United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-07-06

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, 6 July, 1999

HEADLINES

• Security Council members demand end to violence in East Timor after latest attack on UN personnel.
• Secretary-General calls for poverty eradication at opening of Economic and Social Council.
• Acting head of UN Kosovo mission says KFOR can hold suspects for longer than 48 hours.
• Business leaders support Secretary-General's call for "Global Compact" on human rights, labour and environment.
• Security Council members back Secretary-General's revised mandate for UN peace-building presence in Guinea-Bissau.
• Chief prosecutor of UN tribunal for former Yugoslavia welcomes arrest of Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect. * Refugees from Congo-Brazzaville flow across border into Gabon in search of aid -- UNHCR.
• UN commission approves international guidelines for organic food.

Council President Ambassador Hasmy Agam of Malaysia said in a press statement that Council members have called on Indonesian authorities to investigate the matter and bring to justice those responsible for the recent attacks on the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET). "The members stressed that the Government of Indonesia has the responsibility to maintain peace and security in East Timor," he said.

On Sunday, an armed militia attacked a humanitarian convoy -- which was accompanied by a UNAMET humanitarian affairs officer and a local representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) -- assisting internally displaced persons near Liquica. Several people were injured, UN personnel were directly threatened and shots were fired, UN officials said. The latest incident comes on the heels of two separate events last week in which militia members threw stones at a UN office in Maliana, injuring one UN electoral officer, and surrounded a UN residence in Vikeke.

Earlier Tuesday, UN Assistant Secretary-General Alvaro de Soto told reporters after his briefing to the Council that the latest incident brings out the "rather alarming" security situation that exists in East Timor. He warned that preparations for the UN-sponsored vote in August on the territory's future was in danger of being further delayed.

"It does not augur well for the prospects of the schedule being kept," Mr. de Soto said. "If UN personnel are being attacked and there is this degree of intimidation with only eight regional offices set up, think of the situation once we have to set up around 200 registration points."

Mr. de Soto said the United Nations had no doubts as to the commitment of the Indonesian Government in improving the security situation even though there were still no satisfactory signs the East Timorese were safe to express their wishes freely and that UN personnel were out of danger. "We hope that something will be done very quickly and that it will be reflected on the ground so that these repeated assurances will be materialized," he said.

It was unacceptable that half of the world's six billion people tried to "eke out a living on $3 or less a day", Mr. Annan told delegates to ECOSOC's high-level segment.

The Secretary-General said eradicating poverty was an "ambitious, but not utopian" goal. He pointed out that universal access to basic social services -- education, health, nutrition, family planning, water and sanitation would cost an additional $40 billion annually -- the amount Europeans spend on cigarettes.

Mr. Annan said industrial countries should promote higher, more balanced rates of world economic growth and higher levels of employment, as well as increase their official development assistance to poorer countries. Investments in women were a key to sustainable development and would bring the greatest dividends to families, communities and entire societies, he said.

ECOSOC President Francesco Paolo Fulchi of Italy said elimination of hunger, want and destitution was first and foremost a moral obligation and also a question of enlightened self-interest. Swift, joint action was needed, Ambassador Fulchi cautioned, otherwise the sheer size of the problem would overwhelm everyone.

The high-level segment is titled, "The role of employment and work in poverty eradication: the empowerment and advancement of women." Other segments will focus on different facets of poverty, including the role of employment and work, the gender dimension, poverty eradication and capacity- building, development of Africa, and disaster-relief assistance.

According to a statement issued on Monday by the Secretary-General's acting Special Representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello, KFOR can detain individuals until pre-trial hearings and a legal determination on whether and how long a prisoner should remain in custody.

Mr. Vieira de Mello, who is acting head of the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK), said in his statement that KFOR had the mandate to ensure public safety and order, and civil law and order until UNMIK could take full responsibility for those tasks. KFOR had the right to apprehend and hold people suspected of such offenses as murder, rape, kidnapping, arson or war crimes.

As part of the UN's process of re-establishing an independent, impartial and multi-ethnic judicial system in Kosovo, a team of judges and prosecutors, appointed by Mr. Vieira de Mello last week, have begun pre- trial hearings in the towns of Pec, Prizren and Gniljane.

Meanwhile, in Geneva on Tuesday, Secretary-General Kofi Annan met with his newly-appointed Special Representative for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, to discuss the envoy's responsibilities. Mr. Kouchner later told reporters that he would go to the province early next week to take over what he described as a "very heavy and a very difficult task" from Mr. Vieira de Mello.

In other developments, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Sadaka Ogata visited a school in Kosovo Polje outside the capital Pristina, where some 5,000 members of the minority Roma population are seeking refuge. The Roma people have been accused of collaborating with Serbs and have been targets of violence.

During her two-day visit, Ms. Ogata met with KFOR Commander General Michael Jackson. She also spoke with a German KFOR general in Prizren, who stressed the need for the early return of teachers, doctors and other professionals as well as the deployment of international police contingents.

According to UNHCR, more than 600,000 of the estimated 800,000 who fled Kosovo have now returned.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday after his second meeting with ICC leaders, Mr. Annan said he was very pleased that the business community had taken up the challenge of the Global Compact he first proposed at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January. The Compact calls for world business leaders to enact globally agreed principles on human rights, labour standards and the environment.

"Business is calling for a stronger UN, especially in the areas of human rights, labour and the environment -ž key pillars of the Global Compact ž because this is seen as the most sensible way forward to safeguard open markets while putting a human face on the global economy," said Mr. Annan.

"Business leaders are ready to work with us in concrete ways to promote best practices," the Secretary-General told the press. Now the challenge is to involve other partners, such as the NGO community.

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) will join the ICC to conduct studies that should help stimulate badly needed investment in Africa, the Secretary-General said. He stressed the need for a shift in perception towards Africa, pointing out that countries making efforts should not be discounted simply because of overall negative perceptions about the continent.

In a statement read out to the media, the Council's President for July, Ambassador Hasmy Agam of Malaysia, said Council members expressed support for the Secretary-General's decision to establish the UN Peace- building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNOGBIS) with a modified mandate. Council members also welcomed the Secretary-General's decision to set up a trust fund to finance UNOGBIS activities, he said.

The transitional authorities and civil society in Guinea-Bissau were urged to uphold their commitment to the restoration of genuine and lasting peace based on national reconciliation, respect for the rule of law -- including the release of political prisoners -- and the return to constitutional order, Ambassador Agam said.

Council's statement also expressed concern at the serious humanitarian situation in Guinea-Bissau and encouraged countries and humanitarian organizations to assist in alleviating the situation, Ambassador Agam said.

In a statement released to the media in The Hague, Justice Louise Arbour said she was grateful to the SFOR troops for the detention of Radislav Brdjanin, who is charged in a sealed indictment with persecutions on "political, racial or religious grounds, a crime against humanity."

Justice Arbour said Mr. Brdjanin, as President of the "Autonomous Region of Krajina" (ARK) Crisis Staff, is alleged to be responsible, along with others, for the major ethnic cleansing operations conducted in the Sanski Most and Prijedor regions in 1992.

In her statement, Justice Arbour stressed again that it was the primary responsibility of countries to fulfil their international obligations and to arrest indicted war criminals on their territory, points she raised in her talks last May with senior Bosnian Serb officials.

UNHCR said around 1,500 Congolese, said to be malnourished and in poor health, crossed over the weekend into three provinces along a 1,000 kilometer stretch of the border. About 650 people were reported to have entered the southern provinces of Nyanga and Ngounie, with another 800 arriving in Haut Ogoou‚, to the north.

Aid workers from UNHCR, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are bringing first aid supplies and making arrangements to fly in blankets and purchase food locally.

Gabon is the second country to receive refugees from Congo- Brazzaville since rival forces reopened fighting in late 1998. Around 32,000 have fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo from the Pool region.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission, a joint body of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN World Health Organization (WHO), adopted last Saturday at the conclusion of its latest session "Guidelines for the Production, Processing, Labelling and Marketing of Organic Food." The standards clearly define the nature of organic food production and prevent claims that could mislead consumers about the quality of the product or the way it was produced.

The Commission also agreed to set up three intergovernmental task forces: one to devise standards by 2003 for foods derived from biotechnology; a second to revise fruit juice guidelines that protect consumers and prevent fraudulent practices and a third on animal feeding in the wake of the recent international crisis over dioxin-contaminated animal products.

The Commission postponed setting maximum residue limits for the controversial cow hormone Bovine Somatotropine (BST) after failing to reach consensus, but did approve measures relating to food standards and control for the Near East, prepackaged food labelling as well as the Commission's procedural manual.

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

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