This is getting to be a bit much. How about we throw UNESCO out of NY? Seriously, y'all, this is ominous. And who replaced us? Colombia? Thailand? Afghanistan? BBC Tuesday, 8 May, 2001, 02:14 GMT 03:14 UK

US thrown off second UN body

America plays a "dominant role" in narcotics control
By Mike Donkin in New York

The United States has been voted off a worldwide body which monitors drugs manufacture and illicit drugs trading.

It lost its seat on the International Narcotics Control Board in a secret ballot by members of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (Unesco) - the same organisation which earlier voted the US off the UN's Human Rights Commission.

The International Narcotics Board monitors the manufacture and sale of opium derivatives like morphine, stimulants, and other drugs which can be illegally exploited.

It also seeks to prevent drug trafficking.

'Regrettable'

The United Sates has been represented on the board since 1997 by Herbert Okun - one of its leading diplomats. But Unesco decided to deny him a third term.

The US has called this rejection "very regrettable".

Former US Drugs Tsar Barry McCaffrey said America played a "dominant role" in narcotics control, and its absence from the board would be felt by the rest of the world.

This setback for the US comes on top of losing its Human Rights Commission seat through a vote by the same UN body.

A State Department official said: "There's clearly something happening out there" - but would not comment further.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2001

Answers

yeah, kick em all outta the country.

if we aren't allowed to play in our own yard, then they should have to go somewhere else. I hear Russia has some rooms available in Chernoybol....

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2001

Wednesday, May 9 5:38 AM SGT

US lawmakers threaten to restrict payment of UN dues after losing seats

WASHINGTON, May 8 (AFP) -

US lawmakers outraged by the United States losing its seat on the UN Human Rights Commission and the International Narcotics Control Board on Tuesday threatened to restrict future dues payments to the world body.

"I believe the idea is to restrict some funding," said House Majority Leader Dick Armey, reflecting the chamber's anger at the ejection of the United States from the UN Human Rights Commission and the election of Sudan, a country accused of major human rights violations.

"It is grotesquely incomprehensible you would have Sudan on the (Human Right) Commission ... it is outrageous ... it is an affront to the whole notion of human rights," Armey told reporters.

The United States -- a member of the human rights panel since its creation in 1947 -- was passed over for the first time late Thursday, when the three seats allocated to Western Europe and associated countries instead went to France, Austria and Sweden.

Diplomats in New York blamed the US eviction from the UN human rights commission on its pugnacious diplomacy and failure to campaign adequately for re-election, rejecting suspicions of dark alliances with dictators.

Nevertheless, House International Relations chairman Republican Henry Hyde and the committee's senior Democrat Tom Lantos on Tuesday said they would introduce legislation to condition future US payments to the world body on the United States winning back the human rights seat.

"This is a positive amendment that I fully support," Lantos said in a statement.

The measure would conditionally withhold fiscal year 2004 US dues of some 244 million dollars to the United Nations, but stop short of reneging on pledged 2002 and 2003 arrears payments of 585 million dollars, according to one congressional aide.

"I believe Chairman Hyde and I have devised a formula to enable the United Nations to set things straight and return the United States to the UNHRC while ensuring that the bulk of our UN arrears payments go forward," Lantos said.

"The vote to exclude the US from the (human rights commission) last week was outrageous and only damaged the institution and undermined the cause of human rights worldwide. We should not compound the damage by withholding the bulk of our arrears payments to the United Nations," he added.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said President George W. Bush, who also backed the arrears payment, had been "disappointed" by the embarrassing UN votes and warned the move could sorely diminish the United Nations' influence.

"The United States will still achieve success. The question is will the United Nations?" he said. "It's not very effective for these entities within the UN to remove the United States."

Armey also predicted the House of Representatives would strike the language in an amendment passed last week by the House International Relations committee calling on the Bush administration to rejoin the United Nation Economic, Social and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO.

Under former president Ronald Reagan, Washington withdrew from the organization in 1984 in protest of what was perceived to be gross mismanagement of funds and duplication in UN agencies.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2001