United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-05-18

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, 18 May, 1999

HEADLINES

• Secretary-General says Security Council should be sole source of legitimacy on use of force.
• After appeals by UN, Serbs release 100 Kosovar Albanian men of military age.
• UN Special Envoy to Balkans sees wide support for UN involvement in efforts to bring peace to Kosovo.
• UN aid agency's barge convoy attacked in southern Sudan.
• WHO chief urges closer international cooperation as the way to better health and economic benefits.
• UN fact-finding mission arrives in Liberia to investigate last year's shooting incident.
• New World Bank study recommends measures curbing tobacco demand to prevent premature deaths.

Speaking in The Hague at the commemoration of the Centennial of the first International Peace Conference, the Secretary-General said that unless the Security Council "is restored to its pre-eminent position as the sole source of legitimacy on the use of force, we are on a dangerous path to anarchy."

The choice must not be between Council unity and inaction in the face of genocide -- as in the case of Rwanda, or Council division and regional action, as in the case of Kosovo, said Mr. Annan. Member States, he argued, should be able to find unity in their "defence of our common humanity."

"On the eve of a new millennium, it is this United Nations we seek -- responsive to a dynamic and changing world, respectful of the sovereignty of States, and resilient in its determination to advance the rights and freedoms of the peoples of the world," said Mr. Annan.

As part of his official programme in The Hague, the Secretary- General visited the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, where he met with its President, Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, Prosecutor Louise Arbour and other officials and judges. He also met with the Registrar of the Rwanda Tribunal, Agwu Okali.

Later, the Secretary-General met with Netherlands Foreign Minister Jozias van Aartsen to discuss UN preparations for peace in Kosovo and current international mediation efforts.

On Wednesday, the Secretary-General is scheduled to fly to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to assess UN-led efforts to cope with the massive outflow of Kosovo refugees. He will visit Kukes, on the Albanian border with Kosovo, on Thursday.

The men were released after extensive efforts by the UN and other international agencies, including a direct appeal by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. However, at least one man, perhaps more, were still missing. Human Rights Officers are on site in Montenegro to collect more information on the case.

Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that a train with around 1,000 Kosovo refugees on board arrived on Tuesday at the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia border and, unlike yesterday, all the passengers were allowed to disembark.

UNHCR reported no major refugee crossings into Albania again on Tuesday, which was consistent with the low rate of arrivals since late last week amid reports of NATO action along the border areas.

UNHCR said it is working with non-governmental organizations and NATO on a programme to persuade the estimated 30,000 refugees in the tented city at Kukes near the border with Kosovo to move to safer areas in southern Albania.

At a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York, where he is meeting with members of the Security Council and UN officials, Mr. Kukan said the timing and nature of UN involvement was being discussed to ensure the Organization played a constructive role and made a positive contribution.

Mr. Kukan said the role of the Special Envoys was to contact the parties and Governments concerned and gather as much information as possible. He planned to meet United States Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, in Washington, D.C. and then travel to Moscow for discussions with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. He also hoped to meet with Victor Chernomyrdin, President Yeltsin's Special Envoy. Coordination was important to avoid any overlap between various envoys, he stressed.

In response to a question, Mr. Kukan said that Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations had told him on Monday that his Government would not support any UN role unless there was a pause in the NATO bombing. The issue would have to be negotiated, said Mr. Kukan and he was hopeful that in the long run, "we shall move forward" on that issue. It was also important to cooperate with the Russian Federation and keep it involved in the process, the Special Envoy noted.

The convoy, which was clearly marked with the flags of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and had obtained all necessary security clearances from all warring parties, was returning from delivering aid to the town of Juba when it was attacked early this morning by unknown gunmen near the place called Adok.

An employee of the Sudan River Transport Company was killed and three persons were injured, including two WFP staff members -- one international and one national staff. There were some 20 people on board, including three WFP staff members and three personnel of UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.

WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini condemned the attack as "senseless", stressing that it not only harmed the UN food agency, but also threatened the vital lifeline for tens of thousands of people who depended on WFP relief supplies through the barge operation. "This tragedy should never have happened," she said.

Today's incident comes only a day after WFP teams reported hearing bombs fall in three locations in the Bahr El Ghazal region of Sudan. Reacting to the reports of fighting, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday called on the Government of the Sudan and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) to respect fully the ceasefire agreed to and ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance to extremely vulnerable populations in the region.

WHO Director-General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland told delegates at the 52nd World Health Assembly -- the agency's annual "shareholders" meeting which began Monday -- that a five year difference in life expectancy might yield an extra 0.5 per cent in annual economic growth.

"We are not aiming at modest gains," said Dr. Brundtland, noting that life expectancy in East Asia increased by over 18 years in the two decades that preceded the most dramatic economic take-off in history. "Repeat these gains þ- and we could be launching a new leap forward for human progress and development."

Dr. Brundtland said that as a result of ongoing reforms at the UN health agency, WHO was now working more closely with Member States to coordinate objectives and efforts. She pointed to a WHO meeting in London last week with main contributing countries and countries representing all WHO regions as an example of this new cooperation.

"Our objective was to start a discussion on how the major financial players in health can pull in the same direction þ- on how we can target our effort so that what we do really spurs development and benefits the poor," Dr. Brundtland said.

Dr. Brundtland announced that WHO would join the United Nations Development Group -- a collaboration between UN agencies to create a common development programme for the UN family -- and that talks with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were fruitful and would be intensified.

As part of the investigation, which had been requested by the Liberian Government, UN team members started interviewing people from non- governmental organizations, Government officials, people who had been affected by the fighting or who might know what happened at that time, according to Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for Secretary- General Kofi Annan.

The UN fact-finding team arrived in Monrovia yesterday from Nigeria, where it had met with Roosevelt Johnson, a former faction leader who had been taking refuge there since the shooting. The mission also spoke with one of Mr. Johnson's supporters and two former commanders from the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG) posted in Monrovia at the time. It also met with Nigeria's Foreign Minister.

Meanwhile at UN Headquarters in New York, a Security Council sanctions committee met today to discuss possible contraventions of the arms embargo imposed on Liberia, said Mr. de Almeida e Silva.

The study, "Curbing the Epidemic: Governments and the Economics of Tobacco Control," suggests that to effectively reduce demand governments can raise cigarette taxes, ban tobacco advertising and provide information on the health risks of smoking. They can also increase access to nicotine replacement therapy to help those ready to quit smoking. Those strategies are especially effective among children, teenagers and the poor, the World Bank says.

According to the World Bank, tobacco is expected to be the single biggest cause of death worldwide by 2030, accounting for 10 million deaths each year. Half of these deaths will be among persons aged 35-69, cutting 20 to 25 years off life expectancy.

The study says a comprehensive tobacco control policy is not likely to harm economies and argues that reducing tobacco supplies is ineffective in decreasing consumption. "Banning tobacco or restricting its trade are unrealistic and likely to have undesirable consequences," the report states. Rather, research has shown that higher taxes on cigarettes do not erode tobacco tax revenues nor do they cause permanent job losses or massive increases in smuggling, according to the World Bank study.

The study also calls for UN organizations to review their existing policies and programmes to ensure that tobacco control is given due prominence.

In a related development, the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) today invited countries to continue work on a Framework Convention that will address the entire gamut of tobacco related issues, ranging from taxes and epidemiology to advertising bans and smuggling. In presenting the World Bank study to the annual WHO Assembly in Geneva, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland said it was an amazing fact that a "product which killed every second of its consumers is not regulated. Tobacco is the only product on the market which when used as intended leads to death. That should change," she said.



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