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Subject: New Demands on the U.N.=
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 09:54:16 EST
Message-ID: <29.1992Nov23.095416@AmeriCast.com>

New Demands on the U.N.=

 AMAJOR political step has been taken with the unanimous Security
Council decision to impose a mandatory arms embargo on Liberia.
Earlier efforts to contain and settle the conflict there were
largely in the hands of states of the region. By the new resolu-
tion the United Nations announces it is coming directly to the
political aid of the seven-nation West African peace-keeping
force that has been struggling to put down the rebellion of
Charles Taylor. Nigeria's foreign minister expressed the hope
over the weekend that the new resolution would sap the strength
and morale of the Taylor forces and signal "the beginning of the
end" of one of Africa's most savage civil wars. The arms embargo
is intended to cut off weapons to the Liberian parties but not to
the peace-keepers.

 As it happened, these new moves to engage the U.N. more deeply
in Liberia were taking place just as Secretary General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali was calling fresh attention to the U.N.'s own para-
doxical situation. Member countries continue to heap on demanding
new tasks, he said in a Post interview Sunday, even as they res-
trict the resources and flexibility the U.N. needs to meet these
responsibilities.  The secretary general has a point. The
dispute-solving functions of the U.N.  are on view, and under
test, around the world. It flatters the U.N., even as it burdens
it, that the cases the members usually bring to it are the tough
ones, the ones they could not resolve on their own. But the old
Cold War habits of parsimony and tight national control linger.
Internal reforms are necessary, but member states do not supply
the U.N. in a timely way with the full range of means, including
money, personnel, arms and political flexibility. Down this road
lies a potential crisis of post-Cold War internationalism. The
U.N. needs to be reformed; it cannot be left to be swamped and
starved.

09:10 11-23C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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