| |
 |
Don't withhold fund: Annan
|
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on the US Congress on Wednesday to refrain from withholding funds from the world body in retaliation for being excluded from its human rights commission.
“He said that punishing all 189 member states would be counter-productive and punishing the bureaucracy would be unfair," Annan's spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters.
Quoting Annan, he said the United States was the loser in what was “essentially a democratic process, and for that matter one that involved only a fraction of the membership."
The United States lost the seat which it had held continuously since 1947 in a ballot on April 3 of the 54-member Economic and Social Council, which oversees the commission.
Senior members of the US House of Representatives have said they would introduce legislation to condition future US payments to the UN on the United States winning back its seat.
The measure would conditionally withhold arrears of US$244 million which the United States has agreed to pay in fiscal year 2004, but would not affect payments of US$585 million due this year, a congressional aide said.(SD-Agencies)
|
|
|
|
