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United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-03-09United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSTuesday, 9 March, 1999This daily news round-up is prepared by the Central News Section of the Department of Public Information. The latest update is posted at approximately 6:00 PM New York time. HEADLINES
The problem of United States arrears lies not with the American people but with the country's leaders and politicians, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told a meeting a leading public organization in the United States dedicated to promoting United Nations goals. In an address to the National Convention of the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) at UN Headquarters in New York, the Secretary-General said he welcomed renewed efforts by Washington to resolve the dispute over the non-payment of dues. The Secretary-General also thanked the UNA-USA "for committing your energies, your talents and your inspired initiative" to United Nations vital causes. The Secretary-General said several recent polls had shown that the better informed the American public was, the more willing it was to support the work and causes of the United Nations. Mr. Annan also cited examples of UNA- USA programmes designed to inform and educate the American public about the United Nations. The UNA-USA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to enhancing US participation in the United Nations system. As one of the leading centres of policy research on the United Nations and global issues, UNA-USA seeks to bring together leaders in Congress, business, academia, non- governmental organizations and the UN community for discussions of pressing problems on the international agenda. Less than a week before the Kosovo peace talks are scheduled to resume in France, the situation on the ground is deteriorating, with a continuous cycle of violence and displacement, the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) reported on Tuesday. According to UNHCR, residents of several small villages near Vucitm along the Pristina-Kosovska Mitrovica road fled on Monday after the Yugoslav army moved into the area at the foot of the Dranica mountain. UNHCR said up to 1, 600 people were believed to be on the run. The shelling on Monday of villages around Mijatic, presumably sparked by the kidnapping and killing of two Serbs last week, has driven hundreds more villagers from their homes. UNHCR's efforts to evacuate about 200 people stuck on a mountain slope close to the border with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia have been frustrated by fighting in the area. The agency is worried about the people, especially children and the elderly, who are exposed to harsh winter conditions. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has welcomed the assurances by the parties to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to stop fighting and allow two UN agencies to carry out an urgently needed polio immunization campaign in that country. In a statement issued by his spokesman on Tuesday, the Secretary- General also extended his full support to the initiative, which the heads of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) described in a joint letter to him as the single highest priority for global polio eradication. A respite in fighting or a series of truces called "days of tranquillity" would need to be negotiated to allow the immunization of some 10 million children under the age of five throughout the country later this year, the statement said. Spokesman Fred Eckhard said that the Secretary-General was heartened by President Laurent Kabila's public commitment to support polio eradication. Mr. Annan was also encouraged by the commitment of the Chairman of the Congolese Rally for Democracy to facilitate the implementation of the so- called National Immunization Days in rebel-held territory. He expressed hope that both parties and their allies would do all that was necessary to provide the peaceful and secure environment needed for the effort to succeed. The immunization campaign would be coordinated by Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, on Tuesday condemned the brutal murder of three indigenous human rights activists in Colombia last week, and urged the authorities to fully investigate the murders and bring the perpetrators to justice. The victims, who had been kidnapped on 25 February, were found on March 4 blindfolded, handcuffed and shot several times through the head. They had been visiting the Uw'a, an indigenous people of about 5,000 living in the Arauco region of Colombia, who are opposed to oil exploitation on their lands. The High Commissioner paid tribute to the three and recalled that one of them, Ingrid Washinawatok, a member of the Menominee Nation of Wisconsin, was well known to the international community for her active defence of indigenous rights. In a message of condolence to the bereaved families, Ms. Robinson recognized the courage and commitment of the slain activists and reaffirmed her Office's determination to protect the human rights of the world's indigenous peoples. The High Commissioner expressed her concern that despite the growing international consensus on indigenous rights, and the proclamation by the General Assembly of an International Decade of the World's Indigenous People (1995 - 2004) aimed at bringing about respect for indigenous cultures, indigenous rights defenders remained targets of human rights violations. More than 4,000 refugees fleeing intensifying fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's south-eastern Shaba province have crossed into northern Zambia in recent days, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on Tuesday. The agency said that the new arrivals were predicting that many more people were on their way to Zambia as anti-government rebels are reportedly attacking targets south of the town of Moba, on Lake Tanganyika. Zambian security forces have also disarmed and held several hundred Congolese soldiers and policemen near the border. The UNHCR says there are already 12,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Zambia. The talks on East Timor at the senior officials' level, scheduled to begin at UN Headquarters on Tuesday afternoon, have been delayed by a day due to late arrival in New York of the Indonesian delegation, a UN spokesman announced on Tuesday. No other changes to the schedule were expected. During the talks, Foreign Minister Ali Alatas of Indonesia and Jaime Goma of Portugal will meet with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, as well as Secretary-Genera's Personal Representative for East Timor Jamsheed Marker. According to the UN spokesman, the participants were expected to discuss the autonomy package, the methodology of ascertaining the views of the Timorese on that package, and the situation in East Timor. Last week's interruption of oil exports from Iraq to Turkey should not affect the overall export from the Turkish port of Ceyhan during the current phase of the implementation of the oil-for-food programme, according to the United Nations Office of the Iraq Programme. In its latest weekly update, the Office reports that since the beginning of the phase on 26 November 1998, almost 190 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil were exported. The current phase runs through 23 May 1999. Last week, the Executive Director of the Office of the Iraq Programme, Benon Sevan, expressed concern at the disruption of the flow of oil from Iraq to Turkey as a result of the loss of a communications station which reportedly suffered damage caused by a missile attack on 28 February. Meanwhile, the Security Council committee that oversees the sanctions regime on Iraq approved an additional four contracts for oil industry spare parts and equipment, bringing the total number of such contracts to 386 with a combined value of $230 million. The Security Council had allocated $300 million for oil spare parts and equipment for the current 180-day period. A United Nations food aid agency on Tuesday warned that the population of the famine-stricken Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was moving into a lean period since the public distribution system had almost depleted its own resources. The Rome-based World Food Programme (WFP) said that it was already recording growing malnutrition, especially among children over the age of seven. The lack of public food distribution might mean more consumption of grass, wild mushrooms, tree bark and other non-nutritional substances, the agency said, substances that might calm hunger pains, but cause stomach problems and sickness. In its latest outlook on the food situation in the country, the agency predicted that the people would have to rely on international food aid until next October's harvest. Drawing attention to a related problem, the agency said that while two million children received international food aid at school, they took it home to share with their families. To redress that situation, WFP was beginning to produce protein biscuits locally to bring some food to the children in school. As for harvest prospects, the UN agency said that only 10 percent of available rice fields had been cultivated due to a lack of fuel and spare parts for machinery. For information purposes only - - not an official record From the United Nations home page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgUnited Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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