United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-01-11

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Monday, 11 January, 1999

HEADLINES

• UN high-level meeting to consider peace-building in Burundi.
• World Food Programme says thousands of people trapped in Freetown could starve if fighting continues.
• Crash site of a UN aircraft is found in Angola.
• Mob attacks UN police monitors in Bosnia Herzegovina.
• UN group on child rights to discuss minimum military age.
• UNESCO meeting to address child pornography and paedophilia on Internet

UN Spokesman Fred Eckhard said participants were expected to discuss resource requirements for negotiations -- known as the Arusha Peace Process -- to end the civil war in Burundi, as well as peace building activities for the central African country.

Former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere will be among the senior regional, donor and UN officials attending the meeting organized by the UN Department of Political Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme and the Canadian Government.

The Rome-based UN agency said that since the start of the fighting in the country's capital six days ago, residents had been confined to their homes with little or no food, water or electricity. WFP said that heavy exchanges of gunfire and a de facto 24-hour curfew had made it impossible for the population to venture out to obtain essential supplies.

WFP added that in some parts of the city, desperate people had tried to go out to look for food but soldiers had forced them back into their houses. According to the UN agency, all shops and markets have been shut since Freetown was invaded by rebel forces last Wednesday. WFP said that the city received almost all of its food supplies from the country's interior but fighting had effectively closed the highway linking the capital to the rest of Sierra Leone and interrupted all commercial food imports.

In Abidjan, Paul Ar‚s, WFP Regional Manager for coastal West Africa, expressed grave concern about the severe hardship imposed on the civilian population. He said that the fighting had taken Freetown residents by surprise. "They had no opportunity to stock-up on food, every day that passes means thousands of people are getting more hungry," he added. Mr. Ar‚s said that WFP urgently needed all parties to the conflict to allow unimpeded access to the needy people in Freetown and the rest of the country.

Benon Sevan, who is also the Secretary-General's special emissary, said that the team visited the site of UN plane crash last Friday approximately three kilometres from the village of Vila Nova. He said that based on the preliminary observations of the team, the UN aircraft, totally out of control, had nosedived to the ground at a very high speed. The impact of the fall was such that much of the plane was buried in the ground and only a portion of the tail section was visible, he said. Mr. Sevan added that it was doubtful that anyone could have survived such an impact.

Mr. Sevan noted that although the impact had taken place in an area where there were no trees, the team found a lot of branches covering the wreckage, indicating that an attempt had been made to camouflage it. The team also confirmed that the cockpit voice recorder tape was ripped out and removed from the aircraft which indicated a deliberate attempt to cover up the cause of the accident.

The Security Coordinator said that the team's visit was brief because of security considerations and its members had to leave the site in time to reach Huambo before dark. A preliminary report was being prepared on the basis of this trip, but an expert team would have to be established to look into the cause of the crash. Meanwhile, efforts were under way to locate the site of the crash of the second UN aircraft on 2 January 1999.

The suspect, Dragan Gagovic, a Bosnian Serb, was shot to death earlier in the day by the Stabilization Force (SFOR) of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He was indicted by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on several counts of crimes against humanity, including rape and torture, committed in the city and municipality of Foca located south-east of Sarajevo.

After the shooting, a crowd of local people surrounded the United Nations International Police Task Force (IPTF) station in Foca and some of them assaulted the monitors. Two monitors required medical treatment and three others received slight injuries.

During the attack, shots were fired, windows smashed and the station ransacked, said Mr. Eckhard. The IPTF is currently assessing the damage and intends to return to Foca as soon as possible to continue with its duties, he added.

The Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bertie Ramcharan, opened the two-week session, which will draft an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child before reporting to the Commission on Human Rights.

Many countries want 18 years to be the minimum age children can serve in the armed forces, while others have different views.

The meeting on 18 and 19 January is scheduled to produce a joint action plan on measures to overcome the problem, while respecting freedom on the Internet. Themes will include the role of civil society in combating sexual abuse of children; crime detection, law enforcement and extradition; and making the net safe for young children.

The 150 participants will include representatives from non- governmental and intergovernmental organizations and UN agencies, as well as judges and legal experts.

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

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