Pubdate: Wed, 09 May 2001
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: David E. Sanger

HOUSE THREATENS TO HOLD BACK U.N. DUES FOR LOSS OF SEAT

WASHINGTON, May 8 - Administration and congressional officials 
expressed anger today at the United Nations for the loss of a United 
States seat on the Human Rights Commission, and influential 
Republicans and Democrats in the House threatened to hold $244 
million in dues to the organization if Washington's seat is not 
restored next year.

In a telephone interview this evening, shortly after the House deal 
was reached, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell acknowledged that 
American officials had been taken by surprise by members of the 
United Nations Economic and Social Council who voted the United 
States off the panel in a secret ballot last week. "One thing I can 
guarantee you is that we will be back on it next year," General 
Powell said today.

He said that the vote, combined with another secret ballot that 
resulted in the loss of the American seat on the International 
Narcotics Control Board, reflected the fact that "we left a little 
blood on the floor" in votes involving the Palestinians, Cuba and 
China, and that a number of countries were looking to retaliate.

General Powell spoke as the Administration was both venting its anger 
over the committee seats and attempting to head off a movement in 
Congress to cut off American funding for the United Nations. In the 
last days of the Clinton administration, the United States agreed to 
pay more than a billion dollars in back dues.

Today, Democratic and Republican leaders of the House International 
Affairs Committee agreed to go ahead with the next United Nations 
dues payment of $582 million. But in an effort by Republicans to calm 
conservatives who are demanding a cutoff of money to the United 
Nations, an accord was reached in which a later payment of roughly 
$244 million would be withheld unless the United States is 
reinstated. The next election for slots on the Human Rights 
Commission is in spring 2002.

Representative Dick Armey, the House majority leader, predicted that 
when the House took up a bill later this week on State Department 
programs it would vote to restrict the repayment of some of the dues. 
"This is an affront," he said, "more to the whole notion of 
international human rights than it is to us as a nation."

General Powell did not say whether he thought withholding dues might 
further inflame relations between the United Nations and Washington. 
"We have to look at the language," he said. General Powell, in a 
telephone call he made to The New York Times, said a number of 
countries were seeking to dilute American influence at the United 
Nations. "As one of my colleagues here said, this was a vote looking 
for a venue to happen," he said.

The ratcheting up of pressure on the United Nations began today at 
the White House, where Mr. Bush's spokesman, Air Fleischer, blamed 
the countries that had reneged on promises to the United States to 
vote for American seats on both panels.

"It's hard to be committed to the cause of human rights when you've 
put Sudan and Libya on a panel that's dedicated to fighting for the 
cause of human rights," he said in a briefing. "The real losers in 
this equation are people around the world who are struggling to be 
free."

But in private, some American officials acknowledged that they had 
failed to detect a sea change in the 54-member Economic and Social 
Council, which selects the members of the human rights and drug 
commissions.

China had quietly lobbied to get the United States removed, striking 
back for the annual resolution that Washington sponsors condemning 
Beijing's treatment of dissidents and, this year, the Falun Gong 
movement.

Other developing nations joined. Europe's vote was split: Three 
European countries and the United States were vying for three slots. 
France received 52 votes, Austria 41, and Sweden 32. The United 
States came in fourth, with 29, losing the seat it has held since 
Eleanor Roosevelt helped establish the commission.

Some American officials say the seat might have been saved if the 
American nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, John 
Negroponte, had been confirmed by the Senate and in place. Others say 
that the Bush administration had relied too heavily on the 43 
promises from other nations that they would vote to keep the United 
States on the panel. Such vows are regularly broken.

Tonight General Powell said he was "reviewing the vote to see if we 
were not anticipating things right." But he declined to release a 
list of the countries, 14 of which voted for other nations. "I think 
that would just complicate our relations with those countries," he 
said.

He also defended the diplomat temporarily running the United States 
mission at the United Nations, James Cunningham. "He's no rookie," 
General Powell said. "We just have to take our hit and move on."

The loss of the seat on the Human Rights Commission has a practical 
effect: The United States cannot sponsor resolutions within the 
group, like the resolutions it offered up earlier this year 
condemning China and Cuba for their human rights violations. The 
China resolution failed; the Cuba resolution passed.

Now at least for the next year, those countries do not have to worry 
about dealing directly with the Bush administration. If the United 
States wants to renew those resolutions next year, it must find 
another country on the committee to act as the main sponsor, and the 
United States will not be able to vote.

The loss of the seat on the International Narcotics Control Board has 
a less dramatic effect. The 13-member board monitors compliance with 
United Nations' drug conventions on trafficking and substance abuse, 
but has little real power. Herbert Okun, the American representative 
for the past decade, was voted off the panel. Iran, Brazil, Peru, 
India, the Netherlands, France and Austria were elected to the board.

General Powell said tonight that "A lot of this has to do with the 
aggressiveness with which we have pressed our human rights agenda." 
But he said "we will continue to show that aggressiveness this year."

Harder to measure, however, is whether the vote was also a reflection 
of mounting resentment over America's role as the world's sole 
superpower, and the Bush administration's suggestions that it would 
walk away from the Kyoto treaty on global warming and eventually 
replace the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty.

When the United Nations vote took place on Thursday, Congress was 
just going out of session for the weekend, so the reaction was 
delayed. But when it reconvened today, the anger at the United 
Nations was not limited to its conservative critics.

Representative Tom Lantos of California, the ranking Democrat on the 
House International Affairs committee, reached the accord on back 
dues with Henry J. Hyde, the Republican chairman of the committee. 
"The vote to exclude the U.S. from the U.N.H.R.C. last week was 
outrageous and only damaged the institution and undermined the cause 
of human rights worldwide," he said. But he added, "We should not 
compound the damage by withholding the bulk of our arrears payments 
to the United Nations."
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