Russian Proposals On Peace-Keeping

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30155, 12 June 1963, Page 17

Russian Proposals On Peace-Keeping

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright)

NEW YORK, June 11

The Secretary-General of the United Nations (U Thant) today withheld orders for the dispatch of a United Nations observation team to the Yemen while the Soviet Union and the United States wrangled over peacekeeping principles.

The Security Council is due : to meet today to consider the problem after U Thant told . members last night there was • a “growing urgency of the need for the United Nations i observation operation.” Delegates are seeking agree- I ment privately on a compromise resolution somewhere < between the reported American demand for only a proforma endorsement of U Thant’s proposals and Soviet . insistence on a careful spelling out of all the de- . tails, including a statement that the Security Council alone has competence to create peace-making units. Adoption of the Soviet formula would seriously prejudice the possibility of peace-keeping action by the General Assembly whenever the Security Council is prevented by a veto from moving into an explosive situation. It would also constitute endorsement of the Soviet argumeijt, used in the current 1 financial debate in the Assembly, that only the Security I Council may apportion ex- I penses for such operations. < For these reasons, the I Soviet demands were certain to be rejected in the council, observers said. But there was < no certainty how far the Russians were prepared to go i to uphold them. ; Western sources said they < hoped the Russians would ! not adhere to their positions ’ so rigidly as to jeopardise i plans for the Yemen. 1 U Thant had already gone i far towards the creation of ’ an observer mission when the < Soviet Union suddenly de- 1

manded last Saturday that the Security Council must first review the whole question. The Secretary-General nominated General Carl Carlsson von Horn, of Sweden, to head the mission, proposed that it should be composed of about 200 officers and men from the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation in Palestine and the United Nations Emergency Force in Gaza, and obtained agreement from the United Arab Republic and Saudi Arabia to share the costs for an initial two months. U Thant had announced that an advance party would be ordered into the Yemen within a day or two when the Soviet delegate. Dr. Nikolai Fedorenko, stalled the project with his request for a Security Council meeting. The council’s president, Mr Alex Quaison-Sackey. of Ghana, and the only other African member. Mr Ahmed Benhima, of Morocco, were believed to be working quietly behind the scenes tn hopes of obtaining agreement on a resolution that would enable U Thant to carry on with his plans. A United Nations observer mission was called for under a “disengagement” pact concluded last month between Saudi Arabia and the U.A.R. The two nations agreed to withdraw military support for the rival Royalist and Republican factions in the Yemen, where the old regime of the Imam was overthrown last year.