Indonesia Supports U.N. Security Council's Reformation

Jakarta, (Antara) - The Indonesian government has declared it will continuously support the reformation efforts of the United Nation's (U.N.) Security Council to make it more democratic and representative.

"We fully support the U.N. Security Council's reformation as it is not really representative and democratic to all parties," said the Director General of Multilateral Cooperation of the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Hasan Kleib on Thursday.

Hasan said the number of developing countries in the U.N. Security Council reflected the lack of representation in the agency.

"Two thirds of the U.N. Security Council members consist of developing countries," Hasan said.

Furthermore, the U.N. Security Council permanent members' veto power has also proven the lack of democracy in the agency.

"The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, who have the veto power, can take decisions regarding the interests of the 193 member states of the U.N. The veto is very undemocratic," Hasan said.

Therefore, Indonesia must encourage the reformation of the U.N. Security Council thoroughly, and not just by it being added as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

"So the reformation is not just in the form of addition of the membership, but the balance of representation between developed and developing countries. Moreover, the veto should be abolished," he said.

However, Hasan admitted that the veto power's abolition would be very difficult to achieve in the near future. To that end, Indonesia supported the restriction on the use of veto power in some cases.

"For example, the election of the U.N. Secretary General cannot be vetoed because it is not substantive and as it is not a state of war," Hasan added.

Besides, the veto power should not be used in certain cases, such as genocide and ethnic slaughter, he noted.(*)