United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-07-22

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Wednesday, 22 July, 1998

HEADLINES

• Secretary-General, shocked by death of two humanitarian workers, calls on Afghan authorities to ensure security.
• UNEP urges immediate action on greenhouse gases.
• Investigations into murders of four UN staff in Tajikistan begin.
• Secretary-General, in Mexico, says he hopes conflict in Chiapas can be solved through legal, political means.
• High-level UN team arrives in Algeria to study situation in that country.

The two workers -- Afghan nationals working for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP) - - were found dead with their hand tied last weekend after having been abducted in Jalalabad on 13 July.

"Indications were that they had been hung," the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator for Afghanistan, Sergio Vieira de Mello, said at a press briefing on Wednesday. "We have no new information on the perpetrators or the circumstances of this cowardly crime," Mr. de Mello said, "but we are insisting with the authorities that a full investigation is launched."

In a separate development, international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have been leaving the Afghan capital of Kabul after being issued an ultimatum to move to a new location, a dilapidated building known as the Polytechnical School.

According to Mr. Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, the Secretary- General was "deeply disturbed to learn of the expulsion of NGOs and other obstacles being placed in the way of humanitarian work in Afghanistan."

About 250,000 people in Kabul will be affected by this pull-out of the international NGOs, said Mr. de Mello, adding that 75 percent of the humanitarian aid to Kabul transited through NGOs. While the United Nations has not withdrawn from Kabul, UN operations have been cut down to "life- saving assistance only," he said.

Mr. de Mello said that further restrictions may be placed on UN aid to Afghanistan if progress is not made on a number of issues, including: women's and girls' access to health and education, the relocation of NGOs, and a satisfactory investigation of the killing of the two humanitarian workers.

Describing Afghanistan as "the most difficult place to work on earth," Mr. de Mello cited the combination of a hostile security environment, extreme chronic poverty, recurrent natural disasters, an on- going conflict and a "human rights regime that in its discriminatory practices against women is unprecedented."

"Record warming and severe summer heat waves in the US, India, China, and elsewhere are wake-up calls," said UNEP Executive Director Klaus T”pfer, according to a press release issued by the agency. "We cannot afford to wait several years for the Kyoto Protocol to enter into force before making significant emissions cuts," Mr. T”pfer said.

The Kyoto Protocol is the 1997 agreement under which industrialized countries will cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent. The agreement will only enter into force after it has been ratified by at least six countries whose 1990 emissions of greenhouse gases represent over half the total emissions from developed countries.

While there is still uncertainty about how changes in climate will affect different regions of the earth, Mr. T”pfer said "we must take out insurance now by urgently adopting energy efficiency."

On Wednesday, Tonga became the 165th nation to ratify the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change, the 1992 agreement by which governments report information on their national greenhouse gas emissions and climate change strategies.

The special commission began its investigation on Wednesday, said Fred Eckhard, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General. UNMOT had already begun its own investigation, he said.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Sadako Ogata, on Wednesday joined the chorus of voices expressing their outrage at the killing of the four UNMOT staff. "I am deeply shocked and saddened by yet another assault on people who have dedicated their lives to the service of peace and humanity," Mrs. Ogata said in a press release issued in Geneva.

"I was horrified upon learning that one of the victims was Yutaka Akino of Japan, a close personal friend and a brilliant scholar," she said. In addition to Mr. Akino, the UN staff shot and killed on Tuesday were two military observers -- Major Ryszard Szewczyk of Poland and Major Adolfo Sharpegue of Uruguay -- and Jourajon Mahramov, a Tajik interpreter.

General Assembly President Hennadiy Udovenko also joined in condemning what his Spokesman Alex Taukatch called "despicable murders." "It was a cowardly and senseless attack against those who came armed only with good will and the desire to help," Mr. Taukatch said.

"That doesn't mean that I am going to get involved in the process," Mr. Annan told reporters.

His remarks were made at a press conference held at the Presidential residence after his meeting with Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and Foreign Minister Rosario Green, a former colleague from the United Nations Secretariat.

Mr. Annan described his talks as having covered a range of issues of interest to Mexico and the United Nations, including the follow-up to the recent global conference on drugs, the situation in Iraq and UN reform.

The Secretary-General also received a briefing on the situation in the southern state of Chiapas, where forces of the Mexican Government and those of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) have been fighting for the last four years.

Mr. Annan was scheduled to meet with the Mayor of Mexico City and with a group of Mexican business leaders, according to his spokesman, Fred Eckhard. The visit to Mexico is the last leg of a five-country visit to Latin America.

The team, which has been invited by the Government of Algeria, was expected to remain in the country for two weeks and then present a report to Secretary-General Kofi Annan. It is headed by the former President of Portugal, Mario Soares.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, the Chairperson of the United Nations Human Rights Committee characterized the Algerian delegation's explanations of 49 cases of involuntary disappearance as "a bit feeble."

Christine Chanet told reporters at a briefing that terrorism in that country was an insufficient explanation for the shortcomings of the rule of law, according to an informal summary published by the United Nations in Geneva. Committee member Omran El Shafei described the hearings on Algeria as "useful", adding that the Committee had "left no stone unturned".

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

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