United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-10-29

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 29 October, 1998

Latest Developments

HEADLINES

• Reviewing sanctions against Libya, Security Council members call on Tripoli to hand over Lockerbie suspects.
• Secretary-General discusses UN reform, new management culture, in town- hall style meeting with staff.
• Detainees at International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda end hunger strike.
• A suspect at International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia pleads guilty to most charges against him.
• United Nations sets minimum age for peacekeepers.
• Fourth Intra-East Timorese dialogue scheduled for Saturday near Vienna.

Council President Jeremy Greenstock of the United Kingdom told reporters that the members recalled that sanctions would be suspended when all the necessary conditions spelled out in resolution 1192 (1998) had been met.

By that text, adopted in August, the Council decided to suspend the sanctions against Libya after the Secretary-General reports that Tripoli has handed over two Libyan suspects for trial in the Netherlands by Scottish judges under Scottish law. The resolution marked the first breakthrough in a situation which has been virtually deadlocked since the sanctions were imposed in 1992.

Ambassador Greenstock said that Council members had welcomed the fact that clarifications concerning the procedures for the trial in the Netherlands under Scottish law and with Scottish judges were being provided to the Libyan authorities through the Secretary-General's office. "Council members were encouraged by the relatively positive trend of those developments," he said following closed consultations on the matter.

Council members noted that the tenth anniversary of the Lockerbie tragedy falls on 21 December of this year and they agreed that this underlined the need to resolve the issue in line with resolution 1192 as soon as possible, according to Mr. Greenstock. "And so, they will follow developments very closely," he said.

"We are here today to talk about one of the most difficult questions on the UN's agenda, and I do not mean Cyprus or the Middle East," the Secretary- General said in opening remarks. "We are here to talk about human resources management, a central concern of yours and mine and a subject at the heart of our efforts to make the United Nations as good as it can be."

The Secretary-General gave a frank account of the difficulties ahead, referring to such problems as the excessive number of rules and the overlap of certain mandates. "We don't invest enough in our people," he said, adding, "We don't adequately reward high performers, but we appear to tolerate underperformance."

Describing his key proposals, the Secretary-General said that through decentralization and the delegation of authority, departments would run more and more of their day-to-day affairs. "You will have more opportunities for training, you will see new mechanisms for accountability, and you will be able to participate in increased dialogue up and down the hierarchy," he told the assembled staff members. The Secretary-General also assured them that reform did not mean staff cuts, but he added that from time to time as mandates changed, the Organization may need to retrain, redeploy and reassign staff.

The questions, posed in person by staff in New York, and in writing by staff in Geneva and Nairobi, covered a range of issues, including the need to adjust the behavioural culture of the organization, the need to achieve gender equality, and the issue of job security. The Secretary-General was also asked how managers would be able to handle their new responsibilities, and how they would be held accountable when they fell short.

Answering the various questions, the Secretary-General emphasized that he was committed to gender balance, and noted that there had been substantial improvements in that area over the last 18 months. He said that job security would not be unduly threatened, pointing out that some 1000 posts had been shed so far without destabilizing the staff. The decentralization effort would be conducted gradually, and all managers would be held accountable.

The Secretary-General was joined on the podium by the Deputy Secretary- General, Louise Fr‚chette, the Assistant-Secretary- General for Human Resources Management, Rafiah Salim, and the Under-Secretary-General for Management, Joseph Connor. They also fielded questions.

The 25 detainees in question ate dinner at the Tribunal's detention facilities in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania. In a letter to Tribunal authorities, they affirmed their decision to terminate their hunger strike and addressed various other issues of concern.

"We are pleased that the hunger strike has been called off," said the Tribunal's Registrar, Agwu Ukiwe Okali. He called the development a victory for truth and common sense.

Mr. Akayesu, who is appealing a genocide conviction, claims to be striking to choose his own lawyer. "As we have maintained, our programme on the assignment of defence counsel is very fair and generous indeed," said Mr. Okali.

Mr. Akayesu, who is under close medical supervision, was reported to have drunk "a significant quantity of milk" on Wednesday, according to the Tribunal. Mr. Okali expressed hope that the convict would call off his protest as soon as possible.

The accused pleaded guilty to 15 counts of crimes against humanity and 16 counts of violations of the law or customs of war. The charges were brought in relation to 12 killings, four beatings and one incident of plunder of private property in the Brcko area in 1992.

Mr. Jelisic also pleaded not guilty to one count of genocide.

Following his hearing, the Tribunal decided that sentencing would take place after the trial for genocide. No date has been set for the beginning of that trial.

The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, Bernard Miyet, told the General Assembly's Special Political and Decolonization (Fourth) Committee on Thursday that Governments contributing troops would be asked not to send civilian police and military observers younger than 25 years to peacekeeping operations. Troops in national contingents should preferably be 21 years of age but certainly not less than 18 years of age.

"This decision has been taken as an additional measure in the Organization's efforts to promote the rights of the child," said Mr. Miyet. "While we have no indication that Member Governments have provided the United Nations with soldiers under the age of 18, this policy has been adopted as a proactive measure and to ensure that the Organization's use of uniformed personnel is an example for police and military forces worldwide, " he added.

The announcement was welcomed by the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, who said it would strengthen current efforts to promote better protection for the most vulnerable sections of the population in peacekeeping operations. "This will also help us in the campaign to raise the age limit for the recruitment and participation of young people in hostilities," he said.

The meeting, to be held in Krumbach Castle at Burg Schlaining, aims to bring together Timorese from all sides to reach concrete solutions at a time of changed political conditions and against a backdrop of the substantial negotiations held by the Secretary General with all sides. Participants will explore practical ideas that might have a positive impact on the situation and assist in the establishment of an atmosphere conducive to the achievement of a solution to the question of East Timor.

The All-inclusive Intra-East Timorese Dialogue process was initiated by the Secretary-General in 1995 within the framework of his good offices. The Secretary-General facilitates and provides the necessary arrangements for the Dialogue without taking part in the discussions. The Dialogue is not a parallel track to the tripartite negotiating process between Indonesia and Portugal under the auspices of the Secretary-General; rather, it is a forum designed to complement those talks through the informal exchange of views among East Timorese of all shades of political opinion. Proposals which emerged from the Dialogue have been considered at the tripartite talks.

The meeting, which will be opened by the Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for East Timor, Jamsheed Marker, is a follow-up to three previous meetings which were also held in Austria -- in June 1995, in March 1996 and in October 1997.

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

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