UNITED NATIONS

Austerity measures to
prop up the crumbling UN,
hit by an acute financial
crisis, has resulted in the
unprecedented step of
enrolling unpaid volunteers. This has become
necessary, say UN officials,
to continue running the organisation. The
volunteers are mostly being hired to keep
the UN's peacekeeping department afloat.
in fact, the UN secretary general, Boutros-Boutros Ghali has also proposed the reduction of paid posts in the department of
peacekeeping operations from 55 to 16,
much to the annoyance of Third World
countries. Protests from their quarter insist
that such a move could create a 'geographical imbalance' in the department, as
most of the countries who can afford
volunteer military officers are from the
West. Said Nalin Surie, Indian ambassador
to the UN, "We believe that such an overwhelming presence of loaned officers
affects the orientation of work, affects
standards, creates a system of dual allegiance and adversely affects the need for institutionalisation".

The UN has been forced to resort to
such measures as dues amounting to nearly
three billion dollars have yet to come its
way from several member countries,
including the US. Rumours doing the
rounds in the UN corridors even hint at a
possible closure of the world body for a
month during the year end. Meanwhile, it
is aiming at drastic cuts in its work-
force and other overhead costs which is
expected to reduce US $250 million from its
operating expenses.