U.N. to Tackle Drugs, Environment Issues

With the end of the Cold War between the superpowers, Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar said Tuesday the United Nations must now turn to the world’s “tremendous social problems” of the environment, drug trafficking, acquired immune deficiency syndrome and terrorism--and find the money to do the job.

Perez de Cuellar spoke at a news conference at the opening of the 44th session of the General Assembly. President Bush and other world leaders will address the Assembly in a general debate beginning next week. Bush is expected to propose a world campaign to fight drugs, possibly including a special Assembly session devoted exclusively to combatting narcotics.

Asked if such a session would be helpful, Perez de Cuellar replied, “I am prepared to accept any initiative and to help in any way in the solution of this very, very tragic question.”

‘A Billionaire’s Business’

But although he conceded that a special session would add to the already strained budget of the world body, he also warned:

“The drug business is a billionaire’s business. You need billions if you want to fight billions. . . . What is needed is a tremendous financial effort, not only a military effort or a technical effort.”

Despite a restructuring of international relations that has brought half a dozen conflicts to the United Nations for settlement, he deplored the lack of money to pay for the burgeoning U.N. peacekeeping forces. Payment for existing forces is $600 million in arrears, he said, without naming the chief delinquent, the United States, which owes more than $400 million of the bill.

Perez de Cuellar announced that he is now seeking an additional 500 troops for the force of 1,000 peacekeepers already on duty in Namibia, the African territory ruled by South Africa that is in transition to independence.

He also said if current peace negotiations in the former Spanish Sahara succeed, he will have to set up an “important operation” there. Other potentially costly peacekeeping forces may be needed for Central America, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Iran and Iraq, he said.

“The entire international community is applauding,” he said ruefully, “but I would like to see them do what is their duty--pay their contributions to our peacekeeping operations.”

Although only Jamaica and Trinidad have submitted specific proposals in the narcotics fight--the first for a drug-fighting force and the second for a world drug tribunal--Britain is expected to support the U.S. campaign for global action by pushing a Security Council initiative to combat international trafficking.

In the General Assembly, meanwhile, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher will lead a call for a special session on the environment to take place in 1991, the 20th anniversary of the Stockholm conference on the environment.

Nigerian Ambassador Joseph N. Garba, who as an army officer served in a United Nations peacekeeping force in India and Pakistan, was unanimously elected president of the 44th session. The 47-year-old Nigerian succeeds former Foreign Minister Dante Caputo of Argentina.