United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-01-25

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Monday, 25 January, 1999

HEADLINES

• Secretary-General says humanitarian work by UN and Red Cross under unprecedented stress.
• Neighbouring countries end regional economic sanctions against Burundi.
• UN humanitarian office says 150,000 people now internally displaced in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
• Negotiations begin on global treaty to combat persistent organic pollutants.
• Head of UN World Health Organization outlines survival strategy for whole of humanity.
• Organic farming offers new market opportunities for farmers, says UN Food and Agricultural Organization.
• UN search team arrives at second UN plane crash site in Angola.
• UN agencies agree to set up joint office in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Secretary-General was speaking at the ICRC headquarters in Geneva where he is on an official visit. He said civilians had become the preferred targets of combatants, so that low intensity conflicts generated enormous human suffering. Breaches of humanitarian law and human rights have become an almost routine means to an end. Humanitarian assistance, he said, had been used as a fig leaf, hiding a lack of political will to address the root causes of conflict.

The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, speaking to the Security Council last month, pointed out that 90 per cent of the deaths of humanitarian workers have not been adequately investigated by the authorities concerned, the Secretary-General said. "We must not resign ourselves to this state of affairs. It is unacceptable and we have to fight it," he added.

Mr. Annan expressed the hope that the emerging body of law and norms could be used to fight the problem. He said that it would be fitting to use this year to reach the 60 ratifications needed to establish the International Criminal Court.

The countries that imposed the sanctions -- Tanzania, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia and Zambia -- took the decision over the weekend at the Arusha Regional Summit in Tanzania.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the decision in a statement issued in Geneva on Sunday. He expressed the hope that it would help strengthen the Arusha Peace Process, and encourage all parties to apply the necessary wisdom and spirit of compromise to end the civil war in Burundi and allow the population to focus on reconstruction and development.

According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) the suspension of regional sanctions against Burundi will help the country meet its food needs. The economic embargo helped weaken Burundi's economy already hurt by the civil war which began in 1993, the agency said.

For the last two and a half years, WFP has contributed over 67,000 metric tons of food to Burundi to offset the effects of the sanctions and ongoing insecurity. Nearly half was distributed in 1998, with an average of 218,000 people receiving emergency food assistance from WFP each month.

The food agency says over the next two years it will put more resources into food-for-work projects that emphasize rehabilitation and income- generation, particularly for women. WFP estimates it will distribute 50,000 tons of food in 1999, reaching over 300,000 Burundians every month.

Some 40,000 people are seeking refuge in an open stadium in the western part of Freetown. Immediate humanitarian assistance is required to provide water, sanitation, healthcare and shelter. Staff from the UN World Food Programme (WFP), CARE, World Vision, and Christian Relief Services are now running 11 food distribution centres in the accessible parts of the city.

A joint mission of representatives from the UN, donors and non- governmental organizations travelled to Freetown on Friday to assess the situation.

The five days of negotiations are in response to worldwide concern over the dangers to public health and the environment caused by the pollutants, known as POPs. The Nairobi meeting follows the first round of talks in Montreal last Summer. Countries hope to reach an international convention on POPs by the year 2000.

The UNEP Deputy Executive Director, Shafqat Kakakhel, said the persistent, toxic pollutants travelled to remote parts of the world and harmed the ecological support on which life depends. They posed risks to the unborn and endangered generations to come. "No country, acting alone, could stem the tide," he said.

Mr. Kakakhel expressed confidence that governments would act deliberately and decisively in Nairobi to bring the world closer to the vital safeguards of a POPs convention.

The 12 POPs on the initial list for action under the proposed treaty include pesticides, industrial by-products and unintended by-products of combustion and industrial processes.

The Director-General's remarks entitled, "The Way Ahead for WHO", were delivered in Geneva at the first meeting of the WHO Executive Board since she took office last July. Dr. Brundtland focused on the global development agenda, ideas for shaping WHO strategies and structural changes initiated at the agency.

Ms. Brundtland pledged to put health at the core of the international development agenda. She said "health for all" was the message for all stakeholders. WHO's contribution, if carefully designed and applied, she said, could have enormous impact. It could help national governments, civil society, the United Nations family, development banks and the private sector to be more effective and have far greater impact.

According to the Director-General sound investments in health could be one of the most cost-effective ways of promoting development and progress. Improving health in poor countries, she noted, led to increased GDP per capita. In richer countries, it reduced overall costs to society. She said she believed the international community, including WHO, had undersold that fact. In a time of global trade and investment, when nations were searching for ways to make ends meet, "we have been sitting on a secret," she added.

Although only a small percentage of farmers are expected to become organic producers, in several developed countries, organic agriculture represents a significant portion of the food system, the report says. In Austria 10 per cent of farming is organic and in Switzerland it is 7.8 per cent. Other countries, such as the United States, France, Japan and Singapore, experience annual growth rates which exceed 20 per cent.

Some developing countries, such as Egypt, have small domestic organic markets and are seizing the lucrative export opportunities, says the report. Several countries export tropical fruits to the European baby-food industry and six African countries export cotton to the European Community. Zimbabwe exports herbs to South Africa, China exports tea to the Netherlands and soybeans to Japan.

To maintain consumer confidence in the integrity of organic products, countries should promote their own organic certification organizations and better enforce standards by punishing fraudulent activities, the report says.

Two UN-chartered aircraft were downed on 26 December and 2 January over territory controlled by the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

Earlier on Monday, the 25-member team landed at Bailundo, a UNITA stronghold in central Angola, and then moved on to the crash site, said Mr. Eckhard.

Some 100,000 internally displaced persons are in need of humanitarian assistance in north and south Kivu, in the country's east, Mr. Eckhard added.

The UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has just completed an assessment mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the spokesman said. Resumption of UN humanitarian activities will depend largely on the security situation and the return of confiscated UN equipment.

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

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