Cambodia contracts dispute

THE United Nations yesterday suspended eight staff members who had been involved in handling UN contracts with unspecified private contractors. A spokesman for the Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, refused to give more details, but the suspension coincided with a claim to the UN by a Canadian company, Skylink, for dollars 20m ( pounds 13.2m) in unpaid bills for UN helicopters used in peacekeeping operations in Cambodia. The UN spokesman said there was 'not necessarily' a connection between the two.

Skylink, a Toronto-based company that operates helicopters for the UN in seven peace-keeping operations in Angola, Cambodia, Iraq-Kuwait, Mozambique, Somalia, Western Sahara and the former Yugoslavia. Geoffrey Goodman, a spokesman for Skylink, said the UN was 90 days in arrears with its payments, but most of the dollars 20m was paid yesterday morning. The UN had no official comment on the claim.

The UN is well known for its elliptical press releases, especially when the matter concerns possible wrongdoing of its staff, but yesterday's announcement from Mr Boutros-Ghali's office exceeded the norm. 'Following a number of concerns on the handling of some contracts,' the announcement began, '. . . a number of staff members have been suspended with pay in order to enable them to provide written explanations of their involvement in these contracts.' The eight UN employees who were suspended worked in New York and Phnom Penh in the UN's Field Operations Division.

In Cambodia, the UN's largest peace-keeping mission, Skylink manages more than 35 helicopters, predominantly Russian-built Mi17s and Mi26s, which are flown by Russian crews.

Cambodia is making 'irreversible' progress toward democracy and can be expected to decide wisely how to cope with the Khmer Rouge guerrillas, the Japanese special UN representative for Cambodia said yesterday, AP reports.