Condemns September 22 attack on U.N. checkpoint

By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- Secretary General Kofi Annan condemned the bombing at a police checkpoint outside U.N. headquarters in Baghdad September 22 and announced the appointment of a special panel to investigate the August bombing at the same building which killed 16 U.N. employees, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. special envoy to Iraq.
 
"The secretary general condemns in the strongest possible terms today's suicide bombing outside the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad. He is deeply saddened by the death of two Iraqi policemen and the wounding of many others, including Iraqi national staff of the United Nations," said U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard.
 
"The secretary general is dismayed that the United Nations in Iraq has once again been the target of an act of terror. He remains greatly concerned about the deteriorating security situation in Iraq," Eckhard said.
 
A car exploded at a checkpoint outside U.N. headquarters as the vehicle was undergoing a security inspection. The car was packed with explosives. Two Iraqi policemen were killed and more than a dozen others injured. The bomber was also killed. The U.N. headquarters building was undamaged in the attack.
 
The explosion came two days after an assassination attempt on a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, Akila Al-Hashimi. Al-Hashimi, who is a former employee of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry's section on U.N. affairs, has been mentioned as a possible Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations.
 
The United Nations also announced that Marti Ahtisaari, former president of Finland and a veteran of many U.N. missions, will chair an independent panel on the safety and security of U.N. personnel in Iraq at the request of the secretary general.
 
The panel's task will be to examine all relevant facts about the situation at the United Nation's Baghdad headquarters in the Canal Hotel before the August 19 attack, the circumstances of the attack itself, and the actions taken by different parties in its immediate aftermath, the U.N. spokesman said. It is expected to complete its work in about six weeks.
 
"The panel's report is expected to give a detailed account of a range of issues including, but not limited to, security relations between the U.N. and the Coalition Provisional Authority, [and] responsibilities within the United Nations relating to staff security both at headquarters [in New York] and in the field," Eckhard said.
 
Other members of the panel are: Peter Fitzgerald, deputy commissioner of the Irish National Police; Brigadier General Jaakko Taneli Oksanen of the Finnish Army; and Claude Bruderlein, director of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University.
 
In the August 19 attack, a truck loaded with explosives crashed into a wall near the part of the building in which Vieira de Mello's office was located and brought down a section of the building.

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