[Marxism] Iraq and United Nations finance

["Jurriaan Bendien" <andromeda246@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thalif Deen reports that "Iraq's US-installed interim government, which is
planning to spend about US$2 billion on its military this year, has declared
it is too poor to pay the $14.6 million it owes the United Nations. (...)
"The argument is ridiculous, to say the least," a UN official told Inter
Press Service (IPS), speaking on condition of anonymity. "The [US-run]
former Coalition Provisional Authority, which is now being accused of
misspending hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraq's oil revenues, did not
think it fit to pay the country's UN dues, even while it was pleading for UN
assistance to help the reconstruction of Iraq," he added. (...) The
non-payment of UN dues puts Iraq, with the world's second largest oil
reserves - amounting to over 112 billion barrels - in league with some of
the world's poorest nations, including Benin, Chad, Somalia, Liberia, Niger
and Tajikistan, who are also deemed deadbeats. All of these countries are
also on the verge of losing their voting rights in the General Assembly for
non-payment of their accumulated assessed contributions. Striking a note of
sarcasm, Jim Paul of the New York-based Global Policy Forum told IPS, "The
Iraqi government should perhaps ask Halliburton to help them out." (...) "It
is a way of sticking its finger in the eye of the United Nations," Paul
said. In effect, the Iraqi government is saying: "The United Nations is not
one of our priorities. With all the billions of dollars US taxpayers are
spending on Iraq, the $14 million should be peanuts." (...) the interim
government has been given until June 30 of next year to pay its $14.6
million in accumulated dues. Article 19 says a UN member state "which is in
arrears in the payment of its financial contributions to the organization
shall have no vote in the General Assembly if the amount of its arrears
equals or exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for the
preceding two full years." After the UN imposed sanctions on the former
government of Saddam Hussein in August 1990 for invading neighboring Kuwait,
Baghdad stopped paying its UN dues. http://www.atimes.com/

The US government itself has been holding back paying its UN contributions
for several years, claiming that the UN is wasteful, and must bring its
budget under control, before payments will be continued. The UN spends about
$10 billion each year, or about $1.70 for each of the world's inhabitants.
It suffers a serious financial crisis and was forced to cut back on
important programs in all areas. Many member states have not paid their full
dues, and have cut their donations to the UN's voluntary funds. As of June
30, 2004, members arrears to the Regular Budget exceeded $1 billion, of
which the United States alone owed $557 million (53% of the regular budget).
http://www.globalpolicy.org/finance/

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today announced the appointment of Robert Orr,
a veteran Harvard expert in foreign affairs, as the new United Nations
Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Strategic Planning.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=11568&Cr=annan&Cr1= Dr. Orr is
co-author of Keeping the Peace: Lessons from Multidimensional Peace
Operations in Cambodia and El Salvador (Cambridge University Press, 1997),

Meanwhile though, a campaign has been started to move the United Nations
headquarters from New York to Geneva, in view of the legal violations of the
US government in the pursuit of the Iraq war:
http://moveunhq.eccmei.net/~eccmei/moveunhq/

J.




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