General Assembly Session 53 meeting 43

The Acting President

The Assembly will take a decision on the draft resolution recommended by the Fifth Committee in paragraph 8 of its report (A/53/522).

I call now on the representative of the United States, who wishes to speak in explanation of position before action is taken on the draft resolution.

Mr. Squadron (United States)

When the General Assembly discussed the peacekeeping support account agenda item at the resumed fifty-second session last May, my delegation made it clear that the entire peacekeeping backstopping function needed a comprehensive review. This includes posts in the Department of Political Affairs and the Department of Management, as well as the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and other sections of the Secretariat. When the United States joined consensus in June on a compromise that established 400 posts for the support account and authorized $34.4 million for the year 1 July 1998 to 30 June 1999, we did so with the belief -- a belief that was explicitly spelled out in the resolution -- that the Secretariat would conduct its own review of the support account posts.

At the same time, the United States noted that in the past few years the support account submission by the Secretary-General has continued to increase, while the number, size and cost of peacekeeping operations have declined dramatically. The Secretariat has also underspent by about $2 million annually what it has been authorized by the General Assembly to spend from the support account. The United States does not believe there is a linear, one-to-one relationship between the level of peacekeeping operations in the field and the level of backstopping required at Headquarters. However, it is illogical and unrealistic that a substantial decrease in the field would not have any impact at all on the needs at Headquarters.

The situation has not changed. The Secretariat did not present any new information to the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions or the General Assembly for consideration at its fifty-third session. The United States again calls on the Secretary-General to engage in a comprehensive, post-by-post review of the peacekeeping support account in the context of his submission for the 1999-2000 support account year.

Turning to the present draft resolution, the United States believes that redeployment is a critical management tool that is essential to make the backstopping function at Headquarters more effective and efficient. The size of current peacekeeping operations, changes in work methods and the absence of start-ups or shut-downs of major missions make it essential that the Secretariat look closely at the distribution of posts and redeploy to match the needs. The General Assembly was told by representatives of the Secretariat -- sceptically, I might add -- that they would try to redeploy posts if instructed to do so by the General Assembly. It is not good enough for the Secretariat to try. It has been given a mandate by the General Assembly, and it must take a hard-nosed, critical look at its current and expected needs and readjust the staffing pattern accordingly.

The United States also calls on the Secretary-General, when filling the 400 support account posts that have again been authorized, to include within them those functions that he identified as critical to the backstopping function and requiring current military or civilian police expertise. The United States remains concerned that the transition between the gratis military personnel and their replacements, both civilians and seconded military and police officers, should take place seamlessly and with no gap in capability. The welfare of our peacekeepers is literally on the line. It would be unconscionable to endanger them because of a staffing gap.

The United States remains committed to the important work done by the peacekeepers of the United Nations. We stand ready to work with the Secretariat and other delegations to ensure that this work is done efficiently and effectively.

The Acting President

The General Assembly will now take a decision on the draft resolution recommended by the Fifth Committee in paragraph 8 of its report (A/53/522).

The Fifth Committee adopted the draft resolution, entitled "Support account for peacekeeping operations", without a vote.

May I take it that the General Assembly wishes to do likewise?

The Acting President

I shall now call on those representatives who wish to make statements in explanation of position on the resolution just adopted.

Mr. Manz (Austria)

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Central and Eastern European countries associated with the European Union -- Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia -- and the associated country, Cyprus, as well as the European Free Trade Association country member of the European Economic Area, Iceland, align themselves with this statement.

The resolution just adopted is of great importance to the European Union, since it has an immediate impact on the safety of peacekeeping troops in the field. Representing the largest group of troop-contributing countries, the European Union has been guided first and foremost in this debate by the principle of the need to protect the lives of personnel in the field. They must not be put at risk. Therefore, we acknowledge the need to staff the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and other departments involved in backstopping peacekeeping adequately, not least to ensure adequate planning capacity and the ability to react swiftly to meet new challenges.

The European Union acknowledges the importance of replacing the gratis military officers with properly qualified people for the smooth functioning of backstopping structures. It is vital that we do not lose the expertise built up through the loan of those experienced officers and those with whom they worked. Throughout these past months, the European Union has emphasized the need for appropriate hand-over arrangements in order to ensure continuity.

It is unfortunate that the General Assembly once again had to spend so much time on this issue. While we regret that inadequate information was provided by the Secretariat throughout this long exercise and share the frustration of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) in this context, we recognize the Secretariat's last-minute efforts in the Fifth Committee. We are particularly grateful to the fresh approach of the Military Adviser of the Secretary-General. He confirmed our view that military expertise must be preserved, and we trust that his expertise will be given due regard.

With regard to the number of posts we have given, it is perhaps of necessity arbitrary. This was inevitable given the lack of information available on which to base a more considered view.

The European Union accepted the ACABQ's recommendations. In order to reach consensus and meet the concerns of other delegations, we agreed to seven posts in addition to the 393 recommended by the Advisory Committee. Three of these have been allocated to the Rapidly Deployable Mission Headquarters (RDMHQ) and the Office of Internal Oversight Services. The remaining additionally approved posts should go to priority areas.

Again, the European Union is particularly concerned about the need for current seconded expertise. This resolution reaffirmed resolution 52/248, which requested the Secretary-General to ensure the required expertise of serving military officers and civilian police. In fact, if military expertise is substantially reduced the entire peacekeeping area of the United Nations is bound to suffer irreparable loss, with consequences for the safety and security of all the military and civilian personnel in the field. We also hope that seconded military expertise can eventually be extended to the RDMHQ, as requested by the Secretary-General and recognized by the ACABQ in paragraph 16 of its report contained in document A/53/418.

The European Union will look very closely at the next submission of the support account. In our view, this must inevitably reflect the significant restructuring of all departments dealing with peacekeeping backstopping, not just the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. With something like 70 fewer posts available to him, the Secretary-General must examine his real needs. We regard this decision as an opportunity for the Secretariat to reassess backstopping needs. It must act as an engine to promote restructuring. The European Union expects the Secretary-General to ensure that the necessary redeployment will take place as soon as possible and that he will report on the process of redeployment in the next support account report.

Out of principle, we have refrained from engaging in micro-management. This resolution gives the Secretariat an unusual degree of flexibility to carry out required changes, and we look forward to seeing an account of their implementation next year.

Mr. Kolby (Norway)

Norway supported the resolution just adopted, and we welcome the fact that resources were found to finance two of the eight posts requested by the Secretary-General for the Rapidly Deployable Mission Headquarters. Norway has supported the establishment of the Rapidly Deployable Mission Headquarters since the idea was born and would also welcome seeing the six military posts financed, as requested by the Secretary-General and recognized by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions.

Norway shares the views expressed by the European Union regarding the replacement of the gratis military and police officers with qualified people and smooth and careful hand-over arrangements to secure continuity, while ensuring the required expertise of serving military officers and civilian police.

Mrs. Buergo Rodríguez (Cuba)

At the outset, my delegation wishes to thank the coordinator for this item, the representative of Australia, Mr. Miles Armitage, for the efforts he deployed throughout the negotiations in order to achieve the adoption by consensus of this resolution.

The item on which we have adopted this resolution has required a year of intensive work owing to the sensitivity of the issue and the political differences underlying it. We were also faced with a deplorable situation: the information provided on the item sometimes lacked coherence, precision and clarity. This undoubtedly gave rise to additional difficulties in the consideration of the reports, both in the Fifth Committee and in the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. Situations of this kind should not arise, and we trust that they will not recur.

The resolution we have adopted today reaffirms the decision taken by the Assembly last June to establish 400 support account-funded posts for the period from 1 July 1998 to 30 June 1999. It also requests the Secretary-General, when allocating those posts, to take into account the provisions contained in this resolution, particularly operative paragraphs 7 and 8. This means that only two civilian posts could be established for a rapidly deployable mission headquarters, not the eight originally asked for. We take note of the explanations given in this regard by the Secretariat in the Fifth Committee.

It emerged clearly from the negotiations that there is not yet any specific information that would truly justify that request. The Special Committee for Peacekeeping Operations itself still has doubts in this regard and has asked for more details about the differences in the functional responsibilities of the rapidly deployable mission headquarters and the Mission Planning Service.

My delegation looks forward with interest to the next report of the Secretary-General on the support account so that it can consider this matter as well as the question of the review of possible duplication and overlap between the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Political Affairs. The latter was called for by the General Assembly in its resolutions 50/214 and 52/220, and once again in operative paragraph 10 of this resolution.

Finally, we should like to underscore the important fact that all of the objective needs of support activities for peacekeeping operations at Headquarters should be at the centre of the decision-making process on this item. This will require genuine political will, and not an attempt to impose positions that correspond to the political interests of certain Member States, which, far from working to the advantage of the Organization, continues to undermine its transparency and credibility.

The Acting President

We have thus concluded this stage of our consideration of sub-item (a) of agenda item 143.