United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-06-17

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Wednesday, 17 June, 1998

HEADLINES

• United States says Security Council must have role in proposed international criminal court.
• Heads of United Nations agencies say crisis in Sierra Leone demonstrates urgent need for international criminal court.
• United Nations warns that Taliban decision to stop informal education for girls in Kabul will have devastating impact.
• Secretary-General calls for global efforts to break cycle of poverty and land degradation on Day to Combat Desertification.
• United Nations international staff evacuated from Guinea Bissau as security situation deteriorates.
• Security Council members seriously concerned about deteriorating situation in Abkhazia, Georgia.
• Eritrea send buses to Ethiopian border to pick up 700 ethnic Eritreans reportedly deported from Addis Ababa.
• International community is searching for new ways to bring peace to Somalia, says top UN official.

Speaking in Rome at the United Nations diplomatic conference, which is negotiating the establishment of the court, United States ambassador Bill Richardson, said the Security Council should play a key role because of its "legal responsibilities for maintaining international peace and security." It must be able to refer critical situations to the court for investigation and instruct countries to cooperate with it.

Giving the Council the authority to refer cases would ensure the court's prosecutor had the necessary backing to get the job done, he said. He described as "unrealistic and unwise" proposals to give the prosecutor the right to initiate investigations and seek indictments against anyone, anywhere. The court should also steer clear of prosecuting individuals accused of waging national aggression, he said.

Justice Richard Goldstone, the first Chief Prosecutor for the UN Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, said the court and its prosecutor would have no credibility if they were subject to the control of political bodies, whether the Security Council or States parties. International justice, he added, will be seriously compromised.

The office of the prosecutor would be staffed by professional lawyers and investigators from around the world who would be the whistle- blowers if a prosecutor acted inappropriately or showed political bias, Justice Goldstone said. The objections to a court free of political control, the former Chief Prosecutor said, were without merit and, if they succeeded, there would be serious doubt as to whether the Court should be established at all. Without an effective, independent Court, it is the victims who will suffer the most, he said.

The five-week conference, which began on Monday, is negotiating a draft statute for the court. There is general agreement that the court should have jurisdiction over genocide, war crimes and serious crimes against humanity, but no consensus on other crimes such as aggression and crimes committed during internal conflicts.

"We believe that much of the criminal violence in armed conflicts and rebellions is the result of impunity," the officials said in a joint statement. A standing international court empowered to take action when national justice systems failed, would provide a credible deterrent.

The statement was issued by Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF; Sadako Ogata, UN High Commissioner for Refugees; Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict; Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Sergio Vieira de Mello, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Since April, rebel forces in Sierra Leone have conducted a campaign of terror mutilating non-combatants, including children and the elderly. The rebels were deaf to international appeals and, despite government willingness, there was little likelihood the judicial system in the war- shattered country could bring the criminals to justice, the statement said.

It was no longer sufficient for humanitarian and human rights officials to denounce atrocities while unable to prevent their recurrence, the statement said. "The brutality in Sierra Leone is a harsh reminder that the diplomatic exchanges in Rome have flesh and blood, life and death consequences for people living in fear in many parts of the world".

The Taliban announced on Tuesday that they had decided to close Kabul's home-based education facilities for girls and halt community- based training programmes. The private schools were set up by female Afghan teachers for young girls who have been unable to go to normal schools since the Taliban banned female education.

The Office of the Resident UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan said in a statement that the forced closure violates the letter and the spirit of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by senior Taliban and UN officials on 13 May.

Under the accord, the two sides agreed to set up a joint consultative committee to discuss a range of humanitarian and development issues, including "problem areas" such as women's access to education and health. So far, no meetings had taken place, despite numerous UN requests to arrange a date, time and agenda, the statement said.

The Office of the UN Coordinator is sending a written request to the Taliban authorities in Kabul and Kandahar for an urgent meeting to discuss yesterday's move.

In a statement to mark the Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, he called for international, community and local actions to combat the vicious cycle of poverty and land degradation.

The Secretary-General noted that desertification and drought threatens the livelihoods of more than one billion people worldwide. The causes, he said, range from natural conditions such as vulnerable soils, vegetation and climatic variations to human activities including over- cultivation, poor irrigation, overgrazing and deforestation.

Meanwhile, Klaus Topfer, the Executive Director of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) said most drylands management schemes failed because of a top-down approach to development and ignorance of local systems. Mechanisms were needed to increase people's participation in managing drylands, he said. The benefits of sustainable development must reach the marginalized, politically invisible masses.

The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Hama Arba Diallo, called for urgent global action to meet the goals of the treaty. Efforts must reflect a commitment to leaving a healthy planet for future generations, he said. Countries could ensure environmental, social and economic sustainability by fully applying the Convention's provisions and improving the management of common natural resources.

The Convention was adopted on 17 June 1994 and has been ratified by 125 countries.

Eighty nine non-essential staff and their dependents left on a French naval ship on Tuesday, followed by the remaining six international staff who left on a Portuguese frigate.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP), has called for a halt in hostilities in Guinea Bissau to allow aid workers to distribute desperately needed emergency food rations.

According to Sanda Maina, the WFP representative in Guinea-Bissau, heavy shelling has kept aid workers from reaching tens of thousands fleeing into the countryside and an estimated 50,000 people left in the capital. The situation is growing more desperate, she said. Many stores have been looted and people are running out of food.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed concern about the estimated 5,000 Senegalese refugees in Guinea Bissau who are vulnerable to border attacks.

Following consultations on Wednesday, the President of the Council, Antonio Monteiro of Portugal, told reporters that the situation in the region proved the need to move the peace process forward. Council members, he said, had discussed options to improve security for the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG). They urged both sides to the conflict to resume high-level dialogue and negotiations within the framework of the United Nations-led peace process.

Council members also stressed the importance of the organized return of refugees and said they expected the Abkhaz authorities not to raise objections to such returns, Ambassador Monteiro said. The Council had also reiterated its call for the parties to refrain from the use of force and to observe their obligations, in particular the ceasefire protocol signed on 25 May.

UN offices in Addis Ababa and the Eritrean capital of Asmara report that the ethnic Eritreans were expected to cross the border into the Tessenai region of Eritrea on Wednesday.

There have been reports that between 5,000 and 6,000 ethnic Eritreans in Addis Abba have been threatened with deportation, the spokesman said. Estimates of the number of ethnic Eritreans residing in Ethiopia range from 200,000 to 700,000 people.

Speaking at a UN press conference in New York on Wednesday, David Stephen said that the Somali peace process was in disarray. Although the war had largely abated there were sporadic hostilities, banditry and clan warfare in some parts of the country. The situation posed a special challenge to the international community. It was in no one's interest to allow a stateless country to continue, he said, but new efforts would have to be made by the Somalian people with support by the international community.

Past attempts focused on bringing the various clan leaders and warlords together, he said. However, after 12 failed peace agreements in 7 years, regional governments were losing patience and the international community had come to the end of the road with the peace agreements signed by faction leaders. Furthermore, he said, the Somali people did not want war and their voice had not been heard in past peace efforts.

An informal meeting on Tuesday between Security Council members and regional actors was the beginning of a complete reappraisal of the situation, Mr. Stephen said. There is now talk of a new bottoms-up approach whereby, instead of centralist agreements among leaders, Somali regions would be invited to do their best to form peaceful administrations. The international community would be asked to support regions which reached peace.

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

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