United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-08-12

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 12 August, 1999

HEADLINES

• Secretary-General alarmed at poor international response to humanitarian crisis in Africa.
• 50th anniversary of Geneva Conventions marked with calls for renewed efforts to protect civilians in war.
• Reconciliation and justice must pave way to multiethnic Kosovo, Secretary- General says.
• Greater responsibilities demand higher standards for UN civilian police in Kosovo -- UN spokesman.
• UN war crimes tribunal for Rwanda charges first woman defendant with rape.
• New UNICEF survey shows doubling of child and infant mortality in Iraq over last decade.
• Top entertainment stars to join UN development agency in effort to fight poverty.
• UN agricultural agency outlines key trends in global commodity prices and export earnings.

In a statement by his spokesman, Mr. Annan said UN humanitarian agencies and their partners had received only $352 million of the $796 million required to assist over 12 million needy people in Africa during 1999. As a result, humanitarian programmes had been cut back and even urgent life saving assistance in many instances was not being provided.

Describing the impact of the poor donor response, Mr. Annan said in Angola, 200 people were dying every day and supplies were insufficient to assist two million affected by civil war. In southern and central Somalia, a million people faced famine and humanitarian needs could not be met in the Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Despite the unprecedented economic growth and robust budget surpluses in many developed nations, international aid continued to stagnate or decline, the Secretary-General said. He appealed to donors to make a special effort now to help victims of conflicts and natural disasters in Africa.

Meanwhile, at a press conference at UN headquarters, Sergio Vieiro de Mello, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co- ordinator, said African countries emerging from war needed assistance to shore up a fragile peace.

When demobilized soldiers were not given food aid and prospects for alternative sources of income, they were likely to take up arms if only to feed themselves and their families, he said.

The perception that aid to chronically insecure African countries was in danger of being wasted could become a self-fulfilling prophecy, said Mr. Vieira de Mello. Without aid these countries could relapse into cycles of violence and war, he stressed.

Mr. Annan told the commemorative meeting in Geneva that while progress in the codification of international humanitarian law over the last fifty years provided vivid testimony to the significance of the Conventions, one could not say that civilian populations had been spared in the conflicts of the last decade.

"We should not, and we cannot, believe that the next fifty years will require any less determination and commitment on our part to limit the suffering of civilians in war," he said.

Noting that during the 1990s, civilians had been the very targets of warfare, in campaigns of genocide and "ethnic cleansing", Mr. Annan said flagrant violations of international humanitarian law have taken place not as an effect of war, but the essence of war.

As the UN entered the next century, said the Secretary-General, its commitment to ensuring respect for international humanitarian law and ending the culture of impunity would be at the heart of its efforts to promote peace and security.

Mr. Annan said the UN International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda had breathed new life into the Geneva Conventions and the creation of the International Criminal Court was further evidence of the commitment to global justice.

While in Geneva, the Secretary-General signed a solemn appeal calling on all peoples and governments to reject the idea that war is inevitable and to eradicate its underlying causes. The solemn appeal also calls for sparing civilians the agony of war.

Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson called for greater protection of civilians in armed conflicts.

"We must take concrete progress where it really matters: on the ground", said Ms. Robinson in a statement, citing as a welcome step the bulletin issued by the Secretary-General on the applicability of international humanitarian law to UN peacekeepers.

Ms. Robinson called on States to abide strictly by the provisions of the Geneva Conventions and to ratify the statute of the International Criminal Court, so it could begin operations.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, Mr. Annan said means for reconciliation between the parties must be found to bring about a multi- ethnic Kosovo.

Although the situation in the province remained very difficult, Mr. Annan said the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), along with the KFOR international security force, could not allow those attempting to expel Serbs from Kosovo to succeed.

"Obviously, justice is required, but revenge is not justice," Mr. Annan said.

Mr. Annan said he hoped the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) would continue to work with Dr. Bernard Kouchner, who, as the Secretary- General's Special Representative, leads the efforts of UNMIK to restore civil order and build democracy in Kosovo.

Responding to a question from the press about bringing criminals to justice, Mr. Annan said it was necessary to make it understood by all that there was no escape from justice and that the international community would do its best to see the guilty brought to trial.

Impunity should not be an accepted fact, Mr. Annan said, and it was for that reason the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the International Criminal Court had been established.

Speaking at a press briefing at UN Headquarters, Spokesman Fred Eckhard said that the standards were stricter in Kosovo because responsibilities were greater than ever before and the UN civilian police "may have to use their weapons in a situation that would be similar to some of the toughest urban areas in the world."

Responding to a question regarding the recent failure of some international civilian police candidates to meet the entrance standards set by the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Mr. Eckhard said the situation in Kosovo necessitated that civilian officers be conversant in English and have full skills with their weapons.

Some candidates who had not met the strict standards set by UNMIK had been let go, Mr. Eckhard said. He noted that this was not the first time international civilian police candidates had been sent home after failing to meet entrance standards. Although the UN specified in writing the standards for UN civilian police contributed by Member States, over the years the UN had often faced difficulties getting police to meet those requirements, he said.

More than 650 UNMIK civilian police are now in Kosovo, with a team of more than 60 UN officers already patrolling the provincial capital, Pristina. Some 80 more have been deployed throughout the province, with others undergoing training and induction.

Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, a former Rwandan Minister for the Family and Women's Affairs, is also the first woman to be indicted by an international criminal tribunal.

On Tuesday, the Tribunal approved an amended indictment to include responsibility for using rape "as part of a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population on political, ethnic and racial grounds," in central Rwanda. Ms. Nyiramasuhuko was already under indictment for genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and other crimes against humanity.

The Prosecutor alleges that Ms. Nyiramasuhuko knew that her subordinates were raping Tutsi women and failed to take necessary and reasonable measures to prevent or punish such acts.

The amended charges also accuse Ms. Nyiramasuhuko of "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution and indecent assault" against Tutsi women during Rwanda's civil war.

Arsene Shalom Ntahobali, Ms. Nyiramasuhuko's son, is accused jointly with his mother in the new indictment. He also faces separate charges for allegedly kidnapping and raping Tutsi women.

In response to what UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy called an "ongoing humanitarian emergency," the agency proposed that the international community provide additional funding for humanitarian efforts in Iraq.

UNICEF also recommended that the Iraqi Government urgently begin targeted nutrition programmes and -- together with the Security Council committee overseeing the sanctions against Baghdad -- give priority to contracts for supplies that will directly help children.

As a partial explanation for the findings, Ms. Bellamy pointed to a March statement of the Security Council Panel on Humanitarian Issues, which said: "Even if not all suffering in Iraq can be imputed to external factors, especially sanctions, the Iraqi people would not be undergoing such deprivations in the absence of the prolonged measures imposed by the Security Council and the effects of war."

Ms. Bellamy stressed that UNICEF, as a member of the UN family, recognized that economic sanctions were an instrument intended by the international community to promote peace and security.

"Our concern is that whenever sanctions are imposed they should be designed and implemented in such a way as to avoid a negative impact on children," she said.

UNICEF said the results may also be attributable to a dramatic increase in Iraq in infant bottle-feeding, given its contribution to higher levels of malnutrition and child mortality.

Ms. Bellamy said the survey's large sample sizes and UNICEF's involvement in its design and analysis ensure that the findings cannot be easily dismissed as an Iraqi effort to mobilize opposition to UN sanctions.

"The surveys were thoroughly reviewed by a panel of independent experts and no major problems were found with either the results or the way the surveys were conducted," she said.

At a telephone news conference Thursday, UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown and Cisco Executive Vice President Don Listwin were on hand to announce the lineup of scheduled performers, which include Bush, The Corrs, Counting Crows, Eurythmics, Jewel, Wyclef Jean with Bono, Michael Kamen and Orchestra, George Michael, Jimmy Page and Robbie Williams.

The 9 October concerts will take place simultaneously in the United States, London and Geneva and be broadcast on the radio, television and via the Internet. The NetAid site, http://www.netaid.org, where the concerts can be viewed, will be launched 8 September and contain information developed by UNDP on world poverty, which affects more than 1.3 billion people.

Mr. Brown told the teleconference that with extreme poverty on the rise, the existing tools and resources to combat the world's worst poverty are clearly insufficient. "NetAid will be a lasting weapon that will help mobilize people that were not involved previously, and create new virtual communities that will work together to eradicate extreme poverty," he said.

According to the report by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) three commodities -- sugar, cotton and rubber -- account for most of the decline. The fall in export earnings for developing countries reflects the 14 percent decline in the price index for their principal export commodities and shrinking trade volumes for some commodities. For the developed countries, agricultural export earnings fell 12 percent.

The Commodity Market Review is FAO's leading annual report on key developments in the global economy, commodity prices and export earnings as well as other developments that affect international trade in agriculture.

This year's edition includes three special features: an assessment of the impacts the Uruguay Round Agreements are having on agricultural markets; a description of FAO's technical assistance programmes related to the Uruguay Round Agreements and a summary of the agency's projections to 2005 for agricultural commodities.

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

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