United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-06-30

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Wednesday, 30 June, 1999

Latest Developments

HEADLINES

• UN urges returning Kosovars to halt retaliatory attacks against Serb and Roma minorities.
• United Nations food agency expands Kosovo operation to aid 2.5 million people in Balkans.
• Secretary-General urges warring sides in Afghanistan to resume direct talks.

Dennis McNamara, the Secretary-General's Deputy Special Representative for Humanitarian Affairs in Kosovo, also called on KFOR, the international military force in the province, to continue to step up security measures to protect these people.

"Over the past two weeks, there have been increasing reports of intimidation and violent attacks directed against the Serb and Roma minorities in Kosovo," said Mr. McNamara. "Many of those targeted are elderly people who do not present a threat to anyone."

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that in just one Pristina neighbourhood, seven houses were burned down on Tuesday night as Serbs and other minorities fled their homes. Reports from several other areas describe instances of returnees evicting Serb and Roma tenants from their houses and then settling there themselves.

Mr. McNamara said that the humanitarian agencies could not ensure physical security of some 5,000 Serbs from conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia who were being targeted by such attacks. "We need a continued robust response from KFOR as well as the re-establishment of the key institutions for law and order," he stressed.

Serbs were leaving Kosovo because they felt insecure, the Deputy Special Representative emphasized. "It is imperative that we do not solve one refugee problem and create another one. The refugee cycle in the Balkans must be ended."

The World Food Programme (WFP) said that the six-month $224 million operation, to be launched on 1 July, will help refugees, internally displaced and war-affected people in five territories -- the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, its province of Kosovo, the neighbouring countries of Albania and former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Bosnia- Herzegovina.

The Rome-based WFP, the world's largest food aid agency, will supply a "food basket" of wheat flour, rice, cooking oil, canned meat or fish, beans, sugar and salt, as well as several kinds of ready-to-eat food.

According to WFP estimates, the UN agency will feed 1.5 million Kosovar refugees and internally displaced persons throughout the Balkan region, as well as 500,000 war-affected people in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and 500,00 refugees from Bosnia and Croatia conflicts in FRY.

In his latest report to the Security Council released at UN Headquarters on Wednesday, the Secretary-General also renews his appeal to countries concerned, in particular members of the so called "six plus two" informal group, to improve coordination and reinvigorate their search for a common approach towards a settlement of the Afghan conflict. The group includes the six neighbouring countries surrounding Afghanistan, plus the United States and Russia.

Mr. Annan says he will continue to use all the diplomatic means available to persuade the two sides to resume discussions and agree to halt hostilities, and to encourage Afghans of all political persuasions to work together more actively to achieve national reconciliation.

Reviewing the political situation in the country over the past three months, the Secretary-General says the talks between the two sides have stalled, mutual confidence has eroded and meaningful contact at a senior level has become "negligible". On the military front, both belligerents have hardened their posture as the fighting intensified in the northern and central areas.

The report notes that the chronic fighting and the resultant political uncertainty has exacerbated the human misery of innocent Afghan people. The Secretary-General says he is "profoundly disturbed" at the credible reports of human rights violations in the country's central region.

Reporting on the progress of the UN Mission to Afghanistan (UNSMA), the Secretary-General says it has spared no effort to try to persuade the two sides to resume their talks. Meanwhile the return of UN international staff to Afghanistan has progressed well and without major mishap.

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

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