general was motivated as much by politics and a TV-friendly appearance as by her credentials. It came at a time when nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan were rising. The Indians were so proud of the appointment that even when the freshly appointed Ms. Chatterjee went to Islamabad and made overtures to Pakistan regarding disarmament, Indians supported her. This, despite a front-page editorial in Pakistan’s English-language newspaper,
Secretary-General Chatterjee’s brief United Nations career had been one of confronting problems personally, head-on, relying on her intelligence and charismatic personality to defuse situations. That was what made this moment so exciting. Ani was not unaware of the lives at stake or unmoved by their plight. But over the past few months, she’d gotten to feel as though Chatterjee was a close friend and respected colleague. Ani was extremely curious to see how the secretary-general was going to handle this. As soon as the CIA had been alerted to the hostage situation, Ani ascertained that none of the delegates with bugs had been present in the Security Council chambers.
Chatterjee was meeting with Deputy Secretary-General Takahara of Japan, two undersecretary-generals, and her security chief in the large conference room off her private office. The deputy secretary-general of administration and head of personnel was also present. He and his staff were on the phones, updating governments whose delegates were among the hostages. Chatterjee’s aide, Enzo Donati, was there as well.
There had been very little talk about actually paying the ransom. Even if the sum could be collected, which was doubtful, the secretary-general would be powerless to deliver it. In 1973, the United Nations had established a policy for dealing with ransom demands if UN personnel were kidnapped. The Security Council had proposed, and the General Assembly had agreed by the requisite two-thirds vote, that in the event of an abduction, the affected nation or nations would be responsible for pursuing their own national policy. The United Nations would become involved only as negotiators.
So far, only one of the nations involved, France, had agreed to contribute to the ransom demand. The other countries either couldn’t commit without formal authorization or had a policy of not negotiating with terrorists. The United States, whose delegate, Flora Meriwether, was among the hostages, refused to pay the ransom but agreed to participate if a dialogue were opened with the terrorists. Chatterjee and her staff agreed to check in again with the affected nations when the deadline had passed.
The immediate problem that needed a quick resolution was who would be responsible for making decisions in the crisis. If only tourists were being held, then the Military Staff Committee of Colonel Rick Mott would have had sole jurisdiction. But that wasn’t the case. According to the charter, decisions affecting the Security Council could only be made by the Security Council or the General Assembly. Since Security Council President Stanislaw Zintel of Poland was among the hostages, and since the General Assembly could not be convened, Chatterjee decided that as the leader of the General Assembly, the secretary-general should decide what moves and initiatives should be taken.
Ani suspected that was the first time in the history of the United Nations that an action had not been decided by vote. And it had taken a woman to do it, of course.
That decided, Mott advised the officials that most of the UN police had been pulled from the perimeter and gathered around the Security Council chamber. He briefed them about the possibility of staging an assault by UN forces or with the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit, which had volunteered personnel.
“We can’t work out any kind of military response plan until we have a better idea about what’s going on in there,” Mott said. “I’ve got two officers listening in through the double doors in the Trusteeship Council chambers. Unfortunately, the terrorists set up motion detectors in the corridors that access the media, so we can’t go up there. They’ve also disabled the security cameras in the council chambers. Efforts are being made to look into the chambers using wire-thin fiber-optic lenses. We’re going to use manual drills to punch two small holes through the floor in closets beneath the room. Unfortunately, we won’t have visuals until well past the ninety-minute deadline. We’ve used an uplink to send copies of the surveillance camera videos of the killers to Interpol offices in London, Paris, Madrid, and Bonn, as well as to law-enforcement agencies in Japan, Moscow, and Mexico City. We’re hoping that something about the attack may be similar to what agents there may have seen before.”
“The question is, will they really execute one of the hostages?” asked Secretary-General Chatterjee.
“I believe they will,” Mott said.
“Based on what intelligence?” someone asked. Ani didn’t recognize his voice or his accent.
“My own
“Then what are our options prior to the deadline?” the secretary-general asked.
“Militarily?” Mott asked. “My people are willing to go in without visuals, if they have to.”
“Is your team ready for an operation like that?” the secretary-general asked.
Ani could have answered that question. The Military Staff strike force was not ready for action. They’d never been field-tested and they were understaffed. If one or two key people went down, there were no reserves. The problem was that along with the rest of the UN secretariat staff, the MS unit had been cut by 25 percent over the past few years. Moreover, the ablest people went into the private sector, such as corporate security and law enforcement, where pay and the opportunities for promotion were better.
“We’re prepared to go in and end the standoff,” Mott said. “But I have to be honest, ma’am. If we enter the chambers with the intention of removing the terrorists, there is a very strong likelihood of losses not just of my team members, but among panicked delegates and children.”
“We can’t risk that,” Secretary-General Chatterjee said.
“Our chances would certainly be better if we waited for reconnaissance,” Mott admitted.
“What about using tear gas against the terrorists?” asked Deputy Secretary-General Takahara.
“The Security Council is a very large room,” Mott said. “Because of that, it would take at least seventy seconds to deliver gas through the ventilation system, slightly less time by opening the doors and hurling in grenades. Either way, that would give the terrorists time to put on gas masks, if they have them, to shoot out the two windows to dilute the effectiveness of the gas, to kill the hostages when they realize what’s happening, or to move to another locale with the hostages as shields. If they possess poison gas as they’ve said, my guess is that they probably do have masks.”
“They’re going to kill all the hostages anyway,” said one of the undersecretaries-general. Ani believed that it might be Fernando Campos of Portugal, one of the few militants who had the secretary-general’s ear. “At least if we go in now, we may be able to save some of them.”
There was some loud murmuring around the table. Secretary-General Chatterjee quieted it and returned the floor to Mott.
“My recommendation, again, is that we wait until we have some images from the chamber,” Mott concluded. “Just so we know where the enemy and the hostages are.”
“The additional time as well as your pictures will be bought with the lives of delegates,” said the man Ani thought was Undersecretary-General Campos. “I say we go in and end this matter.”
Chatterjee tabled the military side of the discussion and asked if Mott had any other ideas. The colonel said that thought had also been given to shutting off the air and electricity in the Security Council chambers or of turning up the air-conditioning to make the terrorists uncomfortable. But he and the Military Staff Committee had decided that those actions would be more provocative than useful. He said that as yet they hadn’t come up with anything else.
There was a short silence. Ani noted that the final half-hour mark had come and gone. She had a strong feeling what Chatterjee was going to do: just what she always did.
“Although I’m sympathetic to what Colonel Mott and Undersecretary-General Campos have suggested, we cannot give the terrorists what they want,” Chatterjee said at last, her husky voice lower than usual. “But a serious gesture must be made to acknowledge their status.”
“Their status?” Colonel Mott asked.
“Yes,” Chatterjee said.
“Such as
“Colonel, this is not the time to express our indignation,” Chatterjee said. “Since we cannot give the terrorists what they want, we must offer them what we have.”
“Which is?” Mott asked.
“Our humility.”
