OneWorld.net (U.S.)

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 23 (OneWorld) - The United States is using the issue of United Nations reform to consolidate domination of the world body by wealthy and powerful countries at the expense of the majority, say two-thirds of the UN's members.

Representatives of the mostly developing countries are pressing that charge because John Bolton, Washington's ambassador to the UN, began rare Security Council hearings Wednesday on sexual abuse by soldiers assigned to UN peacekeeping missions and on alleged fraud in procurement contracts to supply those missions.

A 132-nation bloc of mostly developing countries and China accused Bolton of encroaching on the General Assembly's mandate to oversee UN operations and financing.

In the first place, the UN audit report detailing the fraud was to be delivered to the General Assembly at the request of the 132-member Group of 77 (G-77), said the bloc's chairman, South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo.

''We never interfere in their business but they have interfered in our business,'' Kumalo said of Bolton's unusual move.

Bolton holds the Security Council's revolving presidency this month. The panel consists of 10 temporary member states and five permanent members--Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States--each with a veto over all decisions. The small body has enjoyed greater political clout than the General Assembly, where all 191 UN members are represented and none has a veto.

The majority of UN members have asserted that the assembly, as the more democratic forum and as the apex body under the UN Charter, should reign supreme. Officials from powerful nations--chiefly, most of the veto holders in the Security Council--have countered that the assembly's large membership makes it unwieldy and ineffective.

For its part, the bureaucracy headed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has complained about micromanagement by the assembly.

Among wealthy states, the United States, Japan, and Germany have pushed for greater Security Council oversight of peacekeeping operations, which the panel authorizes.

''We create these missions. We write the resolutions that create these missions,'' Bolton said, adding that since Washington chipped in 27 percent of the peacekeeping budget, it had an obligation to let its taxpayers know how and where the money is spent and how well it is managed.

Japan's emissaries have made a similar argument, saying Tokyo would be hard pressed to keep providing 20 percent of the peacekeeping budget without greater transparency and accountability in spending.

Mark Malloch Brown, Annan's chief of staff, appeared to support the Security Council's move.

''They have a tough case to make to their legislators,'' he said of the large donor governments.

Kumalo rejected those arguments, saying they flew in the face of democratic norms and the UN Charter.

''This is not a private corporation. This is not a Fortune 500 company,'' he said. ''This is an intergovernmental body. It is not like they own Class 'A' stocks and we own common stock.''

Bigger spenders are not entitled to more votes, Kumalo said, as ''we are all assessed [membership dues] according to our ability to pay.''

''The troops on the front lines do not come from this body,'' he added, referring to the Security Council.

To be sure, Third World diplomats have been chagrined by Bolton's move because they see it as stealing their thunder--after all, they said, they had requested the audit at the center of the ongoing Security Council hearings.

But they also have noted that the Security Council created and supervised what turned out to be the UN's most damaging corruption scandal: the now defunct, $64 billion oil-for-food program in Iraq.

Last week, Kumalo sent Bolton a letter saying the G-77 did not believe that the council was ''the right forum'' to discuss the audit report.

In response, Bolton stated that ''the Security Council is acting, and other bodies can act as well.''

The turf war is part of a wider pattern of confrontation over numerous aspects of a major restructuring of the 60-year-old UN. Powerful and poor nations also are locked in negotiations over the formation of a proposed human rights council and over the role and distribution of jobs at the UN Secretariat, or central bureaucracy.

On the human rights council, U.S. and Western diplomats are pushing criteria that would prevent certain countries from obtaining membership but developing countries stand against this approach.

Both sides also have locked horns over whether the Secretariat should have more powers in managing the organization. Washington and other wealthy capitals want to strengthen the Secretary General's authority but developing nations consider such initiatives as inconsistent with the organization's charter, which states that the UN's top official should be accountable to the General Assembly.

UN peacekeeping missions are ongoing in 17 countries and are staffed by about 80,000 soldiers, police, and civilian personnel, according to the UN. Peacekeeping accounts for about 85 percent of the UN's worldwide spending on procurement and has more than quadrupled over the past decade.

The corruption probe so far has resulted in the suspension of eight UN staff members. Any criminal wrongdoing uncovered reportedly will be turned over to U.S. prosecutors.

The UN last year introduced a ''zero tolerance'' policy to reinforce rules against sexual abuse after investigators found that UN peacekeepers had sex with Congolese women and girls. Sex abuse also has been reported in Bosnia, Cambodia, East Timor, and elsewhere.

The world body has jurisdiction over civilian personnel on peacekeeping missions but cannot punish soldiers so instead, it sends them home and asks their governments to bring them to justice. Whether that happens depends on each government.