Tensions within the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons are likely to continue as the United States has vowed to continue its efforts to remove the organization’s director general, Jose Mauricio Bustani, O Globo reported today (see GSN, March 22).

A U.S. motion calling for Bustani’s resignation failed Friday, as did a Brazilian motion to resolve the U.S.-Bustani dispute through negotiation and an outside audit of the OPCW.

At an OPCW Executive Council meeting Friday in The Hague, 17 countries — including Japan, Poland, Cameroon, Nigeria, Canada, Slovenia, South Korea and most of the European Union — voted in favor of the U.S. no-confidence motion, leaving it 10 votes shy of a two-thirds majority.

Brazil, Cuba, China, Iran and Russia voted against the proposal, and 18 countries — including India, Pakistan, Mexico, South Africa, Sudan and France — abstained, ensuring neither side could claim victory (Bernlick/Oliveira, O Globo Online, March 25, Global Security Newswire translation).

Brazil’s motion for an outside audit might have given Bustani, himself a Brazilian, an opportunity to defend himself against U.S. accusations of mismanagement, according to Folha de Sao Paulo.  The motion was voted down 17-14 with 8 abstentions (Renata Giraldi, Folha de Sao Paulo, March 22, Global Security Newswire translation).

“This vote demonstrates clearly that Mr. Bustani can no longer lead the OPCW and should clearly resign,” U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said Friday of the outcome of the U.S. motion.

“The large majority of countries demonstrated that they had no confidence in him by supporting our request for his resignation or abstaining,” he said.  “It sent a powerful signal that the loss of confidence in him is widespread. ... We hope the director general will understand and accept this clear signal and act on it.”

If Bustani does not resign, Reeker said, the United States will seek a special conference of the 145 signatories to the Chemical Weapons Convention in an attempt to oust the OPCW chief.  According to OPCW rules, such a conference may be called within 30 days if 49 of the signatories agree (Agence France-Presse, March 22).  A two-thirds majority of the parties would then be needed to force Bustani out.

Bustani said he will fight to retain his position and accused the United States of undermining the independence of international organizations.  The OPCW head is concerned about the “precedent” that the U.S. no-confidence motion “could create in other international organizations,” OPCW spokesman Gordon Vachon said (Berlinck/Oliveira, O Globo Online).

“Only one country, the United States, is criticizing my management,” Bustani told Jornal do Brasil.  “The others are afraid that the United States will withdraw from the organization should I continue.”

“There is no pressure that can make me resign,” he said, vowing to fight to “the end” (Rodrigo Rosa, Jornal do Brasil, March 25, Global Security Newswire translation).

“I cannot resign simply because one country does not like my style,” Bustani said.  “I was elected by 145 countries.  When these countries decide that I should go, I will” (Monica Tavares, O Globo Online, March 25, Global Security Newswire translation).

The director general said his resignation would plunge the OPCW into crisis.  He added that member states would look on OPCW Vice Director General John Gee, a potential replacement as director general, as a tool of Washington; that nonpayment of dues by the United States and other countries is behind the organization’s financial problems and that U.S. opposition arose with the “unilateralist” administration of President George W. Bush (Rosa, Jornal do Brasil).

Jornal do Brasil reported this weekend that Washington’s stances toward Iraq and several other countries could be behind tension with Bustani (see GSN, March 19).

“I would say that Iran is more a central issue” than Iraq, one expert in Washington said, recalling U.S. Undersecretary for State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton’s January identification of Iran as a principal chemical weapons producer.

A former State Department official said U.S. officials “do not like one bit what they see as Bustani’s proselytizing in relation to the Russians.”

“Besides that, after Sept. 11, Bustani began to want to augment his role in the war against terror,” the State Department official said.  “The United States saw this as opportunism on behalf of a person that could not even keep the accounts straight. ... In any case, this type of action is very atypical. ... Now the thing is public.  It has become a political dispute, which was not really the case before, and that makes it more difficult” (Douglas McMillan, Jornal do Brasil, March 23, Global Security Newswire translation).

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