UN
Peacekeeping
Budget Fight Presages Scales of Assessment, France is
Cheap, US "Still Prima Donna"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 30 -- Less than an hour
before UN Peacekeeping budgets
would expire, diplomats lounged in the Cafe Austria of the North
Lawn
building surrounded by liquor bottles and pizza boxes. A well placed
negotiator bleary eyed explained to Inner City Press, “this is all
a precursor to the upcoming scales of assessment fight.”
France
for example
has complained it is paying 7.6% of the peacekeeping budget, while it
says the 130 countries in the Group of 77 and China pay only 7.4%.
Others retort that France got good use out of UN Peacekeeping in Cote
d'Ivoire, physically ousting Laurent Gbagbo: “they got their money
worth.”
EU
Representative
Serrano lounged around the cafe. “Now it's at the Ambassadorial
level,” a Budget Committee diplomat told Inner City Press. Maged
Abdelaziz, Egyptian Ambassador under Mubarak and now, was strutting
around at 11 pm. France's Gerard Araud was said to be around.
With
the budget
expiration only a half hour away, ideas were floated of stopping the
clock, or just pretending that June 30 goes on longer that it
does, at least in Alaska. It is already July 1 where most of the UN
Peacekeeping missions are, in Africa.
In
the lull it was
confirmed to Inner City Press that its
earlier story about the idea
of withholding funds from peacekeepers accused of sexual abuse or
exploitation hit a nerve. “The Americans introduced it,” a
source confirmed.
Under
the
Republicans, the US Mission to the UN was a “prima donna” on the
budget,
the source said, on issues like the Durban review. Now, the US is
still a prima donna. The difference is that Zalmay Khalilzad actually
stayed for the budget fight, the source contrasted.
Sometimes
the prima
donna is right. But why not have raised it earlier? Watch this site.
* * *
In
UN Peacekeeping Budget Endgame, Payers Want $230 M, TCCs Want “57%
Raise," Midnight Deadline
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 30 -- As the clock moved within five hours of a
shutdown of UN Peacekeeping operations, negotiations continued on the
North Lawn building's second floor. Prominent among the “paying
countries,” as one European Permanent Representative called them,
were UK Deputy Permanent Representative Philip Parham and EU
Representative Serrano.
The
issue is money.
The developing world countries from which the vast majority of UN
peacekeepers come say they haven't had a raise since 2002. The
“paying countries” counter that there was an agreement in 2009 to
do a survey, but now the Group of 77 and China wants a “fifty seven
percent increase.”
The
paying
countries countered with the offer of a “one time bonus” and a
demand that some $230 million from closed-down peacekeeping missions
be returned. They complain that the G77 as a whole pays only 7.4% of
the UN peacekeeping budget, less that one of the loudest cost
cutters, France.
In
the recent
Security Council consultations to send Ethiopian peacekeepers into
Abyei in Sudan, France was said to question whether 4000 soldiers
would really be needed. Why not 3000? And now that the over 4000 were
approved, why not spread them out into Southern Kordofan?
It
is ironic that
a country so loud about human rights monitoring and the protection of
civilians -- to the point of using attack helicopters in Cote
d'Ivoire and dropping weapons into the mountains of Western Libya --
would behind closed doors be trying to nickel and dime UN
Peacekeeping.
UN June 30: UK Parham & EU Serrano, budget still not shown
But
this is where
it stands. It is predicted that a deal will be stuck before midnight.
Still and all the UN Department of Management says that this delay
means that payments will be made “manually,” at even greater
cost.
The
EU
diplomatically says it wants consensus. A prominent EU member intent
on cost savings says if the G77 “dares” to call for a vote, they
will regret it, it will highlight representation without taxation. Some
call it accountability, and others call it colonialism and
hypocrisy. Watch this site.
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