Two lawyers for UN whistle-blowers urged the United Nations on Wednesday to protect staffers who want to disclose corruption at the world body, including the oil-for-food program for Iraq. One of the lawyers said "five or six" UN employees including a high-level employee had contacted him for advice on how to reveal evidence of wrongdoing in the now-defunct oil-for-food program without jeopardizing their careers. The lawyer, Andre Sirois—himself a UN staff member and former whistle-blower—said he advised all six against going public with their information because they would lose their jobs due to a lack of protection in the staff rules. "In one case it was something big, that definitely would make the front page," he told a news conference at UN headquarters. He declined to disclose any names or details. But based on his advice, none of those who approached him have subsequently gone public, he said. "I know them. They won't. They are very quiet and under a lot of stress." "Please don't kill ruin us!" |
UN officials had no immediate comment on the statements. Sirois and Tom Devine, legal director of the Washington-based Government Accountability Project, came to UN headquarters to plead the case of Dr. Andrew Thomson, one of three UN staffers who wrote "Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story from Hell on Earth." The book, published in June, describes sex, drugs, failed leadership, incompetence and corruption in UN missions in Rwanda, Bosnia and elsewhere a decade ago. Co-author Heidi Postlewait still works at the United Nations while the third, Kenneth Cain, has left. Thomson and Postlewait were reprimanded after publishing the book without UN clearance, violating staff rules. After a television production firm optioned the book, Thomson learned his contract would not be renewed when it runs out at the end of the year. Postlewait said her contract still has 18 months to run. While UN rules call for wrongdoers to be punished, they do nothing to shield staff members from reprisals when they come forward with evidence, Devine and Sirois said. "There is irreparable harm when freedom of speech is canceled, irreparable harm to the institution," Devine said. "The message is, 'Do not say anything to investigators.'" | Freedom of speech is not a UN concept. |
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