United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-06-12

United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 12 June, 1998

HEADLINES

• Security Council decides to impose sanctions against UNITA unless it cooperates in peace process.
• United Nations envoy condemns killing of students in Uganda.
• Secretary-General Kofi Annan appeals for a negotiated settlement to the Georgia/Abkhaz conflict.
• Norway agrees to airlift emergency supplies to Albania's capital beginning on Saturday.
• World Food Programme delivers wheat to dozens of villages destroyed by earthquake in Afghanistan.
• Climate change talks agree on post-Kyoto agenda.

In resolution 1173 (1998) unanimously adopted on Friday, the Council condemned UNITA and said it held its leadership responsible for the party's failure to fully implement its obligations under the Lusaka Protocol and relevant Council resolutions. It said UNITA had failed to implement, in particular, resolution 1127 (1998) which demanded that the organization implement all the remaining tasks in the peace process. By that resolution, the Council also decided to imposed travel restrictions on UNITA senior officials, sealed the party's offices and prohibited flight of aircraft by or for UNITA.

The Council demanded that UNITA unconditionally cooperate in the immediate extension of state administration throughout Angola, including in particular, Andulo, Bailundo, Mungo and Nharea. The Council also demanded that UNITA stop any attempts to reverse the peace process.

The Council reiterated its demand that UNITA complete its demilitarization and stop any attempts to restore its military capabilities. It further demanded that UNITA cooperate fully with the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) in the verification of its demilitarization. It also demanded that UNITA stop any attacks on the MONUA personnel, international personnel, the authorities of the Government of Unity and National Reconciliation, including the police, and the civilian population.

The Council decided that the measures against UNITA shall come into force on 25 June 1998, unless the Secretary-General reported that UNITA had complied with all its obligations by 23 June 1998.

The Council urged the Angolan Government to continue to refrain from any action, including excessive use of force which might undermine the process of normalization of State administration. The Council also encouraged the Government of Angola to make use of UNITA personnel, as appropriate in areas to which State administration is being extended.

The Security Council said that if UNITA failed to comply with those obligations, it would require States to freeze UNITA funds within their territory and ensure those funds were not made available directly or indirectly to the organization and its leaders. The Council said it would also require States to prevent any official contacts with UNITA leadership and prohibit receipt of diamonds from areas not under State administration in Angola. States would also be required to prohibit the sale or supply of mining equipment and motorized vehicles to areas outside the Angolan State administration.

In its resolution, the Council expressed its readiness to review those prohibitive measures if the Secretary-General reported at any time that UNITA had fully complied with its obligations. It also urged the Secretary- General to immediately redeploy MONUA personnel to support and facilitate the extension of State administration throughout Angola.

In a statement on Friday, the Special Representative of the Secretary- General for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, said he was deeply concerned about the plight of children affected by hostilities in northern and western Uganda. He described the killings as an example of abominable acts seen in too many theatres of war where civilians, particularly women and children, were deliberately targeted by belligerents.

The continuing abuse and brutalization of children, was unacceptable and contravened all international humanitarian and human rights standards, he said. He appealed for respect for the Convention on the Rights of the Child and urged that certain locations, such as schools, playgrounds and hospitals, be treated as conflict-free zones.

Mr. Otunnu is the United Nations public advocate for children affected by war, promoting their rights, protection and welfare worldwide.

In a report to the Security Council on Friday, the Secretary-General says tensions in the Gali sector remain high. He warns that should the situation escalate any further, it will only result in unnecessary human suffering and additional loss of life.

Mr. Annan says the Council may wish to consider a modified version of a proposal in his 11 May report: namely, to redeploy the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) and resume operations using mine and ballistic-protected vehicles. The Mission's strength would be temporarily established at 98 military observers; its protected vehicle fleet would be increased to ensure that all mission personnel are protected when on the road; and its team bases would remain closed. If the Council agrees with this option, the Secretary-General says he will submit a report on the financial implications.

The Secretary-General also says he is concerned about the lack of progress in setting up a meeting in Moscow between the Georgian President, Eduard Shevardnadze, and the Abkhaz leader, Vladislav Ardzinba. The proposed meeting would address the current crisis and try to put the peace process back on track.

According to the report, neither side wants UNOMIG's presence to be reduced. Currently, the Mission is carrying out independent, limited patrols to deter possible excessive behaviour by Abkhaz militia and to facilitate the return of Gali inhabitants who fled earlier fighting. Military observers patrol only in the daytime, in two mine-protected vehicles and on roads connecting major populated areas. On 8 June, a UNOMIG vehicle detonated a mine in the Gali district, injuring two personnel.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday that the airlift will shuttle between Sarajevo and Tirana two or three times a day for up to four days.

The relief supplies which include meals, mattresses, blankets, jerrycans, kitchen sets and plastic sheeting from UNHCR's warehouses in Bosnia and Herzegovina, are destined for refugees who have fled Kosovo following a security police crackdown there.

UNHCR said that it was extremely grateful to the Norwegians for agreeing to start a mini air-bridge into Albania on such a short notice.

Meanwhile, refugees from Kosovo continued to arrive in northern Albania in small numbers of about 150 persons per day, according to UNHCR.

The United Nations refugee agency also reported that about 350 persons from Kosovo arrived in Montenegro, bringing an estimated total number of displaced persons to 9,000. Many people were reported to have made the arduous trip to Montenegro on foot on a small mountain road unfit for vehicles. A group of 600 people from Kosovo, all of them Romas, set up a provisional camp on the outskirts of the Montenegran capital, Podgorica, UNHCR said.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday that mule caravans were expected to deliver 30 tonnes of wheat to twenty villages which were still terrorized by aftershocks. WFP said that the aid shipment was being transported by 200 mules after being driven as far as possible by trucks from the agency's storehouses in the town of Faizabad.

On Tuesday WFP delivered 10 tonnes of wheat to four villages in the remote district of Shar-i-Buzurg. The 40 tonnes of wheat is expected to feed approximately 19,000 villagers for about a week.

The United Nations food agency says that its operation in Afghanistan has been hampered by lack of air transport. Operating with only four helicopters, international agencies have been struggling to reach all the 90 to 100 villages affected by the earthquake. WFP and its partners have requested donor governments to provide more helicopters.

The Kyoto Protocol to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted last December. It requires industrialized countries to reduce their collective "greenhouse" gas emissions by some 5 per cent between 2008 and 2012 compared to 1990 levels. To help reduce the costs of emissions reductions, the Protocol includes a number of tools or mechanisms to promote flexibility and cooperation.

At the meeting, governments outlined their positions and discussed how the Protocol should operate in practice, said the Convention's Executive Secretary, Michael Zammit Cutajar. There will be many efforts in coming months, he said, to build political momentum so that significant decisions can be adopted by the Conference of States Parties next November in Buenos Aires.

Governments, Mr. Cutajar said, must advance the operational details of the "Clean Development Mechanism", which enables industrialized countries to receive credit for projects to reduce emissions in developing countries.

Rules are also needed for "joint implementation", which allows credits for investments in developed country projects and for an international "emissions trading" regime that enables industrialized countries to reduce their emissions beyond their agreed target and sell the excess emissions credits.

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

United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article