19 September 2008

BEIRUT: The United Nations' special coordinator for Lebanon, Johan Verbeke, was transferred out of the country last month because of threats to his personal safety, a security source close to the UN told The Daily Star on Thursday. Speculation regarding Verbeke's sudden transfer was renewed Thursday morning following a report in Belgian's Le Soir newspaper that suggested the envoy had faced security dangers in Beirut that resulted in his transfer.

"He left for security reasons," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. "This was certainly the case ... He was only in Beirut for three or four days."

Ambassador Verbeke, a career diplomat from Belgium, was named special coordinator for Lebanon on April 16, and he was transferred less than four months later. Verbeke was reassigned as special representative and head of United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia just as the Georgian-Russian conflict reached its height in early August. Verbeke was replaced by Michael Williams, of the United Kingdom.

Belgium's ambassador to Lebanon, Johan Verkammen, could not cite the reasons for Verbeke's reassignment but he confirmed the move.

"Indeed, [Verbeke] has been transferred to Georgia," Verkammen told The Daily Star.

The UN maintains that Verbeke was transferred for personal reasons.

UN associate spokesman Farhan Haq told The Daily Star in an email on Thursday that he had no comment on recent reports concerning Ambassador Verbeke, "other than to note that he had to depart Lebanon for a period of time because of family reasons."

"He is currently working in New York," Haq added, "and will soon travel to his new post in Georgia."

Pascale Kassis of the UN Information Center in Lebanon also told The Daily Star that "personal reasons" were behind the transfer, which took place at a "crucial time for Georgia."

But according to the security source close to the UN, Verbeke was indeed transferred because of security fears.

 "There was a threat on an Al-Qaeda affiliated website," the source said. " They [the UN] took it seriously and moved him out of here."

A UN press release dated August 5 noted that Verbeke's extensive experience with the word body had included stints as chairman of the Security Council sanctions committees on Cote D'Ivoire, Iran and Al-Qaeda/Taliban.

Le Soir, citing what it described as "sure and independent sources from the UN," also reported that Verbeke was threatened by "extreme Islamist fundamentalists" living in Lebanon. An urgent transfer request was then issued from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the paper went on to say.

News outlets reporting on Verbeke's transfers have suggested that the threats came from Lebanese-based groups, but the security source disagreed. Citing the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Internet threat, the source said, "It was not from a Lebanese group."  

"The amazing thing here," the source added, "is that no one asked why - even after [Verbeke] was transferred to Georgia."

Al-Qaeda and allied militant groups have targeted UN officials and offices in recent years.

The group's North African affiliate killed some 17 UN workers in a car-bombing outside the world body's office in Algiers last December. And in 2003, Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN's top envoy to Iraq, was killed along with 21 members others by a truck-bombing outside his office in Iraq.