United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-01-26

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, 26 January, 1999

HEADLINES

• UN Secretary-General calls for negotiations on treaty to ban production of fissile material for nuclear weapons.
• Secretary-General says UN ready to help Colombian earthquake victims.
• UN food agency protests looting of relief supplies during rebel attack in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
• Rescue team says it is doubtful there are any survivors of second UN plane crash in Angola.
• UN official and Taliban discuss return of international staff to Afghanistan.
• UNHCR investigates reports Rwandan refugees fighting for government in Republic of Congo.
• UNICEF warns 60,00 children at risk of malnutrition and disease in Somalia.

In an address to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, the Secretary- General said "meaningful negotiations for a non-discriminatory, multilateral and effectively verifiable treaty" governing fissile materials would greatly help the cause of nuclear non-proliferation and the process of general nuclear disarmament.

The Secretary-General also supported assurances to non-nuclear- weapon States against the use or threat of nuclear weapons and called for further steps to harmonize the unilateral security guarantees of the five nuclear weapons States in a single equally-binding instrument.

On the arms race in East Asia, Mr. Annan welcomed India and Pakistan's declaration to adhere to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and said he hoped both governments would act on that declaration this year. Noting that the nuclear non-proliferation regime was all to fragile, the Secretary- General stressed the need for more determined efforts to reduce nuclear arsenals with a view to their ultimate elimination.

The Secretary-General said issues that had to be addressed in the arms limitations and disarmament field were vast and complex. He spoke about negotiations on a ban on transfers of landmines, tightening limits on small arms flows and verifying compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention.

In a statement in Geneva, where he is on an official visit, the Secretary- General said he was profoundly distressed to learn of the devastation and tragic loss of human life, caused by the earthquake on Tuesday in northeast Colombia. He expressed deepest sympathy to the Colombian Government and people as they struggled to cope with the aftermath of the earthquake. The promptness with which the Government had started to mobilize humanitarian aid has helped considerably, he said.

Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which also facilitates natural disaster response, had not been advised of a request for international assistance, according to UN spokesman Fred Eckhard. UN disaster coordination assessment teams were on standby in the region, ready for immediate deployment to the earthquake stricken area, he added.

The food aid, which was stored in the eastern part of the city, would have fed 150,000 hungry people for a month, said WFP. Eight brand new trucks, recently acquired to speed up food deliveries to tens of thousands of people throughout the country, were also vandalized.

The identity of the looters was unknown, but WFP said it suspected rebel elements and some civilians. Until yesterday, because of security reasons it had not been possible to reach the stores in eastern Freetown.

Since fighting started on 6 January most of Freetown's 800,000 residents have experienced serious food and water shortages. The highway linking the capital with the rest of Sierra Leone is closed, cutting off food supplies.

Meanwhile, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) a planned aid flight to the town of Kenema was canceled again on Monday for security reasons.

An estimated 50,000 displaced persons are crowded into the town and the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) is considering moving the group 20 kilometres west of Kenema, because of the proximity of rebel forces. Fighting continues 13 kilometres from the town, according to UNHCR sources in Guinea.

The plane, which carried nine passengers and crew crashed 20 miles northeast of Huambo, a stronghold of the National Union for the total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

The search team, which reached the crash site on Monday reported that the remains recovered were beyond recognition and would require examination to establish the identities of the victims. Arrangements were being made to have the data collected and examined by aviation and medical experts.

Based on preliminary observations, the team said the plane was attempting to make an emergency landing when major sections started to come apart while in the air. Local villages told the search team that the aircraft burst into flames and fell from the sky, forcing them to run for cover.

On 8 January an investigation team visited the site of another UN- Chartered plane which crashed in Angola with 14 passengers and crew on 26 December.

The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Erik De Mul, travelled to Kandahar on Monday for meetings with the Taliban leadership on outstanding security issues, particularly the return of UN international staff.

The United Nations withdrew its international staff from the country after the murder of three UN personnel last Summer.

As a follow up to Mr. Mul's trip, a UN technical mission plans to visit the Afghanistan capital of Kabul and Jalalabad in early February for further discussions. The mission will be comprised of staff from the Office of the UN Security Coordinator in New York, the UN Coordinator's Office in Afghanistan and the UN Special Mission to Afghanistan.

United Nations programmes in Afghanistan have been run by national staff of agencies and implementing partners since international staff left the country.

According to the UNHCR, as fighting between the opposition and militia loyal to Prime Minister, Kolelas intensified last week, Rwandans living in refugee sites north of the capital Brazzaville might have volunteered or been called on to join in.

UNHCR spokesman Judith Kumin said in Geneva that the Government is reported to have sent a boat from Brazzaville to Njoundou, one of the refugee sites housing about 3,000 Rwandans, possibly to pick up volunteers. The UNHCR was watching the situation closely, she said.

A UNICEF spokesman said on Tuesday in Geneva that because of major flooding, droughts and prolonged insecurity in the region, an estimated one million people, including some 60,000 children under five years of age, were at risk from lack of food and disease.

Malnutrition rates among children have risen by more than 20 per cent in the Bay and Bakool areas, the traditional bread basket region, according to UNICEF.

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

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