United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-05-21

United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 21 May, 1999

HEADLINES

• UN humanitarian team surveys destruction inside Kosovo.
• Plans under way to get Kosovo refugees camps ready for winter - - UNHCR.
• Security Council extends Iraq oil-for-food programme for six months.
• Secretary-General recommends six-month extension for UN force supervising Israel-Syria ceasefire.
• UN tribunal for Rwanda finds two men guilty of genocide.
• UN drug control agency and Laos agree on a major plan to cut illicit opium production.
• Three States propose work programme for Conference on Disarmament to help start substantive work.
• UN health agency's governing body to discuss delay in destruction of smallpox virus.

The multi-agency mission, which is evaluating humanitarian conditions throughout the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, found a mixed picture along the main roads to Pristina, said the spokesman. While there are people in the streets and some shops are open, a large number of shops and houses have been selectively fire bombed or destroyed in systematic building-to- building raids, emptied of inhabitants and looted. One house was still burning as the mission passed by.

The team found the city of Pristina itself largely intact, although there was aerial bomb damage to government buildings and most stores were closed. There was electricity and running water, according to the UN team.

Mission leader Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN Under-Secretary- General for Humanitarian Affairs, received assurances from Kosovo authorities that his team would be allowed freedom to make unprepared stops and would have free access to the areas that had been negotiated earlier.

On Friday, the mission is scheduled to visit Lipljan, Urosovac and Kacanik on their way to Djeneral Jankovic, the Kosovo border town closest to the crossing at Blace in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The mission hopes to meet with displaced people along the route and to assess security conditions. It is expected to continue its work over the weekend in Kosovo before heading to Montenegro on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has reported that the most recent arrivals into the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia tell stories of torture, beatings, extortion and shortages of food. Many of the refugees arriving by train at Blace are from Urosovac, where they claim very few Albanians are left. The once vibrant commercial town was home to around 50,000 Albanians and 5,000 Serbs.

The winterization programme by UNHCR and its partners has got off the ground with the purchase of 15,000 winter-proof tents, delivery of which is expected to begin in July, according to an agency spokesman. UNHCR is also examining a whole range of essential projects, including road improvement and electrical and water services, that go beyond its traditional programmes.

In another development, UNHCR and UNICEF -- the UN children's agency -- have signed an agreement to establish "child-friendly spaces" in camps and communities hosting refugees in Albania. Help from the government and other UN agencies will be solicited in implementing the programme, which will look for areas where basic services, including recreational facilities, could be made available to children and women.

Meanwhile, following a brief lull in arrivals into Albania a new stream of people crossed from Kosovo into Kukes on Friday, according to the latest UNHCR reports. The agency also reported that about 300 to 400 refugees travelled by bus from the Kosovo capital of Pristina into the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Under the programme, Iraq is permitted to sell up to $5.2 billion worth of oil every 180 days to purchase medicine and other humanitarian supplies.

In its unanimous adoption of the resolution extending the programme, the Council expressed its willingness to review the ceiling of $5.2 billion in the event that it is reached, in order to ensure the uninterrupted flow of oil.

Earlier on Friday, the Executive Director of the Iraq Programme, Benon Sevan, told the Council that during the current phase of the programme, oil revenues were only $3.8 billion -- well short of the $5.2 ceiling. Despite the upward trend in oil prices, the programme was still seriously short of the revenue needed to meet its objectives, he said.

At the same time, Mr. Sevan noted that sharp increase in oil prices in the past three months was welcome since it had allowed his office to clear much of the backlog in approved but unfunded contract applications. Contracts in electricity, water and sanitation, and agriculture sectors had been the main beneficiaries.

In his report to the Security Council released at UN Headquarters on Friday, the Secretary-General says that during the review period from 15 November 1998 to 15 May 1999 the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) has continued to perform effectively and with the cooperation of the parties. UNDOF was established in May 1974 to oversee the disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria.

Although the Israeli-Syrian sector is presently quiet, the situation in the Middle East continues to be "potentially dangerous" and is likely to remain so until a comprehensive peace settlement for the entire region can be reached, the Secretary-General says in recommending the mandate's extension to 30 November 1999.

The Secretary-General's report also draws attention to a $53.6 million shortfall in unpaid assessments for UNDOF, which represents money owed to countries that contribute troops to the Force. He appeals to Member States to pay their assessments promptly and in full and to "clear all remaining arrears."

The Arusha-based Tribunal found the former Governor of Kibuye province, Clement Kayishema, guilty of four counts of genocide and sentenced him to imprisonment "for the remainder of his life". A spokeman for the Tribunal said that this sentence was distinct from a "life sentence" under the laws of some national jurisdictions, which may mean prison terms of 25 or 50 years. Imprisonment for the duration of one's life means just that, said Tribunal Spokesman Kingsley Moghalu.

The other accused, Obed Ruzindana, a wealthy Kibuye businessman, was sentenced to 20 years. Both men were acquitted of multiple charges of crimes against humanity and violations of the Geneva Conventions.

Mr. Kayishema was given the harsher sentence, the Tribunal's Spokesman explained, because he held a position of "high authority" and was an educated medical doctor who "betrayed the ethical duty" he owed to the community. The judges also considered Mr. Ruzindana's relatively young age - - 32 at the time of the crime -- and the possibility of rehabilitation in imposing a lesser sentence.

The spokesman said the trial judges found that since the Prosecutor attempted to use the same evidence of murder and extermination to prove different charges it would be improper to convict the two defendants of both genocide and crimes against humanity: it would amount to convicting the accused twice for the same offences.

Laos is the third largest opium producer in the world, which gives the agreement "very special importance," said Pino Arlacchi, Executive Director of the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP), shortly after his meeting with Laos President Khamtay Siphandone. According to ODCCP, Laos produces about 120 to 130 tonnes of opium each year for the illegal drug markets.

Mr. Arlacchi pledged his assistance to President Siphandone in ensuring that the international community would provide financing for the project as soon as possible. "I consider this agreement as one of the most important results in the field of drug control since the conclusion of the UN General Assembly Special Session on drug" in June 1998, he said.

The plan will be patterned after a successful alternative development project in Palavek, which has succeeded in reducing annual opium production to less than 100 kilograms -- down from 3.5 metric tonnes. It also transformed the area into a rice-surplus zone and greatly improved living conditions for about 6,000 people.

Under the draft programme, the forum, which is now in the second part of its 1999 session in Geneva, would re-establish ad hoc committees on negative security assurances and nuclear disarmament. In addition, the ad hoc committee responsible for negotiating a non-discriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices would meet in successive sessions of the Conference until its work was completed, without requiring annual reauthorization.

The proposal, which was introduced by the three countries on Thursday, would also reappoint special coordinators for several key issues, including the prevention of an arms race in outer space, a comprehensive programme of disarmament and transparency in armaments.

The outgoing President of the Conference, Ambassador Nguyen Quy Binh of Vietnam, said that he and his predecessors had all concentrated their efforts on the programme of work. The two points that were preventing agreement were an appropriate mechanism to deal with nuclear disarmament and the issue of the prevention of an arms race in outer space. Despite the difficulties and differences, there had been serious efforts from every corner of the Conference to try to move the situation and bring the members to substantive work, Ambassador Nguyen said.

The 63-member Conference, which works on the basis of consensus, emerged from the decisions of the 1978 special session of the General Assembly on disarmament. Its annual sessions are divided into three parts, with the current segment scheduled to end on 25 June.

The draft, which affirms that "the final elimination of all variola virus remains the goal of the WHO and all Member States," will be considered by the World Health Assembly, WHO's governing body, on 24 May.

In 1996 the Assembly had agreed to destroy by the end of June 1999, subject to confirmation this year, the two stocks of smallpox virus currently held in the United States and Russian Federation. The draft resolution would now allow for the temporary retention of those stocks up to but not later than 2002. The draft resolution also stipulates that the virus not be destroyed "for the purpose of further international research into antiviral agents and improved vaccines, and to permit high- priority of the genetic structure and pathogenesis of small pox."

The draft resolution, which received the backing of 30 countries, calls on WHO to appoint a new expert group to establish what research must be carried out in order to reach a global consensus on the "timing for the destruction of existing variola stocks."

The last case of smallpox was recorded in 1978 in Somalia and WHO declared the disease officially eradicated in 1980.

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

United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article