United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-05-13

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Wednesday, 13 May, 1998

HEADLINES

• Security Council expands International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, adding new Trial Chamber.
• UN Secretary-General and General Assembly President express disappointment at India's latest nuclear tests.
• Iraq close to submitting its draft distribution plan for oil- for-food programme to Secretary-General.
• Head of UN humanitarian affairs appeals for world community to fund emergency relief operations in Sudan.
• Seven prominent individuals named to Board chaired by Ted Turner to oversee execution of his $1 billion gift.
• Secretary-General names Anne Hircus of New Zealand as his Deputy Special Representative for Cyprus.
• Former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland becomes first woman to head UN health agency.
• Economic and Social Council begins review of follow-up to major United Nations conferences and summits.

The Council unanimously adopted a resolution which amended the Tribunal's Statute in order to allow for the expansion. The Council also decided to hold elections for the three additional judges as soon as possible to serve in the new Trial Chamber.

The Council was responding to an urgent appeal from the Tribunal's President, Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, who wrote that the recent dramatic increase in the number of persons accused of crimes under the Tribunal's Statute made it necessary to establish new facilities to carry out its work.

In her appeal, Tribunal President Gabrielle Kirk McDonald says that without an additional trial chamber, "some accused who have recently been placed in custody may have to wait until the year 2000 for their cases to begin, and certainly for their cases to be concluded."

The Council's meeting provided an occasion for participants to reflect on the problem of impunity in other regions, and to call for a concerted international response.

Speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, Ambassador John Weston of the United Kingdom expressed strong support for the establishment of the international criminal court at the Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries to be held in Rome this year. He was joined by the Slovenian Ambassador, Danilo Turk, agreed, who said the persistence of war crimes underscored the need for a permanent international mechanism to address violations of human rights and humanitarian law.

Ambassador Bill Richardson of the United States expressed hope that the international community would work constructively on establishing a tribunal to bring to justice senior Cambodian Khmer Rouge leaders during the period 1975 to 1979.

Brazil's Ambassador, Henrique Valle, said the world must concentrate its efforts on the creation of a permanent institutional mechanism of administration of justice that was independent, impartial and efficient. With the establishment of such a court, there would be no more need for the United Nations to resort to ad hoc tribunals, he noted.

India carried out three underground nuclear tests on Monday.

In a statement issued by his Spokesman, the Secretary-General noted India's announcement that Wednesday's tests were expected to complete the series and its qualified offer to adhere to some of the undertakings of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) selectively.

The Secretary-General said he continued to look forward to the unequivocal assurance of India and all other States that the international community's norm on nuclear testing and non-proliferation would be adhered to, in order that progress towards nuclear disarmament - - a common desire of all States and peoples -- can be achieved as soon as possible.

The President of the UN General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko of Ukraine, expressed "dismay and disappointment" at the series of underground nuclear tests conducted by India.

In a statement issued by his spokesman, Mr. Udovenko said in recent years there have been encouraging signs in the field of nuclear non- proliferation and nuclear disarmament. With the virtual cessation of nuclear testing and the landmark conclusion of the CTBT, the international community sent an unambiguous message as to the future of nuclear non- proliferation.

During its current session, the General Assembly had reaffirmed its commitment to creating a nuclear-weapon-free world and welcomed recent unilateral, bilateral and multilateral steps by States to promote the regime of nuclear non-proliferation. Regrettably, the spokesman said, the latest series of tests ran contrary to that positive trend. The Assembly President would like to emphasize the need to maintain the international momentum to promote nuclear disarmament.

Meanwhile, India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, K. Sharma, said in a UN Radio interview on Wednesday that he did not think his country's five nuclear tests -- its first since 1974 -- were provocative. "There's nothing provocative about not testing for 24, 25 years," he said. "India has been a model of restraint and all that in an environment where we have a fair amount of nuclear promiscuity around us."

Ambassador Sharma said it was bad and destabilizing for the region to have a billion people in a continental land mass the size of India, in a "heavily nuclearized environment", feeling insecure. He said India reiterated its offer to consider adhering to some of the undertakings in the CTBT. "This is a very forward position because we have had problems with the CTBT," he added.

The distribution plan must be approved in order for Iraq to enter the next phase of the oil-for-food programme. The Security Council authorized Iraq to export $5.2 billion worth of oil in the next phase. Most of the money will fund the purchase of humanitarian goods.

Meetings have been taking place every day between United Nations representatives and the Iraqi authorities, according to spokesman Eric Falt, who characterized the discussions as cordial. "There is respect all around in these talks, and the UN has made a number of recommendations which have been positively received by the Government," he said.

But Mr. Falt also pointed to some areas which remained unresolved. He said that the Humanitarian Coordinator, Dennis J. Halliday, was concerned about some differences of view between the Government and the United Nations as to the best possible use of limited resources.

Asked to expand on the difficulties of the talks, Mr. Falt responded that the two sides agreed on most principles, including the need to develop a multisectoral approach to the new and enhanced humanitarian programme. "But there is some discussion on the question of the food basket, because of the need, determined by the Secretary-General in his February supplementary report, to increase calorie content and introduce animal protein," he said. Mr. Falt added that the question of telecommunications was also an issue.

Speaking at a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. de Mello said because of the long war in Sudan and the current drought, 800,000 people in southern areas of country were in danger of starvation.

Mr. de Mello praised the Sudanese Government for its flexibility in giving permission for additional flights to deliver food into three southern provinces. He said the Government had also agreed to allow a United Nations team to fly into the Nuba Mountains region, to assess the needs of civilians in rebel-controlled areas, where the UN had had no access for the last 10 years.

The Under-Secretary-General said he wanted to send an SOS to the international community for money to finance the UN relief operation in Sudan. "We need $20 million for the World Food Programme (WFP) and $4.5 million for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to help 800,000 people over the next four months," he said. "It is now possible to help these people and save them if we are given the means."

In response to a question, Mr. de Mello said he was very concerned about the lack of response to recent UN humanitarian appeals, not just for Africa, but also for Afghanistan, the Caucasus and for other emergency situations around the world. He described "donor fatigue" as a new and very worrying trend for all international aid agencies. So far this year, he said, UN appeals for Sudan, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone had received only 20 per cent of the amounts needed. Unless the media highlighted the problem on the front pages, "there is no hope of overcoming this indifference," he added.

Mr. Turner will chair the seven-member Board, which will consist of the President of the United Nations Foundation, Timothy Wirth; Canadian businessman Maurice Strong, who previously served as the Chairman of the Earth Council and Secretary-General of the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment; Brazil's First Lady, Ruth Cardoso, who chairs the Comunidad Solidaria programme to combat poverty; former United States Ambassador Andrew Young, who chairs the $100 million Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund; Emma Rothschild, Director of the Center for History and Economics of the United Kingdom; Muhammad Yunus, the revolutionary founder of the Grameen Bank; and Graca Machel, author of a United Nations study of children in armed conflict.

"Our Board has representation from all regions of the world and brings with it a wide range of knowledge -- from children's health and the environment, to microcredit and economic development," Mr. Turner said. "Together, we are committed to strengthening the United Nations and its efforts to address the major global challenges the world faces."

Ms. Hercus has held a number of diplomatic and government posts over the course of her career, including serving as New Zealand's Ambassador to the United Nations from 1988 to 1990. She was also a member of the Secretary- General's Eminent Persons Group on Preparations for the 1995 World Conference on Women.

A founding member of World Women Parliamentarians for Peace, Ms. Hercus is currently chairperson of the New Zealand Women's Refugee Foundation. She was a Member of Parliament from 1978 to 1987, and Minister of Social Welfare for Police and Women's Affairs from 1984 to 1987.

As Deputy Special Representative and Chief of Mission, Ms. Hircus will continue the efforts of Mr. Feissel to keep the peace and bring about a comprehensive settlement in Cyprus.

The 59-year-old physician was elected WHO Director-General by secret ballot at the annual meeting in Geneva of the World Health Assembly, WHO's top decision-making body. Dr. Brundtland, whose five-year term will begin 21 July, replaces Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima of Japan.

Addressing the Assembly after her election, Dr. Brundtland told Health Ministers from WHO's 191 member States that the Agency could and must change. "It must become more effective, more accountable, more transparent and more receptive to a changing world."

Dr. Brundtland said she intended to focus on four key areas of concern. WHO would help monitor, roll back and, where possible, eradicate communicable diseases, and help fight and reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases. It would also build sustainable health systems to help countries reach equity targets and provide quality services, particularly for women and mothers. WHO would speak out for health, back its case with solid evidence, and thereby be a better advocate for health towards a broader audience of decision-makers.

The new head of WHO called for a broad alliance to fight the "epidemic" of global tobacco consumption, particularly in developing countries. "Tobacco is a killer," she said. "Children were the most vulnerable. The tobacco industry knows this and acts accordingly. Tobacco shouldn't be advertised, subsidized or glamorized."

Council President Juan Somavia of Chile said United Nations conferences and summits of the 1990s were the international community's only common response to the disorderly system of globalization that risked spinning out of control. He said the recommendations and conclusions of those conferences were not grounded on a limited ideological view of society, but on collective efforts to identify the best ways to deal with problems.

The Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai, said the conferences taken together constituted a body of doctrine that would shape international cooperation for development. He noted that the Council was in a position to link the goals of the conferences with the progress made in attaining financial assistance for meeting those goals.

Picking up on the issue of financing, Indonesia's representative, Makarim Wibisono, said the follow-up activities of global conferences required financial resources, and developing countries, in particular, needed substantial new and additional funds for conference implementation. Speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, he said the Council should underline the importance of mobilizing resources for developing countries and reaching agreed targets for official development assistance.

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

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