United Nations Daily Highlights, 00-07-28

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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

• This morning the first units of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon began deploying along the withdrawal line.

• Platoons from the Irish and Ghanaian battalions have already taken position at Yaroun and Manara, respectively.

• As the day goes on, platoons from the Fijian, Indian, Nepalese and Finnish battalions are expected to deploy at four more points along the line: Labone, Hasbaiya, Rumaysh and Metulla.

• Once this initial phase of the deployment is completed, the UN Mission expects to have approximately 150 peacekeepers in position along the line.

• These positions will be re-enforced with more soldiers and equipment over time.

• The Lebanese security forces are expected to deploy in the south in the next few days.

• The Security Council began its work this morning with a briefing in closed consultations on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations H&eacute;di Annabi.

• The Secretary-General earlier this week decided to suspend the deployment of the Tunisian headquarters support unit of the UN Mission to that country following the DRC Government's announcement on July 21 that it would not permit armed UN troops to deploy in Kinshasa or any other Congolese city.

• Annabi informed the Council of continuing efforts to prepare for the deployment of an expanded UN presence and the problems such deployment faces.

• He also noted that fighting in Equateur has caused a critical humanitarian problem along the Ubangi River, the boundary between the DRC and the Republic of Congo. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is trying to gain access to an estimated 45,000 refugees displaced by fighting in that area.

• After the consultations adjourned, the Council went into a formal meeting to extend unanimously the mandate of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia by six months, until the end of January 2001.

• The Council then began an open debate on East Timor with a briefing by Annabi on recent developments there. It is expected to adopt a Presidential Statement at the end of that debate.

• Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his latest report on the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), which is available today, notes that the normalization of relations between Indonesia and East Timor has progressed well in recent months. Most recently, agreement was reached on July 5 on establishing a Joint Border Committee dealing with all cross-border matters involving East and West Timor.

• The Secretary-General notes that more than 167,000 refugees have returned to East Timor from Indonesia, most of them coming from West Timor. However, an estimated 85,000 to 120,000 refugees remain in camps in West Timor, where militias who opposed independence continue to have great influence and to impede the work of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

• In general, the Secretary-General says, the UN Mission "can look with satisfaction on what it has achieved so far" in maintaining a secure environment and administering East Timor. But he also notes that the United Nations has never before tried to build and manage a state, and it continues to face a daunting task.

• UNTAET today provided further information about the investigation into the killing on Monday of a soldier from the New Zealand contingent of the UN peacekeeping force in East Timor.

• Special Representative Sergio Vieira de Mello and Force Commander Lt. Gen. Boonsrang Niumpradit met Thursday in Indonesia with West Timor Commander, Maj. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri, who accepted that the group that killed Private Leonard Manning probably operated out of West Timor.

• He offered assistance in locating and arresting the perpetrators, and agreed to set up a committee involving the Indonesian military, or TNI, and the UN peacekeeping force to investigate the killing.

• On Thursday, UN troops found two camps near the site where Manning was murdered. In those camps, the peacekeepers found a military-style backpack, one military uniform and shirts with TNI and Kopassus (Indonesian special forces) patches.

• The Spokesman, in response to questions, said that the United Nations had not drawn any direct links between those uniforms and the incident, or between militias and the Indonesian military. However, he added, the United Nations holds the Indonesian military responsible for the behavior of militia groups on Indonesian soil.

• He noted that the UN Mission had acknowledged signs of mutilation on the body of the murdered peacekeeper.

• This afternoon, Gen. Vijay Jetley, Force Commander of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone, will brief the Security Council at 4:45 on the situation in that country. Jetley is also meeting with troop contributing countries and senior officials today.

• On Thursday, Jetley met with the Secretary-General and discussed the importance of well-trained and well-equipped troops in Sierra Leone. In the evening, he went to the Sierra Leone Mission to the United Nations, where he met with a group of about 30 concerned Sierra Leoneans living in the United States and assured them that the interests of Sierra Leoneans were paramount in the work of the UN Mission.

• The situation in Sierra Leone itself remains calm, but unpredictable. On Thursday, some members of the "West Side Boys" faction turned in their weapons to UN peacekeepers near Masiaka. By day's end, 38 people -- 29 men, seven women and two child combatants -- had turned in weapons, and were transported to the disarmament camp at Lungi.

• The Spokesman, in response to a question, said that the Sierra Leone Government controls a broad swathe of central Sierra Leone but that the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) controls much of the north. UN troops in the east are concentrated at Daru following the breakout operation in nearby Kailahun two weeks ago, while other UN troops are clustered around Freetown.

• This morning the Secretary-General addressed the closing session of the Economic and Social Council’s substantive session for 2000.

• He praised the council’s high-level segment on information technology for raising awareness of the tremendous potential which the information technology revolution holds for development work. But he also reminded delegates that all efforts must be made to bridge the "digital divide," adding: "We must not let the new information technologies become another resource that divides rich and poor nations."

• The Secretary-General also underscored the key role that the United Nations "can play in expanding the impact of IT on development and in promoting digital opportunities."

• He renewed his call for debt relief, especially for those countries emerging from years of dictatorship and those that suffered from major conflicts or natural disasters. "Pledges are no longer sufficient; we need concrete and immediate measures," he said.

• The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo said today that the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Bernard Kouchner, will be in Ankara on Monday to meet Turkish Foreign Minister, Ismael Cem. Their discussion will focus on registration and language concerns of the Turkish community in Kosovo.

• The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) noted the return of 4,680 Afghans from Iran, in a joint program run by the Iranian Government and UNHCR. More than 57,000 Afghans have returned home from Iran since the program began on April 8, with more than three-quarters of the returnees going to three cities in Taliban-held territory: Kabul, Herat and Ghazni.

• UNHCR announced today that its repatriation program for some 90,000 Eritrean refugees in Sudan kicked into high gear with the deployment of about 100 trucks to assist the returnees. Weather permitting, around 3,000 refugees are expected to return today to Eritrea from camps in eastern Sudan.

The Secretary-General will arrive in Accra, Ghana, where he will be met at the airport by President Jerry Rawlings and will hold a brief press encounter.

A UN fact-finding team will begin a two-week mission to Niger to assist the Government in developing a program to collect weapons.

The Secretary-General, on the first day of an official visit to Ghana, will call on the Ga Chiefs of Greater Accra and will visit the UN offices in Accra.

The UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on Sierra Leone will begin a two-day meeting in the Trusteeship Council Chamber on the role of diamonds in the Sierra Leone conflict. Experts and representatives from interested countries, regional organizations and the diamond industry will attend.

The Security Council is expected to hold consultations on Ethiopia and Eritrea.

In Geneva, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination will begin its summer session, which will last until August 25.

The Secretary-General will attend a wreath-laying ceremony at Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum in Ghana, and will also hold a meeting with President Jerry Rawlings.

Ambassador Hasmy Agam of Malaysia will replace Ambassador Patricia Durrant of Jamaica as the President of the Security Council, and will hold bilateral talks with other Council members on the program of work for the month of August.

Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowdhury of Bangladesh, Chairman of the Security Council Sanctions Committee on Sierra Leone, will hold a press conference at the end of the Committee's session, at approximately 1 p.m.

The Secretary-General will attend the inauguration of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center in Ghana and will receive an honorary degree from the University of Ghana on the last day of his official visit to that country.

The Security Council is expected to hold consultations on its program of work for August.

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