United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-03-02

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, 2 March, 1999

HEADLINES

• In face of new crises and old conflicts, UN stands ready to do its part, Secretary-General tells news conference.
• Secretary-General hopes "right lessons" are drawn from UN experience in Iraq.
• UN official says interruption to Iraqi oil exports will aggravate lack of funding for humanitarian aid.
• UN refugee agency reports "appalling" conditions of evacuees fleeing clashes in Kosovo.
• UN warns of persistent food supply problems in many countries, despite gains in cereal production.
• Germany brings case against US to International Court of Justice over murder trial of two German nationals.
• UN food agency begins emergency aid flights into Sierra Leone.

During a press conference at UN headquarters, the Secretary-General cited recent encouraging developments, such as Eritrea's acceptance of proposals for ending the war with Ethiopia, the peaceful elections in Nigeria and the entry into force of the Ottawa Convention on landmines.

Mr. Annan said he was particularly gratified by the good reception of proposals he had put to world business community at Davos, Switzerland on 31 January. He said States alone could not solve all the problems of the global economy and the UN needed to work with the private sector and non- governmental organizations to achieve goals on human rights and environmental and labour standards.

When asked what he intended to do to overcome setbacks in UN peacekeeping efforts, Mr. Annan said he was not unduly concerned. The Security Council itself, after its reluctance following the Somalia experience to get involved in peacekeeping operations, was beginning to consider such issues with a more open mind. He added that Council members were aware they might have to get engaged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. "And I am confident the pendulum will swing back at some future date," he said.

The Secretary-General said he was continuing his efforts to secure Libya's compliance with Security Council resolutions for the handing over of two suspects involved in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland. Last week, he had provided Libya with all the clarifications and explanations it had sought. "We are now waiting for a decision to be able to move on with the trial and I hope it would be forthcoming soon", Mr. Annan added.

On East Timor, the Secretary-General expressed hope that East Timor's transition to either autonomy status or independence would be peaceful and that Indonesia understood it was within their interests to work with the UN towards that end. Violence would not be within the interests of Indonesia or its neighbours, he said, adding that he did not believe there was a deliberate policy to destabilize East Timor.

At a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York, Secretary- General Kofi Annan stressed that the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) did not report to him -- it reported to the Security Council. He also noted that there had been indications that UNSCOM's present head Richard Butler, as well as former chief Rolf Ekeus, might not have known anything about this.

The Secretary-General pointed out that the United Nations went into Iraq "to focus on disarmament and to implement the Council decisions, and we would have preferred for everyone involved, everyone on the United Nations ticket, to focus on that."

Mr. Annan said that he viewed the UN disarmament effort in Iraq as an important step in international efforts to disarm. "I hope all of us, particularly the Council, would draw the right lessons from what has happened in Iraq and move on from there," he said.

Benon Sevan, the Executive Director of the UN Office of the Iraq Programme, said on Tuesday that given depressed oil prices and the state of Iraq's oil industry, there was a $900 million gap between expected revenue and what was needed for the humanitarian programme. "The shortfall is already cutting deeply into the allocations for water, sanitation, agriculture and education," he said.

Under the UN's oil-for-food programme, Iraq is permitted to export a limited amount of oil in exchange for food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies.

The Kirkuk to Ceyhan pipeline, which carries half the oil Iraq is permitted to export under the oil-for-food programme, was shut down on Sunday evening after damage to a communications repeater station, which Iraq says was caused by an airstrike. The station is about 125 kilometres from the Zakho metering station on the border with Turkey. Prospects for an early resumption of oil flows faded on Tuesday with reports that a second communications facility has also been damaged.

On Monday, United Nations independent inspection agents who monitor Iraqi oil exports visited the repeater station and reported on the extent of the damage.

Describing the refugee situation along Kosovo's south-eastern border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, a UNHCR spokesman told the press in Geneva that the agency's officials had witnessed about 500 people, mostly women and children, from Gajre camping on a nearby snow- covered mountainside, pitching plastic tents and making fires. UNHCR, which is arranging delivery of aid for these people, transported 10-day- old twin babies suffering from exposure to a nearby hospital.

In another location, near the border crossing point called General Jankovic, UNHCR saw some families packed into houses, each hosting as many as 30 to 50 evacuees. The agency's spokesman described housing conditions -- with no heating or sanitation facilities -- as "appalling". UNCHR was planning to deliver aid there on Wednesday.

In a special Food Update released at the Salon de l'Agriculture in Paris, FAO said that the continued impact of severe weather phenomena and turmoil in the world's financial markets threatened had exacerbated the problems in many parts of the world. According to the UN agency, Asia will likely be one of the main recipients of food aid in 1999, reflecting the difficult food situation in Indonesia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

In Iraq, despite some improvement in the overall food situation following the implementation of the oil-for-food programme, malnutrition still remained a serious problems, FAO warned. Central America and the Caribbean were facing reduced levels of cereal output for 1998/99 as a result of El Nino related weather disturbances.

In Africa, the Update warned of mounting concern about the deteriorating food situation in Somalia, in part due to a poor Deyr season crop forecast and renewed fighting. In Tanzania, a severely reduced Vuli crop had increased the number of vulnerable people, while food shortages had been reported in eastern parts of Kenya despite a satisfactory situation nationally. Across northern Africa, Algeria and Morocco faced uncertain prospects for 1999 wheat and barley following delayed rains which had affected planting.

While pointing out positive outlooks for several regions of the world, the FAO Food Update listed 15 States facing unfavourable prospects for current crops and identified 38 countries requiring, in its words, "exceptional" or "emergency" assistance because of shortfalls in food supplies in the current marketing year.

Despite appeals for clemency and diplomatic interventions at the highest levels by the German Government, Karl LaGrand was executed on 24 February for the murder of a bank manager during a robbery attempt in 1982. His brother, Walter is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday for the same crime.

In its application, Germany maintains that "Karl and Walter LaGrand were tried and sentenced to death without being advised of their rights to consular assistance", as required by the Vienna Convention. Its consular officials were only made aware of the case in 1992 by the detainees themselves, not by Arizona authorities, Germany contends. "The failure to provide the required notification precluded Germany from protecting its nationals' interest in the United States at both the trial and appeal level in the State courts", the application states.

Germany also filed an urgent request for interim measures of protection asking the Court to indicate that the US should take measures to ensure that Walter LaGrand is not executed pending the final decision in the proceedings.

The WFP recently leased a helicopter to airlift personnel and emergency food and medical supplies into the country as part of an effort to assist Sierra Leoneans most affected by the continuing war between rebels and the West African security force, ECOMOG.

The helicopter will be used to fly to the eastern towns of Bo and Kenema, where aid efforts have been hampered because of insecurity on the roads. Currently, food agencies are feeding displaced people in both towns with food stocks from local warehouses.

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

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