gotham news

Bolton throws UN summit
into chaos
Bush's envoy demands
750 changes to reorganisation
plans
Julian Borger in Washington
Friday August 26, 2005
The Guardian

John Bolton,
Washington's new ambassador
to the United Nations,
has called for wholesale
changes to a draft document
due to go before a UN summit
next month
aimed at reshaping the world body.
Mr Bolton,
a long-standing UN critic
who was given a temporary
appointment by George Bush
three weeks ago
after the United States Senate
failed to agree on his nomination,
has proposed 750 amendments
to the draft
and called for immediate
talks on them.
The 29-page document
has been drawn up by a committee
under the UN general assembly president,
Jean Ping of Gambia,
over the past year,
during which time
several drafts have been circulated.
Critics complained
that the US objections
had come towards the end
of the drafting process,
with only three weeks to go
before the summit.
But Benjamin Chang,
a spokesman for the American team
at the UN,
said Mr Bolton had simply been restating
long-held US opinions.
"Those are not new positions;
surprise positions,"
he said.
"We've been engaged in this process,
since the first meeting."
The Bolton amendments,
published in the US press,
seek to play down the emphasis
given to alleviating poverty,
and expunge all references
to the millennium development goals,
including the target
for wealthy countries to donate
at least 0.7 % of national income
to the developing world.
America currently gives
less than 0.2% in such aid.
The changes would also scrap
provisions in the draft
calling for action
against global warming,
and remove endorsements
of the international criminal court
and the comprehensive test-ban treaty
- both of which are opposed
by the Bush administration.
Instead,
Washington is pushing
for more emphasis
on international measures
against terrorism
and the proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Ping's office said it was setting
up a "core group"
of 30 member states,
including the US,
to begin talks on Monday
in an effort to reach
agreement on the draft
statement before the leaders
of more than 170 countries
begin arriving in New York
on September 14.
"The document was taking good shape,"
said one European diplomat.
"Of course,
we wanted to build up some parts
without watering down others,
but there is a lot of posturing
going on at the moment."
The diplomat did not attribute
the last-minute nature
of the US objections
to the arrival of the hawkish Mr Bolton,
but suggested:
"It's a question of the Americans
just getting their act together.
Instructions from Washington
keep changing."
Mr Chang said
the scale and range of the US comments
represented the administration's commitment
to the future of the organisation.
They were taking the process
"very seriously
, and we're not apologising for it",
he said.
"We are treating every step
as thoroughly as possible
because we contribute a lot to the UN
and we expect a lot
to come out of this process."
In a letter to his fellow ambassadors,
Mr Bolton was quoted
as urging quick action
on the American proposals.
"Time is short.
In order to maximise our chances of success,
I suggest we begin the negotiations immediately
- this week if possible," he wrote.
Farhan Haq,
a spokesman for the UN
secretary-general, Kofi Annan,
said ferment over the draft statement
was a positive sign.
"We actually feel fairly confident
that member states
are taking UN reform seriously,"
said Mr Haq.
"There is stepped-up activity everywhere,
and very serious high-level negotiating."
Mr Bolton has said
the US would be ready to scrap
the deal altogether
if no consensus was achieved,
leaving only a short statement
for the summit to agree on,
or to break the agreement
into sections to give member
states a choice of which
parts to support.
But a UN official said
yesterday he remained confident
that a final agreement
could be achieved in time
for the summit.
"As you get closer to crunch time,
the more likely it is that this nation
or that nation stakes out a harder position.
There's always that kind of tactical negotiation,
" he said. But he added:
"No one wants to have a stalemate
that leaves the status quo intact.
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