United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-06-26

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 26 June, 1998

HEADLINES

• Security Council urges Ethiopia and Eritrea to settle border dispute peacefully.
• Secretary-General says internal conflicts require international attention through the UN Security Council.
• Secretary-General appeals to Governments and members of civil society to defeat the scourge of torture.
• United Nations launches $20 million humanitarian appeal for people affected by crisis in Sierra Leone.
• United Nations refugee agency expresses concern at lack of access to Sierra Leoneans in Guinea.
• Food crisis in Democratic People's Republic of Korea is far from over, UN agencies report.
• United Nations refugee agency visits displaced ethnic Albanians in Kosovo for first time.
• World Food Programme welcomes Sudanese government decision to allow use of more aircraft to deliver food.
• General Assembly calls for international action to address computer conversion problem in year 2000.
• Peruvian President says microcredit is most cost-effective strategy to create jobs for very poor.
• Former senior Rwandan officer of Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines pleads not guilty to genocide.
• UN body charged with overseeing compensation for losses from Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait to meet in Geneva.

In unanimously adopting resolution 1177, the Council condemned the use of force and demanded that both countries immediately cease hostilities and refrain from the further use of force. It welcomed their commitment to a moratorium on the threat and use of air strikes.

The Council called on the parties to avoid anything that would aggravate tensions, such as provocative actions or statements, and to take steps to build confidence, including guaranteeing the rights and safety of each other's nationals.

It expressed strong support for the decision of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to send a mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea to try and settle the conflict and called on the two countries to cooperate fully.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan was asked to make his good offices available to support a peaceful resolution of the conflict and to provide technical support to help Ethiopia and Eritrea in the eventual delimitation and demarcation of their common border.

The Secretary-General refuted the "old orthodoxy" that conflicts within States should not be addressed internationally. "In reality, this 'old orthodoxy' was never absolute," he said, noting that the United Nations Charter protects the sovereignty of peoples. "It was never meant as a license for governments to trample on human rights and dignity."

Mr. Annan pointed out that since genocide is almost always committed with the connivance, if not the direct participation, of the State authorities, it would be hard for the United Nations to prevent it without intervening in a State's internal affairs.

"State frontiers should no longer be seen as a watertight protection for war criminals and mass murderers," the Secretary-General said, noting that the fact that a conflict was "internal" did not give the parties any right to disregard the most basic rules of human conduct. "Besides," he added, "most 'internal' conflicts do not stay internal for very long. They soon spill over into neighbouring countries."

The Secretary-General questioned whether the international community could afford to let each State be the judge of its own right, or duty, to intervene in another State's internal conflict, saying that would be akin to legitimizing the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. Such decisions should be taken collectively by the only institution competent to assume that role: the United Nations Security Council. Intervention need not always be undertaken by the United Nations, but large-scale military enforcement operations should be authorized by the Council, he stated.

The Council should have at its disposal a small rapid reaction force, ready to move at a few days' notice. "In any case, I am not asking for a standing army at the beck and call of the Secretary- General," he emphasized. "The decision to intervene, I repeat, can only be taken by the Security Council."

The Secretary-General noted that more than 100 States have ratified the Convention against Torture, thus undertaking to prevent acts of torture and to ensure that any act of torture is an offence punishable under their criminal law. "Yet, torture is still reported even in these countries," he said.

The United Nations, he noted was founded to reaffirm faith in the dignity and worth of the human person. "We cannot get anywhere near fulfilling that pledge unless we wipe the scourge of torture off the face of the earth," he said. The Secretary-General appealed to all governments and members of civil society to take action to defeat torture and torturers everywhere. "The United Nations will support you every step of the way, until the day arrives when torture is finally consigned to the darkest spaces of history, " he said.

June 26 was chosen to mark the Day because 11 years ago on that date, the Convention against Torture came into force. It was also the day, 53 years ago, that the United Nations Charter was signed -- the first international instrument to embody obligations for Member States to promote and encourage respect for human rights.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs launched the appeal on behalf of other UN agencies to help internally displaced people in Sierra Leone and refugees who fled to neighbouring Liberia and Guinea.

There are more than 500,000 Sierra Leoneans in Liberia and Guinea - - 237, 000 arrived in the last three months -- and over 50,000 internally displaced people in camps and towns in northern Sierra Leone. The refugees are suffering from exhaustion, disease and malnutrition and their condition is likely to worsen, according to the UN Office for the Consolidation of Humanitarian Affairs.

The return of the democratically-elected Government in February brought some stability to Sierra Leone, but consolidating peace has proved difficult. Because of improved security and access, aid agencies are working again in the western, southern and eastern provinces, except for Kailahun. However, conditions have deteriorated badly in Kono and in the north, where rebel forces have waged a campaign of terror, killing and mutilating civilians and burning villages.

Last month, United Nations agencies, the International Committee for the Red Cross and Medecins sans Frontieres chartered helicopters to carry out humanitarian assessments in previously inaccessible areas. The mission needs to be expanded to enable relief agencies to reach these people.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday that there are more than 150,000 Sierra Leone refugees who have recently arrived at the Gueckedou border region.

The agency said that, together with its partners, it had not had regular access to the area since 15 June. The agencies were ordered by the Guinean Ministry of Defence not to go to these areas for security reasons.

UNHCR said that the humanitarian agencies were able to visit some camps on 22 and 23 June and saw that the Nongoa site was virtually empty of its 5, 300 inhabitants.

The United Nations agency pointed out that many of the refugees in this region were already in bad shape when they arrived there adding that its priority was to stabilize their condition. According to UNHCR, mortality rates are too high, especially among children under five years of age and malnutrition is rampant.

UNHCR said that the lack of access means that humanitarian agencies cannot provide food or continue to work on crucial sanitation and water supply projects.

The fighting in Sierra Leone between the remnants of the ousted junta rebels and forces of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) continued in the last few days, with shells falling on some camps.

The agency also said that it has previously expressed its concern to ECOMOG about the proximity of Sierra Leonean rebel groups to the borders with Liberia and Guinea. The rebels have committed atrocities against Sierra Leoneans including murder and amputations.

UNHCR expressed gratitude to the government and people of Guinea for the hospitality they have shown to half a million refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia. It also appealed to the Guinean authorities to urgently grant humanitarian access to the needy people in Gueckedou.

"The food supply situation remains precarious and is expected to worsen over the next two critical months as stocks become exhausted," according to the report of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP). Mission personnel noted that some hospitals in the country were turning patients away because of food shortages.

While the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have worked with resolve to tackle their food and agricultural problems, outside assistance is still badly needed, according to the report. "It is essential that this form of food assistance be continued until the planned recovery in domestic food production materializes and the country's commercial import capacity improves."

The mission, which visited the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from 2 to 12 June, also recommended that a scientific, representative survey of the nutritional situation in the country be undertaken as soon as possible to provide a better perspective on the extent of the problems.

UNHCR said that its staff visited a group of some 600 persons in an area outside Junik which appears to be controlled by rebels of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The rebels escorted the staff to where the people encamped after the Serbian security forces agreed to let them pass through their lines.

UNHCR Spokesman, Kris Janowski said that the people they saw were mostly women, children and the elderly. He added that the children appeared to be in "quite bad shape" and that many of them seemed to be ill.

Mr. Janowski said that many of the people were afraid to go back to their homes because of Serbian military and police presence there. At the same time, he pointed out, the people told UNHCR staff that they were unable to flee to Albania.

According to UNHCR spokesman, another similar group was reportedly located in the same area. "We need access to those people on regular basis so that we can help them," he said.

On Thursday, UNHCR was able to bring a truckload of food provided by the World Food Programme into the town of Junik with clearance by the Serbian authorities. The food was delivered to the non-governmental organization known as "Mother Theresa Society," Mr. Janowski said.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said that on Thursday, the Government of Sudan orally informed a United Nations official in Sudan that the agency will be permitted to increase authorized aircraft from five to twelve. This in turn, the agency added, will allow it to double the amount of food it transports to about 10,000 metric tonnes a month, enough to feed over 1.2 million people.

"This is a very welcome step by the Sudanese government which, together with increasing donations from governments, will help WFP to save thousands of lives," said Mike Sackett, WFP Regional Manger for the Horn of Africa.

WFP said that the announcement came as the food crisis in Sudan continued to worsen, especially in the southern part of the country. According to the agency, famine zones are emerging in about 25 pockets of the Bahr El Ghazal region, and there are reports of children dying at a rate of about fifteen per day.

WFP relief officials are concerned that as the population enters the period between the planting of crops and harvest, known as the "hunger gap", the suffering will increase since many people have no resources to fall back on.

The agency said that it needs more than 99,000 metric tonnes or more than $137 million to feed some 2.6 million Sudanese in dire need for food aid from July 1998 to April 1999. So far, WFP added, donors have confirmed pledges totalling slightly more than 37,000 metric tonnes of food valued at $ 57.7 million.

The major donors to WFP relief operation in Sudan are the United Kingdom an the United States. Other donors include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

Acting without a vote, the Assembly requested Member States to attach high priority to raising public awareness about what has been called the "millennium bug". They were also requested to consider measures to address the issue, such as appointing a nationwide coordinator.

The Secretary-General was requested to take steps to ensure that all parts of the United Nations system act towards making their computers able to handle the change of date in the year 2000 by drawing up a plan of action for the United Nations system. He was also requested to ensure that the United Nations system monitors funding sources to support efforts by developing countries and those with economies in transition to solve the problem.

Introducing the text, Pakistan's Ambassador, Ahmad Kamal, said many Member States were not yet fully aware of the nature and magnitude of the problem, which was sometimes referred to as Y2K in an abbreviation of Year 2000.

Expressing his country's support for the resolution, the representative of the United States, Richard Sklar, said the year 2000 problem must be faced now, in light of the inflexible 31 December 1999 deadline. All countries needed a solution for Y2K, which highlighted the interconnectedness of the modern world, he said, noting that if the problem goes unchecked, it could cause complications in the functioning of everything ranging from manufacturing equipment to traffic signals.

Prianti Gagarin Djatmiko-Singgh of Indonesia said the problem was of deep concern to the developing countries and China. On their behalf, he welcomed the resolution's adoption.

Speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, Nick Thorne of the United Kingdom stressed that the priority focus of the United Nations should be on ensuring that the computer systems within the Organization's control were capable of handling the change in the year 2000. The United Nations should also work to raise awareness of the problem worldwide, he said.

Nikolai Tchoulkov of the Russian Federation pointed out that the problem could affect the world economy. He commended the United Nations for having rapidly responded to the situation.

The purpose of this non-traditional approach to lending is to make commercial credit available to low-income people, mostly women, who would not normally be eligible for such loans.

One of the guests, Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, said unlike most anti-poverty programmes microcredit paid for itself. It was perhaps the most cost-effective strategy for creating jobs and income at the very bottom of the economic ladder. With loans as small as $80 to $200 people could create their own jobs.

Markets, he said, could not automatically ensure the sustainable well-being of those citizens left at the margin particularly from developing countries. The new role of the modern State was to compliment the work of markets, which were free and open to everyone, and turn them into the best tool for national development.

President Fujimori is a member of the Executive Committee of the Microcredit Summit Campaign whose goal is to ensure that 100 million of the world's poorest families, especially women, are receiving credit for self- employment and other financial and business services by the year 2005.

Professor Muhammad Yunus, the founder and Director of the Grameen Bank and the architect of microcredit, said independent financial institutions with strict credit discipline should create the enabling environment without exerting political pressure as Governments often did.

Large banking institutions ignored the poor, he said, because they were thought to be a poor credit risk. However, wealthy, well-connected people received rural credit and industrial loans and failed to pay them back. According to Mr. Yunus, at a time of financial crisis, poor people were showing they could do business better than anyone else and were the most reliable borrowers.

The Dialogue was arranged by the "Friends of Microcredit at the UN", an informal group of Ambassadors and Permanent Representatives, strongly supportive of microcredit programmes.

Ferdinand Nahimana is charged with five counts of Genocide, Direct and Public Incitement to Commit Genocide, and Crimes against Humanity.

The defence lawyer for Mr. Nahimana, Marie Biju Duval asked the court to suspend proceedings against the accused and order his release, due to defects in the indictment. A ruling on the motions will be delivered later.

On Thursday, a former journalist with Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines, Georges Ruggiu pleaded not guilty to two counts charging him with Direct and Public Incitement to Commit Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity.

The lawyers for Mr. Ruggiu, Mohammed Aoulni and Jean Louis Gilisen prayed to the court to grant a motion for the restitution of the personal effects of the accused seized during his arrest in Nairobi on 23 July 1997. Ruling on the motion will also be made later.

During its forthcoming session, the Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission will consider individual claims for damages of up to $100,000 concerning 71,042 claims filed by 74 Governments and three international organizations. So far, the Commission has awarded over $2.1 billion for claims of up to $100,000.

The compensation awards are paid through a fund set up by the Security Council which receives 30 per cent of the revenue generated through the oil- for-food programme. The Commission has received over 2.6 million claims for losses and damages suffered by individuals, corporations, Governments and international organizations as a direct result of Iraq's unlawful invasion and occupation of Kuwait. Claimants are seeking over $240 billion. The Commission has resolved some 2.5 million claims, worth approximately $6.1 billion.



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