The news is not surprising to some political observers, including Bahamian National Party (BNP) leader, Dr Dexter Johnson, who recently charged that the government had been increasingly aligning itself with socialist ideologies rather than democratic ones.
There was great secrecy over the matter yesterday as Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell, who was out of the country, failed to reveal how The Bahamas would vote even though he indicated last week that he discussed the matter in Cabinet.
Mr Mitchell referred The Guardian to Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vincent Peet, who was said to be unavailable. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Patricia Rodgers, also could not be ļ¾ reached.
The [Nassau] Guardian had been attempting to contact her between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. to no avail.
The only thing Mr Mitchell disclosed was that Bahamas Ambassador to the UN, Paulette Bethel, would cast the vote.
The UN is voting 47 members to the new Council, replacing its 53-member Commission. The 191-member UN General Assembly voted to form the Council on March 15. The overwhelming majority of those members – 170, voted in favour, while three abstained. Four members, including the United States, voted against the Council’s formation. The Bush administration refused to back the Council because it wanted to block Cuba, Sudan, Myanmar and Zimbabwe, which it described as rights abusers, from membership.
Deputy Chief of Missions at the US Embassy, Dr Brent Hardt defended his country’s move, saying, “There have been too many cases where countries that were widely recognised as terrible abusers of human rights were either on the committee or pushing to get on the committee in an attempt to block treatment of their issues on the Commission.”
Dr Hardt said it is important for the Caribbean countries to cast their votes for countries that have the same values and respect for democracy and rights.
[B2B Editor’s note: “Ya’ mean like China, Brent?”]
By MINDELL SMALL, Nassau Guardian Staff Reporter
