Negroponte’s Name Sent to Senate

The issue of human rights drove President Bush this week to finally nominate his choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. But questions about the candidate’s past performance on human rights may keep that post empty longer than the administration would like.

The United States’ embarrassing loss of a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission earlier this month spurred the president to get John D. Negroponte’s name to the Senate on Monday--two months after the president announced his intention to nominate the career diplomat to the U.N. post.

However, a date for Negroponte’s confirmation hearing has not been set. And the process may be further delayed by Democrats’ demands for classified documents related to his handling of information about human rights abuses in the past.

Recently declassified documents and other correspondence have raised questions about whether Negroponte fully reported human rights abuses by the Honduran military to Congress while he served as ambassador there in the 1980s.

The U.S. mission at the United Nations remains staffed by overstretched diplomats and political appointees left behind from the previous administration. During a congressional review last week of how the U.S. lost seats on the Human Rights Commission and U.N. International Narcotics Control Board earlier this month, critics said the mission failed to work hard enough to secure the necessary votes.

“The recent problems at the U.N. highlight the importance of having a strong ambassador supporting our interests,” said Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Negroponte is regarded by supporters as a smooth and experienced official who could restore U.S. prominence at the world body. But others at the U.N. and on Capitol Hill wonder whether Negroponte is the appropriate pick.

“Human rights is one of the key issues at the U.N., and U.S. prestige is on the line,” said Martha Honey, a director of the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal Washington-based think tank. “We need someone in the post quickly. . . . But Negroponte is clearly not the one we need.”

Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee intent on challenging the nomination have asked the State Department to release specific documents from Negroponte’s time as ambassador to Honduras. The hearings won’t start until they get them, they say.

“It’s not a matter of what his detractors or his friends say about him,” said a Democratic staff member who requested anonymity. “What really matters is what’s in the cables that were sent from the embassy to the State Department and if they show that human rights reporting was accurate or a whitewash.”

But Frist argued that the human rights issues were more likely to hasten Negroponte’s nomination than slow the process down. “Clearly, our interests would be better served by filling the vacancy as soon as feasible.”

Some diplomats who voted against the U.S. for membership on the rights commission said the fact that Washington had not filled the ambassador post and nominated a person shadowed by human rights questions signaled that the administration had low regard for both the United Nations and human rights.

Others were more pragmatic about American power at the U.N. and the need for a diplomat with clout.

“People change,” said Brazilian Ambassador Gelson Fonseca, who has crossed Negroponte’s path in Latin America. “It’s an American idea to personalize an issue. I don’t believe that if he is here it means that the U.S. is not interested in human rights.”

He noted that Negroponte, selected for the post by longtime colleague Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, has the access in the Bush administration needed to get things done.

“If he wants anything, it’s easier for him to get it than a charge d’affaires. [Acting Ambassador] James Cunningham is an extraordinary diplomat, but he has the limit of his position,” Fonseca said.