United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-11-16

United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Monday, 16 November, 1998

Latest Developments

HEADLINES

• United Nations weapons inspectors head to Iraq following Baghdad's commitment to cooperate.
• Crisis with Iraq diffused over weekend in "victory for diplomacy and resolve."
• Head of International Atomic Energy Agency welcomes Iraq's decision to resume cooperation.
• Secretary-General says OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission supersedes need for UN political presence there.
• Fourth Conference of Parties to UN Framework Convention on Climate Change adopts Buenos Aires Plan of Action.
• UN aid worker is killed in Angola.
• Brazilian soccer star, Ronaldo, urges young people to "play safe" to prevent spread of AIDS.

"Eighty-six UNSCOM and IAEA weapons inspectors will return to Baghdad on Tuesday on a UN flight from Bahrain, where they have been on stand-by since they left Iraq last week," said United Nations Spokesman Fred Eckhard. He said that following the Secretary-General's decision on Sunday, an additional six UNSCOM staff would make the same journey. "UNSCOM inspectors are expected to begin resuming their duties on Wednesday," said Mr. Eckhard.

Meanwhile, the first group of humanitarian workers returning to Baghdad arrived Monday on a flight from Amman.

"In consultation with the Security Council, the Secretary- General sent a letter to President Saddam Hussein of Iraq on Friday evening, repeating his public appeal to Iraq to come back into compliance with Security Council resolutions," United Nations Spokesman Fred Eckhard said on Monday.

On Saturday morning, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz sent a response announcing his Government's decision to resume working with United Nations weapons inspectors.

"The threatened military strike against Iraq by the United States, which reportedly was in the process of being launched, was called off by United States President Bill Clinton," Mr. Eckhard explained. During a meeting Saturday evening, a number of Council members sought clarifications of the wording of Mr. Aziz's letter. Such clarifications were provided in writing by Iraqi Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon.

"The Secretary-General had telephone contact with senior United States, Iraqi and other authorities throughout the night," Mr. Eckhard said. "Sunday morning, President Clinton announced that the United States would delay military action following Iraq's recommitment to complete compliance."

On Sunday, Security Council members noted that Baghdad had decided, "clearly and unconditionally, to cooperate fully" with the United Nations Special Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In a statement to the press, Council members noted that Iraq's decision constituted "a rescinding of the decisions of 5 August and 31 October" by which it had halted cooperation with the weapons inspectors. They further noted that Iraq's cooperation with the Special Commission and the IAEA would allow the return of inspectors to resume all their activities "on an immediate, unconditional and unrestricted basis."

Council members reaffirmed their readiness to proceed with a comprehensive review, once the Secretary-General has confirmed, on the basis of reports from the Special Commission and the IAEA, that Iraq has returned to full cooperation.

"Taking note of past experience with Iraq, Council members underlined that their confidence in Iraq's intentions needed to be established by unconditional and sustained cooperation with the Special Commission and the IAEA in exercising the full range of their activities provided for in their mandates," said the Council President, A. Peter Burleigh of the United States.

Council members also expressed support for a full, immediate and effective implementation of the humanitarian programme in Iraq.

In addition, members of the Council expressed their "profound appreciation" to the Secretary-General for his efforts, which had been fully supported by the statements and actions of the Security Council and of Member States.

In a statement issued on Sunday following consultations of the Security Council, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said it appeared that a satisfactory diplomatic solution to the crisis had been achieved.

"In common with many members of the Security Council, I am grateful to President Clinton for the courageous and difficult decision which he announced earlier today," said Mr. Annan.

"This is a victory for all those who expressed their firm determination that United Nations Security Council resolutions must be respected," said the Secretary-General. "It is a victory for diplomacy and resolve," he added.

The Secretary-General emphasized that for the crisis to permanently end, Iraq must move swiftly to ensure complete and unconditional compliance. "That is the best way towards the lifting of sanctions and a better life for the people of Iraq," he stated.

In a statement issued in Vienna, IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said the Agency's personnel were scheduled to return to Baghdad on Tuesday, 17 November. "This group will immediately commence an intensive programme of facility inspections in order to re-establish continuity of knowledge of the status of Iraq's relevant technical assets," he said.

Additional IAEA personnel are scheduled to arrive in Baghdad later this week to participate in those initial activities and to continue with previously planned work.

"The Director General hopes to be able to report to the Security Council, in the near future, that all the necessary IAEA activities are being carried out with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities," the statement concluded.

"It is quite obvious that any need that might have existed for such a presence has been superseded by the decision to establish the Kosovo Verification Mission," the Secretary-General writes in a report to the Security Council issued Monday. Since the Kosovo Verification Mission, made up of 2000 monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), will report to the Security Council, the decision not to establish a United Nations political presence will serve to avoid "parallel reporting channels that might lead to confusion and overlapping in the field, as well as unnecessary financial expenditure."

The Secretary-General stresses that at the current stage, it is important to develop clear channels of communication between the OSCE and the United Nations on the issue of Kosovo.

Mr. Annan calls on all parties to cooperate with the Mission. "For its part, the United Nations will continue its humanitarian and human rights activities, and will support the efforts of the Kosovo Verification Mission, regional organization and individual Member States aimed at restoring peace and stability to the region."

According to the report, the military situation in Kosovo has stabilized recently. Despite some serious but isolated incidents, there has been no major fighting there since 1 October. "While the ceasefire is generally holding, there are continued reports of sporadic violations, including armed provocations against police and police harassment of ethnic Albanians."

The human rights situation, which is characterized by serious violations, appears not to have changed since the signing of the 16 October agreement which established the Kosovo Verification Mission. Violations have been attributed to Serbian security forces, Kosovo Albanian paramilitary units and village defence groups.

The Secretary-General stresses that political action to ensure real security is a requisite for any solution to the humanitarian crisis. He recommends that the authorities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia extend guarantees to all returning civilians "so as to avoid the blanket interrogation of male internally displaced persons." He also says the Kosovo Albanian paramilitary units must stop any armed actions to provoke the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia security forces as well as abductions and other violent activities.

The Action Plan will prepare the way for industrialized countries to take future action under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which obligates industrialized countries to reduce their overall emissions by 5 per cent. It establishes deadlines for finalizing the outstanding details of the Kyoto Protocol so that the agreement will be fully operational when it enters into force sometime after the year 2000.

In addition, the Plan of Action boosts work on transferring climate- friendly technologies to developing countries and addresses the special needs and concerns of countries affected by global warming and by the economic implications of response measures.

"After hard negotiation we have achieved a significant success," said the Conference President, Maria Julia Alsogaray, Argentina's Minister of Natural Resources and Sustainable Development. "This Plan of Action will fill in the missing details of the Kyoto Protocol and pave the way for its early implementation," she added.

Under the Protocol, an international "emissions trading" regime will be established that will allow industrialized countries to buy and sell emissions credits amongst themselves. A clean development mechanism and joint implementation programme will provide credits for financing emissions- avoiding projects in developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

The conference was attended by over 5,000 participants, including a Prime Minister, several Vice Presidents and Deputy Prime Ministers, 70 Ministers, and 1,500 government officials. Some 2,600 observers from intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and 880 members of the press also attended the November meeting.

The Buenos Aires Conference of the Parties was marked by the active participation of 150 non-governmental organizations representing business and environmental interests. Over 100 seminars and workshops were held, demonstrating the growing commitment of industry and civil society to the global campaign to minimize the risk of climate change.

The Fifth Conference of the Parties will be held in late 1999 at a location still to be determined.

WFP said that Elias Sayala, an Angolan, was shot and killed on Saturday while on duty at the agency's warehouse in Kuito, the capital of Angola's Bi‚ province. The United Nations agency said that no one else was injured and no food was stolen from the warehouse.

"This is a senseless crime, and WFP will use all the resources at our disposal to aid the police in identifying those responsible," said WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini. She added that the agency's head of security for Angola was on his way to Kuito to oversee the investigation.

WFP said that violence against its staff had dramatically increased over the last few years and that the murder of Mr. Sayala was the eighth among its staff this year alone.

Resumed fighting in Angola has created insecurity and caused a large number of internally displaced persons to seek refuge in the Kuito municipality. The United Nations food agency said that it was currently providing food aid to approximately 25,000 people in the Bi‚ province.

The player, who is better known as Ronaldo, was speaking at an event in Geneva which took place in advance of International Children's Day on 20 December and World AIDS Day on 1 December. The event, which was hosted by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), was part of the campaign to raise awareness about the effects of AIDS on young people. Ronaldo, is a Special Representative for the 1998 World AIDS Campaign which is being held under the theme "Young People:Force for Change."

The soccer star drew attention to the devastating impact of the AIDS epidemic in many countries. "The reality is that, every single minute, five young people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS," he said, adding that he had seen the effect that AIDS was having on the lives of young people. He said that because of this, he talked about safe sex with his friends and to people all over the world and tried to get other football players to do the same. "Everyone can do something," Ronaldo said.

Stressing that with HIV there was no second chance, Ronaldo said that his message to young people everywhere was to "play hard, play well, but, above all, play safe! Talk to your friends, look after those you love. Everyone can talk about AIDS and make prevention a reality."

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

United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article