---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 10:49:20 -0400 From: Tori Holt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: NY TIMES: Darkest Hour at U.N. For Richest Deadbeat <bold>The New York Times </bold> September 21, 1998, Monday, Late Edition - Final Section A; Page 6; Column 1; Foreign Desk Darkest Hour at U.N. For Richest Deadbeat By BARBARA CROSSETTE UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 18 --In the annals of American relations with the United Nations, supporters and critics of the organization broadly agree, there has never been a more dismal moment than this. When President Clinton, personally tarnished by the Monica Lewinsky scandal, speaks here on Monday, he will face an organization that is likely to strip the United States of its General Assembly vote by the end of this year for nonpayment of dues. Washington owes the organization more than $1.5 billion. Mr. Clinton, the political heir to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman -- who fought to create a strong United Nations and give it Washington's firm bipartisan support -- is now viewed by many diplomats and officials here as too weak or unwilling to battle a hostile Congress to preserve that pivotal American role. And the United States is now without a chief representative to the organization since the departure of Bill Richardson and Republican blocking of Richard C. Holbrooke's appointment as his successor. The organization's largest contributor is now Japan, which kept its dues payments up to date despite a recession. What is helping keep the United Nations afloat -- barely -- is that the Japanese, Europeans and some developing countries have not been reimbursed for providing peacekeeping troops, allowing the money to be applied instead to the operating budget. "People are furious -- our allies are furious," said Alvin P. Adams, a former ambassador who is president of the United Nations Association of the United States, an advocacy and research organization with chapters around the country. Mr. Adams' organization, known as UNA-USA, recently announced poll results showing that a growing percentage of Americans approve of the United Nations and want the United States to pay its overdue assessments, without conditions. Eighty percent of those polled opposed linking the payments to anti-abortion restrictions on international family planning groups, as Congress has done. In the UNA-USA survey, conducted Aug. 21 to 25 by Wirthlin Worldwide, 72 percent of 1,005 adults said it was "very important" that the United States remain an active member of the United Nations, which they ranked higher than NATO, the World Bank and the World Health Organization. Seventy-three percent said Washington should pay its dues. Sixty percent of those surveyed also said the United Nations was doing a good job, the highest rating UNA-USA has seen in a variety of polls since 1959. Contrary to what some members of Congress and the Clinton Administration believe, the poll found that many Americans say that they would take attitudes toward the United Nations into account when voting for members of Congress, although this would not be a major factor. "These polls have taken a jump in public opinion since we took our last poll two years ago," said John C. Whitehead, a former Deputy Secretary of State and chairman of UNA-USA. Speaking at a news conference here on Thursday, Mr. Whitehead said there has long been a "some kind of disconnect between public opinion on the United Nations and the voting record of Congress, at least in recent years." The new poll also found a much higher approval rating for Secretary General Kofi Annan -- although 25 percent of those polled had never heard of him -- than a similar poll in late 1995 found for his predecessor, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, whose name had become the butt of Republican ridicule. Mr. Annan's performance was given a 53 percent approval rating compared with Mr. Boutros-Ghali's 30 percent. Mr. Adams said Mr. Annan's political skills and personable approach to Americans is probably helping improve the image of the United Nations in the United States. "He's has a sense of the politics of the public that it's hard to think of any other Secretary General who's had that," Mr. Adams said in an interview. "Some of the good movement in public opinion about the U.N. is due to the fact that there is a face now, a face that is warm and approachable, and people identify with him." But even Mr. Annan has become disillusioned with Washington, as protestations of support for the United Nations in the Administration and Congress fail repeatedly to turn into tangible support. In order to avoid losing its General Assembly vote, the United States will have to pay about $200 million by Dec. 31. But even if Congress, which is locked in a confrontation with President Clinton over an anti-abortion amendment to legislation, is able to authorize the money in the current session, dozens of conditions, some requiring Administration certification, are expected to block payment to the United Nations. Congress has demanded that the United Nations write off some back dues; some members insist that the organization owes money to Washington and not the other way around. Congress is also demanding further budget and staff cuts at the United Nations and a pledge that the organization not create a standby peacekeeping force that some Americans see as a potentially inimical international army. Senior officials here say that with every day that passes, it is more likely that the United States will fall automatically under Article 19 of the United Nations Charter, which strips a country of its General Assembly vote when its debt equals or exceeds the assessments due for the preceding two years. Eighteen nations now fall into this category: Bosnia, Burundi, Cambodia, Comoros, Congo, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Iraq, Liberia, Moldova, Sao Tome, Somalia, Tajikistan, Togo, Vanuatu and Yugoslavia. The United States seat on the Security Council would not be affected. However, diplomats, including Americans, say that anger toward the United States is beginning to erode support on issues vital to Washington, and that General Assembly votes do decide elections for rotating Security Council seats as well as major initiatives and appointments within the organization at large. Still, John Bolton, who was Assistant Secretary of State for international organization affairs in the Bush Administration and is now at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said in an interview that the loss of a General Assembly vote would not jolt critics. "If the vote is lost in the General Assembly, that's not going to make people in Washington jump up and say, Gosh!," Mr. Bolton said. "It's going to have exactly the opposite effect." "This is not a bean-counting argument," he added. "This represents a fundamental divergence of opinion on the right course for the organization." In Washington, a General Accounting Office report in June said the United Nations' financial problems "have been primarily caused by the accumulation of unpaid assessments and late payments of assessments by a large number of members." But the G.A.O. report adds that no nation has run up such a large debt to the organization, which amounts to more than half of the organization's annual operating budget of $2.4 billion. The United States is assessed 25 percent of the regular budget, based on its share in the world economy, though Congress had wanted this reduced to 20 percent by the year 2000. A 31 percent share of peacekeeping has already been unilaterally reduced by Congress to 25 percent, putting the United States in perennial arrears because such changes are recognized only if made according to the Charter by a committee of member nations. Even when the United States pays on time, its payments have been received late in the year because of a decision in 1983 to tie disbursements to the Federal budget cycle. While the United Nations bills members in January, the United States never pays the bulk of its debts before Oct. 1. "The U.N.'s cash flow problems stem largely from this U.S. delay in payments," the G.A.O. report said. "The United States is the only major country that regularly schedules payment with this delay factor." Supporters of the United Nations say that Americans, who take part in increasing numbers in many international activities organized here, from grassroots groups up to national professional organizations, are spreading the word around the country that the United Nations is in trouble, and that the United States is the major cause. "Perhaps the American public is beginning to become aware of the gravity of the crisis that is facing the organization," said Jeffrey Laurenti, director of policy studies at UNA-USA. "Three out of four said in the poll that the American forfeiture of the vote under Article 19 would be at the very least an embarrassment," he said. "Possibly for many -- almost 40 percent say -- it would actually severely impact on America's ability to do business with other countries." _________________ Victoria K. Holt, Executive Director <italic>Emergency Coalition for U.S. Financial Support of the United Nations </italic>110 Maryland Ave, NE Suite 409 Washington, DC 20002 202/546-1572 fax: 202/543-6297 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
