U.S. Optimistic Despite Geneva Defeat

4-19-2000 (Beijing Timezone)

(ChinaTopNews)-- When the U.N. human rights body decided not to act on a U.S. resolution denouncing China's allegedly deteriorating record, the U.S. delegation put a brave face on the fresh defeat.

"The gap by which the no-action motion passed narrowed once again this year. A growing number of countries now recognize that China should not be permitted to escape scrutiny of its human rights record and that China should not prevent the Commission from fulfilling its mandate," Reuters quoted a statement by Assistant Secretary of State Harold Hongju Koh.

According to Reuters, the US resolution condemning increasing political and religious repression in China, was joined by countries including Canada, Japan and seven European Union members (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain).

If the vote on no-action had been a tie, the Commission would have taken up the U.S. resolution.

"We sponsored the China resolution as part of our principled, purposeful policy of engagement with China. Our goals were to speak up for the Chinese people and to focus international attention on the marked deterioration in the human rights situation in China during the past year.

"We believe that we have accomplished these goals."

Koh, who serves as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, accused China of having intensified its crackdown on organized political dissent. Beijing had also initiated a "full-scale campaign" to suppress the Falun Gong spiritual movement, banned last July, he added.

"Chinese authorities have also intensified controls on unregistered churches and ethnic minorities, especially Tibetans and Uighurs. In addition, the government also tightened controls on the media, academia and the Internet," he said.

Human Rights Watch said in a statement: "Today's decision represents a sorry failure of political will. By turning a blind eye to China's worsening human rights record, the delegations in Geneva have given the wrong signal to Beijing's leaders."

The U.N. forum also adopted resolutions on the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq, but interrupted its debate on Iran which it will resume later in the day. Cuba, Myanmar, Sudan and former Yugoslavia are also in the dock Tuesday.