United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-06-16

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, 16 June, 1998

HEADLINES

• China says proposed international criminal court should not interfere in internal affairs of countries.
• United Nations Secretary-General is pleased to learn of the release of nine political figures in Nigeria.
• UNITA forces in Angola detain and later release United Nations civilian police observers stationed at Cazombo.
• Capital of Guinea Bissau appears empty after ten days of fighting, says United Nations refugee agency.
• Six United Nations agencies appeal for $18 million to help victims of Kosovo fighting in the Balkans.
• United Nations refugee agency says burning and looting have resulted in loss of $2 million in Abkhazia.
• World Food Programme appeals for $6.5 million to feed Cambodian refugees in Thailand.

The Deputy Foreign Minister of China, Wang Guangya said the court must respect the sovereignty, security and fundamental legal principles of each nation. It "should not compromise the ability of the UN, and the Security Council in particular, in safeguarding world peace and security".

The five-week conference, which began on Monday, is negotiating a draft statute for the court. Delegates still have to decide what crimes the court will judge and its relationship with the Security Council which has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.

While there is broad consensus that the court should judge grave crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, when national courts fail, some countries want to limit the court's jurisdiction. There is no agreement yet on whether it will deal with aggression or with crimes committed during internal conflicts.

Mr. Wang said China was in favour of a court to replace the ad hoc UN Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. But, he said, it should not become a tool of political struggles or a means of interference in the internal affairs of other countries.

Others say the court should deal with internal strife, because the worst war crimes are committed during conflicts within States, not between them. Emma Bonino, the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, said the traditional conflicts between national armies have been replaced by the bloodiest internal and ethnic conflicts, where civilians are not accidental casualties, but the primary targets of attacks.

Soren Jessen-Petersen from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said the court would deter crimes against humanity and help prevent refugee flows. It should have broad jurisdiction to cover crimes committed during internal conflicts.

He urged the international community to send the signal that crimes committed in the context of civil war "are every bit as heinous as those committed in international conflicts" between states. "Tragically, as we meet here, the horrific memories of Cambodia, former Yugoslavia and Rwanda are being relived by the victims of rebel atrocities in Sierra Leone," Mr. Jessen-Petersen said.

The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, in a message to the conference, said the best interests of children and their protection should be a guiding principle in the drafting of the statute. He said the recruitment of children into armed forces, the targeting of schools, playgrounds and hospitals and rape and other forms of sexual violence committed during conflicts should be defined as war crimes.

In a statement issued by his spokesman, the Secretary-General welcomed the order issued on 15 June 1998 for the release of former Nigerian Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo and eight others.

The Secretary-General said this development was a positive step towards peaceful political dialogue in Nigeria. "He hopes that other constructive measures will follow, and that Nigeria will speedily adopt a credible process of transition to democratic, civilian rule," Mr. Kofi Annan said.

He reaffirmed the readiness of the United Nations to support Nigeria in such a process, the statement concluded.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson added her voice to welcoming the release of political prisoners in Nigeria. Her spokesman said she hoped that the new Government of Nigeria would soon release Mashood Abiola who is widely believed to have won the last elections in Nigeria.

United Nations Spokesman Juan Carlos Brandt said that the three men had been detained when the UNITA forces overran the town in the eastern part of Angola. He said the three men had been unharmed but could not leave their team site headquarters during the detention.

Mr. Brandt said that the Special Representative of the Secretary- General, Alioune Blondin Beye, had been informed of the detention shortly before meeting UNITA leader, Dr. Jonas Savimbi in Andulo.

The detention of the observers in their team site headquarters followed the evacuation of the personnel of the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) from Luau on Monday, in anticipation of a UNITA attack. The MONUA personnel crossed into the Democratic Republic of Congo with their communication equipment.

Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on Tuesday that it had to move its staff from two offices in eastern Angola as a result of a climate of insecurity. The aid workers crossed from Luau into Dilolo in Congo-Kinshasa. Other humanitarian staff in Cazombo crossed to Zambia as a precautionary measure.

Fighting and tension in Luau have also prompted a group of Rwandans who were being screened to determine their refugee status to leave that town, the United Nations refugee agency was quoted as saying.

UNHCR said that residents of Bissau which had a population of approximately 220,000 have apparently fled to the town of Safim which is further inland.

The United Nations refugee agency said it had registered 350 people from Bissau who had arrived by boat in Dakar, Senegal, in the past few days, adding that more refugees were expected.

According to UNHCR, although most of the refugees arriving in Senegal were young men, a boat carrying 49 people arrived on Monday with unaccompanied children as young as four years old. The group of the refugees was being sheltered at a hangar in Dakar's airport, the agency said.

UNHCR staff have also registered over 100 people of other nationalities. The United Nations agency said that its staff carried out a mission to Ziguinchor over the weekend and reported that a small number of families of Mauritanians, Gambians and Senegalese were leaving Bissau by land. Other refugees were spotted farther east in the town of Kolda.

UNHCR said it was concerned about the almost 5,000 Senegalese from the Casamance region who are refugees in Guinea Bissau, as well as the Guinean population from Bissau who have been displaced by the fighting. The agency said there were already many reports of food shortages in the country.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday that they urgently needed the funds to also prepare for possible new waves of refugees.

"While we hope for a peaceful resolution of the Kosovo crisis, we must be ready for even a larger number of refugees,", said Sadako Ogata, the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees. The agency is leading the Kosovo relief effort.

Underlying the regional nature of the crisis, the appeal listed urgent needs in three countries: Albania, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

In spite of logistical and security problems in the poorest corner of the Balkans, relief officials have been working round the clock to help refugees and displaced people in northern Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo itself.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the destruction included reconstructed housing and schools, farming equipment and livestock.

UNHCR Spokesman Kris Janowski said there appeared to have been a pattern of destruction of houses rebuilt or reoccupied by returnees who fled the region during the 1993 fighting. He said that 1,700 houses have been destroyed during the fighting and the subsequent campaign of burning and looting. Empty villages have also been burnt after being looted.

At the end of May, fighting flared up in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia province, driving more than 40,000 people from the Gali district into the Zugdidi area. UNHCR estimates that the fighting has left 48 civilians dead and hundreds of others wounded.

According to the refugee agency, only around 11,700 persons are believed to be still staying in the Gali region. Up to 600 mostly elderly civilians have sought shelter in and around Russian Peacekeeping Force posts in Gali, said UNHCR, adding that two elderly citizens who left the post were reportedly shot by Abkhaz forces.

UNHCR access to the conflict area is limited because of the serious threat of mines. On 8 June, a United Nations armoured vehicle carrying military observers and one UNHCR staff member hit a mine, seriously injuring two observers.

In an appeal issued on Tuesday, WFP said that it was seeking to provide nearly 15,000 tonnes of food for some 90,000 Cambodians in four camps in Surin, Sisaket and Trat provinces. The food agency says the appeal is also to prepare to assist 10,000 more refugees who may cross into Thailand in the coming weeks.

"Without aid, the situation for these people would be bleak,", said Martin Fischer, WFP emergency officer in Bangkok. He pointed out that although many of the Cambodians had been able to bring some personal belongings, household goods and even livestock when they fled, they had to sell their possessions to buy food and other essentials when they arrived in Thailand.

WFP said that each refugee will receive a daily ration of rice, vegetable oil, canned fish, Mung beans and salt for the 12 months starting on 1 July.

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

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