unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/24/89)
Senate Votes Money for UN Population Fund Despite Abortion
Posting Date: 09/24/89 Source: UNITEX Network, Hoboken, NJ, USA
Host: (201) 795-0733 ISSN: 1043-7932
Issue
(Associated Press, 20 September, 582 words, DATELINE: Atlanta)
The Senate, on a narrow vote, moved Wednesday to reverse a
four-year-old policy and resume U.S. aid to the United Nations
Population Fund, over objections that the fund supports Chinese
forced-abortion policies.
The 52-48 vote came on an amendment to a $$14.4 billion foreign
aid bill providing military, economic and development help to
U.S. allies and friends around the globe for the fiscal year
that begins Oct. 1. The Senate still has to complete work on the
measure, then work out differences with the House before sending
the bill to Bush for his signature.
Lawmakers backed a provision in the bill providing $$15 million
to the United Nations population control agency, which last
received U.S. money in 1985. The Reagan administration shut off
aid then in light of charges that China has a
one-child-per-family policy enforced through compulsory
sterilization and abortions. President Bush has continued that
policy.
"The People's Republic of China continues to engage ... in
ethically heinous, grievous violations of the human rights of
parents" and of unborn children, argued Sen. Gordon Humphrey,
R-N.H., an abortion opponent.
But the sponsor of the policy change, Sen. Barbara Mikulski,
D-Md., said even the State Department's Agency for International
Development has found that while the UN agency operates in
China, it does not engage in or support such objectionable
policies. She included in her provision a stipulation that all
U.S. money be kept in a separate account and that none of it go
to pay for operations in China.
Other battles loomed on the aid measure, including a fight over
whether to keep restrictions on $$85 million in U.S. military
aid to El Salvador.
The Democrat-dominated Appropriations Committee stipulated that
the aid be divided into four-month installments, with Congress
given what amounts to veto power over the final aid check.
The move was intended to keep pressure on the new government of
Alfredo Cristiani and his rightist ARENA party to curb human
rights violations and to work toward a cease-fire with the
leftist FMLN rebels fighting his government.
The annual foreign aid money bill pays for a wide variety of
programs aimed at bolstering the military power of friendly
countries, supporting economic development and giving direct
infusions to foreign governments.
Included was a $$45 million economic aid program for Poland, a
gesture of dissatisfaction with Bush's more modest $$10 million
request. Poland has for the first time in more than four decades
elected a non-communist-dominated government, making it an
irresistible target for rewards by lawmakers.
As usual, the largest recipients of aid are Israel and Egypt, a
reward for their participation in the Camp David peace process.
Israel would get $$1.8 billion in military aid and $$1.2 billion
in economic assistance, and Egypt would get $$1.3 billion in
military and $$815 million in economic aid.
Another large benefit would go to the Philippines, which would
get at least $$160 million toward the U.S. share in a
multinational economic development program led by Japan. That
amount was $$40 million less than Bush asked for.
Other money was earmarked for: Pakistan, $$230 million each in
military and economic aid; $$565 million in development aid for
Africa; $$500 million in military aid for Turkey; $$350 million
in military aid for Greece; $$115 million for the war on drugs;
$$615 million for the Export-Import Bank and $$370 million for
refugee programs.
* Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)
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