United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-08-20

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 20 August, 1999

HEADLINES

• Secretary-General says UN prepared to coordinate international relief for Turkey's earthquake victims.
• Security Council authorizes more military observers for UN mission in Sierra Leone.
• UN says violence continues to mar campaigning in East Timor.
• Military personnel pledged for UN efforts to implement Democratic Republic of Congo ceasefire.
• UN special envoy in Kosovo discusses security situation and civil reconstruction efforts with KFOR and local officials.
• UN world food agency warns of humanitarian tragedy in southern Somalia.
• Young students being recruited for war in Afghanistan, says UNICEF.

"We are all aware of the magnitude of the devastation and suffering caused by this tragedy. The needs remain enormous, both for initial relief and rehabilitation," Mr. Annan said on Friday in a statement issued by his spokesman.

The Secretary-General noted with gratitude the generous assistance by governments, private relief agencies and individuals and said the United Nations itself was providing all possible assistance.

The spokesman said the confirmed death toll from the earthquake, which struck in the pre-dawn hours on Tuesday, now stands at over 8,700, with more than 34,000 people injured. The search and rescue effort will go until next Tuesday, when hope for survivors will presumably be exhausted, he added.

Meanwhile, the United Nations system is continuing to provide relief. In response to an appeal by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Spain is sending a field military hospital which will be operational on the ground in 72 hours. Germany and Norway have already sent field hospitals.

To ensure Turkey's youngest earthquake victims get the special help they need, UNICEF, the UN Children's Fund, has sent a planeload of special relief supplies, including 100 emergency medical kits, each designed to meet the basic needs of 10,000 people for three months. UNICEF is also supplying water purification tablets, cooking utensils, bedding and plastic sheeting to help shelter families who have lost their homes.

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has sent reproductive health kits to Turkey valued at $60,000. And the World Health Organization (WHO) has dispatched the Director of its Copenhagen office to assist the Government with emergency medical requirements, the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the major fire at the country's biggest oil refinery at Izmit, near the epicenter of the quake, is finally under control, the spokesman said. Two UN disaster assistance coordinators, along with French, Dutch and local firefighters are working to contain the blaze.

As recommended by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the observers will monitor the military and security situation in the country and assist and monitor the disarmament and demobilization of combatants in areas where adequate security is provided.

In its resolution, the Council also agreed to strengthen the political, civil affairs, information, human rights and child protection elements of UNOMSIL, stressing the urgent need to promote peace and national reconciliation and to foster accountability and respect for human rights in Sierra Leone.

The Council welcomed the 7 July peace agreement between the Government of Sierra Leone and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which establishes both a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a Human Rights Commission, and commended the Government for taking steps to implement the accord.

Addressing the Council before the vote, the representative of Sierra Leone, Fode Dabor, said the Government had "gone the extra mile" in pursuit of peace. That effort was now seen by some as having given "far too much to those who had terrorized our people for over eight years," Mr. Dabor said, even though the Government's objective had not been to score a military victory but to defend innocent Sierra Leoneans, including children, in what has been described as one of the most atrocious conflicts in Africa.

UNAMET Spokesman David Wimhurst told reporters in Dili that in Suai, a number of militia harassed people who were at the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) rally the day before. Some time later, the same group of militia attacked three students. The internally displaced people in the area tried to assist the students and the incident evolved into rock throwing by both groups.

In Manatuto, militia pointed their weapons at the vehicle of some UNAMET Military Liaison Officers, Mr. Wimhurst said. The local CNRT office was also attacked.

Mr. Wimhurst said Indonesian authorities had assured UNAMET that they would try to create a secure environment and that the Mission believed that the authorities want the 30 August ballot to go ahead peacefully. "Unfortunately," he added, "the orders are not always transmitted down the chain of command."

In a briefing to the Security Council, Assistant Secretary-General for Peace-keeping Operations Hedi Annabi said once financing costs are approved, the military personnel and the civilian support staff would be initially deployed to Kinshasa, Kigali and Kampala. Eventually, they will be sent to the capitals of all the signatories to the 10 July Lusaka Agreement -- the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Namibia, Uganda, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.

The liaison officers would also be assigned to the headquarters of the Joint Military Commission (JMC), which was set up by the accord to disarm the combatants and monitor the ceasefire, and, as security conditions permit, to the rear military headquarters of the main belligerents in the Democratic Repbulic of the Congo and anywhere else UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan deems necessary.

Mr. Annabi said no military personnel would be deployed to areas outside the capital of Kinshasa until all parties have signed the Lusaka accord and have provided the necessary assurances of cooperation and security guarantees.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that 8.2 million of the 10 million children under the age of five in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been vaccinated against the polio virus in a recent nation-wide campaign. In the northern city of Kisangani, 70 per cent of the children were successfully immunized despite an outbreak of fighting on the campaign's third day.

In other developments, local officials and staff of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that groups of Congolese and Rwandan armed men have passed through a camp in Loukolela, in northern Republic of Congo, where UNHCR is still caring for approximately 2,600 Rwandan refugees. The UN agency also said that it had registered several dozen Rwandan women this week in the Democratic Republic of the Congo town of Mbandaka, who apparently returned from Congo-Brazzaville after their husbands left, presumably to join the fighting.

On Thursday, Dr. Kouchner assured the commander of the United States KFOR contingent in Gnjilane, General Peterson, that some of the additional 200 UN civilian police scheduled to arrive in Kosovo during the next week would be sent to Gnjilane to enhance the team there. Currently, 25 UN civilian police officers are serving with UNMIK to help strengthen the rule of law in the area.

In Ferizaje, Dr. Kouchner praised local officials and political parties for establishing a communal council, saying he would use it as a model for setting up a council in the provincial capital, Pristina.

Dr. Kouchner invited doctors from the two towns to join some 250 health professionals meeting with UNMIK in Pristina on Sunday to discuss the future healthcare system in the province.

Because of prolonged dry periods, this year's cereal harvest will only just exceed that of 1998, which had the lowest production in five years, according to WFP.

"People's household stocks of grain are nearly exhausted after consecutive crop failures," said Burk Oberle, WFP's Country Director for Somalia. "Many people will find it very hard to fend of hunger in the months to come," he added.

The looming drought and food emergency prompted the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Somalia Aid Coordination Body to launch a donor alert for $17.5 million in early July. So far, only a fraction of the funding required has been received.

Contributions are urgently required to provide food aid and health assistance, as well as seeds for the next crop, to a population suffering from adverse climatic conditions and the cumulative effects of continuing armed conflict and natural disasters.

Louis-Georges Arsenault from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), said on Friday that although it is hard to confirm data on the numbers of children under 18 fighting in Afghanistan, over the last two weeks, Taliban delegations in Pakistan appear to have recruited 2,000 to 2,500 students in expectation of a new offensive.

"We have good reason to believe this practice is increasing," said Mr. Arsenault and he called on all the warring factions to stop recruiting children.

Children below the age of 18 who participate -- voluntarily or not - - in armed conflicts are child soldiers, said Mr. Arsenault. "UNICEF believes that the minimum age of recruitment into the military should be 18 years and we ask that a halt be put to this practice in Afghanistan," he stated.

Meanwhile, Bronek Szynalski, the Acting UN Coordinator for Afghanistan, stressed on Friday that the country's internally displaced persons was a result of the fighting on both sides of the Afghan conflict. He said the UN could not condone or facilitate forced displacement, but it was trying to contain the human dimension of the conflict despite discouraging results from the peace process.

Most of the 30,000 to 40,000 people forced to flee to Kabul did not need help because they were staying with friends and relatives. New arrivals receive water and high protein biscuits, if needed, but beyond that it was not the intention of the UN to provide for them, Mr. Szynalski said.

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

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