United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-06-14

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Monday, 14 June, 1999

Latest Developments

HEADLINES

• UN kicks off public information campaign on East Timor autonomy ballot.
• Portrait of former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali unveiled at UN Headquarters in New York.
• Race is on for top post at UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.

According to last month's agreement between Indonesia, Portugal and the United Nations on the modalities for the ballot slated for 8 August, the UN will use radio and television broadcasts and information printed in local newspapers to explain to voters the procedures for the poll and the implications of a vote either in favor or against the proposed autonomy for East Timor.

Spokesman Fred Eckhard said the first radio broadcast aired Sunday evening and was repeated twice during the day today. A second programme was broadcast Monday evening. The broadcasts, by Radio Indonesia, will air three times a day in four languages -- Bahasa Indonesian, Tetun, Portuguese and English.

The UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) will also publish on the back page of the main local newspaper, Suara Timor Timur, information about the autonomy proposal. The second edition of this page was printed Monday, Mr. Eckhard said.

In related developments, the UNAMET Police Commissioner, Alan Mills, of Australia, arrived in Dili and had already met with the Head of the Indonesian East Timor Task Force. As of Friday there were 99 international staff on the ground, with 20 more scheduled to have arrived over the weekend. More than 100 local staff had been recruited for UNAMET and by the end of this week, some 800 additional local staff are to be hired.

At a ceremony which was attended by Dr. Boutros-Ghali and his wife Leah, Secretary-General Kofi Annan paid tribute to his predecessor as a leader who guided with a "firm and steady hand" a United Nations seeking to find its bearings in a world full of sudden change.

"You gave our work solid intellectual foundations in your agendas for peace, development and democracy," Mr. Annan said. "You opened the door to the reforms we are pursuing today."

The official portrait of Mr. Boutros-Ghali, who served from 1992 to 1996 as the sixth United Nations Secretary-General, was painted by Norwegian artist Even Richardson. In the words of Mr. Annan, the picture shows a "landscape peopled by one man and his books", with the river that runs through the canvass finding its source in the heart of Africa as it "flows through Egypt - - and through time."

The Rome-based agency announced on Monday that the nominees for the six- year term are FAO's current Director-General, Jacques Diouf of Senegal, and Juan Carlos Roland Vignuad of Argentina, who is now his country's Ambassador to Sweden.

Mr. Diouf, who has been FAO Director-General since 1994, was previously Senegal's Ambassador to the UN in New York and had served in a number of high-level national and international posts, including that of Secretary- General of the Central Bank of the West African States.

Ambassador Vignaud has served as Argentina's Secretary of State and Presidential Adviser on international socio-economic problems, and has also held a number of diplomatic posts, including that of Permanent Representative of Argentina to FAO.

The Director-General of FAO, which works to alleviate poverty and hunger by promoting agricultural development, is elected by a majority of votes cast by the agency's 175 member States. The election will take place when the FAO Conference meets in Rome in November for its thirtieth session.

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

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