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02/20/2006:

"US Push For UN Reform Angers Many Developing Countries"

U.S. demands for reform at the United Nations have triggered an angry backlash among a bloc of mostly developing nations that comprise the majority of the membership. Many diplomats are complaining that the United States is trying to seize control of the world body.

Tensions flared this week when the two highest-ranking members of the U.S. House International Relations Committee charged that a 132-member group of U.N. member states, known as the G-77, had been "working feverishly" to block efforts to clean up the institution.

The two Congressmen,Committee Chairman Henry Hyde and ranking Democrat Tom Lantos wrote a letter to the leader of the G-77, South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, warning that U.S. lawmakers would be following their actions, and would hold them accountable.

Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram said the Congressmen's words had infuriated many members of the group.

"There is consternation and perhaps a sense of injury at the tone and the substance of the letter," said Munir Akram.

G-77 Chairman Kumalo of South Africa angrily dismissed the letter, saying it was not worthy of a reply.

"We noted the contents of their letter which we think are very unfortunate, and as you read, the letter is threatening and full of misinformation, and we will set the record straight in a substantive way, but we will not be responding to the U.S. Congress," said Dumisani Kumalo.

Other G-77 envoys expressed concern that the United States was using the issue of reform in an attempt to take power from the General Assembly where all 191 member states are represented, and give it to the Security Council, which is dominated by big and powerful countries.

They noted that Washington's U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, in his position as Security Council president for February, has scheduled meetings on two key reform issues, sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers, and allegations of fraud in purchasing hundreds of millions of dollars of supplies for peacekeeping missions.

Ambassador Kumalo says both those issues should be the province of the General Assembly.

"We can't have the General Assembly taken for granted, it's been taken for granted for too long, and we're going to stand up for the General Assembly," he said. "We have an oversight role."
voanews.com