United Nations Daily Highlights, 01-05-21

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

FROM THE NOON BRIEFING

BY FRED ECKHARD

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Monday, May 21, 2001

MIDDLE EAST: ANNAN HOPES REPORT WILL MOVE PARTIES TOWARDS CEASE-FIRE

Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters at UN headquarters this morning that he thought there are elements in the report by a fact-finding commission led by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, which came out officially today, that would allow the Israelis and the Palestinians to step back, move towards a cease-fire, agree on confidence-building measures and eventually return to the negotiation table.

"I hope this opportunity will not be wasted," he said.

Referring to the violence in the region, he said, "It's a real tragedy."

Asked about Arab nations' decision over the weekend to freeze all ties with Israel, the Secretary-General commented, "It's not going to make a settlement easier." He added, however, that he was encouraged that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had indicated he would remain engaged and he trusted that Jordan's King Abdullah would stay involved.

"The group that met at Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, in October 2000, he said, has stayed in touch throughout this crisis trying to find a way of pushing the process forward." [The Sharm-el-Sheikh meeting co-chaired by Egypt and the United States brought together representatives from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, the European Union, and the United Nations.]

At the request of the Security Council, the Secretary-General has agreed to brief Council Members on the Middle East on Tuesday.

SECURITY COUNCIL TOLD OF DISARMAMENT OF SIERRA LEONE FIGHTERS

Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hédi Annabi, briefed the Security Council this morning in closed consultations on his mission to Sierra Leone and on recent developments in that country.

According to the UN Mission in Sierra Leone, more than 1,000 ex-fighters from the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the pro-Government militia Civil Defense Force (CDF) have disarmed since the process started in Kambia and Port Loko districts on Friday. The UN Mission noted that the RUF brigade commander led a group to the disarmament center in Kambia.

The UN Mission also reported that shells were fired from Guinea in the town of Rokupr in the Kambia district on Friday while the RUF fighters were disarming. On Saturday, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, went to Conakry with Sierra Leone President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah to discuss the bombardment. Guinean authorities said the incident was due to a communication gap and that immediate steps would be taken to prevent a recurrence.

SECURITY COUNCIL MISSION SAYS SOLUTION IN SIGHT FOR DR OF CONGO

The Security Council mission to the Great Lakes region of Africa issued a statement today at the end of its visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) before leaving for Lusaka, which said that, for "the first time since the outbreak of the conflict a solution seems to be in sight in the Democratic Republic of the Congo."

The statement fully supported the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement and called on all parties to respect it, and also underscored the importance of a economic revival as a vital component of a return to peace.

During a press conference before departing Kinshasa, Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France, who is leading this mission, announced the creation of funding for 40 small development projects where the UN Mission in the DRC has a presence.

The delegation arrived in Zambia today, where they will spend the next day and a half meeting with the Political Committee of the Lusaka Accords to examine in depth the future of the DRC peace process.

ANNAN SAYS ACTION ON GLOBAL WARMING CANNOT WAIT

The Secretary-General on Sunday delivered the commencement address at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts, where he told the graduates that global warming may be the greatest challenge their generation will have to face.

In his speech, the Secretary-General said that the world's leading climatologists have sifted the evidence and have concluded that "climate change is occurring, that human activities are among the main contributing factors, and that we cannot wait any longer to take action."

He added, "Contrary to popular belief, we do not face a choice between economy and ecology." In fact, he said, the opposite is true, and that economic growth will not be sustained unless resources are protected.

Speaking to reporters afterward, the Secretary-General was asked about U.S. President George W. Bush's policy on climate change, and he said he had the impression that the United States was willing to talk to others on the issue, and that the door was not completely shut. The test will come in July, he said, when climate change negotiations resume in Bonn.

The Secretary-General also spoke briefly to the UN Association of the Greater Boston area, before he returned to New York Sunday afternoon.

RWANDA TRIBUNAL ARRESTS DEFENSE INVESTIGATOR LINKED TO GENOCIDE

Over the weekend, Tanzanian authorities, acting at the request of Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), arrested an investigator for that Tribunal's defense team. He is still in the custody of the Tanzanian authorities, pending a formal handover to the Tribunal.

The investigator had been traveling on a Congolese passport under the name of Sammy Bahati Weza, but the Tribunal says he is actually Simeon Nshamihigo, who worked as a deputy prosecutor in Cyangugu Prefecture during the 1994 genocide. Recently, he had been working on the defense team of a Rwandan defendant from Cyangugu, Samuel Imanishinwe.

The Tribunal, in a press release, noted that defense investigators are not staff members of the Tribunal but independent contractors recruited by defense attorneys. Their fees are part of the legal aid package provided by the Tribunal for indigent accused persons.

TABLIBAN CLOSES UN POLITICAL OFFICES IN FOUR AFGHAN TOWNS

The UN political presence is limited to Kabul and Faizabad in Afghanistan after the Taliban shut down four other UN political offices in Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat, Jalalabad and Kandahar, in line with its May 20 deadline for their closure.

The office of the UN Special Mission in Afghanistan will continue to operate in Kabul, as will the Secretary-Generals Personal Representative for Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell.

The closure order does not apply to the UN humanitarian presence, but the assistance community is facing increasing obstacles from Taliban authorities in carrying out its work in Afghanistan.

The World Food Programme (WFP), meanwhile, said it started distributing food supplies to more than 70,000 poor Afghans who have been living in Jalozai, a squalid camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, for the past five months.

GOVERNMENTS CALL FOR ERADICATING POVERTY IN POOREST NATIONS

The Third UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries concluded Sunday in Brussels, Belgium, with the adoption of a political declaration in which the 193 Governments that participated committed themselves to the eradication of poverty in the world's poorest countries.

The Brussels Declaration says that a "transparent, non-discriminatory and rules-based" multilateral trading system is essential for the least developed countries to reap the benefits of globalization, and added that the accession of those countries to the World Trade Organization should be encouraged and facilitated.

They committed themselves to advancing the "development dimension of trade" at the next World Trade Organization meetings, to be held this November in Doha, Qatar.

They also committed themselves to seize the opportunity to mobilize resources for development and to reverse the declining trend of official development assistance.

WORKSHOP BEGINS ON DE-MINING LEBANON

This morning in Beirut, Lebanon's Ministry of Defense, in cooperation with the United Nations, began a two-day high-level workshop for de-mining Lebanon, starting with southern Lebanon, and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud attended the opening session.

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean Marie Guéhenno, who is visiting several UN peacekeeping operations in the Middle East this week, attended the conference, and noted the importance to the United Nations of dealing with the mine problem in Lebanon.

Staffan de Mistura, the Secretary-General's Personal Representative for Southern Lebanon, also addressed the workshop, and said that a follow-up mechanism would be necessary to pursue the de-mining of the south.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Second Preparatory Committee Meeting for the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance began today in Geneva. In addressing the meeting, Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that progress on drafting the final declaration has been slow but there was still time to look for common ground, and she urged the delegates not to get stuck on details.

The Secretary-Generals Special Representative in East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, met for the second time with leaders of political parties on Saturday. The parties agreed to participate in the civic education campaign being conducted by the UN Mission. A third meeting is scheduled for May 31.

This morning, Croatia deposited the instrument of ratification to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, becoming the 32nd party. Also this morning the Cook Islands became the 96th country to sign the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Cook Islands are a self-governing territory of New Zealand.

The 71st session of the International Narcotics Control Board began today in Vienna. This year, the 13 members will discuss advances in modern technology, especially in telecommunications and how this affects drug law enforcement.

The World Health Organization ( WHO) says that 54 countries will participate in an extensive international nuclear emergency exercise starting Tuesday. The exercise will involve a simulated incident at a fictitious site with possible environmental impact, and participants will have to decide on measures to protect the public based on actual weather conditions at the time of the exercise.

Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

United Nations, S-378

New York, NY 10017

Tel. 212-963-7162

Fax. 212-963-7055

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