United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-09-08

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, 8 September, 1998

HEADLINES

• Secretary-General urges parties in Kosovo to demonstrate restraint and start negotiating a political solution.
• Humanitarian agencies appeal for more than $54 million to avert catastrophe in Kosovo.
• Secretary-General follows with deep concern violent incidents in Cambodia.
• Secretary-General will convene "global town meetings" to set agenda for United Nations in twenty-first century.
• United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights meets top officials in China.
• United Nations appeals for $8.9 million to help Eritreans affected by conflict.
• World Food Programme appeals for more than $9 million to provide emergency food aid to Sierra Leonean refugees.
• Secretary-General says United Nations lost more civilians than soldiers this year.
• As General Assembly closes fifty-second session, its President regrets delays over United Nations reform.
• Conference on Disarmament concludes 1998 session with no agreement on expanding membership.
• United Nations Conference on Trade and Development reports optimism about foreign direct investment in Asia.
• UN humanitarian affairs office says considerable resources are needed for flood-stricken Nepal.

In a new report to the Security Council, the Secretary-General expresses alarm at the lack of progress towards a political settlement in Kosovo and by the further loss of life, displacement of civilian population and destruction of property resulting from the ongoing conflict. "On 1 September, I wrote to President Milosevic to underline my alarm at the excessive use of force by Serbian military and police forces, noting that Kosovo Albanian extremists also bear responsibility for their acts of provocation," he states.

The Secretary-General expresses serious concern over reports of border violations and cross border shellings, which could pose risks for regional security. United Nations operations in the region could also be negatively affected by developments in Kosovo.

An estimated 600 to 700 people have died in the fighting in Kosovo, with a further 230,000 displaced. As many as 50,000 displaced persons are living in the woods and mountains in need of urgent help. "It is clear that if these people remain in their current locations over the winter, they will be at serious risk of death," the Secretary-General states. He warns that the approaching winter could transform what is currently a humanitarian crisis into a humanitarian catastrophe.

The Secretary-General urges the parties to assure unhindered humanitarian access to all affected areas and to ensure the security of relief personnel. He also calls on international humanitarian organizations to provide the necessary resources to prevent a major humanitarian disaster in the region.

The appeal was issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday that the humanitarian agencies were racing against time as winter was approaching in the war-torn province of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. "We have to act very quickly since time is running out," said Sadako Ogata, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Mrs. Ogata stressed that humanitarian assistance alone would not be an answer to the Kosovo conflict but it would alleviate human suffering until a political solution had been found.

"Adequate funding is critical to avert further tragedy in the freezing hills where tens of thousands of displaced people are huddling," the head of UNHCR said. She added that although her agency could not rebuild all the destroyed property, it could at least make a room or two habitable for people who decided to return.

The United Nations refugee agency is leading the relief effort in Kosovo.

In a statement issued by his spokesman, the Secretary-General said that he was concerned, in particular, about the weekend's events, including the grenade attack on the residence of Mr. Hun Sen, and Mr. Sam Rainsy's taking refuge in the Office of the Secretary-General's Personal Representative in Cambodia. According to the statement by Spokesman Fred Eckhard, Mr. Sam Rainsy was still in the Office as of Tuesday morning. The Secretary-General also said that he was concerned about the forcible dispersal of demonstrations and sit-ins.

Expressing regret at the loss of life in these events, the Secretary- General once again called on all Cambodian leaders to resolve their differences through dialogue, the statement added.

The statement said that as recently as Wednesday last week, the Secretary- General had jointly written to Mr. Hun Sen and Mr. Ung Huot, and to Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Mr. Sam Rainsy separately, strongly urging all Cambodian leaders to exercise utmost restraint so as to prevent any further outbreak of violence.

The Secretary-General also reminded the Cambodian authorities of the letter addressed to him on 22 October 1997 by Mr. Ung Huot and Second Prime Minister Hun Sen in which they pledged to guarantee the freedom of political leaders from arrest and detention for acts and words spoken in connection with political activities relating to the elections.

Mr. Annan concluded by saying that, through his Personal Representative in Cambodia, Lakhan Mehrotra, he remained ready to assist Cambodia in finding a solution acceptable to all and consistent with democratic practice.

In his annual Report on the Work of the Organization, the Secretary- General discusses preparations for the "Millennium Assembly," to be held in September 2000, which will offer "a unique opportunity for the world's leaders to look beyond their pressing daily concerns and consider what kind of United Nations they can envision and will support in the new century."

To facilitate those deliberations, the Secretary-General says he will provide Member States with a set of workable objectives and institutional means for the United Nations to meet the challenges of human solidarity in the years ahead. The report to the 2000 Assembly will draw on several reviews of recent United Nations conferences scheduled between now and then. "It will also benefit from the diverse views and aspirations expressed at a series of global and regional hearings and seminars that I propose to convene -- global town meetings, in effect -- and which many individual Governments, civil society actors and other groups are also holding," he writes.

The report places special emphasis on the importance of what are known as non-State actors, such as the business community. The Secretary-General describes the mutually beneficial dialogue between the United Nations and the business community, which he says is premised on his conviction that "expanding markets and human security can and should go hand in hand."

Engagement with the business community parallels the long-standing and increasingly close relationships that the United Nations has with non- governmental organizations (NGOs). "There is a great deal of talk today about life in the global village," the Secretary-General states. "If that village is to be a truly desirable place for all of us on this planet, it must be embedded in and guided by broadly shared values and principles; its policing functions and the provision of other public goods must be strengthened and made more predictable; and a bridge must be constructed between, in effect, the Dow Jones index and the human development index."

According to a United Nations spokeswoman in Geneva, High Commissioner Mary Robinson met with officials of the Supreme People's Court, the State Ethnic Minorities Commission, the All China Women's Federation, and the Ministry of Justice.

On Monday, Ms. Robinson and the Government of China signed a Memorandum of Intent (MOI) on technical cooperation in human rights. In the MOI, the Chinese Government said that it was committed to the full realization of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights and the right to development. The Government also said that it intended to use advisory services and technical cooperation and would identify specific cooperation programmes.

For its part, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights pledged to assist and cooperate with the Government in the development and implementation of these programmes.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the implementation of the MOI should lead to a memorandum of understanding and a detailed programme of implementation.

Welcoming the agreement, the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that it was the beginning of ongoing constructive dialogue and cooperation with China. She added that, at the request of the Government, her Office would provide input on the development of a national plan of action on human rights treaties and support the process of acceptance of other human rights instruments which China was not yet a party to.

Following the signing of the MOI, Ms. Robinson participated in a workshop on the two covenants on economic, social and cultural rights and on civil and political rights. The workshop explored what the ratification of the treaties would entail for domestic Chinese legislation.

The sudden onset of conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia has resulted in the internal displacement of border populations in Eritrea, as well as the forced return of people of Eritrean origin from Ethiopia. The displaced were mainly rural subsistence farmers and herdsmen. Many have been received by surrounding communities while others are living in tents provided by the Eritrean Relief and Refugee Commission. Some have no shelter at all.

The Government of Eritrea has requested international assistance for food, health care, shelter and household items, water and sanitation, child protection, and family reunification of returnees. The United Nations system initially responded to this request by diverting regular resources to provide for the most urgent health and other needs but those resources proved insufficient to meet current requirements.

The United Nations appeal, while focussing on immediate life-sustaining needs, is also linked to activities that assist people in producing their own food and increasing their self-reliance in order to minimize the need for longer-term assistance. It covers the period from September 1998 through February 1999.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said that the assistance would be targeted to the refugees, most of whom have fled from the Kono and Kailahun districts of Sierra Leone to escape terror unleashed by armed bands of rebels.

According to the agency, hundreds of communities have been attacked by the armed bands, who have maimed and killed scores of civilians. WFP said that about 80 per cent of the people from these areas were either dead or unaccounted for. Several thousand others were believed to be held captive by the rebels, the WFP added.

WFP said that the refugees were arriving destitute, suffering from exhaustion, malnutrition and disease and were in urgent need of food, shelter, health care and sanitation facilities.

The United Nations food agency said that assisting the refugees had proved difficult because many of the villages in southwestern Guinea where they had fled were barely accessible due to the poor state of the dirt roads.

WFP, acting at the request of the Government of Guinea, is seeking more than 17,600 metric tonnes of bulgur wheat and maize meal, corn soya- blend, beans, vegetable oil, salt and sugar to feed the refugees for the next six months.

The United Nations food agency is working in close cooperation with the Government of Guinea, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and national and international non-governmental organizations.

Speaking the press as he entered the United Nations Headquarters, the Secretary-General said that the Swiss Air flight 111 crash on Wednesday last week -- which came on top of the tragedies which the United Nations had already suffered this year -- was "rather shocking."

Mr. Annan once again expressed his sympathies and condolences to all the families who lost loved ones in the crash, which killed all 229 people aboard on Wednesday last week.

A memorial service for the United Nations staff members who lost their lives in the plane crash will be held at United Nations Headquarters on Friday morning.

The Secretary-General also said that he was submitting a report to the Security Council on the issue of risks posed to United Nations staff around the world.

"Although Secretary-General's proposals were warmly welcomed by the membership, after almost nine months of further intensive consultations, consuming enormous amount of time, efforts and conference services, all we can offer was the decision to send a considerable bulk of them for additional consideration during the fifty-third session," said Mr. Udovenko.

The General Assembly President said he did not accept arguments that the delays were inevitable because of the complexity of the issues involved. "I believe, however, that that would be a weak excuse, neglecting the fact that any substantial progress toward meaningful decisions was thwarted by mistrust and suspicion that continued to exist among the Member States, as well as by our inability to move beyond narrow positions of delegations and groupings in an effort to reach a common goal," he said.

According to Mr. Udovenko, future deliberations on reform will serve as a litmus test of the political will of the membership to genuinely renew the Organization by seeking compromises in the true spirit of consensus. He said the same was true of Security Council reform, which was the subject of intense debate during the fifty-second session. "But once again, for all the eloquent appeals for change, we can report no visible movement from words to deeds," he observed.

Ambassador Mark Hofer of Switzerland, the Special Coordinator on the expansion of membership of the Conference on Disarmament, reported that there was no consensus on admitting Ecuador, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Tunisia. He recommended that the Conference appoint a Special Coordinator to continue informal consultations on the issue during the 1999 session.

Throughout its history, the Conference has sought solutions to the dilemma of its limited membership and the universal scope of the legal instruments that emanated from its work by gradually adapting its membership to the new features in political and strategic contexts in order to achieve credibility and political representation, Mr. Hofer noted.

Among the options being considered are "qualified universality", meaning that all State Members of the United Nations and specialized agencies would have the right to apply for membership to the Conference. This had received broad support, according to Mr. Hofer. Other States had supported another option, which constituted admitting the great majority of States which had asked to join the Conference. Others still wanted a combination of the two options. The Special Coordinator concluded that there was a consensus on the principle of future expansion, but differences remained on the details.

The representatives of Morocco, Norway, Bangladesh, Algeria, Sweden, Turkey, Ireland, Malaysia, Ecuador and Tunisia expressed regret that the Conference was not in a position to expand. They called for early action on the issue at the next session.

The 1999 session will be held from 18 January to 26 March; from 10 May to 25 June; and from 26 July to 8 September.

In a report on the financial crisis in Asia and foreign direct investment issued on Tuesday, UNCTAD said that inflows last year to Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, the Republic of Korea and Thailand remained almost the same as those of 1996.

In contrast, UNCTAD added, bank lending and portfolio equity investment fell sharply and turned negative in 1997 as a whole. East and South-East Asia saw a small increase in foreign direct investment in 1997, according to UNCTAD.

UNCTAD pointed out, however, that flows of foreign direct investment into the five most affected countries might not return to their previous level.

According to UNCTAD, although outward foreign direct investment from the five countries increased "somewhat" in 1997, it was expected to decrease substantially in 1998. UNCTAD added that this decrease might affect Asian developing countries in particular since a number of them received nearly half of their foreign direct investment from other Asian developing countries.

UNCTAD said that flows into other regions of Africa, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, the United States, Japan and Western Europe would remain largely unaffected by the decrease of foreign direct investment from Asia. This is attributable to the fact that foreign direct investment originating in Asia typically accounted for less than 2 per cent of total inflows into other regions, UNCTAD said.

In a situation report issued on Tuesday, OCHA said that torrential rainfall at the end of last month caused landslides in Sangha district which is 230 kilometres west of Katmandu. Quoting the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, OCHA said that the floods had destroyed two important bridges along the Siddhartha highway and brought down power lines in a large area.

The District Administration Offices reported that 156 people had died, four were missing, 63 were injured and more than 15,200 families had been affected by the floods.

OCHA also said that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was scheduling meetings with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Water Induced Disaster Prevention Centre, which is funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, to explore possibilities for a community rehabilitation effort.

OCHA said that it was monitoring the situation in close consultation with the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Katmandu and was prepared to serve as a channel for cash contributions for immediate relief assistance.

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

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