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United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-08-03United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSTuesday, 3 August, 1999This daily news round-up is prepared by the Central News Section of the Department of Public Information. The latest update is posted at approximately 6:00 PM New York time. HEADLINES
The Security Council on Tuesday decided unanimously to extend for one month the mandate of the United Nations mission organizing the upcoming vote on an autonomy proposal for East Timor. The Council adopted a resolution to keep the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) operational until 30 September after Secretary-General Kofi Annan had informed it of his decision to postpone until 30 August a ballot on the territory's future and requested a one-month extension of the mandate. The ballot that would either grant East Timor autonomy within Indonesia or begin a process that would lead to independence has been twice-delayed due to continuing security concerns. Registration of eligible voters began on 16 July and UNAMET reported today that as of 1 August, 393,152 people have signed up for the poll. Meanwhile in East Timor, the first relief convoy from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reached areas outside of the capital, Dili, carrying food, medical supplies and shelter material. Those areas have a high concentration of displaced people because of attacks by anti- independence militia. Medical teams set up clinics in Faulare and Sare, where the medical situation reportedly is very serious and where up to 1, 500 displaced people lack shelter. According to UNHCR, the convoy travelled with a heavy police escort and reached its destination without problems. The previous UN convoy travelling along the same route 4 July was attacked by gunmen. With nearly 90 per cent of some 850,000 Kosovo refugees having returned home, the need for smooth delivery of humanitarian supplies to the province is becoming ever more acute, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday. Kris Janowski, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that with the large number of returnees in need of assistance, the agency was very concerned about the negative impact of a customs fee on all goods transiting the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Speaking to the press in Geneva, Mr. Janowski said the charge imposed by the Skopje Government since mid-July had brought the UNHCR aid pipeline through that country to a standstill and was contributing to a back-up of supplies. UNHCR believed the 640 DM inspection fee on all goods transported through the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was disproportionate and penalized humanitarian agencies trying to provide assistance to Kosovo. Some 85 UNHCR trucks are currently waiting in a parking lot in Skopje to transport nearly 3,500 metric tons of aid to Kosovo. Also stalled are 17 rail cars with some 850 metric tons of timber, mostly to supply the UNHCR effort to rebuild homes before winter. Prior to the imposition of the fee, UNHCR had been sending an average of 20 to 25 trucks a day from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia into Kosovo. The Security Council committee overseeing sanctions against Angola's rebel movement UNITA has approved the appointment of members of two expert panels which will investigate how the sanctions are being violated. The sanctions, which were put in place in 1993, prohibit the sale or supply of arms, petroleum or funds to the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). Ambassador Robert Fowler of Canada, Chairman of the Council's sanctions committee, said in a letter to the Security Council that one panel will investigate UNITA's sources of revenue, funding and petroleum supplies. The six-member panel will be chaired by Swedish Ambassador Anders Mollander. The second panel, which will deal with the rebel movement's sources of military support, will be headed by Colonel Otisitswe Broza Tiroyamodimo of Botswana, who served with the UN peacekeeping forces in Mozambique. Several governments in the region have been asked to make technical experts available to the panels through their diamond boards or relevant ministries, said Ambassador Fowler. Ambassador Fowler told the Security Council last week that UNITA, which controls some of Angola's diamond-rich areas, had raised an estimated $3 billion to $4 billion from trading diamonds. Ambassador Fowler says he will convene a meeting of the panels in New York at the end of August. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed deep concern about the plight of around 300,000 civilians living in northern areas of Sri Lanka controlled by the LTTE, the guerilla-group known as Tamil Tiger. A UNHCR spokesman said the civilians have been deprived of humanitarian assistance since late June, when the only crossing point giving access to the Vanni region was closed. An agreement reached this weekend between government forces and the LTTE allows people who need medical treatment to be evacuated by boat, however overland food deliveries and movement of people continue to be blocked. In the first medical evacuation, a group of sick people were taken to a government hospital on Sunday, while national examination papers were brought into Mallavi so that students could sit for their end-of- year exams, UNHCR said. The refugee agency remains deeply concerned about the lack of agreement between Government forces and the LTTE regarding the establishment of a "civilian security zone" which would allow the re- opening of a crossing point. UNHCR officials have appealed to both sides to find a way to provide assistance to the civilian populations in need. UNHCR has been assisting displaced populations and returnees in northern Sri Lanka since 1987. Renewed fighting between the government and the LTTE in 1995 ended return movements and resulted in large-scale new displacement. An estimated 800,000 people are displaced in Sri Lanka, 75 per cent of them women and children. The Security Council on Tuesday endorsed the appointment of Wolfgang Petritsch as High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the top civilian official playing a key role in the implementation of the Dayton peace accords. Mr. Petritsch, designated on July 12 by the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council on Bosnia and Herzegovina, succeeds Carlos Westendorp, whose efforts as High Representative received tribute from the Council. In a unanimous resolution, the Council reaffirmed the importance of the High Representative in implementing the General Framework for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with its Annexes, as signed by that country, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as well as other parties on 21 November 1995 in Dayton, Ohio. The Council also reaffirmed the role of the High Representative in guiding and coordinating the activities of the civilian organizations and agencies involved in assisting the parties to implement the peace agreement. In addition, the Council reaffirmed "the final authority of the High Representative in theatre regarding the interpretation of Annex 10 on civilian implementation of the Peace Agreement." Three men who were government ministers during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda have been transferred to the detention facility of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, a United Nations spokesman said on Tuesday. The ex-ministers, who were arrested and detained in Cameroon last April, have been jointly charged with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity. Over the weekend, they were transferred to the Tribunal which is located in Arusha, Tanzania. The three detainees are former foreign minister, Jerome Bicamumpaka; former minister of commerce and industry, Justin Mugenzi; and former minister for the civil service, Prosper Mugiraneza. A former minister for health, Casimir Bizimungu, who was already in custody in Arusha, was charged along with the other detainees. As part of a strategy calculated to show that the 1994 genocide was a far- reaching conspiracy in the Government at the time, the Tribunal's Prosecutor is seeking a decision to allow a joint indictment and trials of the four ex-ministers with several other senior officials already in custody. For information purposes only - - not an official record From the United Nations home page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgUnited Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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