United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-07-22

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 22 July, 1999

HEADLINES

• Head of UN Mission in Kosovo urges parties to take part in Transitional Council.
• United Nations outlines plans to revive independent media in Kosovo.
• UN budgetary committee authorizes $200 million for financing of UN mission in Kosovo.
• UN Secretary-General calls for halt to fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo during polio vaccination.
• UN reports "robust" turnout of voters registering for ballot on East Timor's future.
• UN concerned over "globally inadequate" response to its appeals for funding of emergency operations.
• UNICEF launches annual report on status of world's children.

Mr. Rugova's party, the Democratic League of Kosovo (DLK), was absent from last week's inaugural meeting of the Council, which is the highest political consultative body in the province under the UN, which holds executive authority in the territory.

In a meeting today with the LDK presidency, Dr. Kouchner, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, emphasized the importance of the Council, which gives political parties and ethnic groups input into the decision making process of the UN. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, 26 July.

As a follow-up to the Council's first meeting, Dr. Kouchner, together with Albanian and Serb leaders, visited yesterday buildings in Pristina where Serbs' apartments had been occupied by Albanians. Urging tolerance, Dr. Kouchner said that all in Kosovo must demonstrate the willingness to live together for democracy to grow in the province.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Program (WFP) has reported that Pristina airport is currently receiving an average of 10 to 12 humanitarian flights daily, and that this figure is due to increase to 20 flights every day.

In a statement, Bernard Kouchner, the Secretary-General's Special Representative in Kosovo, said on Wednesday that protection of basic human rights, and economic and civic reconstruction in Kosovo will not be possible without a modern, democratic media.

UNMIK is acutely aware of the growing concern among media professionals and Kosovo's people about the future of Radio-Television Pristina (RTP), said Dr. Kouchner. "We wish to assure the people of Kosovo that broadcasting at RTP will resume in the very near future under international supervision," he said.

The UN Mission will appoint a Regulatory Commission to oversee such matters as the issuance licenses and the allocation of frequencies. It will also establish an Independent Media Board to consult with media professionals and civil society on all media-related issues.

The Special Representative said the institution-building pillar of UNMIK, led by the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), is laying the foundation for RTP to become a genuine public service broadcaster that serves all the people of Kosovo.

In a resolution adopted without a vote, the Assembly's Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) urged all Member States to make every effort to ensure payment of assessed contributions to the Mission in full and on time.

The Committee emphasized that all future peacekeeping missions shall be given equal and non-discriminatory treatment in respect of financial and administrative arrangements. It also stressed that all peacekeeping missions shall be provided with adequate resources for the effective and efficient discharge of their respective mandates.

By other terms of the text, the Committee emphasized that no peacekeeping mission shall be financed by borrowing money from funds from other active peacekeeping missions. The Secretary-General was requested to submit to the Assembly, as a matter of priority, a comprehensive report on the financing of UNMIK, including full budget estimates and information on the utilization of resources at the earliest opportunity.

In a statement by his spokesman, the Secretary-General said he was concerned that the goal of eradicating polio worldwide by 2000 might be threatened by the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its effects on neighbouring countries.

Mr. Annan reiterated an earlier call for "days of tranquility" throughout the country during the first round of the polio immunization campaign from 8 to 20 August. The Secretary-General "trusts that a peaceful and secure environment will be provided to give all Congolese children under the age of five, protection from the crippling disease of polio," the statement said.

UN agencies, particularly the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization, as well as private relief organizations, are already preparing for the vaccination campaign's first round in August. Two more rounds are scheduled for September and October.

At a press briefing in Dili, Jeff Fischer, UNMET's Chief Electoral Officer, described the turnout for the "popular consultation" in August as above expectation. "The response on the part of the Timorese voters, is robust," he said. "We are pleased with the turnout, as it has manifested itself over the last few days."

Commenting on reports of false registration by militia and local authorities, Mr. Fischer said he had been receiving information about irregularities in various places but the incidents appeared to be localized and not systematic.

"I am investigating each of these to see what remedial actions may be taken in order to correct these problems during the course of registration," he added.

At a press conference in Geneva, Ross Mountain, UN Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator, described as "globally inadequate" the response to last year's appeal by UN agencies for $2.3 billion to fund their emergency operations in 1999.

To date, the UN has received only about 30 per cent of the funds sought and half of that was in response to the recent crisis in the Balkans.

Mr. Mountain said that the rate of funding for the UN's consolidated appeals for complex emergencies had dropped steadily over the last three years from 75 per cent in 1996, to 66 per cent in 1997 to 54 per cent last year.

Citing figures that showed poor funding for Africa, the UN relief official said that Guinea-Bissau had received only 19 per cent of the funds sought, Angola less than 30 per cent, and Sierra Leone just 27 per cent. Countries in other regions did not far much better. Tajikistan received only 34 per cent and Afghanistan 28 per cent of the amount needed.

Humanitarian organizations had been forced to increase their financial requirements as conflicts were reignited or took on larger proportions. "The most dramatic increase has been in Angola where the renewed conflict is leading to an imminent humanitarian catastrophe with over two million in need of urgent relief assistance," warned Mr. Mountain.

In "The Progress of Nations 1999", a country-by-country report on the status of the world's most vulnerable children and women, UNICEF offers a devastating picture of the destructiveness and loss of life caused by HIV/AIDS in developing countries, particularly Africa.

The report draws particular attention to the impact of poverty, particularly in developing countries. For a child in Africa, the odds are that life will bring malnutrition, inadequate schooling, poor sanitation, unsafe water and a span of years shortened by the cumulative effects of grinding poverty and debilitating disease, said Carol Bellamy, UNICEF's Executive Director.

UNICEF calls for outright debt cancellation for some or all of the world's poorest countries. "Debt relief and debt cancellation are a first step to ensuring hundreds of millions of children and women in developing countries their right to health and education," stressed Ms. Bellamy.

On the positive side, the report highlights the drive to eradicate polio, noting that the number of cases globally has plunged by 86 per cent since 1988.

"We are on the verge of consigning to history a disease that has terrified communities and devastated countless lives," said Ms. Bellamy. She warned, however, that conflicts in places like Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo threaten the campaign against polio.

A special feature of this year's report is new statistical yardstick, the "child risk measure", which uses such criteria as armed conflict, prevalence of HIV/AIDS and under-five mortality to assess the situation of children in different nations and regions. The countries where children are at most risk are Angola, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Somalia.

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

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