US House panel votes to limit UN peacekeeping

A US House panel on Wednesday voted to cut the US funds for UN peacekeepers in Sierra Leone and the DRC, Reuters reported. The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee approved a US $35 billion bill to fund the departments of commerce, justice and state which the White House said would weaken the US role in the UN and undermine its plan to sue tobacco companies to recover costs of smoking-related illnesses. President Bill Clinton’s administration complained that the bill, which was about US $3 billion below Clinton’s request, would cut science programmes at the commerce department and not fund initiatives to enforce gun crimes laws, Reuters said.

Reuters quoted the chairman of the sub-committee, Harold Rogers, as saying that the UN was sending “inadequately-trained and equipped” peacekeepers into war-like situations that required soldiers. “I don’t want innocent, unarmed, untrained, capturable troops in conflicts,” he said.