Council meets to vote on top U.N. job

Press, 28 October 1981, Page 9

Council meets to vote on top U.N. job

NZPA-Reuter New York The United Nations Security Council will meet in New York today to choose whether Dr Kurt Waldheim or Mr Salim Ahmed Salim will be the world body’s next Secretary-General. Dr Waldheim, aged 62, was. elected in 1971 as the fourth Secretary-General and was re-elected in 1976. Only one of his predecessors, U Thant, of Burma, completed two terms. After refusing for months to state his intentions and despite Mr Salim’s heavily supported candidacy, Dr Waldheim declared on September 10 that he was available for another five-year term.

Mr Salim, aged 39, Foreign Minister of Tanzania, is the official candidate of the Organisation of African Unity ' and has the endorsements of the League of Arab States and the non-aligned movement, comprising about twothirds of the United Nations membership. While most members of the General Assembly, which makes the appointment, evidently wants Mr Salim, many diplomats believe that in the Security Council he will be vetoed by the. United States and Dr Waldheim will be the eventual winner. In addition to the United States and China, the permanent members of the Security Council, each of

which has the power of veto, are the Soviet Union, France and Britain. These last three are widely believed to favour Dr Waldheim’s re-election, but none of them is expected to veto Mr Salim, if only because they do not want to offend his Third World backers. Diplomats said balloting in the closely guarded Security Council chamber would probably develop into a test of wills between the United States and China. In 1976, before Dr Waldheim won re-election, he was vetoed once by China, and Tanzanian diplomats said they expected the Chinese to cast many vetoes this time.