Hard-line Russian ‘seeking asylum’

Press, 12 April 1978, Page 8

Hard-line Russian ‘seeking asylum’

NZPA New York ( Arkady Shevchenko, the I top-ranking Soviet member of i the United Nations Secretariat and known as a close friend of the Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Andrei Gromyko) has disappeared and is I reported to be in the process ; of seeking asylum in the United States. Mr Shevchenko, who earns SUSB6,OOO a year as Undersecretary-General for political and Security Council | affairs, has been missing ■ since last Wednesday. ; A United Nations spokesman, Francois Giuliani, says the 47-year-old Russian is staying away from his job because of “differences with j his Government.” But an authoritative dip-; lomatic source, who asked; not to be identified, told the ■ Associated Press that Mri Shevchenko was in the pro-1 cess of seeking political asy-j j lum in the United States, j In Washington, the Ameri-

\ can State Department acki nowledged that it had been i contacted by Ernest Gross, Mr Shevchenko’s American lawyer, who indicated that his client would not return to the Soviet Union. Tom Reston, the State Department spokesman, said Mr Shevchenko had not asked for asylum. Mr Reston said that Soviet officials had requested a meeting with Mr Shevchenko and that the lawyer had arranged such a meeting, a formality that often precedes granting of asylum. Mr Reston did not disclose the place or time of the meeting. Mr Shevchenko, a Ukrainian, has been heading a task i force preparing for the forthcoming special General; Assembly session on disarma. . ment, a Soviet net project. Reports have indicated that I the Soviet President (Mr' Leonid Brezhnev) might go; to New York to attend the meeting in May and June. I f

' United Nations security guards have posted a “do not enter” sign on Mr Shev- ; chenko’s thirty-fifth floor | office door and disconnected ■his telephones. ’ The news that Mr Shevchenko might become the first United Nations employee to seek political asylum anywhere sent shock waves through the ranks of the secretariat where he has been known as a doctrinaire bureaucrat who is harsh to subordinates. “He is the most Russian of the Russians I’ve known here, the last man I’d expect to do things of this art,” said a British official who has worked with Mr Shevchenko for more than ten years. An African employee of Mr Shevchenko’s i office said the Russian i was “a strict party man with; no flexibility.” He said that! the Russian had been “work- i ing late nights and extremely !

< tense” during the past two i weeks. ; Unconfirmed reports said i Mr Shevchenko’s wife and i daughter had left for Mos- ’ cow over the week-end after “a violent quarrel.” He also has a son who is in the Soviet foreign sendee. Mr Shevchenko, on a level just below the SecretaryGeneral (Dr Kurt Waldheim) was appointed to his post on April 16, 1973, at Mr Gromyko’s recommendation. His present three-year employment contract runs to April 14, 1980, but he could be recalled by the Soviet Government on various technical and political grounds. He is the top-ranking Russian in the secretariat which also has 190 other Soviet Citizens on the professional or higher level. The United Nations system world-wide employs some 18,500 people from 125 nations. Mr Shevchenko served' three years a. a special assis-

tant to Mr Gromyko before going to New York. He holds a doctorate in international relations.

NZPA-Reuter reports that j speculation about Mr Shev- | chenko’s possible motives ■ ranged from ideological disenchantment to personal and family problems, though none of it could be confirmed. United Nations sources said Mr Shevchenko telephoned the United Nations last Friday. He first said h<? would be away because of illness and later referred to “differences” with his Government, the sources said. The previous day he failed to deliver a scheduled speech | to a meeting at the United 1 i Nations of non-governmental I organisations, also pleading sickness. Before Mr Shevchenko’s i move was disclosed publicly, • the United Nations mission cancelled a scheduled press briefing on disarmament matters.