House votes to withhold U.N. dues

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

OTTAWA, MAY 11. As expected, the House of Representatives of the American Congress has withheld some overdue payments to the United Nations to show its anger at the United States being thrown out of the Human Rights Commission. By a vote of 252 to 165, the House withheld $ 244 millions out of a total back dues of $ 582 millions. Law makers have said that the balance will be paid when the U.S. gets its seat back in the commission.

The outcome in the House was a foregone conclusion last week and the only issue was how far law makers would go on the issue. In fact, some law makers were pushing for a total freeze on the overdue amount by way of expressing outrage over the developments.

Capitol Hill has also said that the Bush administration did little to contact law makers as the final version of the bill was being attached to State Department authorisations for 2002 and 2003. But the Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, maintained on Thursday that law makers should use ``a little more restraint'' and that the focus should not be on ways to punish the U.N.

The White House spokesman said the President, Mr. George W. Bush, feels strongly that the issue of being denied membership in the Human Rights Commission should be linked with arrears payment or other international organisations. Washington was taken aback last week by a double blow - losing a seat on the commission and on the International Narcotics Control Board.

The last word on the subject on the payments has not been said, for the Senate is yet to write its version. There is still the possibility of the administration, including the White House, impressing on the Senate not to endorse the House decision. If the Senate relents, then the bill goes back to a House-Senate Conference Committee where the issue would have to be thrashed out. The bottomline is that even if the world body is spared, payments will get delayed.

In New York, the U.N. Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, was measured in his response. ``I cannot applaud the withholding or the attachment to the $ 244 million, but I'm told it was the best we could get''. Mr. Annan also remarked that the U.S. could get back on the Human Rights Commission and hoped that in the meantime, Washington ``will work with other member states to get back on''.

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Section  : International
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