United Nations Daily Highlights, 01-07-31

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

BY FRED ECKHARD

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK Tuesday, July 31, 2001

ANNAN TO BEGIN SIX-COUNTRY TRAVEL NEXT MONTH

Secretary-General Kofi Annan will take holiday from August 6-17, after which, on Sunday, August 19, he will arrive in Oslo for an official visit to Norway. On Monday, he will meet with the Prime Minister, have an audience with the King, meet with the Foreign Minister and then have dinner with the Prime Minister.

On Tuesday, he will meet with the President and other members of the Parliament, or Storting, and then with the Minister of International Development. Then, in the afternoon he will leave for Stockholm, Sweden for a few more days' leave.

The following Saturday, August 25, the Secretary-General will travel to Salzburg for an official visit to Austria. He will meet with Chancellor Wolfgang Sch&uuml;ssel on Sunday.

On Monday, he will have meetings with officials from the UN Office in Vienna. He will also meet with the Austrian Foreign Minister. In the evening he will open a seminar on the Dialogue among Civilizations.

On Tuesday morning, he will give the keynote address at that seminar before leaving for South Africa where, after an overnight flight, he will arrive in Durban on Wednesday, August 29. He will open the World Conference on Racism in Durban on Friday, August 31.

Then on Saturday, September 1, he will leave Durban for a visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In that country, he will visit Kinshasa on Sunday, September 2, and Kisangani on Monday. Later that day, he will arrive in Kigali, Rwanda, for an official visit to that country.

On Tuesday, September 4, he will continue his visit in Rwanda before leaving later in the day for Sweden. He will arrive in Uppsala, Sweden, on Wednesday, where he will deliver a speech, and then travel to Stockholm on Friday, September 7. He will leave Stockholm for New York that day, returning here that afternoon.

SECURITY COUNCIL EXTENDS MISSIONS IN LEBANON, GEORGIA

The Security Council this morning held consultations to conclude its work on two draft resolutions, concerning, respectively, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG).

Once it had reached agreement on the texts of both resolutions, the Council went into formal meetings to approve them, extending both Missions by six months, until the end of January 2002.

Yesterday afternoon, the Council also unanimously approved a resolution to establish a mechanism to monitor the implementation of the UN sanctions imposed against the Taliban. The mechanism is to include a monitoring group, based in New York, of up to five experts, and a support team of up to 15 members that would work in the States bordering the territory of Afghanistan under Taliban control.

Today is the last day of China's Presidency of the Security Council. On Wednesday, Ambassador Alfonso Valdiviezo of Colombia will take over as President of the Council, and he will hold bilateral consultations with Council members on the body's program of work for August.

ANNAN TO RECEIVE REPORT ON LEBANON VIDEOTAPE

This is the end of the month, and, as promised, Under-Secretary-General for Management Joseph Connor has completed his report on the UN's handling of a videotape taken by peacekeepers in Lebanon a day after Hezbollah abducted three Israeli soldiers.

Connor will present the report to the Secretary-General this afternoon at 4:30.

The Spokesman will announce next steps as soon as the Secretary-General has had time to consider the report, most likely by Wednesday. In response to questions about whether the report would be made public, the Spokesman said he expected the Secretary-General to handle the matter in a transparent way, but specific steps would be decided once he has reviewed the report.

SPOKESMAN CORRECTS RESPONSE ON PALESTINIAN KILLINGS

On Monday, in response to a question about Middle East violence, Associate Spokesman Marie Okabe, on the basis of guidance, said that the Secretary-General deplores the death of six Palestinians "who were killed by Israeli forces."

The Israelis dispute that, and the United Nations is not in a position to make a judgment.

Consequently, the Spokesman deleted the words "by Israeli forces" from what was said previously and apologized for that.

UN MISSION SAYS DISARMAMENT PICKING UP IN SIERRA LEONE

The UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) reports that the pace of disarmament has picked up in the district of Kono over the past week.

On Monday, when the Mission's Deputy Force Commander, Maj. Gen. Martin Agwai, returned to Kono to supervise the process, 910 combatants from the pro-Government Civil Defence Force and 752 from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) had turned in their arms in Kono since July 2.

The Mission credits the involvement of Kono chiefs and elders in the enormous improvement in the disarmament rate.

Meanwhile, the Mission reports that, after initial logistical problems, nearly 1,000 members of the Civil Defence Force have disarmed in the district of Bonthe.

BOAT CONVOY TRANSPORTING HUMANITARIAN AID IN DR-CONGO

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) reports that a humanitarian boat convoy, consisting of three barges and two other boats helping to transport them, left Kinshasa for Mogalo in Equateur province, which is some 1,250 kilometers up the Lua River from Kinshasa.

The barges are carrying a cargo of 650 tons that is made up of medical supplies, fuel, food, school furniture, construction materials, utensils, clothing, seeds and agricultural tools.

UN military observers and civilian staff will escort the humanitarian boat convoy along the entire length of its journey.

The convoy is to return to Kinshasa with 1,000 tons of maize, purchased by the European Union, for humanitarian aid to the needy population of Kinshasa, who have been experiencing a significant food shortage.

UN OFFICE REPORTS LOWER LEVEL OF IRAQI OIL EXPORTS

The level of Iraqi oil exports under the oil-for-food program in the week ending July 27 was 12 million barrels, which was considerably lower than the previous week's exports.

Humanitarian supplies and oil industry spare parts and equipment worth over $14 billion have been delivered to Iraq since the start of the oil-for-food program in December 1996 -- out of a total of $27 billion worth of approved contracts for humanitarian supplies and equipment. In addition, over $12 billion worth of supplies and equipment are in the production and delivery pipeline.

The value of contracts placed on hold by the Security Council's 661 Sanctions Committee stands at $3.5 billion.

UN PROVIDES RELIEF GOODS TO DEAL WITH PAKISTAN FLOODS

The UN Resident Coordinator in Pakistan has handed over goods worth some $50,000 to relief authorities for distribution in flood-affected areas of northwestern Pakistan.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs approved the disbursement of the aid with the help of grants from Norway and Denmark. The World Health Organization (WHO) is assisting Pakistan's National Institute of Health to assess the quality of drinking water in the area and has provided 50,000 water purification tablets and medicines for distribution.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced today that about 300,000 euros, out of a European Union grant totaling 1.5 million euros for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, would go to a program to vaccinate 12,000 children and provide maternity services to 20,000 women.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that the number of ethnic Albanians returning from Kosovo to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has increased over the last few days to newly opened areas near Skopje. In other news, UNHCR has completed the first phase of an emergency airlift of supplies for more than 25,000 refugees in the northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

This morning, the Federated States of Micronesia became the 96th signatory to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

Today, Haiti became the 101st Member State to pay its regular budget contribution in full with a payment of more than $20,000. So far this year, the fully paid-up contributions total about $525 million, or just over half of the total budget. At this time last year, 104 Member States were fully paid up, with a total of about $512 million.