POLITICS-UN: Dismay Over Continued U.S Arrears

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 16 1998 (IPS) - Secretary General Kofi Annan led widespread dismay at U.N. headquarters Friday over the failure of the U.S. budget to provide money to pay off 1.5 billion dollars in arrears owed to the world body.

Speaking to the conservative organisation ‘Empower America’ in Washington Annan sharply criticised the U.S. government for failing to pay anything more than a token amount to preserve its voting rights at the United nations.

“It appears that the United States will squeak by, paying just enough to avoid losing its vote in the General Assembly, which happens to nations who fall two years behind in their contributions,” Annan noted.

That fate appeared to have been averted through the budget agreement announced Thursday between President Bill Clinton and the Republican led Congress that would provide money to an account covering contributions to international organisation. No recise amount was announced, but sources here and in Washington believed more than a quarter of a million dollars would be needed.

“While the United States will avoid this fate (of losing its Assembly vote) for this year, on the larger question – its legal commitment and its moral obligation to the United Nations and the 184 other member states – the United States will have failed,” Annan declared.

The secretary-general gently chided his audience by noting that “conservatives believe in the sanctity of treaties and contracts.”

“Great nations keep their word,” he added. “They do not inflict wounds on their own prestige or undermine their claim to leadership at crucial moments in world affairs.”

Washington’s failure to pay its arrears, while expected for many months by officials here, nevertheless was a blow to the world body, which depends on the United States for one-quarter of its billion-dollar budget for regular operating costs.

Last week, U.N. Under-Secretary-General Joseph Connor warned that the shortfall in U.S. dues would compel the world body to borrow from its peacekeeping budget, and avoid paying nations who contribute U.N. troops, for at least the next several months.

U.N. officials had been optimistic right up to this week that agreement could be reached between the White House and Congress over previous efforts to secure at least 475 million dollars of the arrears as a ‘down payment.’

Officials had hoped Republicans might drop language drafted by conservatives in Congress that attached abortion restrictions on U.S. aid to family planning programmes worldwide to any repayment of the arrears.

According to several sources, a compromise deleting the abortion restrictions – which would have avoided a Clinton veto against the attached U.N. dues payment – was scuttled after objections by strongly anti-abortion republicans.

Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey has repeatedly added anti-abortion language to any bill on the arrears question which also blocked an earlier Clinton effort this year to pay more than 900 million dollars of arrears.

U.N. officials had hoped the embarrassment of losing the General Assembly vote would prompt Washington to clear its arrears ledger, which has been building up ever since former President Ronald Reagan’s 1981-89 administration refused to make several dues payments to protest U.N. policies.

The Assembly vote is lost automatically under Article 19 of the U.N. Charter any time a nation’s arrears equal two years’ worth of its dues assessment. But now that Clinton can draw on a small account for international organisations, all sides believe Washington will pay around a quarter of a million dollars before the end of the year and maintain its vote in the General Assembly.

Some U.N. officials privately claim that the manouevre will only delay the loss of the Assembly vote, and not avert it. If the Republicans keep their grip on both houses of the U.S. Congress following Nov. 3 elections, as several polls indicate, they will be even less likely to fund U.N. programmes next year.

At the same time, Clinton – facing impeachment charges in the House of Representatives for allegedly lying under oath in the Monica Lewinsky scandal – cannot be expected to push more strongly for the arrears payment next year.

The Clinton administration also has lost the efforts over the past year of its former U.N. ambassador, Bill Richardson – a tough Congressional negotiator – to secure a dues compromise. Now, with Richardson having become Secretary of Energy and his likely successor, Richard Holbrooke, held up amid disputes on his financial disclosures, Washington does not even have a U.N. ambassador to make the case for paying the dues in Congress.

Under that scenario, some U.N. officials contend, Washington could be in the position of facing the loss of its General Assembly vote when it considers its next budget a year from now. But Annan tried to be upbeat, arguing, “I can only hope that when Congress reconvenes we can get this issue behind us.”