KAMALIKA PIERIS

The United Nations  is not as pure as we think. The United Nations, along with the 193 diplomatic missions located in New York, have long been veritable battlegrounds for spying, wire-tapping and electronic surveillance, said Thalif Dean. (2021). At the UN, virtually all the big powers play the spying game. US National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain’s spy agency, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), had once targeted over 1,000 political leaders, diplomats, and international institutions.

During the height of the Cold War in the 1960s and 1970s CIA had planted one of its Russian lip-reading experts in a press booth overlooking the Security Council chamber so that he could monitor the lip movements of Russian delegates, as they consulted each other in low whispers.

US had cracked into the UN’s encrypted video system and there is very aggressive monitoring of UN officials and high-ranking diplomats, continued Thalif. in 2013, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, launched a blistering attack on the United States for illegally infiltrating its communications network, surreptitiously intercepting phone calls, and breaking into the Brazilian Mission to the United Nations.

The illegal electronic surveillance of Brazil was conducted by the US National Security Agency (NSA). NSA technicians had managed to decrypt the UN’s internal video teleconferencing (VTC) system. This finding not only embarrassed the United Nations but also put its integrity, impartiality and credibility in doubt.

When UN member states compete for the Presidency of the General Assembly or membership in the Security Council or various other UN bodies, the voting was largely tainted by bribery, cheque-book diplomacy and offers of luxury cruises in Europe.

Just ahead of an election for membership in the Security Council, one Western European country offered free Mediterranean luxury cruises in return for votes while another country dished out — openly in the General Assembly hall— boxes of gift-wrapped expensive Swiss chocolates.

Fathulla Jameel, a former UN Ambassador and later Foreign Minister of the Maldives, said that when Maldives asked for foreign aid, to help fund some of country’s infrastructure projects. One rich Asian country, a traditional donor, had responded. The project would be fully funded and for free, but there was a catch: If there is a vote at the UN, and it is not of any national interest to your country”, said the donor country’s foreign ministry, we would like to get your vote.”

There is horse trading of votes at the UN, observed Guardian. One country will pledge to vote for a motion here in exchange for a vote to be on a committee there. There is arm twisting too. The weaker nations are made to vote against their conscience. In the case of Sri Lanka, US got reluctant countries to at least abstain. The countries that refrained from voting made speeches in Sri Lanka’s favor and then refrained from voting, which was their way of indicating that they were refraining from voting only under duress, reported the media.

‘All member states in the UN rank equally at the formal level, but the money contribution to the UN varies and some countries such as USA pay large amounts, said critics.  Over the years,  instead of keeping the UN as skeleton organization to maintain a line of communication between sovereign states and a meeting place for them, the west have taken the lead in piling more and more tasks on the UN system  creating a great dependency on the voluntary contribution to keep the system going. This has made the UN depend on about        ten to 15 western countries, and these countries have turned this dependency to a handle to make the UN further their foreign policies.  There is at least one document that admits that this distorts the priorities of the UN system. And to retain their jobs the UN officials have to pander to these countries, including Ban Ki Moon, said Chandraprema in 2013. (continued)