POLITICS-US: New US Ambassador to UN Faces Increasing Isolation //REPEATING, AND CORRECTING GARBLED COPY//

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

ROME, Jun 18 1998 (IPS) - Bill Richardson’s last speech as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations before the announcement of his new posting as Energy Secretary typified Washington’s dilemma: He stood alone, defending U.S. interests in words few diplomats wanted to hear.

“Experience teaches us that we must carefully distinguish between what looks good on paper and what works in the real world,” Richardson told delegates gathered here for a conference on creating an International Criminal Court.

He went on to explain why Washington wanted such a body to be under some degree of control by the U.N.Security Council. He insisted that the United States wanted to punish war criminals by creating such a Court, but “we must remember that it will not operate in a political vacuum.”

Shortly after Richardson left a disappointed audience in Rome U.S. officials confirmed that the former New Mexico representative would be named by President Bill Clinton to head the US Department of Energy. Later Thursday, Clinton confirmed the appointment and revealed Richardon’s replacement at the U.N. would be State Department trouble-shooter Richard Holbrooke.

Richardson’s Rome appearance, however, demonstrated vividly how the affable, low-key politician – who stepped into the shoes of the more conservative and hawkish Madeleine Albright when she became Secretary of State – had become worn down by Washington’s isolation at the United Nations.

Forever telling his colleagues about the demands of “the real world,” Richardson realised that his own office could not operate in a political vacuum.

The former Congressman was recommended unanimously to his position following Albright’s promotion in January 1997, and U.N diplomats had high hopes that tensions with Washington would ease with his arrival. Richardson had the reputation of a skilled negotiator following his trips to Iraq and North Korea to resolve thorny diplomatic crises, including the seizure of two American businessmen by Iraq.

Combining a maverick tendency to travel to nations that Washington branded as enemies, with a cheery willingness to mute hardline policies, Richardson attempted other trouble-shooting missions as U.N. ambassador. Last summer, he negotiated with President Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to allow UN investigations into alleged massacres by the new leader’s allies

This winter, he encouraged Afghanistan’s Taliban militia forces to renew peace talks with their opponents.

Both missions, however, revealed the limitations of the envoy’s work. Human rights officials criticised the deal with Kabila, which at any rate never resulted in permission for the work the U.N. investigators wanted to perform. In Afghanistan, Taliban fundamentalists soon resumed blockades of towns held by the former governing Northern Alliance.

Some of the problems were blamed on Richardson, who was accused of naivete in his diplomatic work. “When Kabila’s ministers read him the agreement on UN inspections in French, they had changed some of the terms he negotiated in English very significantly – but he just nodded and smiled,” a German lawyer told IPS.

Other observers, however, said it showed the pressures that the ambassador was forced to accommodate. Albright kept a tight leash on the U.N. mission, and often prevented Richardson from speaking out on controversial issues, one US diplomat told IPS.

The hawkish foreign policy adopted by Albright and furthered by the Republican-led Congress has angered some of America’s allies, most notably through the enactment of tighter sanctions – including penalties for third countries – on Cuba, Libya and Iran. Pressure to lift sanctions on Iraq has grown, leaving Washington in the uncomfortable position of being the sole obstacle to ending an increasingly ruinous embargo.

Richardson – despite what he said were “hours of working the phones with Congress” – meanwhile faced a defeat last December when the Congress scuppered a deal he had forged to repay more than 850 million dollars out of some 1.5 billion dollars in unpaid U.N. dues. A later agreement likely to reach Clinton this summer includes language restricting support for abortion advocacy, which almost guarantees a presidential veto.

As a result, Washington has found itself cast as a ‘deadbeat’ – whether it is refusing to sign a 1997 treaty to ban landmines, seeking Security Council oversight (or a U.S. veto) over the International Criminal Court or chafing at climate-control reduction proposals.

Those problems visibly dampened Richardson’s sunny spirit, and could well do the same to Holbrooke, a blunt State Department veteran at times branded as cocky by other diplomats.

Still, Holbrooke, who in recent years has revolved between a stint on Wall Street and unsuccessful efforts to broker peace in Cyprus, has two advantages: immense self-confidence and good relations with the press. “At least the media will be happy,” one human rights official here conceded.