United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-05-26

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, 26 May, 1998

HEADLINES

• United Nations Secretary-General dispatches team to Albania to evaluate weapons collection from civilians.
• United Nations refugee agency says humanitarian situation is deteriorating in Kosovo.
• Ceasefire in Georgia fails to stop heavy fighting in buffer zone.
• UN refugee agency says it may not be able to help refugees if resources remain scarce and unpredictable.
• Current funding levels are insufficient to control HIV/AIDS epidemic, says head of UNAIDS programme.
• Eliminating illegal crops high on agenda of upcoming UN special session on world drug problem.
• United Nations hosts training strategy session aimed at enhancing Africa's capacity for peacekeeping.
• UN official urges European countries to update and revise their food safety legislation.
• International Court of Justice extends deadlines in case brought by Iran against U.S.
• UNESCO Director-General and Egyptian President celebrate restoration of Giza Sphinx.
• Environment conference on sustainable urban development begins in Tokyo.
• United Nations Environment Programme to recognize 23 winners with award next month in Moscow.
• Economic growth should be anchored in lives of millions, says founder of bank lending to poorest.

A statement issued by the Secretary-General's Spokesman on Tuesday says Mr. Annan's decision was in response to a request from the Government of Albania to work in close cooperation with the country's authorities to develop a programme of weapons collection.

The team, which will be headed by Mr. Jayantha Dhanapala, the Under- Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs will visit Albania from 1 to 5 June. The members of the team will include United Nations officials from the Departments of Disarmament Affairs, Political Affairs and Peace- keeping Operations.

The visit will be financed from voluntary contributions by the Government of Italy, the statement said.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) the number of people displaced by the fighting now exceeds 34,000 within Kosovo alone. The agency said there was also a dramatic increase in the number of people fleeing Kosovo for Montenegro. There were 818 new arrivals from Kosovo registered in the course of last week compared to six the week before. One third of those who fled were Serb males apparently trying to avoid being drafted or otherwise drawn into the conflict.

In Pristina, the agency said, the food situation appeared to be worsening. Private shop owners complain that they have been unable to replenish their stocks which were depleted by panic buying.

The ceasefire was to have come into effect on Tuesday morning at 6:00 a.m. local time with both sides withdrawing all reinforcements from the conflict zone, Spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

Mr. Eckhard said that Georgian authorities attributed the failure to communications problems which prevented the transmission of the necessary orders to the forces. He said the authorities hope that the ceasefire agreement may come into effect on Wednesday.

The agreement also stipulated that the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia and the peacekeeping forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States both participate in special groups aimed at creating the right conditions for displaced inhabitants to return to the Gali region where fighting between Georgian armed elements and Abkhazian forces has been focused, he added.

The appeal coincided with the publication of a document by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) entitled "1998 Global Appeal" which details the agency's activities worldwide.

UNHCR said that this year's document is intended to replace the traditional practice of issuing separate appeals for the funding of individual programmes, except in the case of emergencies. From now on UNHCR will issue a global appeal in December each year for the next year's programmes to help donors plan their contributions and to enhance the predictability of its funding.

According to the refugee agency, contributions to its programme so far this year comprise only about half of its budget of $1.1 billion. "UNHCR depends almost entirely on voluntary contributions to finance its activities, but the resources available to us have become increasingly scarce and unpredictable." High Commissioner Sadako Ogata pointed out that even though she realized that donor countries are under pressure to reduce public spending and deeply appreciated their continued support, she was deeply worried about the effect on refugees if he agency was forced to continue to cut back its programmes.

The agency says that the number of refugees, returnees and displaced persons rose to a record of 27 million in 1995. This rise was due to a succession of large-scale movements caused by regional conflicts and a surge in repatriation operations which became possible in the post cold-war period.

Today the number of people of concern to UNHCR has gone down to 22 million and the agency's budget which rose to $1.4 billion in 1996 has also been declining. The agency adds however, that it is still having serious difficulties funding its operations and that the shortfall is threatening several key programmes, including repatriation projects in Afghanistan, Angola, Liberia and the Great Lakes region, as well as its ability to respond to unfolding emergencies.

Dr. Piot was speaking in Geneva on Monday at the opening of the sixth session of the UNAIDS governing body. He said a major challenge was to help countries find enough resources to fund their responses to the epidemic. He appealed for governments to increase their support, adding that national funding was woefully inadequate and external aid was unequally distributed between countries.

The world had entered a new phase in the epidemic and the global response to it, Dr. Piot continued. The new phase was marked by wider- than-ever AIDS gaps between places where the epidemic was receding and those where it was out of control, "paradoxically at the very time when we know that prevention works and that a worsening epidemic is not inevitable," he added.

The newly elected Chair of the meeting, the Australian Minister for Health and Family Services, Dr. Michael Wooldridge, supported Dr. Piot's call for a more activist agenda to deal with HIV/AIDS. Falling levels of international assistance, he said, meant innovative ways had to be found to improve funding in the face of an economic crisis which threatened to reverse development and hard-fought progress.

According to the UN International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), the global acreage for coca and opium cultivation totals just one half the size of Puerto Rico. About 90 per cent of the world's opium poppy is grown in Afghanistan and Myanmar, and most of the world's coca crop is cultivated in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru.

However, in villages around the world, increasing numbers of peasant farmers are turning away from drug crops, some because of falling prices, others because of government pressure and assistance. In most cases, the prices paid to farmers for coca leaf and opium poppy are no longer as attractive as they were, says Pino Arlacchi, Executive Director of UNDCP.

Today's alternative development programmes, designed to prevent and eliminate drug crops, go far beyond crop substitution. Projects are designed with community input to help farmers increase yields, market products, generate additional income and raise living standards through improved access to health care, education and clean water.

Projects introduced over the last decade have led to a decline in drug crop cultivation in a number of countries. "We have almost eliminated the production of drugs in Pakistan and Thailand," says Mr. Arlacchi. And coca cultivation in Peru has dropped by about 40 per cent in the last two years.

At the special session, Government leaders are expected to adopt a political declaration committing themselves to eliminate or substantially reduce all illicit drug cultivation by 2008.

"Measures aimed at helping Africa to increase the effectiveness of its own contribution towards the maintenance of international peace and security should not be an excuse for the international community to withdraw from Africa," Bernard Miyet, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, on Tuesday told a training strategy session aimed at enhancing Africa's capacity for peacekeeping.

Mr. Miyet, who chaired the day-long session, stressed the importance of strengthening the partnership between the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity (OAU). He said the two organizations would work together on political and military initiatives to enhance Africa's peacekeeping capacity.

Underscoring the need for well-trained and properly equipped troops, Mr. Miyet said his Department would support regional initiatives through its training programme. "Member States have come to learn some of the unique and powerful benefits of United Nations training assistance, and we have seen a dramatic rise in the number of African States that have made use of this valuable programme," he said.

As evidence of the determination of the United Nations to support African peacekeeping, Mr. Miyet pointed to the recent establishment of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA), which took over from the Inter-African Mission to Monitor the Bangui Agreements (MISAB). He also noted that the United Nations has supported subregional initiatives in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Addressing the FAO Regional Conference in Europe, Mr. Lupien said that the continent's food products are being rejected due to safety concerns. He cited statistics from the United States Food and Drug Administration which indicated that earlier this year, some 770 shipments of European food products were rejected by that country. Among the trouble products were cheeses, vegetables, fruits, spices, baked goods, tea, coffee, mushrooms, soups and fish. According to Mr. Lupien, the reasons for rejecting these products included contamination with pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella; failure to meet safety regulations for certain canned foods; non-permitted food additives; incorrect labelling; filth; pesticide residues; banned pesticides; heavy metal contamination; and faulty packaging.

The FAO estimates that the international food trade has grown to more than $400 billion a year, and is expected to increase further. Europe is the largest food importer and one of the largest exporters of agricultural and food products in the world.

The Conference offered FAO a chance to renew its call on countries that have not yet done so to participate in what is called the "Codex Alimentarius Commission," a body which establishes international standards, residue limits and other guidelines for food safety. The Commission now has 162 members, including 38 European States.

Iran's case dates back to 1992, when it charged that the United States had violated treaties between the two countries and international law in 1987 and 1988 when U.S. Navy warships caused destruction to three offshore oil production complexes owned and operated by the National Iranian Oil Company.

At first, the United States argued that the Court had no jurisdiction on the matter, but after the ICJ ruled in 1996 that it did have such jurisdiction, the United States filed a counter-claim which argued that Iran breached agreements by attacking vessels, laying mines in the Persian Gulf, and otherwise engaging in military actions from 1987 to 1988.

The Court's decision on Tuesday extended the deadlines for both parties to file documents in the case. Iran's deadline to reply to the U.S. counter- claim was extended from 10 September 1998 to 10 December of the same year. The deadline for the United States to file a rejoinder, originally set for 23 November 1999, was extended to 23 May 2000. The Court acted in response to a request from Iran for more time.

UNESCO Director-General, Frederico Mayor, said that water damage had threatened to destroy the man-lion statue, which is inscribed on the World Cultural Heritage List. Mr. Mayor described the Sphinx as "not only a symbol of our past, but also, at the dawn of a new century and millennium, a symbol of our common future," which, he said, depended on "our resolve, on our vision."

The Egyptian-led restoration campaign involved UNESCO and other international donors, including the Getty Foundation.

The United Nations and the Tokyo metropolitan government are jointly sponsoring the World Conference on International Cooperation of Cities and Citizens for Cultivating an Eco-Society, also known as "Eco- Partnership Tokyo". The Conference has defined an eco-society as one which tries to adapt human activities to the natural cycles of the environment.

More than 1,000 representatives, including heads of cities, municipal administrators, senior governmental officials, experts and representatives of non-governmental organizations are attending the Conference. They will discuss ways to promote an environmentally sound society by recycling resources and changing the management of cities.

One of the highlights of the Conference will be the Mayors' forum. About 70 municipal leaders will discuss sustainable policies and programmes implemented by their cities and their plans to cultivate an eco-society for the 21st century.

Each of these success stories will be officially recognized on 5 June at a special award ceremony in Moscow. The event, hosted by UNEP, the City of Moscow and the Russian Federation, is part of this year's World Environment Day celebrations.

The awards will be granted by UNEP Executive Director Klaus T”pfer. Laureates will include Aga Akbar, a zookeeper from Afghanistan who lived 18 terrible months on the front lines rather than abandon his charges; Mike Anane, a journalist from Ghana whose gutsy articles brought to the fore the alarming rate of environmental destruction in his country; and Sylvia Earle, of the United States, for her life-long commitment to deep- sea exploration.

Also receiving the award will be Yasuo Goto, a business leader from Japan, for making the environment an integral part of his company's policies; Jae- Bum Kim, of the Republic of Korea, for his unwavering commitment to educating young people about the environment; Feodor Konyukhov, an environmental globetrotter from the Russian Federation, who only uses environment-friendly modes of transport to promote the sustainable use of the Earth's resources; and Yuri Luzhkov, Mayor of Moscow, for his commitment to sustainable urban development.

In addition, Yongshun Ma, a retired lumberman from China, who has devoted the last part of his life to planting trees; and Don Merton, of New Zealand, who devised methods to improve the survival of bird species facing extinction, will both receive awards.

Some 664 individuals and organizations, in both adult and youth categories, have been honoured since UNEP launched the Global 500 award in 1987.

Mr. Yunus was speaking at a press conference at United Nations headquarters on Tuesday, ahead of a summit on microcredit which will be held in New York from 25 to 27 June. More than 1,200 participants from 80 countries are expected to attend the meeting which comes one year after the Microcredit Summit held in Washington D.C.

During the press conference, United Nations and other experts on microcredit, emphasized the importance of microfinance in fighting poverty. Mr. Yunus, whose idea of issuing small loans to poor people has been embraced as a viable strategy to help alleviate poverty, said that economies can move fast and achieve high growth rates. However, he added, "if you are ignoring the vast majority of people, you remain vulnerable." He cited the recent financial crisis in Asia as an example of such vulnerability.

Noeleen Heyzer, the Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) said that microfinance is a tool in the hands of women. She added that microfinance is much more than money but a tool of transformation. She recalled that at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 one of the major commitments was "to transform the issue of feminized poverty."

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the major development agency of the Organization has significantly increased its support of microfinance organizations in recent years. In 1997, UNDP launched MicroStart, global pilot programme to alleviate poverty in developing countries by strengthening local microfinance institutions and increasing the availability of credit to the poor.

Programme activities have already begun in Bahrain, Croatia, Cote d'Ivoire, Mongolia and Morocco. UNDP says that other activities are set to start in Benin, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, the Philippines, Yemen, Togo and Zimbabwe.

MicroStart was initially launched at the Microcredit Summit in Washington D.C. to kick-off a global campaign to reach 100 million of the world's poorest families with credit by 2005.

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

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