[afro-nets] Republican Presence at UN

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

Republican Presence at UN
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At the U.N., A Growing Republican Presence

Source: Washington Post
Author: Colum Lynch

Christopher B. Burnham, the highest-ranking U.S. citizen working
in the U.N. Secretariat, is a rare breed here: a Republican
Party loyalist and an enthusiastic supporter of President Bush.

Burnham, the United Nations' undersecretary for the department
of management, is one of a handful of Bush administration sup-
porters hired by the United Nations in recent months. They have
been promoting Bush's political agenda in an organization that
has clashed bitterly with Republican policymakers over such is-
sues as the impact of global warming and the justification for
the war in Iraq.

Burnham says he sees his purpose as furthering the mission he
began as the chief financial officer in the Bush State Depart-
ment: making the bureaucracy he oversees more accountable. Burn-
ham suggested that his ultimate loyalty may lie with the presi-
dent, not his new boss, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. He
says he also relishes the thought of working with John R. Bol-
ton, a close friend and Bush's choice as U.N. ambassador, to
force change.

"I'm not here to be a careerist," said Burnham, a former GOP
fundraiser and investment banker who keeps photographs of Bush,
Laura Bush and George H.W. Bush in his U.N. office. "I came here
at the request of the White House. It's my duty to make the U.N.
more effective. My primary loyalty is to the United States of
America."

The Bush administration hopes the recent appointments of Repub-
licans such as Burnham; Ann M. Veneman, the new executive direc-
tor of UNICEF; and others to senior U.N. positions will make the
United Nations a more hospitable place for conservative views.
Republicans such as James T. Morris, a Bush supporter who heads
the U.N. World Food Program, have already used their positions
to underscore the humanitarian contributions of prominent Repub-
licans.

Addressing the U.N. Security Council last month on world hunger,
Morris paid homage to President Ronald Reagan, a tough critic of
the United Nations. Morris said Reagan's decision to provide aid
in the 1980s to famine-stricken Ethiopia under communist rule
represented the "most eloquent affirmation" of the principle
that food should never be used as a weapon of war.

Veneman, who served as agriculture secretary during Bush's first
term, insists that she is not seeking to implement White House
policies at the agency. But she is promoting priorities that
parallel those backed by the Bush administration, which nomi-
nated her for the job.

In her initial speeches, she has sidestepped politically sensi-
tive issues championed by her Democratic predecessor, Carol
Bellamy -- such as children's rights and reproductive health
care -- that have rankled the administration's social conserva-
tives.

Instead, Veneman has highlighted primary health care for chil-
dren under the age of 5, an area of UNICEF's work that is known
as "child survival." She has also advocated what she calls
"child protection" themes that are popular in the White House
and Congress, including combating the trafficking of children in
the sex trade.

"People talk about the convention on the rights of the child,
nobody knows what you're talking about," Veneman said. But she
said that issues such as child trafficking and the forced re-
cruitment of child soldiers resonate with audiences.

"The issue of children, I just don't think is a Republican or
Democratic agenda," she said. "Virtually all of the issues are
issues that people universally care about. I don't see myself as
furthering anybody's agenda other than that of the world's chil-
dren."

Life for those few Republicans at the United Nations has been,
at times, awkward. Catherine Bertini, who preceded Burnham as
the United Nations' top management official, said colleagues
were appalled by her backing of Bush after his decision to in-
vade Iraq. Bertini, who resigned in April, recalled being con-
fronted by a senior U.N. colleague who asked, "How can you pos-
sibly support that man?"

"Some people don't check their views about other nationalities
at the door," Bertini said. "There are several senior executives
who were, as far as I'm concerned, anti-American, who made com-
ments in meetings about Americans and or talked about the United
States in what I considered a negative tone."

Still, there have been signs of improvement in Republicans'
standing in the U.N. system. The U.N. Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which was derided by the
Reagan administration as a wasteful institution that served the
interests of anti-Western countries, selected first lady Laura
Bush in 2003 as its honorary ambassador for the U.N. Decade of
Literacy.

It also recently appointed an educator and former Republican
legislator, Peter Smith, as assistant director general for edu-
cation. Senior Bush officials, meanwhile, have praised UNESCO,
likening its universal literacy initiative, "Education for All,"
to the administration's No Child Left Behind program.

Bush officials still believe the United Nations interfered in
the 2004 election to the benefit of Democrats by stepping up
criticism of the U.S. postwar effort in Iraq during the presi-
dential campaign. They also assert that the United Nations is
institutionally biased against Republicans. Annan's appointment
this year of former president Bill Clinton as his special envoy
for tsunami relief, they say, underscores a preference for De-
mocrats.

"It's no secret that the views of many in the United Nations
align more directly with the views of the Democratic foreign
policy establishment," said Stuart W. Holliday, a Republican who
is a former U.S. representative to the United Nations for spe-
cial political affairs.

U.N. officials say they have felt besieged by the Bush admini-
stration, which has questioned the organization's relevance when
it opposed the invasion of Iraq, and by Republican lawmakers who
have championed campaigns to withhold funding to the world body
and to force the U.N. chief to resign.

U.N. officials say that despite Republicans' criticism, they
have appointed prominent Republicans, including former secretary
of state James A. Baker III, to carry out important diplomatic
missions.

They say they have also tried to recruit friendly Republicans
into the United Nations' ranks, but that they have shown little
interest. Several former Republican lawmakers have turned down
offers to serve as the chief U.N. liaison official in Washing-
ton, a post that will be filled by a seasoned U.S. legislative
affairs professional, William Davis.

U.N. officials and independent observers agree that there has
been a dearth of Republican officials hired at the United Na-
tions, contributing to a wide communication gap between New York
and Washington.

"In recent years, my impression is the secretary general has not
had enough people around him who really understand more the con-
servative political philosophy in the United States," said Ed-
ward C. Luck, a Columbia University professor who specializes on
the United Nations.

"I think they have been feeding him bad advice, because he just
doesn't seem to get it when it comes to dealing with Washington.
It's not that he should be surrounded by a bunch of neocons, but
he should have some people who in a very unvarnished way can
sort of explain to him about American perspectives."

Luck said the fault also lies with the Republican Party, which
has a shortage of internationalists who care about U.N. affairs
and want to work here. Those few Republicans who have been sent
to New York to "shake up the system" may find it hard to leaving
a lasting mark. "I think the system is very hard to move," Luck
said. "You send someone to New York, and in a couple of years
they begin to sound a lot more like a U.N. person than a Bush
administration appointee."

In Burnham's case, at least, there have been no signs of a po-
litical conversion. Said one senior U.N. official: "The Kool-Aid
hasn't made its way through his bloodstream yet."

Washington Post -- 7/21/05