|
|
Change Your Life! |
Bid for Security Council seats disrupted |
|
News
|
|
|
October 1, 2000
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The annual campaign to fill the temporary Security Council seats opening up this year has been jolted by a late and intensive effort by the United States to remove Sudan as the chosen African candidate and promote a rival instead. The U.S. intervention, which has been denounced by Sudan and questioned by other nations, has forced an unexpected vote for the African seat on Oct. 10, when the General Assembly will select five new countries to join the Security Council for two-year terms. Only one of the seats will go to an African, and the United States is now trying to help line up support behind Mauritius - even though Sudan had won the support of most Africans months ago and been considered the endorsed African candidate, diplomats say. "A superpower promoting a small country to contest another country against the will of the region is unprecedented," Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Elfatih Mohamed Ahmed Erwa, said in an interview Friday. "The permanent members should not get involved in such things." Mauritius had indicated it wanted the African seat back in January, and Uganda has backed it. But western diplomats said Mauritius has clearly been emboldened to pursue the underdog bid by the American intervention - although it remains to be seen how much support the country will be able to command. The United States has made it clear it doesn't want to see Sudan on the Security Council, arguing that a country under U.N. sanctions and considered by the United States to be a sponsor of terrorism doesn't deserve such international recognition that a council seat confers. In a memo issued ahead of an Arab foreign ministers meeting last week, the United States asked for Arab support in urging Sudan to postpone its candidacy. Sudan's presence on the council would make it harder to discuss lifting sanctions when the matter comes before the council in November, the Americans argued. The council imposed limited diplomatic sanctions on Sudan in 1996 to compel it to hand over the gunmen who tried to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Sudan never produced the suspects, but says various inquiries didn't find them in the country. Several countries have backed Sudan's bid to lift the sanctions. The United States, however, has opposed lifting the measures. In the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, the United States said: "It would be highly prejudicial and damaging for the credibility of the U.N. if Sudan joined the UNSC (Security Council) when the body could be deliberating whether Sudan has taken the anti-terrorism steps the UNSC required." The Security Council is made up of 15 members: permanent members Russia, China, France, Britain and the United States and 10 nonpermanent members. Every year, five of the temporary seats open up for two year terms beginning Jan. 1. Most often, the candidates for those seats are selected by the various U.N. regional groups months before the actual General Assembly vote occurs. This year, for example, the Latin American group has settled on Colombia while the Asian group has chosen Singapore. Ireland, Italy and Norway are contesting the two seats allotted to Western European countries. The U.S. interference in the selection process of African nations has raised some eyebrows here - even beyond the African and Arab nations which typically resent U.S. influence in such matters. One Security Council diplomat, who asked not to be identified by name or nationality, said several countries would prefer that Sudan not be on the council but that it was up to the Africans to pick their candidate. "You may not like it, but there are plenty of things we don't like that we have to live with," the diplomat said. Sudan, however, has gone on the counter-offensive and is appealing to Africans to reject what it considers U.S. attempts to dictate who is on the council. A memo recently circulated by Sudan to all U.N. missions recalls that Sudan had been endorsed as the candidate by African nations and that now "another African country is being enticed by the U.S. to challenge the African consensus." "Does the U.S. speak on behalf of Africa?" reads the memo. "Does the U.S. decide for Africa? Does the U.S. want to say that Africans don't honor their commitments, or don't respect decisions taken by their own institutions at the highest levels?"
|