Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 25, 1995 TAG: 9506260133
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LOUIS MEIXLER ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: UNITED NATIONS LENGTH: Long
With Europe in ruins and Japan facing defeat, diplomats met 50 years ago in San Francisco to create the United Nations ``to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.''
Harold Stassen, an American delegate, recalls the moment Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius asked diplomats working on the U.N. charter to rise if they approved the wording: ``The chairs began to scrape, and they began to realize that everybody was standing, and ... they broke out into applause.''
``This was a real turning point,'' said Stassen, who five days later signed for the United States, on June 26, 1945. ``We had won a beachhead in mankind's age-old struggle to find a way toward a lasting peace.''
Representatives of 50 nations signed the charter that day; now, 185 nations are members. Germany and Japan, transformed into democracies, have become prominent forces.
But 50 years later, the United Nations dream is under siege. Serbs have held U.N. peacekeepers hostage. Rwandans have accused peacekeepers of standing aside while genocide tore apart their land. Members of Congress say the organization wastes money and are threatening to cripple it by slashing U.S. contributions.
``The original purpose of the United Nations was the fanciful hope that you could deter conflicts and, sometimes, if that failed, you could bring them to a conclusion,'' said Charles Lichenstein, alternate U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1980-84. ``It was a hope, a dream, for which the basis never existed in 1945 or 1995 or anywhere in between.''
But Stassen said the United Nations served as an important pressure release valve as the United States and the Soviet Union confronted each other after World War II.
``We have not had a third world war and we made it through the Cold War,'' he said. ``Now ... the organization needs to be brought up to date.''
Huge changes in the world dramatically increased demands on the United Nations, but also raised questions about how active an international organization can be in a world of sovereign states.
Colonial empires collapsed and new nations emerged in Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific, swelling U.N. membership.
Throughout, U.N. specialized agencies have played a key role for millions of people. UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, helped bring clean water and medicine to children in more than 100 countries. The World Health Organization helped lead the fight to end smallpox; WHO doctors were on the scene in Kikwit, Zaire, after the recent outbreak of deadly Ebola virus.
For much of its five decades, the Security Council, responsible for peacekeeping, was largely paralyzed and the General Assembly became a forum for Cold War rhetoric.
As the Cold War ended, the United States and the Soviet Union - later Russia - began to cooperate in the Security Council. That made it possible for the council to authorize the U.S.-led military mission that drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait and to send peacekeepers to different parts of the globe.
The number of peacekeepers jumped from 10,000 in 1987 to about 70,000 this year. U.N. peacekeepers have helped bring stability to Cambodia, Mozambique and El Salvador.
But the heady optimism felt at the end of the Cold War has fallen victim to the chaos of civil wars and the brutal forces of nationalism. U.N. failures in Somalia and Bosnia brought a re-examination of peacekeeping.
``The United Nations has been dumped right in the middle of really dangerous situations that even the superpowers are leery of getting involved in on the ground,'' said William Durch, a senior associate at the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington. ``It was never designed to go and fight fires everywhere. It was designed as a focal point for the coalition that would fight the next Hitler.''
Reacting to the failures, the Security Council is increasingly reluctant to approve new peacekeeping operations. Regional organizations like NATO have taken an increasingly active role in Bosnia.
``The relevance of the U.N. is deteriorating and I feel it will continue to decrease,'' said Karel Kovanda, the Czech Republic's U.N. ambassador. ``The important issues are going to be taken care of by regional organizations ... with the U.N. giving its blessings.''
Meanwhile, the United Nations' operations are hobbled by a staggering debt, reflecting tight national budgets and some say a lack of commitment from some key nations, such as the United States.
The United Nations ended 1994 with member states owing $1.3 billion for peacekeeping, equal to about one-third of the year's peacekeeping costs. The largest peacekeeping debtors were Russia, which owed $507 million, and the United States with $221 million.
``The financial crisis of the organization continues to expand and we don't know how to leap across that chasm,'' Kovanda said.
American diplomats have been demanding that the United Nations slash its bloated bureaucracy and streamline operations.
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali says budget cuts depend on what nations demand from the United Nations.
``What we need is a very honest and straightforward confrontation with reality,'' said William vanden Heuvel, chairman of the United Nations Association of the USA. ``The United States and other powers of the world haveO to go in and decide what they want the U.N. to do.''
UNITED NATIONS TURNS 50-YEARS-OLD
Facts and figures about the United Nations:
CHARTER: Signed June 26, 1945, in San Francisco. Took effect Oct. 24, 1945.
BUDGET: $1.1. billion for general budget. Separate $3.5 billion budget for peacekeeping. United States is largest contributor.
MEMBERS: 185 nations. Newest is Palau, western Pacific island chain that joined in December 1994.
PEACEKEEPING: 16 missions with about 70,000 soldiers.
STRUCTURE: Secretary-general heads organization; Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt began five-year term Jan. 1, 1992. General Assembly approves U.N. budget, assesses contributions, makes recommendations about peace and security.
LANGUAGES: Official languages are English, French, Russian, Chinese, Spanish and Arabic.
- Associated Press
by CNB