United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-03-05

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 5 March, 1999

HEADLINES

• Security Council members welcome proposal to set up UN office in Guinea- Bissau.
• UN Secretary-General "unreservedly strongly" condemns rebel atrocities against civilians in Sierra Leone.
• UN reports deteriorating humanitarian situation in Angola.
• Chief Prosecutor for Rwanda and Yugoslav Tribunals urges partnership between criminal justice and peacekeepers.
• Secretary-General endorses creation of Brcko district in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• World Food Programme launches airlift of food aid to flood victims in Mozambique.
• Lions Club International hailed at UN as partner and supporter.
• Earth is a treasure held in trust for future generations, Secretary- General tells gathering of students.
• Nobel Peace Prize winners and UNESCO launch manifesto to promote grass roots peace movement.

The Secretary-General proposed last month that a United Nations Peace- building Support Office be established to help create an enabling environment for restoring and consolidating peace, democracy and the rule of law and for the organization of free and transparent elections in Guinea- Bissau.

The Office would also work with the Government of National Unity, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), as well as other national and international partners, to facilitate the implementation of the Abuja Agreement.

The UN support office would also seek the commitment of the Government and other parties to adopt a programme of voluntary arms collection and destruction and provide the political framework and leadership for harmonizing and integrating the activities of the United Nations system in the country, particularly during the transitional period leading up to general and presidential elections.

The Secretary-General said that the mandate of the proposed office was a response to the needs of Guinea-Bissau as conveyed by the Government to a UN multi-disciplinary mission dispatched to Guinea-Bissau in early December.

In his latest report to the Security Council on the UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL), the Secretary-General also expressed hope that the Government would investigate allegations that members of pro-Government forces might also have been guilty of violations. He said that he intended to deploy an additional human rights officer to enable UNOMSIL's human rights component to deepen its coverage of human rights abuses in the country.

The Secretary-General congratulated the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) on its success in repelling the rebels who had attacked the city on 6 January. Mr. Annan informed the Security Council that the possible partial withdrawal of Nigerian forces from ECOMOG and the consequent effects on ECOMOG's effectiveness in Sierra Leone could require a major reappraisal of the situation.

Mr. Annan praised as "bold and valuable" President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's decision to allow Corporal Foday Sankoh, the leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), to meet with rebel leaders in order to develop a coherent set of political demands which would form the basis of subsequent negotiations with the Government. Should negotiations between the Government and the rebels take a favourable turn, the Secretary-General said, UNOMSIL should remain in a position to be able to render further assistance to the peace process. He therefore recommended the extension of UNOMSIL's mandate for a further period of three months, until 13 June 1999.

The Secretary-General said that in view of the improvement in the security situation in and around Freetown during the past few days, he intended to re-establish UNOMSIL in Freetown as soon as possible. Meanwhile, UN agencies had also been authorized to re-establish a limited presence in Freetown.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, Francesco Strippolli, the Humanitarian Coordinator in Angola said that the number of displaced people increased from 350,000 in November to 650,000 today. He said that the country was in the midst of a debilitating civil war and every fight raised the number of internally displaced persons as people fled to seek refuge in the main cities.

Mr. Strippolli said that most of those cities were under siege by the troops of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), which made it difficult to deliver humanitarian relief assistance by road. The UN official, who had gone to Geneva to alert the donor community and the press about the impending tragedy in that country, expressed the hope that the donors would continue to support humanitarian activities in Angola.

At a press conference at UN headquarters on Friday, Justice Louis Anne Arbour said that African States were more willing to support the work of the Rwanda Tribunal and had apprehended 34 of the 36 accused who were transferred to Arusha. This contrasted with the lack of cooperation given to the Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, she added.

Justice Arbour said there was a tolerated non-compliance by States of the former Yugoslavia, particularly in the Republica Srpska and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, where all existing public indictments accompanied by arrest warrants were outstanding. She also cited the non- compliance by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with her Office's need to proceed with investigations in Kosovo.

The Chief Prosecutor said she had initiated court proceedings that would hopefully put to rest Belgrade's contention that the Prosecutor's office did not have jurisdiction in Kosovo. She emphasized that the issue was a legal, not a political one, and said there was sufficient evidence to trigger the obligation of the Prosecutor to investigate further.

A partnership between international criminal justice and peacekeeping operations to enforce humanitarian law was the only realistic alternative in the face of States unwilling to comply with their legal obligations, said Justice Arbour. In the post-Rambouillet effort to bring a peace agreement to Kosovo, she said she would press hard for "explicit and robust" language about the assistance the Tribunal would enjoy if international troops were stationed in Kosovo.

The Secretary-General's spokesman Fred Eckhard said on Friday that for Brcko, no less than for Bosnia itself, there was no alternative to democratic, multi-ethic government, and that Mr. Annan was therefore particularly pleased that this vital principle had been upheld by the Tribunal's award.

Mr. Annan said the award provides a unique opportunity for the three communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to work together to promote economic prosperity, establish the rule of law and demonstrate their commitment to a tolerant and open society. He strongly urged the leadership in both entities to serve the interests of all Brcko residents, regardless of their ethnicity, by complying fully with the arbitration award.

According to the spokesman, the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and its International Police Task Force, would continue to assist the parties and the supervising authority in Brcko to ensure a smooth transition to a unified, multi-ethnic police and judicial system in the newly-established district.

WFP said that the airlift to Vilankulo and Inhassoro towns of southern Mozambique would run from the coastal city of Beira and was scheduled to deliver some 350 metric tonnes of maize and beans, enough to feed the flood victims for at least 10 days. The UN food agency said that it had already delivered 30 tonnes of food rations to Pande, a village just north of Inhassoro, and that two boats left today with 100 tonnes of food for Inhassoro.

The airlift followed an appeal for international assistance for the victims launched by the Government of Mozambique this week. The UN agency added that to carry out the operation, it needed $125,000 and that it had appealed to donors for the funds.

WFP said that it planned to use a helicopter to airlift the food to accessible major towns and from there to forward it to the flood victims by boat. For isolated communities, the UN food agency said it planned to use helicopters. "It is virtually impossible to move food overland because all road access into and out of Mozambique's southern province of Inhambane along the coast is completely cut off from the rest of the country," said Georgia Shaver, WFP representative in Mozambique and regional manager for southern Africa.

In remarks to the 21st Annual Lions Day with the United Nations at UN Headquarters in New York, the Secretary-General said that the UN and the Lions were alike in many ways. "We are both dedicated to promoting peace and tolerance among peoples."

In the area of health, the Secretary-General stressed how much the UN appreciated and admired the Lions Club International's SightFirst programme in which the Lions had worked with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization in the fight to rid the world of preventable and reversible blindness. He also drew parallels between the two organizations' efforts to provide food aid to people hit by natural disaster such as Hurricane Mitch, teach about environmental degradation and help people with disabilities.

Looking ahead, the Secretary-General said that one of the main preoccupations for the UN and the Lions was globalization which, he added, had brought many benefits and at the same time inflicted damage primarily on the poor and the vulnerable.

The gathering for the twenty-first Annual Lions Day with the UN was sponsored by the UN Department of Public Information and brought together the club members from around the world and representatives of UN Member States. Issues of peace and security, and the importance of volunteerism and service in furthering the aims of the UN throughout the world were highlighted during the Lions' Day programme.

In an address to United Nations International School (UNIS) and UN student conference, the Secretary-General recalled an African proverb describing the earth as a treasure to be held in trust for future generations.

Mr. Annan said it was the diversity of human cultures and religions which made the world such an interesting and exciting place to live. Being different, human beings could learn from each other -- and that was the secret of human progress, he continued. "We can only learn from each other if we listen to each other, and respect each other's rights. So there has to be a broad framework of shared values, within which different cultures and religions can coexist," Mr. Annan added.

Nobel Laureates Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, Rigoberta Menchu Tum of Guatemala and Adolfo Perez Esquivel of Argentina inaugurated the initiative together with UNESCO Director-General Frederico Mayor at a ceremony at the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Thursday.

The "Manifesto 2000 for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence" is part of preparations for the year 2000, which has been proclaimed International Year for the Culture of Peace by the UN General Assembly. The aim is to collect 100 million signatures from people around the world by the time of the millennium General Assembly in September 2000.

Mr. Mayor called for governments, parliaments and mayors to support the Manifesto, which UNESCO will disseminate. It can also be signed on the Internet at www.unesco.org/manifesto2000.

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

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