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UN Vote For Council Continues
UPI U.N. Correspondent United Nations (UPI) Oct 16, 2006 U.S. Ambassador John Bolton may be the best prepared for the round of voting being conducted in the U.N. General Assembly. It went 10 ballots Monday with neither of the two candidates, Guatemala and Venezuela, able to bag the two-thirds of the 192 members of the assembly voting necessary to fill a two-year seat in the U.N. Security Council being saved for Latin America. Voting was to resume Tuesday. The record balloting for a council seat was 155 votes in 1979. It was between Colombia and Cuba until the last ballot, when Mexico was offered as a compromise candidate. Some feel that after a night's rest, when delegates return Tuesday morning, they may take a fresh approach which would see enough of them unite behind one of the candidates. But then again, some delegates, such as Bolton -- who is backing Guatemala -- are prepared for a long battle. "I suppose we'll go through a number of more rounds," he told reporters Monday night. "All I can say is in the year 2000 I spent 31 days in Florida," referring to the ballot recounts between presidential candidates George W. Bush for the Republicans and Al Gore for the Democrats. "This has just begun." Earlier, the assembly elected Indonesia, South Africa, Belgium and Italy to two-year terms on the Security Council. They will take the seats currently occupied by Denmark, Greece, Japan and Tanzania when their terms end Dec. 31. The Guatemala-Venezuela contest is for a seat freed up by retiring Argentina. The battle was under scrutiny to see how the controversial Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez fares, particularly after calling U.S. President George W. Bush "the devil" in his General Assembly general debate speech last month. Some thought his remarks, in which he said there was a stench of sulfur still around the podium following Bush's remarks the previous day, then blessed himself, hurt Venezuela's campaign. Guatemala was backed principally by the United States and Europe, with Washington insisting Venezuela's presence on the panel of 15 would be disruptive. Caracas was supported mainly by several Latin American, African and Arab nations, and has said it wanted to defy the United States' superpower and let a multi-polar world emerge. Guatemala began in the lead taking 109 votes, picking up a couple of votes in each subsequent round, but not enough to reach the required two-thirds majority. Then it lost votes, getting 93 when it tied with Venezuela, which at its lowest got 70 ballots. The greatest number Caracas obtained was 116 when there was a two-thirds majority of 124 votes required to win. That's when they called it a night. There was active lobbying going on in the great hall of the assembly by both sides. Some thought the active U.S. role might hurt Guatemala, but not its ambassador, Jorge Skinner-Klee. "We are an independent voice," he told reporters at day's end, "as independent as one can be in an interdependent world and we've proved it in the past. We were not one of the members of the 'Coalition of the Willing' in Iraq; we have diplomatic relations with Cuba; we keep distance from many resolutions that are (sponsored) by the United States. "We are an independent country and, frankly, we resent it a bit being told we are going to toe the line not only of the United States, but of any other power," Skinner-Klee said. "We make up our own decisions." The envoy said Guatemala "didn't coordinate especially closely" with the United States, although he admitted "we have been talking with the United States as we talked with many countries. "We have a common strategy," Skinner-Klee said. "I think the United States' interest is more to prevent Venezuela being a member of the Security Council than necessarily seeing us seated there. Our interest, of course, is to be a member of the Security Council." Added the ambassador: "We don't have identical interests, but we do appreciate the support they have given us and we are not ashamed of it at all." He saw no need to bow out of the race, especially when Venezuela was substantially leading. But, he said, if the situation continues neck-and-neck with no resolve in the next few days, the situation will be reconsidered with the Latin American group and an eye to unity.
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Ban Faces A Tough Start In UN
Washington (UPI) Oct 16, 2006It is triply unfortunate that the Korean nuclear crisis should have reached the United Nations at this time as such a seminal test of its powers to enforce collective security against a rogue state going nuclear. It is unfortunate in the fist place because the United Nations itself is in an interregnum. |
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