United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-07-24

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 24 July, 1998

HEADLINES

• UN panel in Algeria holds talks with government officials and representatives of civil society.
• UN World Food Programme staff member shot and killed in robbery outside his home in Burundi.
• President of General Assembly calls on all parties in Afghanistan to ensure safety of humanitarian staff.
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights gravely concerned about hanging of Iranian apparently for his Baha'i faith.
• Prosecutor of International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia says governments must help arrest suspects.
• Talks on East Timor scheduled to take place next week at United Nations Headquarters.
• Executive Director of UN Environment Programme says more cooperation is needed to deal with world's forest fires.
• UNESCO hosts meeting of ministers in Africa on the continent's rich but fragile coastal environments.

A spokesman for the panel reported on Friday that meetings had been held with government leaders, including the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Minister of Justice and Minister of the Interior. "In these meetings, so far, the Government has reiterated its cooperation with the panel and assured it of free access to sources of information necessary for its work, " said Spokesman Hassen Fodha. "The discussions so far have been in-depth, candid and cordial on all sides," he added.

According to Mr. Fodha, the Government leaders have explained the situation in Algeria, focusing on economic, political, social, security and humanitarian dimensions. The members of the panel, appreciative of the government's presentations, have probed a number of issues in depth and plan to continue discussions over the course of the visit.

In their first meetings with representatives of civil society, members of the panel held discussions on Friday with Kheireddine Amayer, the Director of the French-language daily "Tribune"; MaŒtre Miloud Brahimi, President of the Ligue algerienne des droits de l'homme; and Dalila Taleb, of the Association nationale rassemblement action jeunesse, Parlementaire, Front des forces socialistes.

Meetings were scheduled for Friday afternoon with Said Bouaqba, Editor of the Arabic-language daily "Ach-Chourouq" and Ali Yahia Abdelnour, President of the Ligue pour la d‚fense des droits de l'homme.

"This morning's meeting with some civil society representatives was yet another step towards developing a clearer picture" of the situation in Algeria, Mr. Fodha reported. He said the representatives expressed satisfaction at having had the opportunity to meet with the panel, and offered their views on a wide range of issues.

Renato Ricciardi, an Italian national and one of WFP's most dedicated and long-standing professionals, was killed after being robbed by an unknown assailant, according to the agency.

WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini expressed profound sorrow on hearing the news. "I and all his friends and colleagues at WFP are deeply saddened by this news," she said, adding, "Our hearts go out to his wife and children."

Mr. Ricciardi had worked with the UN for the past 27 years, the last 17 of which were with WFP. In January, the agency sent him to Bujumbura to manage administration and finance for WFP's Burundi programme. Considered to be one of the best in his field, Mr. Ricciardi had worked extensively in Sudan, Rwanda, the former Zaire, Angola, Ethiopia and Uganda.

"Mr. Ricciardi will be remembered for his dedication, courage and commitment to serving WFP. He was a top-notch professional and a true friend to many of us," said Ms. Bertini. "He will always be a reminder to the rest of us to emulate his exemplary contribution to our humanitarian cause."

Mr. Ricciardi's death was the sixth killing this year of a WFP staff member and the third this month. The agency recently mourned the vicious killings of two other employees -- one staff member killed last week in Afghanistan and a second who was killed in Uganda two weeks ago.

According to his Spokesman, Alex Taukatch, the Assembly President is "gravely concerned about the recent developments in Afghanistan which seriously undermine international efforts to provide humanitarian aid to the Afghan people."

In particular, the President deplored the killing last weekend of two Afghan nationals working for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP). "He is also distressed by the expulsion of non-governmental organizations, which were the main partners of United Nations agencies in the country," said Mr. Taukatch.

"The President of the General Assembly calls on all parties in Afghanistan to ensure safety and security of humanitarian staff and to refrain from any action that could impede efforts to deliver assistance to the long- suffering people of Afghanistan," Mr. Taukatch stressed.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sergio Vieira de Mello, met Friday with representatives of the Taliban. The discussions are part of an ongoing effort to get the Taliban to relax conditions which it had imposed, prompting non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to leave the country. "Without NGOs, there is a limit to what the UN can do," said UN Spokesman Fred Eckhard. "But," he added, "for the time being, the decision is to leave the UN in place."

"The Office of the High Commissioner is gravely concerned about the reported conditions that led to the execution, particularly the seeming absence of due process," according to a statement released by that Office from Geneva. Mr. Rawhani was reportedly hanged after ten months of being held incommunicado on charges of converting a Muslim woman to the Baha'i faith.

The Office of the High Commissioner also expressed deep concern about reports that three other Baha'is -- Ata'ullah Hamid Nasirizadih, Sirus Dhabih-Muqaddam and Hidayat Kashifi -- have been sentenced in secret to death and are facing imminent execution. Information received by the United Nations indicated that a number of other Baha'is were currently imprisoned or awaiting trial under similar circumstances.

The Office of the High Commissioner urgently appealed to the Government of Iran to take all necessary measures to ensure that the right to life of those persons was respected, "as their only offence appears to have been to belong to a particular religious faith."

The call by Prosecutor Louise Arbour followed the recent arrest by members of the Stabilisation Force (SFOR) of two persons who had not been indicted. Justice Arbour pointed out that several of the accused previously arrested by SFOR this year had been carrying false official identity papers, including photographs, issued by various authorities of the Republika Srpska. "This demonstrates that not only is the Republika Srpska avoiding its legal obligations, including those under the Dayton Peace Agreement, but has also been engaged in deliberately frustrating the Tribunal's work by issuing false identification papers to those persons indicted by the Tribunal in an attempt to shield them from the Tribunal's jurisdiction," she said.

Justice Arbour cautioned that other incidents of mistaken identity could possibly occur as long as the Republika Srpska continues to supply indicted accused with false identification papers. She called on the Government of the Republika Srpska to immediately stop that practice and to cooperate with the Tribunal in the proper identification and location of all indicted persons.

In a statement issued from The Hague, where the Tribunal is located, the Prosecutor expressed gratitude to SFOR for its support in the detention and surrender of indicted suspects. She expressed hope "that the events of the past few days will not deter them from bringing other indicted accused to The Hague in the near future."

Late during the evening of Wednesday 22 July SFOR troops detained two persons believed to have been Nenad Banovic and Predrag Banovic, twins who had been indicted by the Tribunal. The following day, the two suspects were transferred to the Tribunal. Later that day the Prosecutor's staff was able to establish that these two persons were not Nenad Banovic and Predrag Banovic. The two detained persons had not been indicted by the Tribunal, nor were they suspected or accused of having committed any crime. They were subsequently released.

The meetings will be held on 4 and 5 August with the attendance of the Foreign Ministers of Portugal and Indonesia.

"Both sides are expected to explore some of the ideas for the settlement of the question of East Timor, as well as some confidence- building measures leading to such a settlement," Mr. Eckhard said. He noted that the Secretary-General's Personal Representative, Jamsheed Marker, had just returned from Indonesia. Mr. Marker also visited Portugal earlier this year.

"Forest fires are rapidly becoming a global emergency," said UNEP Executive Director Klaus T”pfer. "Clearly, global cooperation in the development of early warning systems, other preventive measures, and fire-fighting techniques are needed to help combat the phenomenon," he said.

According to UNEP, wildfires have burned about half a million acres of mostly forest land in Florida, in the United States since May. More recently, fires have raged unchecked in Greece, while in Spain's Catalonia region, more than 60,000 acres of forest and crop land have been burned. Forest fires are also burning in France, Turkey, Canada and Brazil. In Italy, the Government has declared a state of emergency in parts of the southern mainland and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.

Earlier this year, huge areas of Indonesia, Brazil, Central America and Mexico went up in flames. Large-scale forest fires and fire hazards were also reported in eastern parts of the Russian Federation, and in China's northeastern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, UNEP reported.

Patricio Bernal, the Executive Secretary of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, stressed the importance of coastal zones in producing and sustaining life. "Anthropologists have shown that populations settled very early on the coast because food could be easily obtained there just by gathering seaweed, crabs or shellfish and making simple traps for fish, without the need of technology for boats." He said that recent studies in his native Chile have shown that in times of economic depression, people move to coasts, because there they can sustain their livelihoods.

Mr. Bernal stressed that the rich coastal environment is both complex and fragile. "There are significant, although invisible, signs of human intervention on the diversity of the coast," he pointed out. Studies have shown that even small changes to the population of predators near the top of the food chain could have a dramatic effect on the entire ecology. "Even beach-combers collecting starfish can have an effect," he warned.

According to Matti Penilla, of the Finnish Institute of Marine Research, the Mozambique meeting should produce "a solid political commitment to create coherent institutional and regulatory mechanisms aimed at maintaining sustainable development."

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

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