The U.N. Security Council on Sunday failed to adopt a draft resolution to renew the U.N. Mission in Bosnia after the United States voted against the draft.
The U.S. move would leave the local police force inadequately prepared to fight terrorism and organized crime. The United States, one of the five permanent member of the 15-nation council, has the veto power on the U.N. body.
The U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, John Negroponte, told an open council meeting that his government made the decision because "we can not accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over the American people" who participated in authorized U.N. peacekeeping operations.
Thirteen members voted in favor of the draft while Bulgaria abstained, in addition to the U.S. veto. China, Russia, also two permanent members of the council, and other members, voted for the draft, and they regretted that the draft was not adopted.
"Today, the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina comes to an abrupt end, for reasons that are unrelated to the vitally important work that it is performing to implement the Dayton Peace Agreement," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who witnessed the vote at the council chamber, said after the U.S. voted against the draft.
"The U.N. Mission has made universally recognized contribution to the re-establishment of the rule of law and political stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina by transforming a 40,000 strong war-time militia into a 17,000 strong professional police force," he said. "But the state and its institutions are still fragile and under pressure from nationalist forces," he said. "Unless an agreement can be reached on an orderly wind down of the mission, the police in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be left unmonitored, unguided and unassisted."
The U.N. Bosnia mission was launched in 1995 to train a professional multi-ethnic police force after a three-year war. The United States has 46 police officers in the mission.
(Xinhua News Agency July 1, 2002)
