United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-12-21

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Monday, 21 December, 1998

HEADLINES

• Security Council calls on parties in Guinea-Bissau to urgently form government of national unity.
• Secretary-General regrets deadlock over Lockerbie bombings ten years after the incident.
• Humanitarian workers to return to Baghdad.
• UNESCO Director-General calls for urgent assistance to the people of Iraq.
• UN General Assembly adopts 25 texts on wide range of administrative and budgetary issues.
• General Assembly calls on Afghan parties to end hostilities and engage in political dialogue.
• United Nations evacuates staff from Congo-Brazzaville to Democratic Republic of Congo.
• UN mission in Bosnia focuses on police restructuring and judicial reform.
• UN and Tokyo Metropolitan Government launch information exchange on Eco- Society.

In resolution 1216 (1998) adopted unanimously, the Council called for the full implementation of the agreements between the Government of Guinea- Bissau and the Self-Proclaimed Military Junta signed in August, November and December. The agreements, in part, provide for respect for the ceasefire, the immediate opening of the airport and seaport in Bissau, the withdrawal of all foreign troops in the country and the simultaneous deployment of the interposition force of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Military Observer Group (ECOMOG).

The Council commended the Member States of the Community of Portuguese- Speaking Countries and ECOWAS on their key role in the restoration of peace and security throughout Guinea-Bissau and their intention to participate in the observation of the forthcoming general and presidential elections. The Council welcomed ECOMOG's role in guaranteeing security along the Guinea- Bissau/Senegal border, keeping apart the parties to the conflict and guaranteeing free access to humanitarian organizations and agencies to reach all the affected civilian populations.

The Council approved the implementation by the ECOMOG interposition force of its mandate in a neutral and impartial way and in conformity with United Nations peacekeeping standards. It called on all concerned, including the Government and the Self-Proclaimed Military Junta, to strictly respect relevant provisions of international law and to ensure safe and unimpeded access by international organizations to persons in need of assistance as a result of the conflict.

The Council also requested the Secretary-General to make recommendations on a possible role of the United Nations in the peace process and reconciliation in Guinea-Bissau.

Reiterating its appeal for urgent humanitarian assistance to displaced persons and refugees, the Council called on the Secretary- General to establish a Trust Fund for Guinea-Bissau and encouraged States to contribute to the Fund.

Speaking to reporters as he entered the United Nations Headquarters, the Secretary-General said that his message to the families of the victims of the bombing was that it was regrettable that "we have not been able to get to the truth so that they can put this behind them, mourn their dead and carry on with their lives."

The Secretary-General said that he was still hopeful that the Libyan Government would make a decision regarding the surrender of the two Libyans suspected of the bombing. He said he had hoped that the decision would come before the anniversary, adding that he had not lost hope. He said his message to the families of the victims of the bombing was that they should not lose hope.

Authentication and certification of arrival of humanitarian supplies resumed at the port of Qasr on Monday and will resume at Al-Walid at the border with Syria and at Trebil at the border with Jordan on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the oil monitors remained on duty and reported that there had been no interruption to the exports of Iraqi oil through Ceyhan or from the loading platform at Mina-Al-Bakr. During the period from 12 to 18 December, there were eleven loadings totalling over 11 million barrels of oil worth more than $85 million.

"Now that the bombing is over," UNESCO Director-General said in his appeal, "let us work together, unstintingly and effectively, to assist the people of Iraq, particularly their children."

Noting that "children have no nationality," Mr. Mayor called for generosity in helping them and all the innocent people of Iraq who had suffered so much. "Let us now help them with renewed impetus, let us replace war with education, weapons with schools, bombs with books, missiles with teachers, suffering with assistance," said Mr. Mayor.

A budget outline of about $2.545 billion for 2000-2001 was adopted by the Assembly, which also resolved to appropriate about $1.261 billion for 1999 and, of that amount, assess almost $1.218 billion on Member States.

The United Nations programme budget for 1998-1999 was reduced from some $2.532 billion to about $2.527 billion to reflect revised cost estimates and the cost of Assembly resolutions adopted during its current session.

The Assembly also requested that the Committee on Contributions recommend ways to tighten application of Article 19 of the UN Charter, which strips Member States of voting rights when their arrears equal or exceed the amount they owe for the past two years.

According to the terms of a nine-part resolution, the Assembly decided that the United Nations Pension Fund will make payments to divorced surviving spouses. The Fund's regulations will be amended to eliminate the practice of discontinuing a surviving spouse's benefits upon remarriage.

The Assembly asked the Secretary-General to provide more justification for his proposed change to a results-based budget format and a comparative analysis of the current and proposed methods. It also asked him to submit his proposed 2000-2001 programme budget using the present system, but to provide prototype fascicles in the results-based format.

The Assembly also decided that the base salary scale for professional and higher categories of staff and the children's allowance will be increased. Other resolutions dealt with financing for the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the UN mission in Angola.

Concluding the main part of its current session late Friday evening, the Assembly adopted a two-part resolution which focuses on the situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security. The text also addresses emergency international assistance for peace, normalcy and reconstruction of the war-stricken country.

The resolution calls on the Afghan parties to engage in a political dialogue for a lasting political settlement by creating a broad-based, multi-ethnic and fully representative government. It also condemns continued foreign support to the Afghan parties and calls on States to refrain from outside interference and end the supply or arms and equipment or any other military support.

In another action on Friday evening, the General Assembly decided that the International Organization of la Francophonie would participate in the Assembly's work, as an observer, instead of the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation whose rights and obligations the organization had assumed.

The staff were flown out in two flights provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said Manoel de Almeida e Silva, the Deputy Spokesman of the Secretary-General. He said that five international staff remained in the Republic of the Congo.

Mr. e Silva said that the situation in the country was unclear and might be dangerous, but the staff would remain there for now.

In his report to the Security Council, the Secretary-General says the Mission's police restructuring and judicial reform programme will encourage police services to reflect the ethnic composition of the communities they serve. It will also encourage them to protect citizens from human rights violations, as well as from common crime.

According to the report, the Mission's balanced approach links progress in police restructuring and reform in the Republika Srpska to recruitment of minorities for police services in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

An increased number of co-located monitors from the International Police Task Force (IPTF) are working alongside local police officers in significant command posts and in police stations, the report says. Similarly, UNMIBH's Human Rights Office is increasingly investigating the failure of law enforcement officials to observe due process and respect for human rights.

The Secretary-General emphasizes that the strong and consistent support of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led multinational Stabilization Force (SFOR) will be critically important in providing adequate security for UNMIBH to implement its mandate. He appeals to Council members to extend full diplomatic support to UNMIBH's efforts to create multi-ethnic police services in the Federation and in the Republika Srpska.

The Programme, which is cosponsored by the United Nations and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, is a follow-up to the Eco-Partnership Tokyo Conference last May. A new website is planned to provide an "organized road map" and "search engine" to link websites and information relevant to ecologically sustainable societies.

The website will offer information on such topics as waste management, urban transformation, water re-use, rainwater use, energy saving, toxic waste management and gender in ecologically sustainable development.

In an interview with UN Radio, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, Patrizio Civili, said the Tokyo conference was innovative in its method of work and the fact that it involved government and local authorities in civil society. He described the Information Exchange Programme as a "very important phase in the follow- up" to the conference.

The correction printed on page 5 of the Daily Highlights of 18 December 1998, should read:

"In the Daily Highlights of 15 December, the first two paragraphs of the story on page 2, "Secretary-General encouraged by UN-sponsored talks on Cyprus", should read as follows:

In a letter to the President of the Security Council on his mission of good offices in Cyprus, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that he was encouraged by the constructive manner in which both Glafcos Clerides and Rauf Denktash were engaging in a series of on-island "shuttle talks" aimed at reducing tension and promoting progress towards a just and lasting settlement.

In his letter, which was released at UN Headquarters on Tuesday, the Secretary-General commended both leaders for their statesmanship and vision, saying "the flexible approach by both sides provides hope for tangible progress."

For information purposes only - - not an official record

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

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