United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-05-01

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From: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.org

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 1 May, 1998

HEADLINES

• Former Prime Minister of Rwanda pleads guilty to genocide.
• Secretary-General regrets payment of U.S. arrears to United Nations remains uncertain.
• Concerned at flare-up of hostilities in Tajikistan, Secretary- General calls on parties to restore calm.
• UN World Food Programme appeals for funds to airdrop emergency aid to 2.5 million people in Sudan.
• World Food Programme warns tens of thousands of people may face starvation in Afghanistan.
• Head of UN human rights agency urges Nigeria not to carry out death sentences against six people charged with treason.
• United Nations children's agency sets up centre for war- traumatized children in Congo-Brazzaville.
• UNICEF immunizes 16,000 children under five and provides schools supplies in Sierra Leone.
• Chairman of Sustainable Development Commission cites successful involvement of industry and civil society.
• Twelve years after Chernobyl disaster, harmful effects linger, UN official says in appeal for assistance to victims.
• New United Nations publication details role of environmental factors which cause sickness and death.

The indictment against Jean Kambanda, read out in a packed courtroom by the Registrar of the Tribunal, Agwu Ukiwe Okali (Nigeria), charged the accused with six counts of Genocide, Conspiracy to Commit Genocide, Complicity in Genocide, Direct and Public Incitement to Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity.

Mr. Okali told United Nations Radio that the guilty plea and the pronouncement was "clearly a vindication of the Tribunal" which, he said, had not been given credit for the achievements it has made. He drew attention in particular to the fact that the court had in its custody the "so-called ring leaders of this particular atrocity."

The Registrar stressed that the Tribunal is directed to achieving accountability by people in positions of authority. He said that the international community had not built up these ad hoc tribunals "just to pick up an ordinary soldier" who took part in genocide, but are supposed to be "symbolic as well as a deterrent."

The other former Rwandan officials charged with conspiring with Jean Kambanda to commit genocide against the Tutsis include his Ministers such as Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, Andre Ntagerura, Eliezer Niyitegeka and Edouard Karemera.

However, the Secretary-General said in the statement, he regretted that U.S. fulfillment of its financial obligation remained uncertain due to an extraneous matter. He said he appreciated the continuing efforts of President Clinton and Congressional leaders to resolve the issue.

The UN system does many things each day to benefit citizens of the United States and the world, the Secretary-General said. Conversely, he added, the continuing support of the United States was crucial to the success of the United States. "It is time to get the question of arrears behind us, and to move forward to strengthen this vital relationship, on which so much depends".

In the statement, the Secretary-General warns that the fighting carries the risk of escalation, and calls on the Government and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) to work together to restore calm.

The Secretary-General was reacting to a report from the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) that government forces and UTO elements had clashed just east of Dushanbe and within the eastern city limits. According to UNMOT, the fighting, which began on Thursday, was triggered by the arrest of three opposition members on criminal charges.

UNMOT is working with the Contact Group of guarantor States and organizations for the implementation of the General Peace Agreement to contain the situation. The guarantor States are Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, the Russian Federation and Uzbekistan.

The airdrops will be part of a $65.8 million operation starting on Friday and will deliver 83,000 tons of food to nearly 2.5 million people, mainly in southern Sudan, over the next 12 months. The aid is for displaced people in urban camps and drought-affected villagers in rural areas, including severely malnourished children, pregnant women, nursing mothers and people suffering from tuberculosis and other diseases.

According to the WFP, the situation is extremely serious in southern Sudan, where insecurity, drought and floods have caused widespread crop failure. Up to 200,000 people in northern Sudan also need aid because of chronic food shortages caused by drought. The long civil war and repeated restrictions in recent months on access and aircraft clearances have hampered attempts to reach the hungry.

However, the WFP reports that the Sudanese Government has lifted restrictions on flights into the southern province of Bahr el Ghazal which is one of the hardest hit. The Agency now has permission to use a second C- 130 aircraft, but is concerned that only two operational flights might not be able to avert a famine among people who are already starving. It is expecting permission to add three more flights.

The Agency has five missions exploring the region. The missions, some on foot, in trucks or on horseback, have been sending back preliminary information on pockets of severe hunger, dwindling food supplies and empty marketplaces, according to WFP. Unconfirmed reports by these missions, say that as many as 100, mostly women and children, have starved to death.

The Hazarajat region has been isolated to the south, west and east by a blockade imposed last year by Taliban authorities who control much of the rest of Afghanistan. The Taliban claim that food to the region feeds the armies of their enemies, the loosely-knit Northern Alliance.

The United Nations food agency brought 6,000 tonnes of food aid in the early winter to Bamyan and Ghor but resupply from its storehouses has been blocked for months by bad weather, fighting and robbery by local commanders.

Last week, WFP issued an appeal to donors for $300,000 to purchase wheat and potatoes locally. It has distributed wheat to several hundred families in the Beshud district who crossed a steep snow-covered mountain range on foot to get food. This week, WFP also began to purchase potatoes and wheat from local farmers and to transport the supplies to more needy areas. Three days ago, WFP brought 300 tonnes of potatoes and 50 tonnes of wheat to some 2,000 families in the Lal district of Ghor where field workers travelling from village to village have heard several reports of starvation.

WFP officials have warned that even if food aid begin flowing in, it will not be sufficient. The agency said that only a political decision to lift the blockade to the south can restore normal life and trading patterns for the people of Hazarajat.

Leaders of the various Afghan factions broke off talks in Islamabad on Thursday over a failure to agree on implementing the Taliban's earlier commitment to lift the blockage on Hazarajat. The talks are scheduled to resume on Sunday.

Thirty people have been charged in connection with an alleged coup plot announced by the Nigerian Government in December 1997. The ad hoc military tribunal, which sentenced the defendants, was comprised of officers operating outside the normal judicial system. Most of the evidence was heard in secret and no right to appeal was granted.

Ms. Robinson joined three Special Rapporteurs in expressing deep concern at the sentences: the Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Nigeria, Soli Sorabjee; the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Param Cumaraswamy; and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Bacre Waly Ndiaye.

The High Commissioner and the Special Rapporteurs asked the Nigerian Government not to proceed with the executions and to allow the convictions and sentences to be reviewed on appeal before a higher and independent court of law.

UNICEF's Spokesman, Patrick McCormick said in Geneva on Friday that the centre, with a staff of forty counsellors, will cater for about 300 children a day. The centre also has a mobile team which is going around Brazzaville, the capital, screening children for signs of trauma and stress.

So far, 90 per cent of some 2,000 children seen so far by UNICEF staff during house-to-house visits have displayed symptoms of post- traumatic stress disorder, the Spokesman said.

UNICEF has also supplied a hundred schools with $56,000 worth of school supplies to help 51,000 pupils start to study.

According to a UNICEF spokesman, in contrast to areas in the north east of the country where its supplies are being used to treat amputation and machete wounds, the relatively stable northwest of the country is enjoying some return to normality.

Until recently, Freetown was a scene of fighting which ended when the West African peacekeepers ousted elements of the military junta which staged a coup d' etat in May last year.

The Commission monitors the implementation of Agenda 21, which was adopted at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. This year's two-week session focused on two main issues: the role of business and freshwater management. For the first time, a special two-day industry segment brought together governments, the business community, trade unions and civil society.

At a UN press conference on Friday, Mr. Habito said there had been a very positive response to the industry segment's "free-wheeling interaction". Because of calls for "more of the same", next year's session would use the format to bring together the relevant major groups and stakeholders.

There had also been a "free flow of ideas" during the early morning informal meetings of government ministers attending the session, he said. They made valuable suggestions regarding the 1999 session which would focus on oceans, small island developing States, tourism and how production and consumption patterns affect sustainable development.

The Government ministers had also expressed concern that too much time had been spent arguing over words and even punctuation and suggested possible changes in the way the Commission documented its work in future, he added.

Vice-Chairman, Michael Odevall of Sweden said the Commission was "treading new ground" by involving civil society and it had been very successful. Non- governmental organizations had pushed hard for a review and assessment of voluntary environmental initiatives by business and, in that sense, they had had a strong hand in the current session and also in how the Commission's work would proceed.

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai, said the 1998 session was a very important development in the UN's political processes. The outcome, he said, was like a joint exercise by governments and civil society. The rich array of side events had also given many people from around the world a real opportunity to exchange valuable experience and knowledge.

Accompanied at a press conference by the ambassadors of Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation, Mr. de Mello stressed that awareness, attention, commitment, solidarity and compassion for the victims of the accident must be revived. Unfortunately, sufficient funds had not been forthcoming, he said. A pledging conference held last month to raise $100 million had only brought in $1.4 million.

The three diplomats from the region joined in calling for financial support to mitigate the consequences of the disaster. Alyaksandr Sychou of Belarus said over 70 per cent of radionuclides had fallen on his country, resulting in the long-term contamination of almost 23 per cent of its territory. After 12 years, problems in the health, social, economic and ecological sectors remained acute. Recently, there had been an increase in child mortality due to cancer in contaminated areas.

Sergey V. Lavrov of the Russian Federation said his Government was assisting those who had been exposed to radiation. Despite those efforts, problems remained severe. He said that international assistance was more than a humanitarian responsibility; it also involved preventing such occurrences in the future. If a similar event occurred in the future, the international community would be better equipped to help more people and in a more expeditious manner.

The Chernobyl accident was the result of mankind's search for new energy sources, observed Ukraine's Ambassador, Volodymyr Y. Yelchenko. The disaster had occurred because of a short-sighted policy vision by the leaders of the former Soviet Union. Now the people of Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation were forced to pay a high price for that short- sighted vision, he added.

In the poorest regions, environment-related illnesses cause 11 million childhood deaths each year, according to World Resources: 1998- 1999, which was produced jointly by the World Resources Institute, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank.

Environmental threats to health are not limited to the developing countries; World Resources: 1998-1999 points out that in the United States alone, some 80 million people are exposed to levels of air pollution that can impair health. In China, some 2 million people die each year from the effects of air and water pollution. "Nearly 100 countries, both developed and developing, still use leaded gasoline, unnecessarily exposing their citizens to a pollutant long known to cause permanent brain damage."

The 369-page publication calls attention to situations in which problems and solutions are relatively well understood. Removing lead from gasoline, for example, could immediately reduce health threats. Similarly, the report illustrates the many potential benefits of incorporating concerns about environmental threats to health into development planning at the outset. "Making the environment a central component in public health strategies is essential to ensure health for everyone in the twenty-first century," it states.

From the United Nations home page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.org

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