Act seen as punishment for Taiwan ties

February 24, 1999
Web posted at: 7:03 p.m. EST (0003 GMT)

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- China announced Wednesday it will veto the extension of a U.N. peacekeeping force in Macedonia, apparently to punish the former Yugoslav republic for establishing relations with Taiwan.

The U.N. Security Council was expected to vote Thursday on a resolution granting a six-month renewal of the 1,100-strong U.N. Preventative Deployment Force (UNPREDEP), recently strengthened to prevent violence in neighboring Kosovo from spilling over the border into Macedonia.

UNPREDEP's current mandate expires on February 28.

China's U.N. ambassador said Wednesday that Beijing had consistently opposed renewing the force because it didn't consider the situation in Macedonia a threat to international peace. UNPREDEP was originally deployed in 1992 to stop the Bosnian war from spreading south.

But despite its reservations, China repeatedly took a "flexible and cooperative" approach in the past because of Macedonia's requests for renewal.

"Now, as known to all, the situation is changed," Ambassador Qin Huasun said, alluding to Macedonia's decision last month to open diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

"So China no longer finds it necessary to allow for the request of Macedonia on the question of UNPREDEP ... We believe UNPREDEP has already completed its mandate," Qin said.

A negative vote by China, which along with the United States, Russia, Britain and France is one of the council's five permanent members, automatically kills any resolution.

Fifth veto by Beijing

Beijing has severed ties to Macedonia, as it has with every nation that recognizes Taiwan as a nation. China considers Taiwan a province of China, with no right to its own international relations.

If China goes through with its veto, it will mark only the fifth time Beijing has ever voted down a U.N. resolution.

China's most recent veto came in 1997, when it rejected sending a U.N. mission to Guatemala. China was incensed that the Central American nation had invited a Taiwanese delegation to attend a ceremony honoring the end of its civil war.

But China reversed its position two weeks later, after it was presumed to have received a promise that Guatemala would cease backing Taiwan's annual attempt to obtain U.N. membership.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan last week had recommended extending UNPREDEP because of the "potential serious repercussions that continued violence in Kosovo could have upon the external and internal security" of Macedonia, which has a sizable ethnic Albanian minority.

U.N. Security Council President Robert Fowler of Canada said council members already were considering alternative forces in Macedonia because of China's position.

Diplomats said one option under consideration was using part of a 1,800-member NATO force recently dispatched to Macedonia in the event that international observers in Kosovo had to be pulled out at short notice.

Fowler wouldn't comment specifically on any alternatives, saying the council would "cross that bridge when we get to it."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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