United Nations Daily Highlights, 01-10-22

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

OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY FRED ECKHARD

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Monday, October 22, 2001

UN ENVOY FOR AFGHANISTAN TO MEET ISLAMIC AMBASSADORS

After having visited Washington, D.C. on Friday and Saturday, the Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, has returned to New York, where he is to meet today with the ambassadors of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees ( UNHCR) reported from Islamabad that its teams near the Chaman border crossing could see many people scaling the nearby Khojack hills on foot to avoid the main border crossing points, which remain officially closed. On Sunday, some 10,000 to 15,000 people from the Kandahar region were gathered at the Chaman crossing in very difficult conditions, and late in the day UNHCR said that some 5,000 to 6,000 persons had forced their way across.

From Friday to Sunday, more than 13,000 persons have crossed at Chaman, although this crossing point, and all others, remains officially closed.

The UN Childrens Fund ( UNICEF) estimates that among the Afghan civilians comprising the influx at the Chaman border crossing point, as many as 6,000 may be children who are in urgent need of food, water, shelter, and medicine.

The World Food Programme ( WFP) said it is moving enough food to the area to feed the new arrivals. WFP is also distributing food inside Afghanistan despite increasingly difficult conditions.

Kenzo Oshima, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, arrived in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, for the first part of his mission to Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. He is to discuss ways to enhance cooperation with the three Central Asian countries in delivering humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.

Asked whether UN humanitarian agencies had called for a halt to the bombing of Afghanistan to allow for aid groups to assist the Afghan population, the Spokesman said that so far, no UN agency heads have made any such request. He added that some non-governmental organizations had discussed a halt.

Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Carolyn McAskie, who was the guest at the noon briefing said that Mullah Omar, the Supreme Leader of the Taliban, reportedly issued a decree or edict, instructing all Taliban authorities to ensure speedy recovery and return of all looted assets of international aid community. She noted that the Taliban who had occupied a UN compound in Mazar-I-Sharif left the compound on Saturday after the edict.

SECURITY COUNCIL MEETS ON TARGETED SANCTIONS

The Security Council began a public meeting at noon on general issues relating to sanctions, in which Council members heard the results of the Interlaken Process and the Bonn-Berlin Process, which brought together civil society and government experts to make proposals on targeted sanctions -- notably arms embargoes, travel and aviation sanctions and financial measures.

In addition to Council members, the representatives of Germany, Switzerland and Sweden took the floor during todays public meeting. These Governments have played a key role in the discussion regarding sanctions and how to improve their effectiveness.

Earlier today, the Security Council held consultations in which they heard from Hédi Annabi, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, on the latest developments related to the UN Mission in Ethiopia-Eritrea ( UNMEE).

Following that, Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani of Singapore introduced a paper on the shape and format of the annual report of the Security Council to the General Assembly, which follows some criticisms that the report could be more informative and useful. The Councils working group on procedures and documentation will discuss that matter Tuesday afternoon.

The Council also held consultations this morning on Guinea-Bissau, on which Ibrahima Fall, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, delivered the regular biannual briefing on developments in that country and the work of the UN Political Office in Guinea-Bissau.

UN ENVOY URGES MIDDLE EAST PARTIES TO COMPLY WITH AGREEMENTS

This morning, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Terje Roed Larsen, along with senior officials from the United States, Russia and the European Union, met with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in Gaza.

Following that meeting, the officials who had met Arafat issued a statement saying they had urged him to make a vigorous effort to combat terrorism and to enforce the Palestinian Authority's ceasefire orders. They added that such steps should be matched by the Israelis in full compliance with existing agreements, including the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces and security personnel from Area A zones that are under full Palestinian control.

In New York on Sunday, Secretary-General Kofi Annan met at his residence with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, with whom he reviewed the grave situation in the Middle East. The Foreign Minister explained the demands that Israel was making of the Palestinian Authority. The Secretary-General emphasized the need to find a way to return to the negotiating table, on the basis of the Mitchell report, and to break out of the current deadlock.

Foreign Minister Peres raised the concerns of the families of three Israeli soldiers kidnapped on the Blue Line last year, and the Secretary-General promised to look into the outstanding issues sympathetically.

Asked whether there would be a formal Security Council meeting on the Middle East, the Spokesman said that there was some informal discussion over the weekend about holding such a meeting, but that no formal request for a meeting had yet been received.

UN ASKED TO PAVE WAY FOR EAST TIMOR INDEPENDENCE BY MAY

The President of the East Timor Constituent Assembly, Francisco Guterres, today signed a resolution adopting an assembly recommendation that the UN Mission in that country hand over sovereignty to elected Timorese government institutions on May 20, 2002.

The Assembly adopted the resolution last Friday with 73 of its 88 members in favor.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General in East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, will formally inform the Security Council of the Assemblys resolution during the Councils next meeting on East Timor, to be held next week.

The latest report of the Secretary-General on East Timor, available today, provides details of the plan for the mission that will succeed the current UN Transitional Administration.

The Secretary-General notes that the responsibility to establish a viable state in East Timor clearly belongs to its people and that they have demonstrated the depth of their commitment through sacrifice, imagination and determination. He urges the Security Council to ensure that these foundations are not undermined and to consolidate the remarkable contribution it has already made to this historic undertaking.

Asked about when UN peacekeepers will withdraw from East Timor, the Spokesman said that the issue was still to be considered by the Council. He noted the plans, stated in the Secretary-Generals report, for a successor mission to the peacekeeping operation currently underway.

GENOCIDE SUSPECT HANDED OVER TO RWANDA TRIBUNAL

The former prefect of Rwandas Kigali-Rural prefecture, Francois Karera, was arrested on Saturday in Kenya and was immediately transferred to the detention facility of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ( ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania.

Karera has been indicted by the Tribunal on four counts of genocide and crimes against humanity. He is accused of having spearheaded the campaign of murders against Tutsis in the prefecture.

REPORT URGES IRAQ TO ALLOW HUMAN RIGHTS INVESTIGATION

The latest report on human rights in Iraq urges the Government to allow Special Rapporteur Andreas Mavrommatis to visit the country, which it has so far refused to do.

Mavrommatis continues to be concerned about the unintended human rights consequences of the international embargo against Iraq. He also highlights reports concerning the violation of womens rights and the persecution of religious minorities in Iraq.

REPORT NOTES MIXED PICTURE FOR WOMEN IN UN SYSTEM

The Secretary-Generals report on the improvement of the status of women in the United Nations system reports a slight improvement in womens representation in posts subject to geographic distribution, which for the first time has reached 40 percent in the Professional and higher categories.

However, among posts for Professional and higher categories in general, there has been a decline in the representation of women by two percentage points, to 34.6 percent.

The report also notes that men continue to dominate the staff of peacekeeping and other special missions, accounting for about 75 percent of mission staff.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

In an exchange of letters with the President of the Security Council, the Secretary-General recommended that the mandate of the UN Office in Liberia be extended by one year, until the end of December 2002. He said the Office has made worthwhile contributions to national reconciliation, respect for human rights and the rule of law.

This morning, after depositing its instrument of accession, Bangladesh became the 24th party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The Secretary-Generals report on assistance to refugees, returnees and displaced persons in Africa says that the main refugee groups originate from Burundi, Sudan, Somalia, Angola, Sierra Leone and Eritrea.

The World Food Programme (WFP) says it is rushing some 1,850 tons of wheat to 145,000 of the worst-affected people in the areas in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, who have been affected by freak rains. The rains, earlier this month, caused large-scale damage to crops, homes and infrastructure.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is holding a crisis meeting on the effects on the tourism industry of the terrorist attacks of September 11. The meeting will take place on October 25-26 and will look for ways to ease the impact on the industry worldwide.