United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-06-10

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 10 June, 1999

Latest Developments

HEADLINES

• Endorsing Kosovo peace plan, Security Council authorizes civil and military presence under UN auspices.
• UN's Food and Agriculture Organization urges better controls to cope with animal feed contamination.
• Parties at UN-sponsored talks on Abkhazia, Georgia, agree to further meetings next week.
• UN food agency forced to borrow from emergency funds to aid war victims returning to Republic of Congo.
• Hungary signs accord with UN crime prevention agency for "rapid assessment" of country's corruption problem.

The Council's action came after Secretary-General Kofi Annan received a letter from NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana saying Yugoslav forces had begun to withdraw from Kosovo and NATO air operations against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had been suspended.

The resolution, adopted by a vote of 14 in favour with China abstaining, sets out the terms of a political solution for Kosovo based on the general principles agreed to on 6 May by the Foreign Ministers seven industrialized countries and Russia, known as the G-8, and the peace plan presented to Belgrade last week by Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari and Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin.

The Council demanded that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia immediately end the violence in Kosovo and complete a rapid withdrawal of all military, police and paramilitary forces.

It also demanded that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and other armed Kosovo Albanian groups immediately end all offensive actions and demilitarize. The resolution notes that the Council took its action "bearing in mind" the principles of the UN Charter, including the primary role of the Security Council for the maintenance of international peace and security.

According to the resolution, the international security presence in Kosovo will have substantial NATO participation and will be deployed under a unified command and control to establish a safe environment for all people in the province and facilitate the safe return of refugees and displaced persons.

It will also be responsible for ensuring the withdrawal and prevent the return of Yugoslav forces, prevent new hostilities, enforce a ceasefire, and demilitarize the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and other armed Kosovo Albanian groups.

The international civilian presence will be under the control of Secretary- General's Special Representative who will coordinate closely with the security component to ensure that both operations work towards the same goals in a mutually supportive manner.

The civilian operation will be established to provide an interim administration under which, in the words of the resolution, "the people of Kosovo can enjoy substantial autonomy within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia." The interim administration will set up and oversee the development of provisional democratic, self- governing institutions to ensure a peaceful and normal life for all Kosovo inhabitants. The civilian operation will also support humanitarian and disaster relief and economic reconstruction, maintain civil law and order and protect and promote human rights.

Under the terms of the plan, an agreed number of Yugoslav and Serb personnel will be allowed to return to liaison with the civilian mission and security presence, help with mine clearance, and maintain a presence at Serb patrimonial sites and key border crossings.

The Security Council also demanded "the full cooperation of all concerned, including the international security presence", with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

WFP said the returnees, mostly Congolese women and children, have spent the last several months in the bush subsisting on leaves and roots. Each day, approximately 1,500 people have been streaming into Brazzaville and Pointe Noire, in the west, after the Government opened two "humanitarian corridors" in early May.

The money is being used to purchase 300 metric tonnes of food, including rice, oil, salt and sugar. The one-month supply is a stop-gap measure until WFP receives contributions to its recently approved $7 million emergency operation to feed 200,000 war- affected people over the next three months, the UN agency said.

WFP plans to purchase food supplies internationally and deliver them through the port of Matadi, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, urgent contributions are needed to ensure that food shipments arrive without delay.

"What we want to avoid is a repeat of our stocks being completely depleted as happened earlier this month," said Rigobert Oura, WFP Emergency Officer. "People who have already been through enormous trauma and hardship cannot withstand any further deprivation."

FAO urged its member countries to ensure the quality and safety of animal feed and foods for human consumption, saying that a joint FAO/World Health Organization commission that sets international food standards is considering a draft Code of Practice for Good Animal Feeding.

The draft Code covers good animal feeding practices and promotes the use of good practices in the procurement, handling, manufacturing, storage and distribution of commercially produced feeds for food-producing animals. It also provides guidance on general management of production processes, handling of pre-production ingredients and post-production storage and distribution practices.

FAO said the latest food contamination incident, following the outbreak in the United Kingdom of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), or Mad Cow Disease, is another clear warning that animal feeds can have a direct impact on the quality and safety of foods.

In addition to BSE and dioxins, many other substances can contaminate animal feed, including mycotoxins, agricultural and industrial chemicals, microbial pathogens, veterinary drug residues and heavy metals, FAO warned.

The Memorandum of Understanding focuses on the assessment of corruption and anti-corruption activities in Hungary. The first action will be the preparation of a rapid evaluation of the problem, followed by a more detailed study, ODCCP said.

The UN agency's Executive-Director Pino Arlacchi, who was in Hungary for his first official visit, said the accord was a significant development in the agency's Global Programme against Corruption. "The Government of Hungary was the first one to explicitly request to participate in the implementation of the Global Programme," he said.

The Istanbul Meeting of the Georgian and Abkhaz Sides on Confidence- Building Measures ended yesterday with the agreement to reconvene three working groups next week to discuss security matters, the return of refugees and strengthening of economic ties, UN Spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

Other meetings will address the exchange of hostages and prisoners, and the establishment of a mechanism for joint investigation of terrorist and subversive acts, according to the spokesman.

The two-day meeting was chaired by the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Georgia, Liviu Bota.

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

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