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United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-09-10

United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 10 September, 1999


This 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

    Latest Developments
  • Secretary-General urges Indonesia to accept international help to restore order in East Timor at a moment of "great crisis."
  • UN and Kosovars begin consultations on legal framework for territory's economy.
  • Sharp drop in food production in Kosovo brings nutritional and economic tolls, UN food agencies report.
  • UN drug control programme reports 60 per cent increase in global opium production.


Saying that East Timor was in a moment of "great crisis" as it descended into anarchy, Secretary-General Kofi Annan stressed the time has clearly come for Indonesia to seek the help of the international community to bring order and security to the territory. In a statement on Friday at United Nations Headquarters in New York, the Secretary-General urged the Indonesian Government to accept the offer of assistance from several governments, including Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Malaysia, "without further delay." _Secretary-General Kofi Annan at UN news conference on Friday_ If the Indonesian government refuses to do so, Mr. Annan told a packed press conference room, it cannot escape the responsibility "for what could amount, according to reports reaching us, to crimes against humanity." The Secretary-General emphatically denied that the United Nations was abandoning the people of East Timor. "The situation has clearly got far beyond what a small mission, which was sent to organize the popular vote and never equipped or mandated to enforce law and order, can possibly be expected to cope with," he said. The 5 May Agreements that paved the way for last month's autonomy vote called for Indonesian forces to maintain law and order in East Timor during and after the ballot and until the results have been accepted by the new Indonesian parliament. "Regrettably, Indonesia has failed to fulfil that responsibility, even with the introduction of martial law," the Secretary-General said. As proof of ongoing lawlessness, the Secretary-General cited last night's incident when militia members fired weapons in the air and threatened to invade the UN mission's compound as the Indonesian military assigned to protect the headquarters did nothing. "So far, they have been either unable or unwilling to take effective steps to restore security," he added. "I am ready to take any decision necessary to ensure the safety of UN personnel." In the past week, hundreds of thousands of East Timorese have abandoned their homes and many others have been forcibly relocated to West Timor and other parts of Indonesia, the Secretary-General said. The UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) has also been forced, on security grounds, to evacuate 12 of its 13 regional centres and to concentrate its remaining presence in the capital Dili, where it has been subjected to repeated threats. Mr. Annan said he authorized his Special Representative, Ian Martin, to move about 480 people, including 350 local staff members and their immediate dependants, from the compound to Darwin, Australia. A skeleton crew of about 100 international UN staff remains inside. In response to a reporter's question, the Secretary-General said that in negotiating the 5 May Agreements, it was necessary to trust in the Indonesian Government's ability to uphold its guarantees of security. The UN was not naïve about the history of violence in East Timor during the past 24 years, he said. "Nobody in his wildest dreams thought what we are witnessing could have happened," Mr. Annan stressed. "We knew there were security problems but not the carnage and the chaos we have seen." The Secretary-General said he was "shocked" by what had happened and felt great sympathy for the people of East Timor "who for the first time in 24 years get the chance to express themselves and speak eloquently and loudly as to what they want their destiny to be." "Suddenly they are in a sea of violence in a very chaotic situation," he said.
United Nations and Kosovar financial experts have begun consultations on drafting a legal framework for Kosovo's economy, a UN spokeswoman said today.

Holding its first meeting on Thursday in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, the Kosovo Economic Policy Advisory Board established working groups that will consider the financial sector, financial policy, economic enterprises and property, Daniela Rozgonova told the press in Pristina.

The Advisory Board was established earlier in the week by the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to recommend economic legislation that will form the legal base of Kosovo's economy once signed into law by UNMIK chief, Dr. Bernard Kouchner.

"The Advisory Board will guide UNMIK on building the Kosovo economy so that ultimately UNMIK can transfer a functioning system to meet Kosovo's requirements," Ms. Rozgonova said.

The Board, which includes local experts in economic and financial affairs, met under the co-chairmanship of Arji Begu, an eminent Kosovar economist, and an UNMIK representative for economic reconstruction.


The rural population of Kosovo faces serious nutritional and economic consequences in coming months, since recent conflict and mass displacement have caused a sharp drop in local food production, United Nations food agencies said Friday.

In a joint statement released in Rome, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) say that Kosovo's agricultural and livestock output will fall this year by an estimated 65 per cent.

FAO and WFP report that Kosovo's wheat production this year, forecast at 113,000 tons, will meet only 30 per cent of its requirements. Also, Kosovo's cattle have been reduced by half and the small stock by roughly 25 per cent.

Even with 143,000 tons of emergency food aid planned for this year, Kosovo will still face an uncovered food import gap of 85,000 tons, the agencies say.

The already greatly disrupted local economy will be adversely affected by a reduction in income from agricultural activities. The rural population, which before hostilities derived 60 per cent of its incomes from the sale of agricultural products, will now be left heavily reliant on remittances from abroad, the UN agencies said.

The agencies also warn that future harvests of maize may prove difficult, due to the persistent civil unrest and the recent exodus of a large part of the rural Serb population.


Global production of illicit opium increased 60 per cent in 1999, to about 6,000 metric tonnes, with three-quarters of the world-wide total being manufactured in Afghanistan, according to an annual survey released Friday by the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP).

Raw opium production in Afghanistan more than doubled to a record 4,600 metric tonnes, UNDCP says. The total amount of land used to grow the poppy plant increased 43 per cent as virtually all opium cultivation occurred in Taliban-controlled areas.

Opium production in Myanmar -- the only other major illicit producer -- was estimated at 1,200 metric tonnes while an additional 300 tonnes was produced in Laos, Thailand, Pakistan and Colombia.

"The dramatic increase in the global production of opium and the record output in Afghanistan are cause for great concern," says UNDCP Executive Director Pino Arlacchi.


For information purposes only - - not an official record

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


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