- by Lizette Alvarez
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- New York Times, WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 — The House voted
today to release $582 million that the United States owes in
back dues to the United Nations, ending a long-running squabble
with the organization at a time when the Bush administration
says international cooperation is needed to battle terrorism.
The bill was passed by a voice vote, with no hint of the bitter
disagreements that had colored the issue of dues repayment in
the past. The Senate passed a nearly identical bill in February,
after a decade-long standoff that strained diplomatic relations
and cast the United States in the role of wealthy deadbeat. "At
the same time the United States is reaching out to nations from
every corner of the globe, the United States remains the biggest
debtor nation at the U.N.," said Representative Christopher
Shays, a Connecticut Republican.
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- "This is not only unacceptable, it is an impediment
to our diplomatic efforts and clearly endangers our national
security." The bill frees the bulk of the $819 million owed
in arrears and lays out a series of benchmarks for United Nations
reforms. Under a deal made with the United Nations, the United
States' share of dues for the United Nations administrative budget
was lowered from 25 percent to 22 percent. Unlike the Senate
bill, the House bill also seeks to ensure that the United States
does not accumulate additional arrears and that the country's
assessed share for peacekeeping operations will drop from close
to 32 percent to 28 percent. The measure had been blocked in
the House by Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the majority
whip.
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- He wanted assurances that Americans would be exempt from
the jurisdiction of an International Criminal Court, a permanent
tribunal now being created at the Hague. Other conservatives
also oppposed the bill. Last week, Mr. DeLay agreed to withdraw
his opposition, saying he did not want to hinder the president.
President Bush was scheduled to appear before the United Nations
later this month, but it is unclear whether he will be able to
keep the commitment. The bill is the product of a plan drawn-up
in 1999 by Senator Jesse Helms, the ranking Republican on the
Foreign Relations Committee and a longtime critic of the United
Nations, and Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., a Delaware Democrat
who is the committee chairman.
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- The plan, which was designed to prod the United Nations into
a series of reforms, created a timetable for the release of the
money. Congress witheld a portion of the United States' dues
for more than a decade, arguing that the American people were
paying too much for peacekeeping missions and that the United
Nations was mismanaging the money. The task of carrying out the
plan fell to Richard C. Holbrooke, who spent almost all of his
17 months as American ambassador to the United Nations during
the Clinton administration trying to broker an agreement on American
payments.
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- At one point, even Ted Turner got involved, donating $34
million to some foreign nations through his United Nations Foundation
as an incentive to get them to sign off on the deal. Representative
Tom Lantos, the senior Democrat on the International Relations
Committee, said this is no time to quibble with the United Nations
over money or unrelated issues tying up the money. "As President
Bush, Secretary Powell and our nation's diplomatic corps begin
to secure the concrete commitments required to wage this battle
against international terrorist, they must take advantage of
every forum to reach out to the nations of the world," Mr.
Lantos said. "The U.N. is the world's premier forum and
will be one of the primary theaters for U.S. diplomacy on this
matter."
- http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/25/international/25DUES.html?todaysheadlines
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