United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-11-12

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 12 November, 1998

HEADLINES

• United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan will remain through mid- May 1999.
• United Nations agencies decide to retain 50 staff to observe humanitarian programme in Iraq.
• Thousands of refugees flee conflict-torn Congo-Kinshasa to neighbouring countries, says United Nations refugee agency.
• United Nations food agency launches more than $50 million dollar plan for victims of Hurricane Mitch.
• General Assembly elects 18 members to Economic and Social Council.
• Disarmament Committee adopts resolution on bilateral nuclear arms control.
• United States signs Kyoto Protocol to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
• United Nations anti-drug project in Lao People's Democratic Republic to be showcased at Expo 2000.
• UN Population Fund Special Ambassador Waris Dirie named "Woman of the Year" by Glamour magazine.

Through the unanimous adoption of resolution 1206 (1998), the Council strongly condemned the recent fighting in the Leninabab area "initiated by forces trying to hinder the peace process in Tajikistan," and called upon all concerned to refrain from the use of force.

The parties were called upon to undertake "vigourous efforts" to fully implement the General Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and National Accord in Tajikistan. They were also called upon to create conditions for elections to be held at the earliest possible time in 1999.

The Council also strongly condemned the murder of four members of UNMOT in July. The Secretary-General had reported that three suspects had been handed over by the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) and brought to Dushanbe for further investigation. The Council, recognizing that the completion of that investigation was important for the resumption of UNMOT's field activities, urged the Government of Tajikistan to bring to justice all those found to be responsible for the crime. The UTO leaders were also urged to continue to cooperate fully with those efforts.

The resolution reminded both parties that the ability of the international community to mobilize and continue assistance for Tajikistan was linked to the security of the personnel of UNMOT and international organizations, as well as humanitarian workers. The Secretary-General was requested to keep the Council informed of all significant developments, in particular regarding the security situation.

Benon Sevan, the Executive Director of the Office of the Iraq Programme, said that the decision was taken after a regular meeting of the agencies convened by the Humanitarian Coordinator on Thursday morning.

Mr. Sevan said that the remaining international staff, along with 524 national staff, were maintaining a reduced level of observation of all sectors of the humanitarian programme in and around Baghdad. He added that in the south and centre of Iraq, the United Nations would maintain an observation operation to ensure the equitable and efficient distribution of supplies by the Government of Iraq.

According to the Executive Director of the Iraq programme, there had been no reduction in the 231 United Nations international staff and 809 national staff in the three northern governorates of Dahuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah where the United Nations is implementing the programme on behalf of the Government.

Mr. Sevan said that the distribution of food was continuing normally in Baghdad. He added that there was no change in the pace of arrivals of food with ships unloading wheat and rice at the Um Qasr port and trucks entering the Trebil border crossing with Jordan, the Al-Waleed border crossing with Syria and the Zakho border crossing with Turkey.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Thursday that the refugees had crossed Lake Tanganyika to Kigoma since the conflict broke out on 2 August in Congo-Kinshasa. UNHCR added that over the past two weeks, the flow had continued at a rate of over 100 people per day and that the refugees were being transferred to Nyarugusu camp.

The United Nations agency said that during the same period, approximately 6, 500 Congolese fled South Kivu to Burundi. UNHCR added that 500 more refugees crossed into Rwanda.

Within the Democratic Republic of the Congo itself, the agency said, thousands of people may have been displaced in the rebel held areas in the eastern part of the country. UNHCR said that humanitarian workers who had travelled to these areas in recent weeks estimated that more than 20,000 may have been displaced in the Goma area and another 12,000 in the vicinity of Uvira.

UNHCR staff were forced to evacuate Uvira and Bukavu in August during heavy fighting between rebels and forces loyal to the Government. The agency said that it also relocated personnel at its offices in the north and south-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo after United Nations agencies decided to keep only their staff based in Kinshasa.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said that its emergency operation, costing approximately $58 million, would provide more than 116 million tonnes of basic foods for six months to people in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. The hurricane left more than 8,000 people dead and at least 12, 000 missing in these countries. The hurricane, the worst natural disaster to hit Central America, also destroyed between 30 and 80 per cent of the crops, according to WFP.

The United Nations agency said that 60 per cent of the recipients of the emergency relief aid would be women and children under the age of six in rural areas. Most of these people had lost virtually all of their homes and their traditional livelihood of subsistence farming, WFP added. The agency's Executive Director, Catherine Bertini, warned that without emergency assistance, these people were "at extreme nutritional risk" in addition to the threat of cholera and other diseases caused by unsanitary conditions throughout the region.

Ms. Bertini stressed that her agency was appealing to the international community to respond swiftly and generously in these early days of the crisis. "But we also recognize that this is just the first step in a long road to recovery for these devastated countries," she added, noting that WFP would work closely with the affected countries to support their long- term reconstruction initiatives.

Bolivia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Indonesia, Morocco, Norway, the Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Kingdom and Venezuela will begin their three-year terms on 1 January 1999.

The elections were held to fill seats that will be vacated at the end of this year by Argentina, Bangladesh, Canada, the Central African Republic, China, Czech Republic, Finland, Gabon, Guyana, Jordan, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Romania, the Russian Federation, Sweden, Togo, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom.

The other States on the 54-member Council which will be continuing their terms are Algeria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, the Comoros, Cuba, Djibouti, El Salvador, France, the Gambia, Germany, Iceland, India, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Saint Lucia, Sierra Leone, Spain, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the United States, Viet Nam, and Zambia.

The Committee adopted the resolution by 136 votes in favour to none against, with eight abstentions (Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria and the United Republic of Tanzania).

By the terms of the resolution, the General Assembly would, among other things, urge the Russian Federation and the United States to continue their efforts to reduce their nuclear weapons on the basis of existing agreements. Such a reduction should contribute to the ultimate goal of eliminating those weapons, according to the resolution.

By further terms of the text, the Assembly would welcome the entry into force of the 1991 Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START). The Assembly would also welcome the signing by the Russian Federation and the United States of the Treaty on the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START II) in January 1993 and urge the parties to bring that Treaty into force at the earliest possible date.

The Assembly would express its satisfaction at the continuing implementation of the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate Range and Shorter-Range Missiles, in particular at the completion of the destruction of all their declared missiles subject to elimination under the Treaty.

The resolution would also encourage Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the United States to continue their cooperative efforts to eliminate strategic offensive arms on the basis of existing agreements.

The signing, which took place at United Nations Headquarters in New York, was announced in Buenos Aires at the Fourth Conference of the Parties to the Convention. But United Nations Radio reported from Buenos Aires that the United States indicated that it would not submit the treaty the Senate for ratification, potentially delaying the Protocol's entry into force. That will only take place when developed countries whose emissions account for at least 55 per cent of all global emissions have ratified the Protocol.

After signing the agreement in New York, United States Ambassador A. Peter Burleigh said the action demonstrated his country's commitment to meet the challenge of global warming. "By signing the Protocol, we ensure our ability to continue playing a strong role in completing the work" in several important areas, such as participation by key developing countries, he said.

Ambassador Burleigh also welcomed the announcement by Argentina on Wednesday that it would voluntarily accept binding targets for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, a position not shared by other developing States.

In Buenos Aires, the Alliance of Small Island State expressed concern about Argentina's move. The Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Bilenibeu Paeniu, representing the coalition of low-lying and island countries which are vulnerable to sea-level rise, said developing countries should have only one position. He said it was "a pity that some of our own brothers" were being "lured by the business world of the industrialized countries."

The project, set up by the Government of Laos with technical aid from the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), aims to offer farmers and their communities in the Palaveck area viable alternatives to opium poppy cultivation.

Drug control measures have been particularly successful in Palaveck, according to UNDCP. The combined efforts of the Government and the United Nations have reduced annual opium production from 3.5 metric tons to less than 100 kilogrammes, transformed a rice-deficient into a rice-surplus zone, and greatly improved the living conditions of about 6,000 people in the area, mostly ethnic Hmong.

Villagers have been trained in crop diversification, rice production, fish farming and livestock vaccination. Coffee, pepper, cardamon and ginger have been introduced as cash crops, while improved methods of silk production and a newly constructed network of roads have allowed Hmong villagers to sell their products for the first time in nearby Vientiane.

Donors to the Drug Control Programme, including Sweden, Norway, the European Union, Japan and the United States, have contributed a total of $6.5 million to the project. The United States has pledged a further $1 million so that it can be continued.

EXPO 2000 will be held from 1 June to 31 October, 2000.

An activist and supermodel, Ms. Dirie focuses on the elimination of female genital mutilation in her role as Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Ms. Dirie has been nominated by Glamour "for her extraordinary work speaking out against genital mutilation." Widely practiced in many countries in Africa and the Middle East, female genital mutilation involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female organs for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons.

As a Special Ambassador, Ms. Dirie has been speaking out against the practice and lending support to the Population Fund and national programmes that seek to eradicate it. She has made public service announcements and video news releases on the subject for the Fund.

A native of Somalia born into a nomadic family, Ms. Dirie survived the traditional form of female genital mutilation that kills hundreds of women every year, including one of her younger sisters and two of her cousins. "Because women and girls are not valued equally as human beings, they are treated as less than such," said Ms. Dirie, adding "female genital mutilation is one example of this that has to be stopped."

The Glamour award was presented on Wednesday in New York. The awards ceremony will be featured in the magazine's December issue.

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

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