UN Halts Talks on Terrorism Treaty; U.S. Funding Cut Threatened 

Bill Varner
November 30, 2005
Bloomberg
Original Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a.3Tk2RREkNU&refer=top_world_news

Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Diplomats at the United Nations, divided over Iraq and Palestinian violence, broke off talks on an anti-terrorism treaty, increasing the likelihood that the U.S. will cut funding of the world body, UN General Assembly President Jan Eliasson said. 
Eliasson, a former Swedish ambassador to the U.S., said lawmakers told him during a trip to Washington two weeks ago that progress on the treaty was critical to stopping Congress from withholding $132 million of the proposed $427 million U.S. contribution to the UN's 2006 budget. The House has passed a bill requiring the funding cut, while a Senate version leaves it to the State Department's discretion. 
Will Davis, head of the UN's office in Washington, said lawmakers in the Republican-dominated Congress expect progress by the time they return to work in January on a terrorism treaty, management and oversight improvements and creation of a pro- democracy Human Rights Council. Talks continue at the UN on the Human Rights Council and management changes. 
``I hope they realize these issues are very sensitive and sometimes we don't reach solutions when we want to,'' Eliasson said in an interview today in his UN office. ``There are hard positions by the U.S. and Islamic countries.'' 
A committee of the General Assembly negotiating the comprehensive terrorism treaty yesterday suspended its ad hoc group's work on the proposed treaty. Eliasson and UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan had set Dec. 31 as an informal deadline for reaching agreement. 
Definition Debate 
Polish diplomat Grzegorz Zyman, vice chairman of the committee, said that while the accord is 95 percent completed, major differences remain on a definition of terrorism that the UN has debated for 30 years. 
The U.S. has insisted that actions by armed forces be exempted from the treaty because they are covered by international humanitarian law. This would protect U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan from charges that that have committed terrorist acts against civilian populations in those countries. 
Islamic countries said any exemption should cover armed resistance groups involved in struggles against colonial domination and foreign occupation. Arab and Islamic countries propose this exemption to protect Palestinians fighting Israeli occupation of the West Bank. 
``It is a political problem for the U.S. because of Iraq,'' Munir Akram, Pakistan's ambassador to the UN, said in an interview. ``There should be no exemptions, but if you are going to exclude armed forces you have to include the other parties in it.'' 
Akram said any U.S. withholding of funds would create a ``train wreck'' that would doom other efforts to restructure and improve UN management.