[Via... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Downwithcapitalism <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 12:53 AM Subject: [downwithcapitalism] FW: Washington to withhold U.N dues Associated Press, Reuters. 10 May 2001. House votes to withhold payment of some U.N. dues. Combined reports. WASHINGTON The White House, intent on punishing the United Nations, voted Thursday to withhold some back dues until the United States on the Commission on Human Rights. Republican leaders led the effort over objections of the Bush White House. The vote was 252-165 for a measure that would allow one payment of $582 million in back dues but hold back $244 million owed until the country is back on the human rights panel. "I think there's an injustice there that ought to be addressed," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said of the ouster of the United States from the panel. The commission still counts as members Sudan, China and Libya - governments that Hastert called "some of the greatest perpetrators of human rights abuses in the world." The House, debating the State Department authorization bill for 2002-2003, also voted to keep the United States out of the International Criminal Court. Because of the [so-called] human-rights issue, several members had sought to hold back the entire $582 million from the world body. The ouster from the commission was "a deliberate attempt to punish the United States for its insistence that we tell the truth about human rights abuses wherever they occur including in those countries represented on the commission, such as China and Cuba," [Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill] said, calling on his colleagues to send a return message. "To do anything less would be a repudiation of our own values and principles." "Actions have consequences. Our U.N. friends have an option -- if they would like to get the payment, they will vote the United States back on the commission,'' said Rep. Tom Lantos of California, the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee and co-sponsor of the proposal with the committee's chairman, Republican Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois. Hyde said even if the freeze on the third dues payment was lifted by the Senate, the vote will give some members of the United Nations "pause for thought." SPAM TO FOLLOW Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
