UN can cope with world problems

UN can cope with world problems

JAKARTA (JP): United Nations Secretary General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali denied yesterday that the organization needs to be
radically restructured, saying it is fully capable of coping with
the world's current problems.

Boutros-Ghali told the forum of foreign affairs yesterday that
he believed the UN has the capabilities to deal with the problems
of the post Cold War era.

Responding to questions posed by Indonesian senior diplomats,
including Hasnan Habib, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) ambassador
to Latin America and the Caribbean, Boutros-Ghali asserted that
what's needed by the international body is the political will of
member states.

Boutros-Ghali, who arrived with his wife Maria Leia on Friday
for a five-day visit, said that the main problem with the
effectiveness of the UN was that member states could not agree on
how to use the organization to solve international problems.

A growing number of developing countries, including Indonesia,
have called for reforms to the UN, to make it more effective and
more attuned to the world's problems, which have changed vastly
in the 50 years since the organization was set up.

Included in the reforms called for was the restructuring of
the UN Security Council, expanding its permanent membership from
the current five.

Boutros-Ghali said that the UN was already undergoing
administrative reforms, including a reduction in the number of
its international civil servants, as well as its budget.

"We are making the reforms, but at the same time, we're
receiving increasing demands from member countries," he said,
adding that 46 countries, for instance, have asked the United
Nations for assistance during their elections.

He said such demands included calls for technical assistance,
human rights protection, help in the process of democratization
and intervention in peace keeping operations.

He said that one of the main problems facing the UN was
finding donor countries. "It is getting more and more difficult
to find a donor country," the secretary-general said, adding that
he sometimes has to act as a "super-beggar".

On Monday, Boutros-Ghali will attend celebrations to mark the
40th anniversary of the Asia-Africa Conference -- which led to
the foundation of the NAM -- in Bandung tomorrow, 180 kilometers
southeast of Jakarta.

Indonesia is the first stop on Boutros-Ghali's lengthy tour to
several countries, which also includes Australia, New Zealand,
Fiji, France and Russia.

In his speech, Boutros-Ghali discussed the four cornerstones
of the Charter of the United Nations -- peace, human rights,
international law and development.

He called Indonesia a "leading contributor to the important
debate aimed at strengthening the global consensus" on human
rights.

He pointed out that recent years have seen the emergence of a
new recognition of "the need to protect the rights of individual
civilians caught in areas of conflict."

"In the past, civilian populations were largely the indirect
victims of warfare," he said. "Today, they are often the main
targets of conflict -- many of which now take place within,
rather than between, states".

He praised Indonesia's impressive success in achieving
development, while reducing poverty. "As the international
community struggles with the challenge of global development,
Indonesia's experience provide ideas, examples and lessons," he
said.

Following his discussion of the struggle of the international
community in strengthening the four cornerstones, Boutros-Ghali
pointed out that progress is possible.

"The problems I have covered make it clear that cooperation is
crucial," he said. "Only the United Nations can provide the
forums and the instruments that are needed for progress." (swe)