Letter: U.S. should walk away from rights panel, U.N.

Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2003 | 8:44 a.m.

Anyone who truly understands the reality of the United Nations was hardly shocked when the 53 members of the U.N.'s Human Rights Commission elected Libya to chair their proceedings. Long a haven for tyrants, despots, thugs and abusers of human rights, the United Nations merely showed its true colors again.

Under Moammar Qaddafi, Libya rose to prominence as a virtual Soviet satellite decades ago. Compiling a history of attempted subversion of Egypt and other African nations, Qaddafi previously allied himself with the unspeakable Idi Amin of Uganda and has more recently befriended Zimbabwe's ruthless Robert Mugabe.

Libya's secret police and revolutionary committees employ arbitrary arrest and torture to ensure that human rights do not exist for the nation's oppressed millions. And Qaddafi's involvement in international terrorism became indisputable when his regime was found guilty of the 1988 downing of PanAm 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, with the loss of all 270 aboard.

The U.S. ambassador to witness this outrage, Kevin Moley, deplored the choice of Libya. But the U.S. will retain membership in both the Human Rights Commission and the U.N. itself.

When Libya's representative bangs the gavel for the human rights group, our nation's representative will be seated alongside such exemplary human rights champions as China, Cuba, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Sudan. America should walk out, from both the human rights panel and the U.N. itself.

KEN HOVEY