UN
"Big Guys"
Protect
Special
Political
Mission
Funding
Ratio, Not All
EU Agree?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 12 --
When UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
schedule for
Monday at 4 pm
lists the
Permanent
Representatives
of
the US, UK,
France,
Germany, EU
and Japan,
some diplomats
wondered
what it was
about.
Inner
City Press
went to the
North Lawn
building, also
to cover Congo
Sanctions, and
witnessed US
Ambassador
Susan Rice
sitting in
discussion at
length with
the
representative
of the
European
Union. There
were
no other media
around.
After
they departed,
a well placed
Security
Council
diplomat
exclusively
told Inner
City Press,
"It is about
who pays for
Special
Political
Missions, the
Mexican and
Egyptian
proposal, the
big guys
really don't
want to pay.
They don't
want to talk
about it, but
they don't
want to pay."
Special
Political
Missions
include, for
example, the
UN's missions
in Libya
as well as
Afghanistan
and Iraq. An
issue, that
Inner City
Press has
asked about,
is how the new
Sahel mandate
led by Italian
political
Romano Prodi
will be
characterized,
and when a
budget for
Syria envoy
Brahimi will
be presented,
like the $7
million budget
produced (and
spent) for
Kofi Annan.
SPMs
as they are
known are
currently not
paid for under
the same
"scales
of assessment"
as are the UN
Peacekeeping
missions,
which the UN
Security
Council also
creates and,
more rarely,
ends as
happened
Monday with
the one in
Timor Leste.
Click here
for Inner City
Press'
story on that.
SPMs
are cheaper
for the
above-named
"Big Guy"
countries than
peacekeeping
missions
are. But other
countries
object: hence
the draft
proposal that
the
"big guys" now
oppose.
In fact as
noted (well,
Tweeted)
by Inner City
Press, the US
even opposed
discussion of
SPMs in a
recent session
of
the UN's
Fourth
Committee,
which deals
with
peacekeeping
"in all
its aspects."
An
EU source told
Inner City
Press late
Monday that
"not all EU
members are
against the
Special
Political
Missions
proposal."
Was that on
the agenda?
We'll have
more on this.
Watch this
site.
, 
