Reagan Releases U.N. Payments : Cites Fiscal Reforms, Peace Role; $188 Million Promised by Oct. 1

President Reagan on Tuesday ordered the release to the United Nations of $188 million in back dues from the United States, averting a financial crisis at the world organization as it struggles with crucial peacekeeping efforts in several regions of the globe.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, announcing the unfreezing of the payments, said the President took the action because of U.N. progress in reforming financial management procedures and because of the organization’s “very constructive” work in helping negotiate an end to the Persian Gulf War and the Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan.

The United Nations is to receive the $188 million by Oct. 1. Fitzwater said Reagan will also ask the State Department to set up a three- to five-year schedule for payment of the rest of the dues the United States owes--an additional $520 million.

Long-Term Goals Hailed

“The U.N. is directly serving important, long-term objectives of this Administration to end regional conflicts and advance peace and freedom around the world,” Fitzwater said. “The presidential action makes it clear that the United States is prepared to meet its obligations in support of these peacekeeping efforts.”

U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, who has complained bitterly about the delinquent payments, hailed Reagan’s decision as a “most positive development.”

However, he said in a statement, “the partial payment of arrears does not solve the financial crisis of the organization.” He said the United Nations will continue to be strapped by inadequate resources “until the outstanding contributions of all member states are paid.”

The U.S. action comes at a crucial time for the organization. It is facing the greatest range of peacekeeping missions in its 43-year history, centering on the Iran-Iraq War, the conflicts in Namibia and Angola, the independence movement in Western Sahara, the Afghan civil war and negotiations for the Vietnamese withdrawal from Cambodia.

The cost of the peacekeeping activities has been estimated at $1 billion a year. U.N. officials have said they will not be able to meet their payroll by the end of November without more funds.

Fitzwater said Reagan “will release $44 million which was withheld in fiscal 1988 and $144 million which was withheld in fiscal 1989. He will request the full funding of the United Nations system in fiscal 1990, which amounts to approximately $476 million.”

Four-Year Freeze

The United States began withholding part of its dues, which provide 25% of the U.N. budget, four years ago after Congress charged that the organization was squandering resources through a bloated staff and sloppy financial controls.

Congress passed measures that required a freeze on some payments until the President certified that substantial improvements were made in U.N. management practices.

“President Reagan has determined that the United Nations has reformed its operation to the point he can release the United States funding for that institution,” Fitzwater said.

Reagan’s action heads off a growing controversy over U.S. impoundment of the dues.

Both the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees have called for the restoration of U.S. payments. In July, Donald F. McHenry, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Jimmy Carter Administration, called the freeze “disgraceful and dishonorable” at a congressional hearing.

At that time, U.N. Ambassador Vernon A. Walters told Congress that the Administration was aware of the strain that funding shortages were causing and planned to complete its review of U.N. reforms soon.

‘Progress Is Striking’

“The United Nations has made progress toward a consensus budget process, limitations on . . . staff to the Secretariat and Secretariat staff reductions,” Fitzwater said. “. . . Although reform is incomplete, the progress is striking.”

Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa), a leading U.N. supporter, said Reagan’s action “appears to signal a new era of cooperation rather than confrontation with the United Nations. The only question is whether Congress has the vision and fortitude to reverse course and follow the President’s lead” in future budget requests.

Most of the dues withheld by the United States were for the regular budget of the United Nations. The world organization assesses member nations separately for the costs of its peacekeeping operations under a formula by which the United States pays 31% of the total.

The Administration and U.N. critics in Congress have called for the United States to negotiate a smaller share of U.N. costs, but this pressure has eased with the organization’s recent active role in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan settlements.

This summer, the United Nations negotiated a cease-fire in the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq War, which took effect in July, and it is conducting peace talks between the nations’ foreign ministers. It has established an observer force on both sides of the border to monitor the terms of the agreement.

Work With Afghanistan

Over the last several years, U.N. officials have worked with representatives of the Afghan government, the Soviet Union and Pakistan to arrange the withdrawal of Soviet occupation forces that moved into Afghanistan in 1979. The troop withdrawal is scheduled to be completed by Feb. 15, 1989.

In recent months, the Soviet Union also has moved to pay some of its back dues, an action that Fitzwater said influenced Reagan’s announcement.

However, Moscow has ignored one longstanding debt, incurred when it refused to pay its assessment for the cost of the Congo peacekeeping operation in the 1960s. Richard Williamson, assistant secretary of state for international organizations, said the total delinquency of the Soviet Union stands at about $250 million.

Fitzwater said the “full funding” Reagan will request for the 1990 fiscal year will include dues for the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, from which the United States withdrew four years ago. The Administration charged that UNESCO discriminated against Israel, promoted leftist ideology and spent far too much of its budget at its Paris headquarters rather than in developing countries.

One key internal change enacted by the United Nations in response to U.S. protests is a provision for consensus approval of the U.N. budget, which gives major contributors veto power on major funding questions.