United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-07-19

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Monday, 19 July, 1999

HEADLINES

• Secretary-General says events in Kosovo underscore indispensability of United Nations.
• Ethnic tensions continue to be problem in Kosovo, says UN refugee agency.
• United Nations reports good turnout in first days of voter registration in East Timor.
• UN appeals for funds to feed 5 million people affected by drought in Ethiopia.
• First UN-brokered meeting of Afghanistan's warring parties with "six-plus- two" group.
• United Nations conference on peaceful uses of outer space opens in Vienna.

Speaking to reporters in Vienna, after meeting with Austrian Chancellor Viktor Klima, Mr. Annan, said that although the Security Council had been ignored in the beginning and military activities were undertaken without seeking its approval in the end, the Council was needed to find a solution.

"One needed the Council to establish the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and to deploy KFOR forces," said the Secretary-General.

In response to a question about NATO and UN cooperation after events in Kosovo, Mr. Annan said the two organizations were living side by side and cooperating very well. "I think we went through a bumpy period there, when the NATO alliance undertook military action without specific Security Council approval," said Mr. Annan. However, in the end, they did come to the UN in search for a solution, and that move underscored the indispensability of the Security Council and the UN, he added.

When it came to peace and security, the Security Council had the primary role and must have a say in any decision to use force, and NATO's own Charter made the same point, the Secretary-General stressed.

In the provincial capital Pristina, the Serb population is systematically harassed, with one Serb on average killed every night and elderly Serbs regularly thrown out of their homes, according to UNHCR. In Mitrovica, the divide between Serbs and Albanians is widening and two large groups of Roma, also known a gypsies, numbering 200 and 400, have taken refuge in a school house. Some 280 Serb families still in Prizren are afraid to leave their homes, even for basic errands, and the town's monastery is sheltering more than 180 Serbs in precarious conditions.

In a positive development on Sunday, 75 Roma who had sought protection from UNHCR and KFOR, the international military force, decided to return to their homes in Landovica outside Prizren. Last week, Roma homes in the village were burned and others looted and vandalized.

According to UNHCR staff, many residents, especially in western Kosovo, increasingly blame the poor security situation in the province on gangs from Albania.

Meanwhile, Bernard Kouchner, the head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), swore in seven new judges and three prosecutors while in Prizren, which he visited as part of a familiarization tour that also took him to Pec and Mitrovica.

Judges appointed by UNMIK have been travelling around Kosovo in a mobile court, according to a UN spokesman. So far, they have heard 90 cases involving 198 persons in detention -- 95 of whom have been released. The Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is overseeing institution-building under the UNMIK mandate, has interviewed 253 potential judicial candidates.

All registration centres were open on Monday except for one -- Casa in Suai, which was closed after two militia showed up and objected to the requirement for two pieces of identification to register. A UN spokesman said that international civilian police serving with the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) would investigate the incident and the UN hoped to have the centre open as soon as possible.

The UN spokesman said two pieces of identification were required to prove identity and eligibility to vote in the popular consultation on the territory's future. The four categories include people born in the territory or people with one parent born there and people married to someone born in East Timor or to someone whose parent was. The 20-day registration period began on Friday.

The appeal was issued in Addis Ababa after a joint assessment mission by governments and donors in mid-June to four severely affected northern and southern areas of Ethiopia.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) says the number in need of food aid has been adjusted from 4.6 million to 5.3 million people, including persons displaced in northern areas because of the conflict with Eritrea.

According to Jim Borton, Coordinator of the UN Emergency Unit in Addis Ababa, there is a serious crisis in traditional areas of need. He describes signs of "severe stress" including increased rates of malnutrition, unusual migration patterns, sale of productive assets and the consumption of wild foods.

"As the ritual summer fighting is again upon us, concerted and effective actions by the 'six-plus-two' group are needed more urgently than ever before," Mr. Brahimi said.

Mr. Brahimi, reading a statement on behalf of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said there had been no real progress toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Afghanistan. He called for an end to material and political support to the warring parties by other states.

The two warring parties agreed to meet in a bilateral meeting on Tuesday.

The 'six-plus-two' group, which is trying to help resolve the Afghan conflict, consists of Russia, the United States and Afghanistan's six neighboring states: China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The two-week Conference is expected to culminate in the adoption of a "Vienna Declaration and Action Plan", setting out the UN's vision for the peaceful uses of outer space over the next century. Centred on the theme, "Space Benefits for Humanity in the Twenty-First Century", UNISPACE III will focus on developing a practical framework to maximize the benefits of space technology through international cooperation.

Opening the Conference, the President of Austria, Thomas Klestil, said that unless the developed world was prepared to share its technological know-how with developing countries, the benefits of space applications would be curtailed, to the detriment of both sides. He appealed to governments, private industry and non-governmental organizations to support UN initiatives to make space knowledge a major contributor to human progress.

In his address, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the possibilities offered by technology in space and on Earth must be used to foster tolerance, trust and shared values, not instruments of hatred or division. This century's plagues of war and suffering must not be passed on to the next, when the technology available will be even more awesome.

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

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