WEEKLY SELECTION/POLITICS-BALKANS: China Veto Dooms UN Mission in Macedonia

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 27 1999 (IPS) - China’s first use of its veto power in the UN Security Council in two years has blocked the resumption of a UN mission in Macedonia, fuelling fears of future conflict in the Balkans and rifts in the Council.

China – one of five veto-holding permanent members of the Security Council, along with Britain, France, Russia and the United States – justified its opposition by arguing that Macedonia was at peace.

“We have always maintained that peacekeeping operations, including preventive deployment missions, should not be open- ended,” argued Chinese Ambassador Qin Huasun as he voted against a six-month extension of the Macedonia mission Thursday.

“There is no need to extend further the mandate of the UN Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP),” Qin said of the Macedonia force, which numbers more than 1,100 troops. “The already insufficient funds of the United Nations should be used where most needed.”

Despite Qin’s argument that other countries were in more urgent need of peacekeeping forces than Macedonia, most UN diplomats believed that Beijing’s sensitivity about Taiwan – which opened ties with Macedonia last month -provoked its veto.

“The extension is supported by all member states except one state…and that is because of bilateral considerations,” argued Macedonian Ambassador Naste Calovski, who pleaded unsuccessfully for the mission’s extension.

Security Council President Robert Fowler of Canada also said that a bilateral dispute had been involved in the Chinese veto, although he also blamed Macedonia’s actions for provoking Beijing.

Last month, the Macedonian government granted diplomatic recognition to Taiwan, which Beijing claims is still part of a united Chinese republic. In return, diplomats here believed the Skopje administration received an aid package of more than one billion dollars from Taipei.

China was furious with the recognition – just as it had been when two other nations that boasted UN missions, Haiti and Guatemala, strengthened their own ties with Taiwan.

The last time China vetoed any Security Council resolution, it was to block the extension of a UN mission in Guatemala in January 1997, shortly after the government there hosted a high-level visit by Taiwanese officials. Guatemala only won the renewal of the mission weeks later after it declared it would drop its support for a UN resolution to recognise Taiwan.

Similarly, UN diplomats repeatedly revised the mandate of peacekeepers in Haiti after China reacted to a UN speech by then- President Jean- Bertrand Aristide calling for Taipei’s recognition.

Qin denied that any row over Taipei played a role in the Chinese veto Thursday, arguing, “These accusations are totally groundless.”

Ambassador Sergey Lavrov of Russia, which abstained from the Council vote, also pointed to the flaws in extending the Macedonia mission indefinitely, and argued that the mandate needs to be adjusted.

However, the veto effectively halted one of the few UN success stories in recent years, as UNPREDEP had managed to prevent the violence over Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Kosovo from spilling ove into the former Yugoslav republic.

China’s action, meanwhile, caused many UN diplomats to question why the power of veto remained in the Security Council.

“The experience today has strengthened our conviction that there is a real need for reform of the Council, including reform of the veto,” said Ambassador Danilo Turk of Slovenia.

In recent years, efforts to expand the 15-nation Council have included attempts by many of the United Nations’ 185 member states to restrict, or even to eliminate, the veto power held by the five permanent members. However, all efforts at Council reform have stalled, and few expect the veto to be dropped by its current holders – the world’s five declared nuclear weapons states.

Instead, Council diplomats intended to focus on devising an alternative plan for international peacekeeping in Macedonia, to prevent the worsening violence in Kosovo – which, like Macedonia, boasts a large population of ethnic Albanians – from disrupting its neighbour.

“We believe UNPREDEP’s role is indispensible at this time,” U.S. Ambassador Peter Burleigh argued. “Thesefore, we hope to find a way to allow the international community to continue to meet this critical need, without disruption.”

That may be difficult. UNPREDEP’s mandate expires on Sunday, and it is unlikely that any alternative mandate can be crafted before then.

Although some nations are pushing for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to send some 1,800 troops to Macedonia, that effort may also require Security Council authorisation – and thus would still need Beijing’s nod.