Reuters report on vote suspension attempt to embarrass - Rohee
Foreign Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, has dubbed the Reuters report about the suspension of Guyana's right to vote in the United Nations General Assembly "an attempt to embarrass Guyana and other developing countries who are member states of the United Nations." A release from Rohee's ministry issued last evening said that the "ministry views this matter with great concern and will bring it to the Cabinet's attention at its next meeting for resolution." The statement also asserted that "the government has fully paid up its contributions on the United Nations regular budget. Guyana's difficulty on arrears relates to the increasing number of peacekeeping missions and the peacekeeping budget." The release said that Guyana and the developing countries of the G77 had been demanding a shift of emphasis from peacekeeping operations and humanitarian operations to development cooperation programmes through its specialised agencies, such as the UNDP. It said that in 1999, "the UN spent $870 million in peacekeeping operations and US$918 million for refugees but only US$700 million was allocated for UNDP core of funds for the year 1999." The Reuters report said that Guyana and 44 other countries had lost their right to vote at the UN General Assembly under Article 19 of the UN Charter because they were in arrears on their UN budget and peacekeeping payments. Other countries in the region which have lost their votes are Antigua and Barbuda, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize and Haiti. The Foreign Ministry statement said that "after a five-year decline in peacekeeping operations, in the last two years, the United Nations has been in an increasing number of peacekeeping missions. "At the end of 1999, there were 16 peacekeeping operations employing over 12,000 staff at a cost of approximately [US]$870 million." The release said that this was the second largest spurt in peacekeeping since the Cold War with the previous peak being in 1994 when the United Nations had some 78,000 staff at an estimated cost of US$3.6 billion. The release that while the UN Charter provided for regional action when this is authorised from the UN through the Security Council, "the recent trend of unauthorised regional responses has often placed the organisation in difficult circumstances. It is in this context that many developing countries have difficulties in fulfilling these obligations to United Nations." The release said that the UN Secretary General in his opening address to the 54th General Assembly had noted that "the challenge confronting the United Nations requires a new approach to the dilemma of humanitarian intervention."
|