U.N. Cancels Visitor Tours, Tightens Security Measures

A bombing scare has prompted the United Nations to suspend indefinitely its popular tours.

The tours were halted in mid-September when officials decided that security measures were inadequate to protect the General Assembly, Security Council and Secretariat buildings.

Since the tours started 41 years ago, 34 million visitors have been led through the corridors and chambers by uniformed guides speaking a host of languages. But fears were aroused after the bombing of the International Trade Center buildings in downtown Manhattan in February and the subsequent discovery of an alleged plot to blow up various New York installations, including U.N. headquarters.

The fears have set in motion a series of intense security measures, including plans to augment protection of Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali with a U.S. Secret Service guard.

Visitors must normally pass through a metal detector before buying tour tickets. But security officials were evidently concerned that it would be easy for a tourist to break away and wander through the working areas of the U.N.

The tours could be resumed after security at the U.N. is revamped. But there is no certainty.

The tours provided the public with its main channel for seeing the U.N. in action. A visitor can still study the sculptures in the outdoor gardens, take in documentary exhibits on the walls by the visitor’s entrance, buy books and souvenirs in the shops, and pause in the meditation room with its Marc Chagall stained-glass windows.