brazil, China, the Czech
Republic, India, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and
Serbia) attended the meeting by invitation.


14. (U) Amb. Lak announced that the Netherlands, in
addition to sponsoring a technical assistance visit
to Sierra Leone (as reported in the Article VII
consultation above),will provide funding for a
workshop for customs officials this year and possibly
in 2009. He also said that the Netherlands will
focus its annual voluntary contribution (between
80,000 and 100,000 euro) to programs in the
International Cooperation and Implementation Support
branches.


15. (U) China said that it is ready to provide
assistance as possible. It noted the possibility of
donating computers made by Chinese manufacturers as
well as sponsoring a laboratory program for African
States Parties at the Designated Lab in Beijing.
India also noted that it will be providing an
industrial placement through this year's Associate
Program. Finland announced that the Finnish
Institute for the Verification of the CWC (VERIFIN)
was providing training in analytical chemistry for
South Africa.


16. (SBU) A number of delegations spoke in support of
expanding the National Authorities meeting before the
CSP from one day to two or three days. Magda Bauta
(Head, Implementation Support) gave an overview of
the structure of the annual National Authorities
meeting and was hesitant to change what she referred
to as a "finely-tuned" apparatus.


17. (U) Beik sends.
Gallagher