UNITED NATIONS: U.N. Downsizes its Peacekeeping Budget

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 5 1996 (IPS) - The United Nations is continuing to downsize its massive peacekeeping operations, which at one time had been the organisation’s biggest single growth area.

The world body has approved 1.2 billion dollars for peacekeeping in 1996, an 800-million-dollar decline from last year. The approved budget is one-third the size of the 3.6 billion dollars the U.n. spent on peacekeeping in 1994.

The progressive decline in peacekeeping can be attributed to two prime factors: the agency’s current crash crunch and the reluctance of the United Nations to rush into new peacekeeping missions after disastrous failures in Somalia, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

Over a six-year period beginning in 1988, the United Nations launched 21 peacekeeping operations, compared with only 13 during the previous 40 years. However, the number of peacekeeping missions has since fallen to 13, with a U.N. presence now being maintained in Cyprus, Tajikistan, Angola, Haiti, Liberia, Western Sahara, Lebanon, Iraq, and Kuwait, among other countries.

As the number of missions has fallen so has the United Nations’ troop strength. Last year, more than 69,000 troops from 77 countries were under U.N. command, but by the end of April the number had dropped to 25,696.

Currently, the five nations contributing the most troops are to U.N. peacekeeping forces are: Bangladesh, 1,682; India, 1,180; Russia, 1,163; Brazil, 1,118; and Jordan, 1,074.

Under-Secretary-General Ismat Kittani, former head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, said last year that the number of missions in 1996 would be reduced to about 14. The number of troops, too, is expected to decline to about 20,000, he said

Of the 1.2 billion dollars budgeted for 1996, the United Nations has earmarked 919 million dollars for military and civilian personnel costs. The remainder will be spent on air and naval operations, infrastructure-building, supplies and services and communications and other equipment.

The U.N. Administrative and Budgetary Committee this week approved a 10 percent cut in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and a 28 percent reduction in the Department of Administration and Management.

But U.N. Controller Yukio Takasu warned delegates the reductions would “seriously hamper” the two department’s ability to provide support and services to peacekeeping missions.

He warned the committee of the “adverse and irreparable damage” the proposed post reductions would cause, and he cautioned against such excessive micro-management.

Takasu said the cuts would also affect member states who provide troops for peacekeeping operations. “The verification and calculation of amounts due to troop contributors and subsequent processing for payment would be delayed,” he explained.

Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said last month that the present cash crisis — created by the failure of embers states to pay dues amounting to more than 2.1 billion dollars — has forced the United Nations to shelve payments for peacekeepers.

“We owe money, let us say, to Bangladesh, which has sent 5,000 to 6,000 soldiers. We don’t pay them. We also owe money for procurements and we don’t pay them,” he said.

The amount of money owed for peacekeeping operations, he said, has reached about 1 billion dollars.

These are monies owed to member states for providing soldiers — each of whom is paid about 980 dollars per month — and military equipment for peacekeeping operations over the last few years.

Boutros-Ghali said that some member states have warned they will not participate in future operations unless they are paid their dues. “They keep asking ‘When will I be paid?”‘ he said. “Or they say ‘I am ready to withdraw my soldiers because I have not been paid for the past six months.”‘

In an assessment of U.N. peacekeeping missions made earlier this year, U.N. spokesman Ahmed Fawzi said, “The year 1995 saw some dramatic moments in U.N. peacekeeping, including some notable successes and some setbacks.”

Despite the successes, he said, “we project that the peacekeeping budget will be significantly reduced in 1996, as several peacekeeping operations are expected to be closed.”

Among the 1995 successes cited were Mozambique, El Salvador and Haiti. “These successes were somewhat overshadowed by the withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers from Somalia in March,” Fawzi said.

Other peacekeeping missions with mixed results were in Angola, Rwanda, Liberia and Western Sahara.

The U.N. Protection Force in the former Yugoslavia was the largest ever peacekeeping operation undertaken by the United Nations in its 50-year history, accounting for nearly 70 percent of U.N. peacekeepers worldwide and over two-thirds of total peacekeeping costs for the year.