UNITED NATIONS: Nations providing troops protest payment freeze

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 9 1995 (IPS) - Countries are protesting the United Nations’ decision to temporarily freeze payments to those nations that have contributed troops to peacekeeping operations.

The United Nations owes more than 900 million dollars to most of the 85 countries that have provided troops and equipment for about 16 U.N. peacekeeping operations currently in force. This figure is expected to exceed 1.2 billion dollars by the end of the year if the world body’s current cash-flow crisis continues.

The monies are owed mostly to some of the major troop and equipment contributors, including Bangladesh, Canada, India, Pakistan, Norway, Malaysia, Britain, and France.

“The decision to suspend reimbursements to troop contributors would impose hardship on those states,” said Pakistani diplomat Ghulam Rasool Baluch.

Addressing the Development Committee of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali admitted that “these countries include a number of developing nations, which can ill afford to bear such a heavy burden.”

“Because we cannot honour our financial obligations, the countries contributing troops and materiel to our peacekeeping forces are having to shoulder the bulk of the costs of these operations themselves,” he told the world’s finance ministers meeting in Washington.

The United Nations’ cash flow problems have been caused by the non-payment of dues by member states.

Boutros-Ghali says the United Nations is owed some 3.2 billion dollars, with some 70 countries behind in their payments for the organisation’s regular budget.

“For almost four years, I have been trying to convince the governments of member-states to pay their assessments on time,” he said.

His appeals have fallen on deaf ears.

The United States is the biggest single defaulter with more than 1.5 billion dollars in arrears: 527 million dollars to the regular budget and 1.07 billion dollars for peacekeeping.

Washington has decided to unilaterally reduce its contributions to the peacekeeping budget — from the current 31 percent to 25 percent — beginning this month, the start of the United States’ new fiscal year.

In total, outstanding contributions to the regular U.N. budget have risen from a May figure of 2.8 billion dollars to 3.2 billion dollars.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Bjorn Tore Godal told delegates last month the situation was more serious than ever before because of the unprecedented amounts and because “one major contributor’s payment is being withheld and is expected to be unilaterally reduced in the years ahead”.

A statement by the foreign ministers of the five Nordic countries — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden — said the unilateral withholding of assessed U.N. contributions “is a clear violation of the obligation of member states.”

The Nordic countries say it is both “unacceptable” and “deplorable” that an institution celebrating its 50th anniversary should be practically bankrupt due the failure of member states to pay their dues in full, on time, and without conditions.

Faced with the growing cash-flow crisis, Boutros-Ghali said he has been “forced” to reassess peacekeeping operations from a financial perspective.

But Adnan Zulkifli of Malaysia argued that the withholding of payments meant that his country would be penalised even though it pays all its dues on time and in full. Malaysia is one of the largest troop contributors to the United Nations.

Ambassador Biorn Lian of Norway told IPS that the U.N. presence in the former Yugoslavia alone costs close to five million dollars a day. “We simply do not have the money to meet the expenses of this operation,” he said.

As a prelude to a total withdrawal, the United Nations last week decided to reduce its peacekeeping force in the former Yugoslavia from about 30,500 to about 21,000.

Boutros-Ghali said last month that the Yugoslav operation just could not be sustained. He contrasted it with the operation in Liberia, which was costing only about 25 million dollars a year.

The United Nations pays 988 dollars per soldier per month for its peacekeeping operations.

As of the end August, there were 68,894 troops from 85 countries serving in peacekeeping operations. The five largest contingents were from Britain (10,257), France (7,386), Pakistan (3,755), Bangladesh (3,334) and the United States (3,254).