United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-09-22

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, 22 September, 1998

Latest Developments

HEADLINES

• President of Burundi appeals for the lifting of sanctions against his country.
• Ghana's President calls for debt relief to reverse effects of inequitable international economic system.
• United Nations refugee agency reports that 15,000 people were displaced during last week's government offensive in Kosovo.
• Four injured in attack against United Nations bus in Georgia.
• World Food Programme to continue emergency aid to conflict victims in Guinea-Bissau.
• Democratization should be a guiding concept in the next century, Secretary-General tells a conference of new democracies.
• United Nations-supported Arab Ministerial Conference on Population and Development opens in Beirut.

In his address to the General Assembly, President Pierre Buyoya said that the sanctions were destroying the economic and social fabric of the Burundian society. He said that the sanctions were eroding trust between the Burundian parties which are negotiating an end to the conflict in the country. Although all the conditions imposed by those who initiated the embargo had been met, it was still being maintained without any political or moral justification, he added.

The President of Burundi told the General Assembly that the Government, which took over on 25 July 1996, and the National Assembly, which was elected in 1993, began a dialogue geared towards a political rapprochement. This dialogue, he said, led to an agreement on political partnership. He said that today Burundi had a provisional constitution which came out of that partnership. President Buyoya said that the majority of the political parties and the representatives of civil society supported the peace process in his country. He identified the continuing violence by some armed factions as the major obstacle to peace in Burundi.

President Jerry John Rawlings said that debt relief measures are urgently needed to enable developing States to extricate themselves from their debt burden. "Many of our countries, particularly the poorer ones, continue to suffer from a heavy debt burden and crippling debt servicing obligations which, by diverting resources away from development, prevent us from providing adequate social services to our populations in basic areas such as education and health, and reduce our capacity to compete in the global market," he said.

No nation can stand alone or play outside the rules, the President stressed. He warned that the present approach by developed countries, which were requiring developing countries to adhere to standards that they themselves did not observe, would severely test the state of relations between the developing and developed worlds in the next century. "Policy- makers and opinion leaders in the developed countries bear great responsibility in this regard in providing clear leadership, for those countries share a great part of the blame for the present state of the world," he said.

Most of the displaced have moved in with relatives and friends in the main towns of Vucitrn, Mitrovica, Podujevo and Pristina, but several thousand others are still hiding in the woods, according to UNHCR Spokesman Kris Janowski. "We are delivering food and other relief items today for these newly displaced people in the Vucitrn and Mitrovica areas," he said.

UNHCR staff report that people have returned to some villages since government troops withdrew on Friday, but they mostly go back only during the day to take care of their livestock. "It is still difficult for others to return to destroyed or burned homes," Mr. Janowski said.

Returnees have reported land mines and booby traps in some villages, according to UNHCR, which has informed military mine experts and alerted aid agencies going into the area.

UNOMIG has protested the incident to the Abkhaz authorities. The Abkhaz leader, Vladislav Ardzinba, expressed regret over the incident and promised to take additional measures for the protection of United Nations personnel. "We don't know the identity of the attackers at this time," Mr. Eckhard said, adding that UNOMIG was investigating the incident.

The bus had been on its way from Sukhumi back to the Mission's headquarters when the attack occurred, Mr. Eckhard said. One Bangladeshi military observer was seriously injured. Another Bangladeshi military observer was also injured, along with a civilian international staff member from Nigeria and a local driver. Three of the four injured were evacuated by air to Istanbul on Tuesday.

"In the absence of a peace agreement between the warring parties, the economy is caving in and families are finding it difficult to survive -- particularly those displaced by the fighting who have no home, no crops and no money to support themselves," said Oscar Sarroca, Chief of WFP's Sahel section. "We'll have to continue feeding the displaced population in order to ensure that their situation does not worsen."

Since June, when an army mutiny led to heavy fighting in Guinea-Bissau, WFP has provided some 4,500 metric tonnes of food aid to approximately 240,000 people. The agency now plans to distribute some 30,000 metric tonnes of food aid over the next four months.

"WFP's assistance will not only help maintain basic food supplies but will also hopefully discourage families from crossing into neighbouring countries," said Mr. Sarroca.

The agency has asked donors to provide $22.5 million for its efforts to help the people of Guinea-Bissau. So far, only about $6.9 million has been pledged.

In a statement to the ministerial meeting of countries participating in the Third International Conference of New or Restored Democracies, the Secretary-General stressed that there is no one democratic model. "Every democracy, like each individual, has its own character -- depending on specific political, social and economic circumstances, cultures and traditions. All democracies, like all human beings, have their own pace of development," he said. "There will be progress, but there will also be setbacks and periods of stagnation," he added.

Kieran Prendergast, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, delivered the statement on behalf of the Secretary- General. "There is much we can learn from each other -- from exchanges among different countries living through this process of transition," he said . He expressed hope that the conferences would serve to facilitate the exchange of information and that this "wealth of wisdom" would furnish a resource to old, new and restored democracies everywhere in the world.

Organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the League of Arab States and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the four-day Conference will examine the implementation of the Programme of Action adopted at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development.

Kerstine Trone, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund said that now more than ever, it was recognized that the unprecedented growth in human numbers, environmental degradation, and uneven patterns of development were inseparably linked. Those phenomena were themselves closely associated with widespread and persistent poverty, income disparities, and wasteful consumption, she said.

Elias Hobeika, Lebanon's Minister of Social Affairs, stressed the need for women and men to play a joint role in meeting reproductive health requirements and family planning needs.

ESCWA Executive Secretary Hazem El-Beblawi called attention to various problems plaguing the region, including limited participation of women in economic and political life, a continued rise in population growth rates, and increasing migration rates. No region or State could cut itself off from what was happening in another part of the world, he emphasized.

Ali Abdelkarim, Assistant Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, said efforts to achieve development were unfortunately being carried out in a new world order context that preserved the interests of certain parties at the expense of others. He added that the conference was a positive example of cooperation between the Arab region and the world.

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

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