Burundi keeps UN voting rights

The UN has allowed Burundi to keep its voting rights in the General Assembly until 30 June 2002. The Assembly’s Budget Committee, which was meeting to review arrears in UN dues payments, heard a plea from Burundi’s permanent representative Marc Nteturuye to take his country’s special difficulties into consideration and to make an exception. Despite the fact that Burundi was one of the poorest nations in the world and in the throes of a civil war, it had still managed to make its payments to the regular and peacekeeping budgets, Nteturuye noted. The transfer of money, however, had taken some time, and, in the final analysis, the amount had depreciated due to the instability of Burundi’s national currency, he said.

According to Article 19, if a member state falls behind in the payment of its dues, it loses its right to vote in the General Assembly, unless the Assembly decides that non-payment is a consequence of factors beyond a state’s control. The Vice-Chairman of the Committee, Mr Chandra of India, expressed sympathy for the situation that Burundi found itself in. He wondered if there was any more deserving case for exemption under Article 19.