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United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-09-28United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSMonday, 28 September, 1998This daily news round-up is prepared by the Central News Section of the Department of Public Information. The latest update is posted at approximately 6:00 PM New York time. Latest Developments HEADLINES
The Prime Minister of Belize on Monday told the General Assembly that development aid should be spent on actions, not studies. "We are witnessing progressive decreases in the amount of aid flowing to the developing countries," said Prime Minister Said W. Musa. "And too often we are victims of a trend in international agencies for spending millions on endless studies and consultancies, when what we need are concrete actions to solve the problem we have long identified." The Prime Minister welcomed work being done by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to help Belize preserve its environment. "Yet we have witnessed the wanton destruction of forests by transnational corporations and the depletion of marine life by galloping consumption that is heedless of the fragility of our ecosystems or of the social consequences." He endorsed UNDP's call for patterns of consumption that are socially responsible, not destructive of the well-being of others. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has decided to appoint Mr. Hans von Sponeck of Germany as United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq. A spokesman for the Secretary-General said on Monday that Mr. von Sponeck, who is currently the Regional Representative and Director of European Affairs at the United Nations Development Programme's office in Geneva, will succeed Mr. Denis Halliday who will leave Iraq on 30 September. The Secretary-General expressed his high appreciation for the dedication and experience that Mr. Halliday brought to this "complex" assignment. As Humanitarian Coordinator, at Assistant Secretary-General level, Mr. von Sponeck will report to the Executive Director of the Office of the Iraq Programme, Benon Sevan. The office was established in 1997 to consolidate the management of United Nations activities related to Security Council resolutions on Iraq. Since the first deliveries in 1997, nearly seven million tonnes of food worth more than $2.2 billion and $366 million worth of medicine has been delivered to Iraq under the oil-for-food programme. The prosecution in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has asked the tribunal to impose a maximum sentence of life imprisonment on Jean Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of the Taba Commune convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity. During the pre-sentencing hearing held in Arusha, Tanzania, on Monday, Mr. Jean Paul Akayesu asked for pardon and expressed regret about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda during which more than half a million, mainly Tutsis, were massacred. On 2 September 1998, Mr. Akayesu was convicted on 9 counts out of 15 counts in the indictment against him. The three-judge Chamber I unanimously found Mr. Akayesu guilty of nine counts and guilty of six counts. He was found guilty of genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity, which include extermination, murder, torture, rape and other inhumane acts. Mr. Akayesu is expected to be sentenced on Friday, 2 October 1998. Stevan Todorovic, suspected of crimes against humanity, has been detained by the NATO Stabilisation Force and turned over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague. Mr. Todorovic will appear on Wednesday 30 September at a public hearing where he is expected to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty on each of the counts in the indictment against him. The suspect was indicted on 21 July 1995, together with five other individuals, for their alleged involvement in the "campaign of terror" undertaken in April 1992 against the Bosnian Croat and Muslim population of the municipality of Bosanski Samac by Serb military and political authorities from Bosnia and Herzegovina and elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia. The indictment alleges that "in 1991, almost 17,000 Bosnian Croats and Muslims, of a total population of about 33,000, lived in the municipality of Bosanski Samac. By May 1995, fewer than 300 of the Bosnian Croat and Muslim residents remained." Born in 1957, Mr. Todorovic was appointed Chief of Police for Bosanski Samac after the Serbs took over the area. Charges against him include one alleged killing and four cases of alleged beatings. In all, the suspect faces 15 counts: five counts of Grave Breaches of the Geneva Conventions (wilful killing, wilfully causing great suffering, inhumane treatment, torture); five counts of Violation of the Laws or Customs of War (murder, cruel treatment, humiliating and degrading treatment, torture) and five counts of Crimes against Humanity (murder, inhumane acts, rape including other forms of sexual assault, torture). The United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) has sent a high-level delegation to Iran for a seven-day visit beginning on Monday. The mission is a follow-up on previous visits by the Programme's Executive Director, Pino Arlacchi, who met with Iran's President in April and July to discuss issues of common concern. Its purpose is to elaborate, in close consultation with the Government, a strategy to address the flow of illicit opiates from Afghanistan as well as the abuse of those drugs within Iran. The delegation is composed of senior diplomats from Germany and Belgium; high-ranking officials from drug control organizations in France and Spain; a law enforcement consultant from the United Kingdom; and UN officials led by Alberto Brandanini, special assistant to Mr. Arlacchi. While in Iran, the group will review the general drug control situation there and assess measures being taken by the Government against illicit traffic from Afghanistan. The delegation will also examine Iran's drug prevention activities and its efforts to promote public awareness against drug abuse. The National University Library in Pusan, Republic of Korea, has been designated a United Nations depository library, making it part of an international network of 365 libraries in 141 countries that brings the Organization's documents and publications to users around the world. Pusan National University, established in 1946, has more than 25,000 students and 750 faculty members. The United Nations materials will be housed in the University's main library, which has a fully computerized collection of 840,000 volumes. The Pusan National University Library is the sixth depository library in the Republic of Korea, but the first in the country located outside of the capital city of Seoul. Since 1946, the Dag Hammarskjöld Library at United Nations Headquarters in New York, which is part of the Department of Public Information (DPI), has arranged for the distribution of United Nations documents and publications to users around the world through its depository library system. United Nations Member States, as well as non-Members, are entitled to one "free depository," usually the national library in the capital city. In addition, the national parliamentary library, if open to the public, is also entitled to receive material free of charge. Other depository libraries pay a token annual contribution to receive United Nations documentation. Developing countries pay a significantly smaller amount. For information purposes only - - not an official record From the United Nations home page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgUnited Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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