Reuters: Powell Calls Leaders on U.N. Rights Resolutions (excerpt)

April 16, 2001 WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) - The United States has initiated high-level diplomatic contacts to press its case for resolutions critical of China and Cuba at the U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva. Secretary of State Colin Powell called President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mauritian Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth about the resolutions over the weekend, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Monday. Mauritius and Congo have seats on the 53-member commission, expected to vote on the resolutions on Wednesday. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and other senior officials have also been making phone calls on the subject, Boucher said. "We've had our embassies working very hard in Europe... to try to seek support for both the Cuba and the China resolutions," he added. On Wednesday of last week the United States presented a resolution accusing China of abuses including repressing its Tibetan minority and members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement and calling on Beijing to permit freedom of religion. [...]