The future of the leadership of Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is expected to be decided today in The Hague on the final day of a meeting of the group’s Executive Council, the Brazilian daily O Estado de Sao Paulo reported today (see GSN, March 21).

The latest U.S. attempt to bring a no-confidence motion to the floor against OPCW Executive Director Jose Mauricio Bustani failed to materialize yesterday, according to O Estado (Jamil Chade, O Estado de Sao Paulo, March 22, Global Security Newswire translation).  The OPCW is responsible for implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Privately, U.S. officials want Bustani to resign because of his positions on Iraq and on inspections of U.S. chemical plants, O Estado reported earlier this week (Jamil Chade, O Estado de Sao Paulo, March 19, Global Security Newswire translation).  In public, the United States accused Bustani of poor financial management, demoralizing the OPCW’s staff and “denigrating” the convention’s fundamental priorities — the destruction and nonproliferation of chemical weapons (U.S. State Department release, March 19).

Bustani is concentrating his defense on the legal aspects of any attempt to remove him, noting that it is not clear whether the organization’s rules permit a no confidence vote.  The organization’s rules only allow for Bustani’s removal if the United States can persuade all of the OPCW’s 145 member states to vote against him, according to O Globo.

According to Bustani, the United States has already tried three times to get rid of him.

“Until now, however, they have not told me what I did” to cause “that call for my exit,” he said in yesterday’s council meeting.

Focusing on the public U.S. charges, Bustani said the charges of poor management are “serious” accusations, but said he is willing to submit to an audit by an independent body or by the United Nations.

“I am ready to evaluated,” he said.  “My professional life is open to scrutiny.”

Bustani also questioned U.S. efforts to pressure Brazil into agreeing with his removal, citing it as “interference” with the supposed “independence” of the OPCW director (Chade, O Estado de Sao Paulo).

Yesterday O Globo reported that the United States told Brazil it would support a Brazilian candidate for U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in exchange for Bustani’s resignation (Berlinck/Fernandes, O Globo Online, March 21, Global Security Newswire translation).

The United States has said the motion has nothing to do with OPCW policies toward Iraq, the Associated Press reported.  U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, however, that the United States currently has no candidate in mind to replace Bustani (Associated Press, March 21).

Meanwhile, Brazil, at least publicly is still supporting Bustani.  According to a Brazilian government source, Brazil is counting on a large number of abstentions during the no confidence vote to maintain Bustani at the OPCW helm, noting that an “abstention is not a vote” against Bustani.

O Globo reported that France is beginning to question the U.S. motion, considering it an excessive move (Oliveira/Bernlick, O Globo Online, March 22, Global Security Newswire translation).

According to Jornal do Brasil, Pakistan and Iran are also now defending Bustani, along with India, Cuba, China and Russia (Arthur Ituassu, Jornal do Brasil, March 22, Global Security Newswire translation).

“That phrase, ‘immediate removal,’” said the Russian council representative, referring to U.S. language calling for the end of Bustani’s tenure, “reminds me of a figure.  Do you know who?  [Former Soviet leader Josef] Stalin,” he said (Ituassu, Jornal do Brasil, March 21, Global Security Newswire translation).

U.S. Spying?

Meanwhile, O Estado reported yesterday that diplomatic sources in The Hague are saying that a recent U.S. staff member at OPCW who recently left the organization may have had connections with U.S. intelligence agencies (Reali Junior, O Estado de Sao Paulo, March 21, Global Security Newswire translation).

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