US embassy cable - 04MAPUTO1617

UNCLAS MAPUTO 001617 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
DEPT FOR DRL:SCHECHTER, AF/RSA:HOUSTON, AND AF/S:TREGER 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, MZ, Demarche, UN 
SUBJECT: MOZAMBIQUE: DEMARCHE ON UN HUMAN RIGHTS 
RESOLUTIONS IN PLENARY 
 
REF: A) STATE 259878, B) STATE 248093 
 
Sensitive but Unclassified - Handle Accordingly 
 
1. (SBU) On December 15 Emboff delivered ref A demarche 
urging the GRM to oppose any potential motions for non- 
action in the UN plenary session on previously approved 
resolutions critical of the human rights situation in 
Iran and Turkmenistan. In the meeting, the MFA Director 
for UN Affairs, Antonio Macheve, stated that Mozambique 
would likely abstain from any such motion, but could not 
give a definitive answer. Such an action would be 
consistent with Mozambique's action on the original Iran 
and Turkmenistan resolutions, in which Mozambique 
abstained on each, he said. 
 
2. (SBU) Mr. Macheve said his government believes that 
UN human rights resolutions are random and overly 
politicized in nature, and therefore has adopted a 
default position to abstain from most human rights- 
related UN resolutions. Mozambique would, however, vote 
for or against a UN human rights resolution if a 
"concrete case" were made. In the MFA's opinion, the 
Sudan and Zimbabwe non-action resolutions earlier this 
month met such criteria because each government is 
ostensibly working to solve their problem within 
regional institutions (such as the African Union) of 
which Mozambique is a part. Therefore Mozambique voted 
for the non-action motions of Sudan and Zimbabwe. He 
added that such a "concrete case" for Iran and 
Turkmenistan would be harder to make, but did mention 
that the Organization of the Islamic Conference group 
would likely approach Mozambique over Iran and 
Turkmenistan. 
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