VZCZCXYZ0004
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTC #0644/01 2111436
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 291436Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY THE HAGUE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1799
INFO RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/DTRA ALEX WASHINGTON DC//OSAC PRIORITY

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 
 
------- 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶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. 
 
------------ 
IO/MPR VISIT 
------------ 
 
¶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. 
 
------------------------- 
ARTICLE VII CONSULTATIONS 
------------------------- 
¶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. 
 
--------------------------- 
PROGRAM FOR AFRICA BRIEFING 
--------------------------- 
 
¶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