Burton named a Congressional Delegate to United Nations General Assembly.
WASHINGTON, D.C. Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN-6), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has been named a Congressional delegate to the United Nations General Assembly.
As a member of the U.S. delegation headed by Ambassador Thomas Pickering, Burton will participate in the formal sessions of the U.N, General Assembly and meetings of its seven standing committees. The General Assembly’s 46th session will convene on September 17 and is expected to run until the week before Christmas.
Burton travelled to New York Monday to participate in an orientation session run by 4 private think tank that concentrates on the United Nations.
Each year, the President selects two Congressional delegates to join the U.S. mission to the United Nations, alternating between the House and Senate. Joining Burton this year will be Congressman Mervyn Dymally (D-CA-31), another member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
As a Member of Congress, Burton has actively pursued greater scrutiny of human rights abuses by oppressive regimes particularly in China, Cuba and India. During last week’s debate on extending China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, he blasted China’s Communist leaders for using slave labor to produce exports for the United States, He is expected to continue pressing these issues at the U.N.
He is also expected to push for repeal of the 1975 U.N. resolution equating Zionism with racism. In 1989, Burton won House passage of a foreign aid bill amendment urging all nations to condemn the 1975 Zionism resolution, calling it a “blatant act of anti-Semitism” and “the most disgusting action ever taken by the United Nations”.
More recently, Burton has been a particularly vocal critic of human rights abuses in India. During House consideration of foreign aid legislation in June, Burton made an impassioned speech criticizing atrocities committed by the Indian military in the strife-torn regions of Punjab and Kashmir. His amendment to cut development aid to India in half until it allows international human rights groups into the country focused the Congress’ attention on India’s human rights record. It received 182 votes, a marked improvement over previous attempts to cut off aid to India.
During the same debate, he won passage of an amendment prohibiting U.S. aid to any organizations in South Africa linked to the South African Communist Party. -As ranking Republican on the Africa Subcommittee, he has been an outspoken opponent of sanctions against South Africa; saying that they hurt low-income blacks more than they hurt the South African Govt President Bush lifted those sanctions last week. Burton has endorsed to improve the economic lot of South African blacks giving them greater political leverage.
The five-term Indiana lawmaker has also been a critic of Fidel Castro’s Communist govt in Cuba. In February 1990, he traveled to Geneva to lobby members of the U.N. Human Rights Commission to expand their investigation of Castro’s human rights abuses. His efforts were rewarded when the Commission narrowly voted to continue their investigation for another year, Burton has also urged President Bush to give the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Armando Valladares, a Cuban political prisoner for 23 years and recent U.S. Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Commission
“I’m looking forward to participating in the U.N. General Assembly this fall,” Burton said. “It will give me an opportunity to pursue some important issues that I’ve been working on in Congress attacking human rights abuses in India and Cuba, stopping slave labor in China, and getting fairer treatment for Israel at the UN. I’m looking forward to working with Ambassador Pickering and the rest of our delegation”.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 26, 1991
