WHITE HOUSE EXPRESSES DISAPPOINTMENT
OVER REMOVAL FROM U.N. PANELS

The White House expressed disappointment Tuesday that the United
States was ousted from U.N. panels on drug trafficking and human
rights, and predicted that U.N. efforts to address those issues will
be weaker because of it.

The Bush administration feels let down by other member nations that
pledged to support U.S. candidates for the U.N. Human Rights
Commission and the International Narcotics Control Board, said White
House spokesman Ari Fleischer. But, he said, President Bush was not
inclined to take the defeats a sign of discontent over the United
States' long-delayed U.N. dues.

"The president believes that we should pay the dues that we owe to the
United Nations," Fleischer said. "The real losers in this equation are
the people around the world who are struggling to be free. The United
States is going to continue its role as a beacon of freedom and human
rights, and the president will continue to speak out."

Meanwhile, the House International Relations Committee's leaders
devised an agreement Tuesday that they hope will preserve the payment
of $582 million in late dues to the United Nations.

The U.S. ouster from the rights panel infuriated some House members,
who indicated they would try to block the $582 million when the House
considers the State Department reauthorization bill Thursday.

So Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and ranking Democrat Rep. Tom Lantos,
D-Calif., wrote an amendment that would allow the $582 million payment
but prevent the remaining $244 million owed from being paid until the
United States is returned to the commission.

"What occurred last week was a step backward" and enabled "some of the
world's premier human rights violators" to join the panel, Hyde said.
"In a clear voice, we must express our disapproval of this outrage and
work diligently to restore some credibility to this agency."

Lantos said the exclusion from the human rights panel "damaged the
institution. We should not compound the damage by withholding the bulk
of our arrears payments."

U.S. officials confirmed Monday that American representative Herbert
Okun was voted off the drug control committee last week in a secret
ballot procedure on the same day that the United States lost its human
rights seat, also by a secret ballot vote - and, Fleischer said,
despite written pledges of support.

"Those nations did not keep their word," Fleischer
said.

Elliott Abrams, an assistant secretary of state for human rights under
President Reagan, said a lack of U.S. representation on the human
rights commission is likely to "become a sharply negative factor" in
diplomatic relations.

"One can only imagine what they (the commission) will say about the
Middle East, with no U.S. to defend Israel," Abrams said. He suggested
that the administration track down which countries pledged to vote for
the U.S. candidate but didn't, even though Secretary of State Colin
Powell has ruled out that option.

Diplomats and U.N. officials said after the human rights defeat that
the United States didn't lobby hard enough. The absence of a U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations for nearly four months also
exacerbated the situation.

Fleischer said he didn't think the lack of an ambassador was a factor.
But, he said, "the president would urge the Senate to move quickly on
all the nominations that have been submitted that are now under review."

Bush plans his own drug-fighting announcements later this week,
Fleischer added. "Despite this (U.N.) action, the president will
continue to hold America high in fighting the scourge of drug use
around the world."

In an opinion piece in Tuesday's editions of The Washington Post,
Harold Koh, human rights chieftain under President Clinton, said if
Congress withheld U.N. dues as punishment for the ousters, other
countries would feel encouraged to vote against American initiatives,
and exclude the United States from other U.N. bodies, as
retaliation.

He said the United States should respond to the loss of its seat by
attempting to play a constructive role at upcoming conferences on
AIDS, racism and democracy.

Terms on the U.N. Human Rights Commission run from Jan. 1 through Dec.
31, so the United States will remain a member until the end of this
year. The next commission membership vote will be next May, and the
soonest the United States could return would be Jan. 1, 2003.

Seven countries - Iran, Brazil, India, Peru, France, Netherlands and
Austria - were elected to the board Thursday. China, Russia, Nigeria,
Turkey, Mexico and Chile complete their current terms in 2005.