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Angry US Lawmakers Want to Withhold UN Arrears - UN Finance - Global Policy Forum Angry US Lawmakers Want to
Times of India
Withhold UN Arrears
May 6, 2001The ejection of the United States from the United Nations Human Rights Commission has infuriated lawmakers, and some are calling for withholding $650 million in payments from the UN. "This decision is ludicrous," House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said Friday. "What they've done is thrown out the world's oldest democracy and put a country with the world's worst human rights record in its place, Sudan."
At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer called the US ouster from the panel "a disappointment," but said it "will not stop this President or this country from speaking out strongly on matters of human rights." The panel itself has lost prestige, Fleischer indicated, as it "may not be perceived as the most powerful advocate of human rights in the world" given its inclusion of Sudan and Libya, two nations the panel has accused of human-rights violations, and exclusion of the US.
The House is scheduled to vote next week on an $8.2 billion State Department Authorization Bill that contains $582 million in back dues for the United Nations -long a contentious issue in Congress. The bill also includes $67 million to rejoin UNESCO 17 years after the US left over concerns about political polarization and mismanagement. Now, there's "a real possibility" that UN money could be deleted during debate, said Rep. Benjamin Gilman, the former chairman of the House International Relations Committee. "I think there's going to be a severe reaction in the Congress," Gilman said. In addition to cutting UN money, he said, "someone approached me last night on the floor (of the House) about withholding aid from countries that voted against us."
Even Gilman's own endorsement of paying back dues is wavering: "I've been supportive of paying the delinquency, but now I'm not too sure I want to rush into it." The US had held a seat on the human rights panel since it was created in the 1940s. It lost that seat through a secret vote Thursday in which France, Sweden and Austria were chosen for the three spots allocated to western countries.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms, never a great fan of the UN despite being an architect of the back-dues payment agreement, said, "the absence of the United States will mean that the victims of human rights abuses will no longer have a spokesman to defend their hopes for liberty and freedom." Former Secretary of State and UN ambassador Madeleine Albright said the expulsion was a reflection of "short-term anger that has long-term effects, and I think it's very unfortunate. It's a serious blow, but it's as much a blow to the UN, ... Which has sidelined itself on human rights issues."
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