First Security Council Veto in 3 Years Is Cast by Russia : Cyprus: The surprise move involves financing for peacekeepers.

Russia shocked the Security Council on Tuesday by exercising the first U.N. veto since the end of the Cold War, using it on a relatively minor issue--the financing of peacekeepers on the troubled Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

The veto broke a string of 36 straight months in which no permanent member of the council had wielded its power of veto.

The veto by Russian Ambassador Yuli M. Vorontsov--the only vote against the resolution--dampened this mood, although U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright pointed out that the Russian had underscored a major problem, its system of financing peacekeeping operations.

“We are coming to the day when countries in need will dial the global 911 and get a busy signal,” she told the Security Council.

But Venezuelan Ambassador Diego Arria said that the veto raised the question of whether the five permanent members of the Security Council--Russia, the United States, China, Britain and France--should have the power of veto. Russia inherited the former Soviet Union’s permanent seat on the council.

While acknowledging that the veto did not come on a major issue, Arria said: “Today it is a financial matter that is vetoed. Tomorrow it could be a matter of international peace and security.”

In theory, the veto could lead to the end of the peacekeeping operation in Cyprus. But it is more likely to lead to some kind of compromise system of financing.

The last council veto came in May, 1990, when the United States voted against a resolution critical of Israel. The Soviet/Russian veto had not been exercised since it was cast against a resolution on Lebanon in February, 1984.

The Cyprus resolution would have financed a good part of a $47-million peacekeeping operation in Cyprus in the next 12 months by regular assessment of U.N. members. For 29 years, the operation has been financed by voluntary contributions and by the countries supplying the troops.

But Britain, Canada, Denmark and Austria--the four countries supplying peacekeepers in Cyprus--have grown weary of financing most of the operation themselves and have started to withdraw their troops. To keep a force of 1,500 peacekeepers to patrol a line between Turkish and Greek Cypriot troops on the island, Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali recently proposed that they be financed by compulsory assessment like all other peacekeeping operations.