POLITICS: UN Drops Plan to Expel Yugoslavia

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 30 1999 (IPS) - The United Nations, lacking the political support of members, has shelved a proposal to expel one of the organisation’s founding fathers: the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY).

“If the resolution had been adopted by the General Assembly,” one Asian diplomat told IPS, “it would have been a dangerous precedent because no country has had its UN membership taken away.”

FRY (currently comprising Serbia and Montenegro) has been barred from UN meetings since 1992 and the proposed resolution sought a “de facto” expulsion that would have resulted in Yugoslav delegates being shut out of the building and their flag being removed from UN headquarters.

Additionally, the Yugoslavs would also have been deprived of the privilege afforded all member states – the circulation of official documents in the UN system.

Co-sponsors of the resolution to force the Yugoslavs to quit – Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Malaysia, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar and Saudi Arabia – also wanted FRY to re-apply for membership in the Organisation.

The resolution was discussed at two closed door meetings of the 116-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the largest single Third World political body of which the former Yugoslavia also was a founder member.

Several NAM members, including India, Iraq, Libya and Uganda, expressed strong reservations about the resolution and its implications for the future.

As some of the countries argued, this was the first time in the history of the United Nations that an action had been initiated in the General Assembly to exclude a member state.

Asked about the possibility of the resolution being resurrected next year, a UN spokesman told IPS: “The sponsors hope it will die a natural death.”

In an earlier setback to the expulsion plans, the UN’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee warned last month that, if Yugoslavia was forced out, it would cease to pay its assessed dues – forcing a revision in the UN’s scale of assessments for the coming year.

FRY owes more than 15.5 million dollars in arrears on its annual UN dues as, since the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in 1991-1992, it maintained a low profile in the UN system after its membership in the General Assembly was suspended.

In a note circulated here, FRY maintained said that, under Articles 3 to 6 of the UN charter, both the UN Security Council and the General Assembly would have to decide on membership rights.

The note also said that if the resolution was implemented, it would also deal a serious blow to existing bilateral relations between FRY and the former Yugoslav republics.

Additionally, there would be “damaging consequences for the implementation of the Dayton/Paris agreement” on Bosnia- Herzegovina.

“The FRY is not a new but a continuous state,” the note added, pointing out that “the dangerous precedent of the expulsion of one member state from the United Nations would threaten other member states, primarily the smaller ones.”

Currently, FRY has diplomatic relations with 180 countries and embassies in 60 countries worldwide.

An explanatory memorandum from the co-sponsors of the resolution points out that the purpose of the resolution was to furnish the UN Secretariat and the UN system with additional guidance for conducting their business connected with issues related to the status of the former FRY and its successors in the United Nations.

The five former Yugoslavia successor states are Bosnia- Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and the truncated FRY (Serbia and Montenegro).

On September 19 1992, the 15-member UN Security Council adopted a resolution which stated that “the state known as the former socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has ceased to exist.”

Three days later, the General Assembly adopted a resolution which stipulated that “the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) cannot continue automatically the membership of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the United Nations; and therefore decides that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) should apply for membership in the United Nations.”

The UN Office of Legal Affairs has expressed the view that the resolutions already adopted by the Security Council and the General Assembly are “insufficient” to determine the status of Yugoslavia at the United Nations.

“It has claimed that it is not in the position to take action with regard to questions relating to the status of member states in the absence of appropriate decisions being taken by the competent organs of the Organisation,” the exploratory memorandum says.

Accordingly, the Secretariat has continued to administer the membership rights and obligations of the former FRY (its name plate and flag have been kept at the UN premises; it has continuously been listed as a member state since October 24, 1945 in various UN publications; and its contributions and dues to the UN budget has continuously been calculated.

The UN Secretariat has also expressed the view that the only practical consequence of the General Assembly resolution is that the FRY shall not participate in the work of the Assembly.