United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-05-12

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Wednesday, 12 May, 1999

Latest Developments

HEADLINES

• UNHCR steps up efforts to move Kosovo refugees from border camps to more secure areas.
• UNICEF chief outlines agency's anti-war agenda at Hague peace conference.
• Official at UN's oil-for-food programme concerned over slow distribution of medical supplies in Iraq.

The first day of an information campaign to persuade some of the estimated 90,000 refugees still in Kukes, Albania, to leave for more secure and better facilities in the south met with mixed results, according to UNHCR. Refugees gave various reasons for not wanting to move, preferring to wait near the border for family members who might still arrive from Kosovo, or to stay in the vicinity in case they could return home. Some were afraid of the "unknown" in other parts of Albania.

Other factors were also at work, the UN refugee agency said. Members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) have reportedly been active in the camps trying to dissuade people from leaving. After UNHCR had persuaded a group of 700 refugees to move, KLA representatives apparently followed and by the time UNHCR staff returned, the refugees had "changed their minds" and did not want to go.

Meanwhile, UNHCR said it is putting together a plan to support policing activities in the refugee camps in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Although the situation has been relatively stable so far, there is a risk that security conditions will deteriorate. Overcrowding, corruption and the risk that various groups may exploit the refugees are among the concerns that UNHCR will address with the introduction of a camp security liaison team which will work closely with the Macedonian police.

Speaking at the Hague Appeal for Peace, which marks the 100th anniversary of the First International Peace Conference, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said the international community had "utterly failed" to live up to the vision of a just and peaceful world proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations.

No attempt to promote peace and resolve conflict could succeed "unless children and women are recognized as a distinct and priority concern," Ms. Bellamy said.

The Executive Director said a permanent International Criminal Court was needed to fight atrocities against children and women because those who commit such crimes must be made to understand that "they will be called to account and that impunity will not stand."

Peace agreements should include the demobilization of child soldiers and their reintegration into society, Ms. Bellamy said, and nations should "universally agree" to raise to 18 the age of military recruitment.

The availability of small arms and light weapons must be dramatically reduced and the global ban on anti-personnel landmines fully implemented, she added.

Finally, all military, civilian and peacekeeping personnel should receive specialized child-rights training and children caught up in armed conflict, disasters, extreme poverty and all forms of violence and exploitation should be afforded special protection, Ms. Bellamy said.

"If the world is to achieve the lasting peace and security to which we all aspire," Ms. Bellamy said, "we must begin investing now in the well-being of today's children -- and in the generation of children to come."

Responding to media reports that there had been no deliveries of medicines to Iraq under the current phase V of the programme, Benon Sevan, the Executive Director of the Office of the Iraq Programme said in a statement that in just over two years, about $570 million worth of medicines and medical supplies had arrived in Iraq.

"Our major concern is that only 48 per cent of these supplies -- $278.8 million -- have been distributed to clinics, hospitals and pharmacies. The Government's warehouses are literally overflowing," he said.

According to Mr. Sevon, the Security Council committee which oversees the sale of oil under the programme recently approved a contract for the purchase 36 forklifts and other equipment to improve operations in the congested warehouses.

Mr. Sevon said his office was working with the Iraqi government on the issue and hoped contracts for the purchase of trucks would be soon be approved "to ensure that the supplies arriving in Iraq reach the people who need them in a timely fashion."

Under the oil-for-food programme, Iraq is permitted to sell a limited amount of oil, with 66% of the revenue providing funds for the purchase of humanitarian supplies. The periods during which the Security Council authorizes the export of Iraqi oil are known as phases, with the current phase V running from 26 November 1998 to 24 May 1999. According to the Office of the Iraq Programme, the purchase of humanitarian supplies continues long after the dates of a given phase.

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

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