US embassy cable - 04COLOMBO940

C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 000940 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, IO, IO/T, INL/C/CJ(BROWNE) 
 
E.O. 12958:    DECL:  06-08-14 
TAGS: SNAR, AORC, PREL, CE 
SUBJECT:  In meeting with Ambassador, Colombo Plan SG 
requests update on USG position on proposed amendment 
 
Refs:  (A) Colombo 668, and previous 
 
(U) Classified by Ambassador Jeffrey J. Lunstead. 
Reasons 1.5 (b,d). 
 
1.  (C) On June 8, Kittipan Kanjanapipatkul, Colombo 
Plan Secretary General, briefed the Ambassador on the 
agenda of the upcoming June 14-16 39th Consultative 
Committee Meeting (CCM) to be held in Tehran, Iran. 
(There will not be any USG attendance at the meeting in 
Tehran.)  Specifically, the Secretary General 
anticipated that member countries would raise the issue 
of the proposed amendment to the Colombo Plan and asked 
the Ambassador if there was any update on the USG 
position regarding the proposed amendment.  (The 
proposed amendment aims to restrict access to Colombo 
Plan training opportunities for countries more than four 
years in arrears, until a partial payment of back dues 
is paid.)  In reply, the Ambassador said that the U.S. 
continued to work on the issue, but that we had no 
further formal response at present.  In addition, the 
Ambassador felt that it would not be acceptable to the 
U.S. for the USG position to be merely noted during the 
CCM, with the organization adopting the amendment on the 
strength of the approval by the remaining 25 countries. 
The issue would not have consensus, the Ambassador said. 
 
2.  (C) Providing additional background, the Secretary 
General said that during the 38th CCM in July 2001, the 
entire organization, including the U.S., agreed to the 
proposed amendment but felt that the manner of sanction 
was too harsh.  The July 2001 version of the proposed 
amendment required full payment of arrears and the CCM 
requested the Council to develop a more lenient option. 
The result was the current version of the proposed 
amendment which requires only partial payment of 
arrears.  The Secretary General confirmed that there had 
been U.S. representation at the July 2001 meeting in 
which the proposed amendment was initially approved. 
 
3.  (C) In a related development, the Secretary General 
also noted that Bangladesh had informed the Colombo Plan 
Secretariat that in the absence of a regulation 
 
SIPDIS 
requiring payment of dues, the government would no 
longer pay the annual dues of 14,500 USD.  Bangladesh 
plans, however, to continue to avail itself of training 
opportunities and partake in Colombo Plan programs. 
 
4.  (C) COMMENT:  The Secretary General's comments serve to 
illustrate the demonstrated need the Colombo Plan has to 
require member countries to pay dues.  Further, it 
highlights the limited effect that restrictions on 
voting rights will have:  given the consensus required 
for voting in the Council, denial of such rights will 
not compel the government of Bangladesh to pay it dues. 
The Colombo Plan is widely recognized for its effective 
efforts in narcotics demand reduction in Asia and the 
Pacific and the U.S. is keen for the organization to 
continue this work (for example, funded by INL, the 
Colombo Plan is organizing a regional anti-narcotics 
officer training in Maldives later this month).  As the 
annual dues go solely to support the Secretariat in its 
administration of the entire organization, it is 
imperative that the Colombo Plan has an effective, 
enforceable method of collecting these dues.  The many 
years of work on this proposed amendment show the 
organization's commitment to being even-handed in its 
approach.  Mission strongly believes the U.S. should 
support the organization in this endeavor.  END COMMENT. 
 
5.  (U) Minimize considered. 
 
LUNSTEAD