United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-03-22

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Monday, 22 March, 1999

HEADLINES

• Secretary-General urges Yugoslav authorities to halt military offensive in Kosovo.
• UN refugee agency reports scenes of despair in Kosovo as more than 25,000 people flee fighting.
• Warning of looming crisis, head of UN food agency urgently appeals for aid for Sudan.
• "Everybody lives downstream" idea promoted as UN marks World Day for Water.
• Secretary-General says UN police monitors in Bosnia and Herzegovina play vital role in establishing rule of law.
• UN human rights committee begins annual session to review compliance with key convention.
• Links to sustainable development examined as UN population commission opens session.
• UN assessment mission ends visit to China to discuss human rights issues.

In a statement released by his spokesman, the Secretary-General stressed that the offensive was in clear violation of the ceasefire agreement of last October. He urged the Yugoslav authorities to cooperate with efforts by members of the Contact Group to prevent further confrontation and reach a settlement.

The Secretary General said he was gravely concerned at the escalating violence in Kosovo. Mr. Annan said he was particularly alarmed that the humanitarian situation has deteriorated in the past week due to the offensive by Yugoslav security forces with intensified fighting between them and the Kosovar Albanian paramilitary units.

In addition to the 269,000 refugees in Western Europe and neighbouring countries, the number of displaced within Kosovo had now reached 235,000, including 25,000 who fled their homes since Saturday, said Mr. Annan. The security forces were burning houses and destroying the means of livelihood. Increased insecurity in the last 48 hours had led most humanitarian agencies to reduce their presence. Nevertheless, delivery of humanitarian aid continues, said the statement.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), many houses are in flames and displaced people and host families are living in extremely overcrowded and appalling conditions. The renewed burning of villages and destruction of people's means of livelihood will prevent the return of the displaced population, the agency says.

Humanitarian conditions are deteriorating as fighting intensifies between government security forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The renewed clashes came after the withdrawal on Saturday of monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM).

In his latest report on the situation in Kosovo, Secretary-General Kofi Annan shares UNHCR's strong concerns about the spread of violence against civilians. He says terror tactics by government forces, ethnically motivated violence, arbitrary treatment, targeted killings, abductions, and bomb attacks must be halted by those responsible. The UNHCR and its non- governmental partners will continue their efforts in risky conditions to protect and assist the large numbers of refugees and displaced people, the reports says.

Speaking at a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York, WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini said that her agency must raise at least $64 million in the coming days to purchase 55,000 metric tonnes of food "to be able to make it through the rest of the year." Ms. Bertini added that available food stocks would last until June. Noting that it usually took three months for the food to arrive, she said it was now critical for the international community to come forward in order for the UN agency to be able to provide food aid beyond June.

Ms. Bertini recalled that only about half of last year's appeal for $142 million had been met with the only contributor, United States, providing wheat. She called on other donors to contribute the most urgently needed food such as pulses, oil, corn-soya and cereals.

The WFP Executive Director expressed concern at the continuing fighting in some parts of the Bahr El Ghazal region in southern Sudan where most of the 2.3 million vulnerable people were sheltered. She also expressed the hope that the ceasefire, which would be reviewed on 15 April, would continue beyond that date. She said that the ceasefire "is very fragile but is absolutely critical" to enable delivery of food by truck instead of the more expensive airdrop operations.

The theme of the observance this year was "Everybody lives downstream" to emphasize the fact that problems in one particular water source could affect people even great distances away.

In a message, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that the world takes too much for granted having fresh water always available and that it needed to learn the true value of "this most precious resource".

According to UN figures, safe water can be provided to rural areas for $50 per person. Without clean water supplies, an estimated 3.3 billion people become ill and 5.3 million die each year. With only one percent of the world's water resources available for human use, by 2025, 30 percent of the world's population in 50 countries will face severe water shortages, seriously damaging their efforts at social and economic development.

Drawing attention to the potential dangers of water shortages, Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), warned that they might in the future lead to conflicts over the resource. He advocated monitoring of worldwide reserves of drinking water, establishing agreements on water use and promoting water conservation.

As part of its observance of World Day of Water, UNEP also announced the release of a half-hour BBC television documentary in which international experts urge the public to back national and international water conservation efforts.

The Mission's 2,000-strong International Police Task Force (IPTF) is helping to restructure and reform the police services in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the Republika Srpska. However, despite the agreement on police restructuring and reform in the Republika Srpska and some progress in minority recruitment in the Federation, the report says that it is not clear such steps mark the beginning of self-sustaining progress.

According to the report, tangible material support from donors is needed to modernize the country's police infrastructure. Without refurbished police academies, modern equipment and a well-equipped judiciary, the effort to establish the rule of law will continue to suffer under a tremendous burden.

The report says the establishment of self-sustaining political institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to present a significant challenge. The Secretary-General emphasizes the need for the strong and consistent support of the Stabilization Force in providing adequate security as well as diplomatic support for the creation of professional and multi-ethnic police services. He appeals to the members of the Security Council to extend full diplomatic support to UNMIBH's effort to create a professional, multi- ethnic police services in the Federation and the Republika Srpska.

The 18-member Human Rights Committee will examine the measures adopted by Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica and Lesotho to implement the 1976 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The session of the Committee will run through 9 April.

The Committee will also consider confidential communications from individuals claiming to be victims of violations of any of the rights proclaimed in the treaty.

The Committee was established to monitor the implementation of the Covenant and its related Protocols. Committee members are independent experts elected to four-year terms by countries parties to the treaty and serve in their personal capacity.

Founded in 1946 to study and advise the UN Economic and Social Council on population changes, the Commission was given new impetus by the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo and entrusted with the task of assessing implementation of the Cairo Conference's Programme of Action at the national, regional and international levels. The current session will mark the Commission's completion of its first five-year topic-oriented multi-year work programme after the Conference.

Following its annual session, the Commission will meet from 24 to 31 March as the preparatory committee for the upcoming special session of the General Assembly for the review and appraisal of the implementation of the Programme of Action adopted at the Cairo Conference. The Assembly's special session will be convened from 30 June to 2 July 1999.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Monday that during its stay in China, the mission received active cooperation from the Chinese authorities, institutions and officials. A statement released by the Office said Ms. Robinson was grateful for the cooperation extended to the mission sent pursuant to a memorandum of intent signed with China in Beijing last year.

In their meetings, the UN experts sought to advance the ratification and implementation of the two international human rights covenants through a comprehensive programme of technical cooperation in the field of human rights. The components of that programme would be reflected in a draft memorandum of understanding submitted by the mission to the Chinese authorities who are currently studying it.

In their discussions with the mission, the Chinese authorities identified a number of projects for priority consideration and indicated that other projects required further study. The mission is currently drafting detailed project outlines to facilitate ratification of the human rights covenants, strengthening national human rights capacities and infrastructures, and creating the conditions for the harmonization of national law and practice with international human rights standards.

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

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