-Caveat Lector- Budget Veto Secured US Vote in UN By EDITH M. LEDERER .c The Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said Tuesday President Clinton was right to veto a budget bill that didn't pay U.S. dues to the United Nations, leaving the country without a vote in the U.N. General Assembly. He called on Congress to come up with the money to pay a substantial chunk of U.S. arrears to the world body, saying national security interests were at stake. He said the country could lose its forum for debating important global issues. ``We need to band together now on a bipartisan basis to push back the forces of that small group of people who want to destroy United States national security interests and simultaneously do immeasurable damage to the United Nations,'' he said. According to U.N. figures, the United States is currently $1.8 billion in arrears and must pay $350 million by Dec. 31 to keep its seat in the U.N. General Assembly. Its vote in the Security Council is secured. Clinton on Monday night vetoed a $39 billion bill financing the departments of Commerce, Justice and State, saying it would among other things ``threaten America's ability to lead in the world by failing to meet our obligation to pay our dues and our debts to the United Nations.'' Clinton said the bill included adequate funds to pay the annual U.S. contribution to the regular U.N. budget - but he said the payment schedule was changed so funds wouldn't be authorized in time to avoid losing the U.S. seat. This, he said, was ``unacceptable.'' ``Great nations meet their responsibilities, and I am determined that we will meet ours,'' the president said. Clinton also complained that the bill included only $200 million of the $485 million the administration sought to meet the U.S. share of anticipated U.N. peacekeeping obligations in East Timor, Sierra Leone, Congo and Ethiopia-Eritrea. In the past week, the United States has supported U.N. Security Council resolutions authorizing deployment of 6,000 U.N. peacekeepers to Sierra Leone and more than 9,000 to East Timor. Holbrooke has been spending at least two days a week in Washington lobbying members of Congress and said he is determined to get the United States to pay at least dlrs 900 million in U.N. arrears. Congress has held up payment of U.S. arrears for years, demanding that the United Nations streamline its organization and institute a no-growth budget. Legislation that would have paid off the bulk of the bills was vetoed last year by Clinton because it contained unrelated restrictions on U.S. spending for overseas family planning organizations. The vast majority of congressmen and senators want the United States to pay its dues, he said, ``and we are working with them to fashion a bipartisan solution in the interests of national security.'' ``I believe this is fixable in the dramatic end-game of the budget process which has now begun,'' Holbrooke said. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
