Assessing the UN

ON June 10, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms reached an agreement in which the U.S. will pay $819 million in back assessments, if the UN agrees to certain specific reform “benchmarks.” The only significant measures required are reductions in U.S. assessments for UN administrative budgets (from 25 to 20 per cent) and peacekeeping (from 31 to 25 per cent), proposals which Mrs. Albright failed to implement during her tenure as UN Ambassador. Other “reforms” include a provision that the UN observe generally accepted accounting principles, permit access by the U.S. General Accounting Office to its books, and add “sunset” provisions on UN programs. All these ideas must be approved by the General Assembly, however, which has an established track record of opposing congressionally mandated changes.

Mrs. Albright began discussing the payment of back assessments as part of a calculated effort to remove former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. She let it be known that America’s alleged billion-dollar UN debts would be paid only with a change in leadership of the troubled organization. When Boutros-Ghali ended his candidacy for a second term, President Clinton nominated Madeleine Albright as the next Secretary of State, and the Senate confirmed her unanimously. The Clinton Administration now expects American taxpayers to honor her campaign debt.

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Michael Michalski

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ON June 10, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms reached an agreement in which the U.S. will pay $819 million in back assessments, if the UN agrees to certain specific reform “benchmarks.” The only significant measures required are reductions in U.S. assessments for UN administrative budgets (from 25 to 20 per cent) and peacekeeping (from 31 to 25 per cent), proposals which Mrs. Albright failed to implement during her tenure as UN Ambassador. Other “reforms” include a provision that the UN observe generally accepted accounting principles, permit access by the U.S. General Accounting Office to its books, and add “sunset” provisions on UN programs. All these ideas must be approved by the General Assembly, however, which has an established track record of opposing congressionally mandated changes.

Mrs. Albright began discussing the payment of back assessments as part of a calculated effort to remove former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. She let it be known that America’s alleged billion-dollar UN debts would be paid only with a change in leadership of the troubled organization. When Boutros-Ghali ended his candidacy for a second term, President Clinton nominated Madeleine Albright as the next Secretary of State, and the Senate confirmed her unanimously. The Clinton Administration now expects American taxpayers to honor her campaign debt.