The United States, whether through inadequate lobbying or because of unpopular global policies, on Thursday failed to win a seat on the commission for the first time since it helped found the human rights body in 1947.

US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States had received more than 40 assurances of support, enough to win a seat on the commission, but in the event only 29 of those countries made good on their promises.

It lost out to three members of the European Union -- Austria, France and Sweden. Governments widely accused by the United States of human rights abuses, including Sudan, won seats in regional groups.

Members of US Congress blamed the embarrassing defeat either on incompetence by the US administration or on indifference to human rights by members of the UN Economic and Social Council, which votes for the commission members.

Boucher defended the performance of US diplomats. "We did campaign very actively for membership. We campaigned in New York and Washington and Geneva, as well as in capitals of nations on the Economic and Social Council," he said.

But he added: "I'm sure that in future campaigns we will take this experience into account and modify our behavior accordingly."

The White House described as "rather odd" the new makeup of the commission, with Sudan and Libya, two countries on the US list of sponsors of "terrorism," but not the United States.

President George W. Bush will continue to speak out on the need to respect human rights, spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Political Factors Count

"I just do note the fact that it's a human rights commission that has Libya and Sudan, both of which are nations that were condemned by this human rights commission, and now they serve on it," he said. "It's a rather odd makeup."

Boucher said the voting for commission seats should be on the basis of human rights considerations but in practice the United States recognizes that political factors count.

"There is vote swapping. There are various arrangements that are made between nations. Those may be the reasons why there are recognized human rights abusers among the members of the commission," he said.

In this case, for example, the United States probably received few votes from its natural allies in the European Union, which had three of its own to vote for, he added.

Diplomats have attributed the snub to Washington to a whole range of grievances, from Bush's missile defense plans and rejection of the Kyoto agreement on global warming, to US opposition to international agreements on land mines and an international criminal court.

US spokesmen declined to speculate on the reasons, saying they did not know who voted in what way in the secret ballot.

But a US State Department official recognized on Thursday that Washington's financial tussles with the United Nations played a part in perceptions of the United States.

"There is no question that financial questions formed an important background to this vote," she said.

She was referring to the long dispute between the United States and the United Nations over US arrears and the level of the US contribution. The dispute has been settled in principle but Congress still has not paid all the money due.

(China Daily 05/05/2001)