The head of a global chemical weapons control body was ousted on Monday by a US-sponsored vote provoked by a rift over his diplomatic overtures to secure Iraq's compliance on arms inspection.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which has 145 member states, voted to remove Brazilian Director General Jose Bustani at a crisis meeting after the US forced a vote challenging his leadership, the second such ballot in as many months.
Bustani had urged Iraq to join the OPCW but Washington accused him of "ill-considered initiatives" and criticized his management. The resulting showdown ended with a US victory over the leadership of a key international body.
Washington has signaled it wants to get rid of President Saddam Hussein's government in Baghdad, but could find it difficult to win backing for military action if Iraq agreed to join the OPCW and admit arms inspectors, analysts say.
The US drive to oust Bustani is its second such campaign -- last week it secured the removal of Robert Watson as chairman of a UN climate control body. Watson had advocated a shift away from fossil fuels.
Domestic and foreign critics say the campaigns are evidence of mounting US unilateralism under Republican President George W. Bush on key international issues ranging from human rights to the environment.
"The conference of the states' parties has supported the proposal calling for immediate dismissal of the director general," OPCW spokesman Peter Kaiser said after a late night vote at the organization's headquarters in The Hague.
Britain, Germany, Japan and Italy -- which along with the US contribute the lion's share of the OPCW's 60 million euro (US$55 million) annual budget -- had indicated support for the US move earlier this month.
* The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has 145 members.
* In the second vote to challenge his leadership, both forced by the US, 48 voted for Bustani's removal, 6 voted against and 43 abstained.
* The US charged him with bad management and `ill-considered initiatives' -- namely, his effort to win Iraqi approval of weapons inspections to head off a US military attack.
The US proposal to oust Bustani, who served as Brazil's ambassador to Moscow, Vienna and the UN, secured 48 votes, while 43 countries abstained and six of the 115 members at the meeting opposed it. Not all countries voted.
Delegates were set to discuss plans to select Bustani's successor yesterday. Observers said it could take weeks to choose a replacement.
Bustani, who was unanimously re-elected for a second four-year term last May, had accused Washington of riding roughshod over the independence of a global organization to secure its national interests.
"The choices that you make during this session ... will determine whether genuine multilateralism will survive or whether it will be replaced by unilateralism in a multilateral disguise," Bustani told delegates in a speech on Sunday.
Brazil said it regretted the removal of Bustani who would be reincorporated to the country's diplomatic service, from which he was on leave of absence, if he so desired.
The US has voiced doubts that UN inspections in Iraq for chemical, biological and nuclear arms would reassure people that Saddam Hussein was not stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. The OPCW works closely with the UN.
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