Return to Transcripts main page

DIPLOMATIC LICENSE

Current Events at the United Nations

Aired August 20, 2004 - 21:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This day marks the largest attack against the United Nations by forces that destruct peace and stability.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We realize the mission has risks, but we also feel the administration has an obligation to maximize the security of the situation before they deploy the staff there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the United Nations I've seen renewed interest in security and sometimes the worst has to happen for measures to be put in place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD ROTH, CNN HOST: A year ago this weekend the world of the United Nations was reeling. The U.N. building, the old Canal Hotel in Baghdad, was ripped open by a cement truck loaded with explosives. The best and the brightest of the United Nations and its connected foreign policy establishment blown up in an instant.

Welcome to DIPLOMATIC LICENSE. I'm Richard Roth.

This is not a program about difficult challenges the United Nations now faces in Iraq and elsewhere in this age of terrorism. One year later we want to remember those who lost their lives and check in on some of the victims who managed to survive, though with quite a toll taken.

On Thursday in Amman, in Geneva, and in New York, the United Nations held commemoration ceremonies. 22 people, including the United Nations scene diplomat in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, were killed in the suicide bombing. More than 100 others were injured.

The secretary-general led the morning ceremony in Geneva. His deputy, Louise Frechette, in New York. The choices, perhaps unavoidable, but senior management of the United Nations was later blamed for not properly taking security measures to project the U.N. staff in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOUISE FRECHETTE, U.N. DEPUTY SECY.-GENERAL: As we gather here in Geneva this afternoon, our colleagues and friends are gathering in New York and Amman and other United Nations locations to pay tribute to our friends and colleagues and loved ones who fell in the line of duty. Although they are no longer with us, they will remain with us, shining stars illuminating our world forever.

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECY.-GENERAL: I lost 22 wonderful, talented and generous friends and colleagues whom I had sent to Iraq to help deal with the aftermath of that war. Their faces are constantly in my minds eye, precious memories mixed with painful ones.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For you who stood bravely and honorably to defend your vision of a better world with no poverty and no wars; for you who lived the dream of peace and prosperity for all humankind; for you who pledged your souls for a message of love, we shall ask the United Nations to carry on with its role in the troubled regions of the world but with greater caution and better insight. Fear should not drive us away from our duty.

ANNAN: We servants of the United Nations will no longer be victims simply by virtue of the times and places in which we are called upon to serve, but may have become in ourselves one of the main targets of political violence.

It was a personal tragedy for each and every one of us because of the dear friends and close colleagues we lost and because of the direct attack against the blue flag and we who have devoted our lives to the United Nations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNAN: Dear friends, may I ask you now to stand and join me in a minute of silence in honor -- in honor of all the victims and in sympathy with all the bereaved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: Joining me now for Oxford, in the United Kingdom is the only person to survive a meeting that was taking place in the office of U.N. Special Envoy to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello; survived, but with critical injuries, Professor Gil Loescher.

Professor, thank you very much for joining us.

Can you describe, first of all, just the nature of the injuries that you suffered?

GIL LOESCHER, U.N. BOMB SURVIVOR: As a result of the blast I lost both my legs and suffered severe injuries to my right hand as well as lacerations to parts of my face and had lots of shrapnel on the right side of my body.

ROTH: So you are a double amputee? Both legs had to be cut, at what location?

LOESCHER: That's correct.

ROTH: Above the knee?

LOESCHER: Above the knee, yes, a bilateral amputee.

ROTH: Now, all of this, of course, far from your thoughts when you left the U.K., really the day before the bombing, is that correct? You left August 18?

LOESCHER: That's right. Arthur Helton and I met at the London Heathrow Airport and that night, of the 18th, boarded a flight to Amman and arrived the next -- early the next morning, on the 19th, and then boarded a plight to Baghdad.

ROTH: Now, Arthur Helton, a long time colleague in the field of refugees, human rights. He was with Open Society, Council on Foreign Relations. What did you -- I think you wrote once, what, you waved -- said to your wife at the airport?

LOESCHER: Yes I did wave goodbye to my wife and told her that I'd see her in a week's time.

ROTH: What was your schedule on that first day leading up to the meeting in the afternoon with the U.N.?

LOESCHER: Well, we arrived about mid-morning on the 19th, at the airport in Baghdad. We were met by a U.N. vehicle with U.N. drivers and we were taken straight away into the city where we went first of all to the headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority to have an interview with Paul Bremer.

ROTH: Now, were you worried about security going to Baghdad at the time? About 10 days earlier there had been a bombing at the Jordanian embassy, but certainly nothing like the insurgency campaign that's going on now.

LOESCHER: I was -- you know -- I think both of us, both Arthur and I, were concerned about the escalation of suicide bombing attacks, but also the targeting of some NGO and U.N. officials throughout the country.

But, you know, both of us had been -- both of us were experienced travelers and both of us had been, you know, to conflict areas before and, you know, it was very difficult to tell, you know whether this was going to be a prolonged campaign of suicide bombings or whether these were selected incidents.

ROTH: Now, tell us about the meeting that was going on in Vieira de Mello's office. It was in the afternoon. How many people were there? Where were you sitting? Describe the scene.

LOESCHER: Well, after we left the offices of Paul Bremer, we went almost immediately to the U.N. building, the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, where we were to meet with Sergio.

We went up to his office on the third floor and as we sort of entered his office, Sergio was collecting his papers. Apparently he had just finished a meeting prier to our arrival. Within a minute or two several other staff members -- I think there were -- I think, in the room, including Arthur and me, seven or eight of us.

We exchanged greetings. Both Arthur and I knew Sergio pretty well since Sergio had worked in a number of operations which either Arthur or I had visited in the past. Sergio was also -- had a long, long career with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and, of course, I knew him very well from those days.

We exchanged greetings. He led us into a corner of the room where there was a sofa and some easy-chairs and a coffee table in the middle and we all sat down. And as soon as we sat down, there was this -- there was this blast. And, you know, it was as if sort of a million light bulbs went off.

And the next thing I knew, you know, I had regained consciousness sometime shortly after the blast, but by then, you know, the whole third floor had collapsed. The ceiling had collapsed upon us. We were all thrown down two floors and were lying in the rubble.

Everyone at that meeting, accept Sergio and myself, had been killed in the initial blast.

ROTH: Did you know it was a bomb immediately? Were you conscious all the time?

LOESCHER: I was not conscious all it time. I mean, I -- I drifted very much in and out of consciousness although I have spoken to several of the medics who were on the scene shortly afterwards to rescue the survivors and especially to work to save Sergio and me, and I've been told that I was conscious throughout and actually cooperated in the rescue effort.

ROTH: Before the medic went down to the hole, I would like to let you hear a comment in an interview I conducted with one of your rescuers, Australian Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Davy (ph), who was assigned as the U.N. military adviser to Sergio Vieira de Mello.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF DAVY (ph), AUSTRALIAN RESCUE WORKER: What's vivid about him is that I haven seen a person in such poor condition show such courage as I did see with him. He knew that he had lost one or both legs. He knew that at least one of his arms was badly damaged if not crushed. I couldn't see that, but he knew that. I could only see his torso and one arm. And despite that, he was concerned about where the others were who were meeting with him. He was concerned that the rescue effort should go somewhere other than to him. All the selfless things you could possible imagine someone ever doing in a story script, he demonstrated.

So I have great admiration for Gil Loescher.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: Do you remember -- I think what you've written about, saying I'm not going to die in this rubble?

LOESCHER: Yes. Yes. That is one of my vivid memories. I mean, I remember regaining consciousness, you know, lying on my back in the rubble, looking up this shaft, seeing someone peering over. I remember trying to get that person's attention.

I remember, you know, saying who I was, telling them about what my name was.

ROTH: Now, how have you coped with all of this?

LOESCHER: Well, you know, the U.S. Army medic who was down there with me said that, you know, I was concerned. I was determined to survive this. I wasn't, you know, going to be defeated by this. I had a lot to live for. And that I wanted very much to be reunited with my family. And I have been the months since then -- it has very much been my family who has helped me recover to the strong extent that I have recovered.

ROTH: And the family started a Friends of Gil Web site, absorbing, gut-wrenching reading of your recovery. I mean, people didn't think that -- the survival rate -- they gave you a 25 percent chance of surviving, right?

LOESCHER: That's right. Because, you know, I was taken from the rubble, you know, to a field hospital at the airport and then within hours was flown to a U.S. Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, and there my condition was stabilized. But I was in very, very rough shape and, yes, they didn't give me a very good chance of survival at that time.

ROTH: Do you have much anger? Do you hold someone, a group, responsible for what happened? What are your feelings one year later?

LOESCHER: No, I don't -- I don't have anger. You know, I have a very positive outlook and I've always looked ahead, and in a way I've seen this as a beginning, not an end of anything.

ROTH: Just a couple of more questions. And how are you getting around? Describe your physical recovery.

LOESCHER: Well, I am -- you know, I was in the hospital until the 1st of November and the next day I went for my first session at the Sheffield (ph) Orthopedic Center, here in Oxford, and started that day on very short legs, and I've worked my way up through, you know, very basic legs to the highest level of legs now. I'm trying out these computer assisted legs and although I'm probably going to be the first bilateral amputee in this country to use them, everyone thinks that I can do it, and I feel confident that I can, and so, you know, to that extent I'm, you know, making a very good recovery and will be not only around but also at least partially on my feet again, and I'm already making plans to this time next year to be back in the field, back visiting refugee areas in Africa and Southeast Asia.

ROTH: Would you go back to Iraq?

LOESCHER: Well, I have no plans to go back to Iraq at the moment. You know, my particular research and writing -- I'm beginning a new book on protracted refugee situations and it's -- I'm really looking at other festering crises at the moment.

ROTH: So one year later, do you ask yourself -- I mean, it would be a natural thought for me -- I mean, why me, like, how did you make it out of there?

LOESCHER: Yes, I, you know, I ask myself that all the time. You know, and I don't have any easy or ready answer to that.

ROTH: Professor, thank you very much.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before it was a potential risk. Now it's more real because we know colleagues who have died and that worked with us and it's no longer a distant possibility, just like the security in New York was not taken seriously until 9/11. So now people live with more caution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROTH: Some of it security upgrades can't be seen at the United Nations that easily. Others can't be avoided. The United Nations is installed a stronger perimeter fence set up at headquarters in New York. It's all part of a big master renovation plan that the United Nations would have been undergoing anyway.

In charge of all the rebuilding and security coordination at the United Nations is Under-Secretary-Genera for Management Catherine Bertini.

Before August 19, 2003 and the U.N. bombing in Baghdad, when U.N. employees head ed overseas, the best they got was a simple security handbook. Now there's a little bit more, a CD-ROM and some training on the ground when they get there, but they don't really receive the extensive war games trainings corporations pay for.

But the United Nations is now taking the risk level into consideration on all missions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whether it's Darfur, whether it's Kabul, whether it's Pristina, whenever the United Nations is operating, we, yes, have to insure that we have a basic security mechanism there, that the staff there are well-trained and that they are well-protected. And if we can't assure that then we have to question the level of depth that we can have in those locations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: The U.N. security coordinator says she will be going to the next General Assembly session asking for more resources and staffing. Already $80 million has been spent in security measures.

Finally, the regrets of one U.N. official who survived the Baghdad attack. Seline Lone (ph) was the spokesman for Sergio Vieira de Mello. He would have been in that fateful meeting in Vieira de Mello's office with Gil Loescher and the others, but his boss told him to write a press release about the deaths of Reuter's TV cameraman Mazan Dana.

Lone's (ph) new deputy had just arrived in Baghdad the day before, August 18, a 29-year-old Jordanian journalist, Riam al Fara (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SELINE LONE (ph), FMR. U.N. SPOKESMAN: One of my greatest, greatest regrets is that I moved heaven and earth to get Riam al Fara (ph), who worked for me in New York, to get to Baghdad quickly. You know, I found her space on flights that were fully booked. I persuaded her bosses, you know, to let her go so that she could be there by August 18, and the 19 was her first full day and she died.

It's just very, very sad. A brilliant young Jordanian woman of Iraqi origin, 29 years old, just absolutely brilliant. That's why we wanted here there we wanted -- I needed a young Iraqi woman who was a journalist, who knew Iraq, familiar with Iraq. She was replacing somebody, Habib al Jabar (ph), and I really -- she couldn't get a seat on that last flight into Baghdad on the 18th and I talked to the head of the air operator and I said please put her on this flight. If I hadn't, she would be still alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: Seline Lone (ph) thinks it would be a big mistake for the United Nations to return to Iraq. The bull's-eye on the U.N. blue flag is still in place.

That's DIPLOMATIC LICENSE. I'm Richard Roth, in New York. Thanks for watching.

END

TO ORDER VIDEOTAPES AND TRANSCRIPTS OF CNN INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMING, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE THE SECURE ONLINE ORDER FROM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com