World Scofflaw

The veto by the United States of the U.N. Security Council’s resolution on the Nicaragua crisis is yet another act of defiance by a Reagan Administration bent on pursuing a military course in Central America.

No other nation on the 15-member council voted in support of the United States. Great Britain, France and Thailand abstained on the final vote. Eleven nations supported the resolution. Their support of the resolution was appropriate, for the resolution did nothing more than uphold the rule of law.

At the heart of the matter was the finding of the International Court of Justice on June 27 that U.S. efforts to overthrow the Sandinista governmentof Nicaragua are in violation of the U.N. Charter. So they are. The court called on the United States to terminate the arming and financing of the contras , who are fighting the government of Nicaragua. The court decision, based on existing international agreements, was persuasive in its arguments and presented a carefully determined effort to encourage the settlement of disputes by peaceful means.

But the United States, catching wind of the impending action, had rejected the jurisdiction of the court just days before Nicaragua, on April 9, 1984, brought the charges. And the United States had rejected the authority of the court again when the verdict was reached 26 months later. Deliberately the United States placed itself outside the law, and eroded the fragile structure of international law that the court represents, to protect its policy of military intervention in Central America.

That same defiance has now been directed within the most important peace-enforcement body of the United Nations, the Security Council, against a resolution supporting the court decision. The resolution bore no condemnation of the United States. It did not even mention the United States by name. In reaffirming the authority of the court, the Security Council called on all nations to comply with the decision of the court and to refrain from any political, economic or military action that might impede the peace efforts of the Contadora nations--the four Latin nations seeking a peaceful settlement for Central America.

Vernon A. Walters, the chief U.S. representative to the world organization, said that the United States had vetoed the resolution because it “could not, and would not, contribute to the achievement of a peaceful and just settlement of the situation in Central America.” That is absurd and ludicrous. The resolution embraced the absolute essentials of a peaceful and just settlement as that settlement is understood by virtually every nation in the hemisphere save one--the United States.

The isolation of the United States, as it pursues stubbornly its policy to destroy the Sandinistas, grows apace. The determination of President Reagan to shoot his way to peace in Nicaragua has diverted world attention from the abuses of the Nicaraguan government itself as it breaches the promises of democracy and diversity that it had made for its revolution. And it is Washington that comes increasingly to be seen as the outlaw.