U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT REJECTS RIGHTS PANEL CALL FOR DC VOTE IN CONGRESS

 

NewsChannel 8

 

The State Department is pouring cold water on an international rights panel's condemnation of the United States.

 

It was revealed yesterday that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found, after a 10-year proceeding, that the U.S. is violating the rights of District residents by not granting them representation in Congress.

 

In an interview with NewsChannel 8, a State Department official said, "we disagree with the report."

 

Robert Zimmerman, a spokesman for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, told the station, "The U.S. constitution provides the means for changing the voting rights of the residents of the District of Columbia.  Our citizens are not restrained in any way from exercising those rights."

 

He called the status of the District of Columbia "a matter for the U.S. domestic political process."

 

Zimmerman noted the report is not binding on the U.S.

 

Asked whether it is awkward for the U.S. to be promoting democracy in Iraq -- where, presumably, Baghdad residents will be

represented in any new national legislature -- Zimmerman said "I don't see a connection."

 

"The establishment of the District of Columbia as a federal enclave and the voting rights that U.S. citizens enjoy are

grounded in our constitution and are not based on impermissible or insidious reasoning," he said.

 

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is an agency of the Organization of American States, of which the U.S. is a member. The body's ruling follows an appeal by DC voting rights advocate Tim Cooper.

 

Being the only country in the western hemisphere whose capital residents lack a vote in the national legislature should be a

source of "shame", Cooper told NewsChannel 8 in an interview.  He believes countries like China and North Korea will use the plight of District residents against the U.S. in diplomatic exchanges on other issues.

 

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's non-voting congressional delegate and the city's only representative on the Hill, called

State's reaction "disgusting."

 

In a statement, Norton said, "The only way to solve a problem is to face up to it. We intend to see to it that our country

practices what it preaches so well and so loudly throughout the world."

 

 

Bruce DePuyt

NewsChannel 8

(703) 236-9386

bruce@news8.net