United Nations Daily Highlights, 00-07-24

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

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE NOON BRIEFING
BY FRED ECKHARD
SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

• Upon arrival this morning at headquarters, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that all the violations had now been cleared on the so-called "Line of Withdrawal" along the border between Lebanon and Israel. The Secretary-General said he hoped that "in the next few days we will see our troops on the border."

• Annan is expected to send a letter to the Security Council today to inform them of the latest developments.

• In Lebanon, officers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) are meeting today and Tuesday with their counterparts from the Lebanese Army in order to work out the operational details of the deployment of both forces along the along the line.

• In the Secretary-General’s latest report to the Security Council on UNIFIL, available today, he said that both sides have undertaken to respect the "Line of Withdrawal." However, he added, "It is crucial that they adhere scrupulously to this commitment and continue to act responsibly and with restraint, to avoid any incidents that could lead to an escalation of tensions in this sensitive area."

• The Secretary-General also requested that the mandate of the UN force in Lebanon be extended for another six months until January 31, 2001. The Security Council will hold consultations on Lebanon on Tuesday.

• In response to a question, the Spokesman said that the redeployment of UN troops would allow the United Nations to support the Government of Lebanon in establishing a permanent presence in southern Lebanon, up to the border with Israel. Lebanon has deployed some 1,000 security personnel in the south, a number which could be doubled, and may also keep military personnel available in reserve if needed.

• Over the weekend, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) launched "Operation Thunderbolt," northeast of Freetown, aimed at dislodging a rebel faction called the "West Side Boys" and clearing their roadblocks around Masiaka.

• The Secretary-General, upon entering the building, described the operation on Saturday as a pre-emptive strike against a group of rebels who were planning an attempt to attack the UN force in Sierra Leone. He said, "Basically, we are going to remain vigilant... Anyone who attempts to attack the peacekeepers would know that they will defend themselves and that there will be a price to pay."

• The West Side Boys had been formerly aligned with the government but their defiance had reached a point recently where they were harassing civilians, obstructing the security and freedom of movement of UN personnel and the local population as well as blocking delivery of humanitarian assistance.

• There were no reports of UN casualties from the operation, in which the UN troops regained control of Masiaka.

• An ambush by suspected members of the West Side Boys following the operation resulted in the injury of one Guinean soldier, reported today in Freetown.

• UNAMSIL reported that 16 combatants of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) presented themselves for disarmament in Sierra Leone. More are reported to be coming in.

• The United Nations has put on hold the deployment of the Tunisian headquarters support unit that was to have arrived in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), later this week. The unit would have been the first armed unit to deploy as part of the UN Mission in the DRC.

• Over the weekend, President Laurent Kabila of the DRC publicly stated that the UN Mission had been asked not to deploy armed troops in Kinshasa and Mbandaka, both of which are in Government-held areas.

• The deployment of the Tunisian unit cannot take place unless the DRC Government provides necessary guarantees of cooperation.

• In response to a question about Pakistan's deployment to Kisangani, the Spokesman told the reporter after the briefing that military deployment to the town was a priority for the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that the United Nations was working with troop-contributing countries so that it could proceed with the deployment. Specialized units also need to be provided.

• Today in East Timor, a soldier from the New Zealand battalion of the UN peacekeeping force was killed following an exchange of gunfire with an armed group near the border with West Timor. This was the first combat-related death of a UN peacekeeper in East Timor.

• The soldier, Private Leonard William Manning, died of gunshot wounds after a New Zealand tracking team, which was investigating reports of activity by an armed group north-west of the town of Suai, encountered a group of armed men, who have yet to be identified, about eight kilometers west of Fahorem, close to the border between East and West Timor.

• At about 10:45 a.m. local time, the UN troops and the armed group exchanged fire, and the UN patrol withdrew. The UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) is investigating the incident.

• The UN Force Commander, Lt. Gen. Boonsrang Niumpradit, said today that "this is a tragic loss, and, on behalf of all members of the UNTAET peacekeeping force, I would like to extend my condolences."

• Manning's body will be flown back to New Zealand within the next few days.

• Also today, a team from the Indonesian Attorney General's office traveled to Suai to interview witness to last September's Suai church massacre. The team was accompanied by investigators from the UN Mission's Human Rights Unit. The team also visited massacre sites in Dili and Liquica on Sunday.

• The Security Council has not scheduled any meeting this morning. An open meeting which had been planned for today to consider a draft resolution on the extension of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) was postponed. Work is continuing on the language of a draft resolution concerning the peacekeeping mission, which is set to end its present mandate next Monday, July 31.

• The Council is expected to hold consultations Tuesday to consider two recent reports by the Secretary-General, on the UN Observer Mission in Georgia and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.

• The Secretary General’s Special Advisor on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, is back in Geneva today for the resumption of the Cyprus talks. This morning he met with separately with the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot delegations.

• This round of talks is scheduled to end on Friday, August 4.

• On Friday night, as the meeting of the Group of Seven nations and Russia in Okinawa, Japan, ended, the Secretary-General, in a statement issued through his Spokesman, noted his disappointment that the G-7 states had failed to provide debt relief, as promised, to poor countries.

• "For four years, we have had too many promises and too little action," the statement said, noting that so far, only 9 out of 41 Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries have qualified for some $15 billion of debt relief.

• The Secretary-General said more has to be done, and he urged all parties to resolve their differences on this issue urgently.

• Following the summit, the World Health Organization issued a press release about ways in which the G-7 states and Russia could help fight infectious diseases in poor countries, by spending about five billion dollars per year.

• The World Food Programme today praised the United States' $300 million contribution to help launch a universal school-feeding program, announced by US President Bill Clinton following the Okinawa Summit.

• The Spokesman added, in response to a question, that the Secretary-General believes the debt problem is "in the hands of the Governments that control the money and in whose authority the debts can be forgiven."

• The panel on UN peace operations, chaired by Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi, will meet this afternoon in a closed session to finalize its report, which is now expected to be made public during the week of August 21.

• The Office of the Iraq Programme reports that, in the week ending on July 21, Iraq exported 13.5 million barrels of oil, with an estimated value of $296 million. The total value of oil exported in Phase VIII of the "oil-for-food" program is now approximately $1.732 billion.

• In Pristina today, Daan Everts, head of the UN Mission's pillar on democratization and institution building, noted the completion of voter registration in Kosovo. He called the registration process "a spectacular success" although he warned that the non-participation by the Kosovar Serb community remains a matter of concern.

• The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme published a special report on the food situation North Korea. The report says that, although there are encouraging signs that the relaxation of sanctions against North Korea will have a positive impact on the food security in that country, the short-term situation still remains precarious. North Korea is currently in its sixth year of food shortages.

• The Food and Agriculture Organization issued an interim technical report, which states that the food supply is set to grow faster that the world’s population, but that under-nourishment will still remain widespread.

• The guest at Tuesday's noon briefing will be Under-Secretary-General for Management Joseph Connor and Assistant Secretary-General for Central Services Toshiyuki Niwa, who will discuss the Capital Master Plan for the UN Headquarters.

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