U.N. CHIEF REJECTS SOVIET DEFECTOR'S JOB PLEA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201110072-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 72
• Publication Date: January 4, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000201110072-7
STAT
ARTICLE APPEARED
OIL PAGE/-fin
M YORY. TIMES
4 January 1984
U.N. Chief Rejects Soviet Defector's jab Plea'
By RICHAR.I) BERNS1 EIN
Sp!da) to The New Ynrk Times
..KITED NATIONS, N.Y., Jan. 3 -
S:-retary General Javier Perez de
Cuellar has rejected a request from a
Sc.-jet defector, supported by the
United States, that he be allowed to
stay on his job in the United Nations
and the Americans would turn the
mat- ter into an East-West issue and that
than woulc be harmful to the United
Nations.
"We didn't extend it because we
can't," Emilio Olivares, a senior aide
to Mr. Perez de Cuellar, said of the
Yakimetz contract.
Mr Olivares said that that by Soviet
law. Mr. Yakirnetz remains a Soviet
citiieri'despite his defection. Moreover,
like all Soviet employees of the Secre
tariat, he was officially "seconded"
from his home Government. In diplo-
matic parlance, that means Soviet offi-
cials at the United Nations are tempo-
Secretariat while he awaits American
citizenship.
The defector, Vladimir Yakimetz.
was granted political asylum last Feb-
ruary He was the first Soviet defector
to. request that he be allowed to keep his
job at the United Nations, where he
w irked in a middle-level position, in the
I apartment of international and Social
P t`, airs.
The Yakimetz case has been of con-
e r to the United States Mission here.
which has urged in meetings with Mr.
Perez de C un llar over the last several
months that Mr. Yakimetz be allowed
to retain his post in the Secretariat.
A bill being sponsored by Senator
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat of
New York, that would grant Mr. Yaki-
metz American citizenship is expected
tc be adopted in Congress in the next
few weeks. In the meantime, the
United States has argued that Mr.
Y akimetz should be considered a state-
less person and that his employment
contract, which expired last Saturday,
sbould be extended pending his grant of
citizenship
Senior United Nations officials said
today that Mr. Perez de Cuellar had de-
tided that Mr. Yakimetz, as a defector,
could not be considered a stateless per-
son. Thus, although be was allowed to
remain in his job through the length of
his contract, his contract cannot be ex-
tended.
Officials in the Secretariat said that,
in effect, Mr. Perez de Cuellar felt that
to grant the request of Mr. Yakimetz
rarity transferred to the United Na-
tions from positions in their own Gov-
ernment. United Nations employees of
other countries are normally private
citizens and not members of their gov-
ernment when they come to work at the
United Nations.
To have the contract extended. Mr.
Olivares said, Soviet consent was es-
sential. But, he said, "the Soviets re-
Mr. Olivares added that the Yaki-~
metz case was not officially closed and
that he could be considered for a new
contract after he gains American citi-
zenship. He added, however. that even,
with American sponsorship it would be
politically difficult for Mr. Yakimetz to
return to his job If the Soviet Govern-
ment apposes him
The United States chief delegate to
the United Nations, -Deane J. Kirkpat-
rick, said in a telephone interview that
she *greatly regrets" the-decision not
to grant Mr. Yakimetz an extention.
"If the U.N. Secretariat is to operate
on the basis of merit and not simply
'function as a political spoils system,"
she said, "employees have the right to
be judged through, normal procedures
on\the basis of their performance."
The American mission is believed to.
regard Mr. Yakimetz case as impor-
tant because it illustrates the extent of
control that the Soviet Union has over
its nationals working in the Secretari-
at. The Americans argue privately that
the practice by which Soviet citizens'
are "seconded" to the Secretariat in ef-
fect makes them remain employees of
their own Government subject to hiring
and dismissal by the Soviet Union
rather than by the personnel depart-.
ment of the Secretariat.
American officials are believed to
object to the Secretariat's acceptance
of this practice, Contending that it via
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000201110072-7