United Nations Daily Highlights, 01-07-26

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HIGHLIGHTS

OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY FRED ECKHARD

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Thursday, July 26, 2001

SECURITY COUNCIL BRIEFED ON PREPARATIONS FOR KOSOVO VOTE

Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, this morning briefed the Security Council in an open meeting on recent developments in Kosovo.

In his remarks, he focused on preparations for the November 17 elections in Kosovo and the hand-over to a provisional self-government; efforts to engage minority communities, particularly Kosovo Serbs, in public life; efforts to improve law and order and implementation of confidence-building measures to bridge the inter-communal divide.

Guéhenno welcomed the decision by four Kosovo Serb parties to submit certification applications for the elections and urged the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia unequivocally to encourage participation in the elections.

The situation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) continues to be of great concern to the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), he said, and noted the Missions efforts to reduce the influence of ethnic Albanian armed groups operating from Kosovo. Guéhenno also mentioned that the number of refugees arriving in Kosovo from FYROM outweighs the number returning to Skopje.

He said the UN Mission was making representations to the FYROM authorities on that country's closure of its border with Kosovo. Earlier today, Hans Haekkerup, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Kosovo called the border closure unacceptable and unreasonable.

[Later Thursday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees welcomed the rapid return home of a first group of people who had been forced to flee their villages near the town of Tetovo earlier this week. Thursdays first return convoy left Skopje for villages from which ethnic Albanian rebels had withdrawn just hours earlier.]

COUNCIL MEMBERS TO HEAR FROM EXPERTS ON EAST TIMOR

This afternoon, starting at 3:30 p.m., the Singapore Mission to the United Nations has invited the members of the Security Council to hear from a number of experts about developments in East Timor.

The meeting, conducted under the so-called "Arria formula," will give Council members a chance to hear from David Malone of the International Peace Academy; Nancy Soderberg of the International Crisis Group; Sidney Jones of Human Rights Watch/Asia; and Shep Forman of New York University's Center on International Cooperation.

[The Security Council is next scheduled to meet on Monday morning.]

UN TRIBUNAL UNSEALS INDICTMENT AGAINST CROATIAN GENERAL

The Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Carla Del Ponte, today unsealed an indictment against a retired Croatian general, Ante Gotovina, who was charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during and after a major 1995 offensive in the Krajina region

Gotovina was accused along with another Croatian general, Rahim Ademi, who voluntarily turned himself in at The Hague on Wednesday, and who will be tried for offences allegedly committed in September 1993 in Croatia's Medak Pocket.

General Ademi had his initial appearance before the Tribunal today, and declared himself to be not guilty of all charges against him.

Gotovina, who was aware of his indictment prior to the action today to unseal it, is still at large, and the Prosecutor expects the Government of Croatia to take immediate action to apprehend him.

UN MISSION ASSESSING SANCTIONS IMPACT ON LIBERIA

A UN mission is in Liberia this week to undertake a preliminary assessment of the potential humanitarian, social and economic impact on the Liberian population of possible additional sanctions.

The three-member mission represented by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Department of Economic and Social Affairs was dispatched at the request of Security Council Resolution 1343 on Liberia.

A panel of experts is in the process of identifying potential areas for additional sanctions.

In a letter issued today, Liberian Foreign Minister Monie Captan responded to the Security Council Sanctions Committee's decision not to grant a waiver of the travel ban to allow two Liberian ministers to travel to Freetown to attend the World Cup qualifying soccer match between Liberian and Sierra Leone earlier this month.

UN TO SEND ELECTORAL OBSERVER MISSION TO FIJI

In the wake of Wednesdays General Assembly approval of the establishment of a UN Electoral Observer Mission in Fiji, the Department of Political Affairs has set up a mission to monitor the general elections and the immediate post-election environment in that country. The elections are scheduled to take place from August 25 to September 1.

The mission will be made up of about 40 international staff taken from Member States and the Secretariat and, along with monitors from the Commonwealth and the European Union, will monitor the polling process across the country. They will also monitor the counting of votes from September 3-8. The observers will be deployed in the field for five days after the announcement of the results to observe the acceptance of the results by the local population.

This will be the first time since 1994 that the United Nations will be involved in this type of mission. In response to a question, the Spokesman said the last Electoral Observer Mission, independent of a peacekeeping mission, had been conducted that year in South Africa.

IRAQ PROGRAMME TO TRANSFER FUNDS TO BUY SUPPLIES

The Executive Director of the Iraq Programme, Benon Sevan, has informed the Chairman of the Security Council 661 Sanctions Committee and the Permanent Representative of Iraq that some excess funds that are held by the "oil-for-food" program for administrative costs will be transferred to buy humanitarian supplies.

Sevan, in identical letters to the Sanctions Committee and Iraq, said that $75 million in excess funds in the account designated for UN administrative costs would be transferred for humanitarian purchases.

This is the second time such a transfer has been made, following a transfer earlier this year of $52 million in excess administrative funds, also for humanitarian purchases.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Bonn, late Wednesday afternoon formally adopted the decision on implementation of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, agreed to last Monday at the high-level segment of the meeting. The President of the Conference, Jan Pronk, said negotiations would now go forward on the basis of the political integrity of the text.

Messengers of Peace Mohammed Ali and Michael Douglas have joined many other celebrities in signing the "Say 'Yes' for Children" pledge supporting action for children. The campaign was launched in April and has gathered more than 3.2 million pledges, which will be presented at the UN Special Session on Children in September. Ali and Douglas have also agreed to appear in television spots promoting the campaign. The Secretary-General and Nelson Mandela are among the notable world figures who have already appeared in the TV spots.

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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