By Eva Cheng
"I've invested a lot of time and energy into trying to ensure that there would be a dignified and appropriate withdrawal", US Secretary of State Warren Christopher told Washington Post editors in a June luncheon. "That seems not to be likely now."
Christopher was speaking of the US plot to sack United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali when his term of office expires on December 31, and of his refusal to go along with a face-saving one-year extension that Washington has offered.
The remaining 14 countries on the UN Security Council voted on November 19 in favour of reappointing Boutros-Ghali for another five years. Washington exercised its right to veto, which it shares with four other permanent members of the Security Council — Britain, France, China and Russia. A new candidate will need to be found, before the end of the year. The Arab League and the Organisation of African Unity also came firmly behind Boutros-Ghali, but their combined votes, even adding all votes from the remaining UN membership, cannot overturn a Security Council veto under the UN's undemocratic structure.
Not content with its veto, Washington has been threatening since June that it will not pay its overdue membership dues, totalling US$1.6 billion at present, until Boutros-Ghali is gone. It is not the first time that Washington has used financial blackmail or bullying to get its way in the UN.
According to former attorney general Ramsey Clark in his book The Fire This Time, Washington bribed, blackmailed and coerced prior to the 1991 Gulf War in order to obtain votes for a crucial resolution that would authorise member states "to use all necessary means" to force Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait.
Having cast their votes Washington's way, Ethiopia, Zaire, Colombia, Egypt and the Soviet Union, to name just a few, were rewarded with one form or another of new aid, additional World Bank/International Monetary Fund credits or having their debts "forgiven". Cuba and Yemen were "subjected to both entreaty and punishment" for voting the "wrong" way. As the war progressed in its favour, Washington gradually paid off $187 million of back dues — about half of what it owed then — which had been withheld to maximise its manoeuvring.
Washington has also mounted repeated intimidation campaigns in trying to prevent a UN vote on its economic blockade against Cuba. Following Cuba's 1991 request for the vote, Washington wrote to Latin American governments threatening that the Cubans' "insistence that you support them threatens your good relations with the US". Though the request was finally withdrawn, Washington failed to block similar attempts in the following three years: there have been overwhelming General Assembly votes calling for the lifting of the blockade.
Last year, the US Congress also unilaterally slashed to 25% the US share in UN membership dues of 31% (assessed on the basis of ability to pay).
Despite the US government's present complaints and dissatisfaction, since the UN was created in 1945 at the close of World War II, Washington has continually used it as a fig leaf to cover its own agenda.
As long-time former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban admitted, the US role was "absolutely decisive" in legitimising the creation of Israel in 1948 — done under the guise of a UN resolution. The UN also provided a handy cover for the US's anti-Communist military intervention in the 1950-53 Korean War. In 1982, Washington and London used their veto power to block a Security Council resolution calling on London to withdraw its forces in its war with Argentina for the Malvinas (Falkland Islands).
However, according to the Guardian Weekly of June 30, Washington was unhappy with the UN's handling of military operations in Somalia and Bosnia. Boutros-Ghali may be something of a scapegoat for failures of US policy. He is considered insufficiently deferential to US wishes, and is also thought to be an obstacle to efforts to cut UN costs.
Increased UN costs are mainly due to the increase in UN military interventions ("peacekeeping"). Since 1992, the annual "peacekeeping" budget has gone from US$1.7 billion to US$3.6 billion.
Meanwhile, more member nations are falling behind on their dues. As at February this year, 153 out of a total membership of 185 had debts to the UN, including all five veto-holding permanent members of the Security Council. As of December 31, 1995, $2.3 billion — $564 million from the regular budget and $1.7 billion in "peacekeeping" — was unpaid.