United Nations Daily Highlights, 01-10-23

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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

Tuesday, October 23, 2001

UN ENVOY CALLS FOR COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP IN MIDDLE EAST

The Secretary-General's Special Coordinator for the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, today issued a statement saying that the Middle East is at "the most dangerous moment in a decade". He called for "courageous leadership" on the part of the Palestinians and the Israelis.

"There are those on both sides who believe that blood must wash blood," he said. "The leaders carry a heavy burden to break this dangerous logic."

Larsen has been keeping the Secretary-General constantly updated on the situation in the region, and the Secretary-General has been in touch by telephone with the key players. The Secretary-Generals position on the Middle East is unchanged. He believes that the United States yesterday gave very wise advice to the parties, and they should heed that advice.

Larsen continues to coordinate closely with envoys of the European Union, the Russian Federation and the United States, all of whom had meetings with Israeli officials today after jointly meeting with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat on Monday.

SECURITY COUNCIL TO HOLD CONSULTATIONS ON MIDDLE EAST

Ambassador Richard Ryan of Ireland, the Council President, said the Security Council will hold consultations on the Middle East at 5 p.m.

Ryan is expected to draw Council members attention to a letter he received from the Ambassadors of Mali and Qatar requesting a meeting of the Security Council to discuss the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian-controlled areas.

UN ENVOY TO AFGHANISTAN TO VISIT REGION

The Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, is involved in back-to-back meetings at UN Headquarters today.

Brahimi met with the Security Council this morning in its weekly consultations on the future of Afghanistan. The Secretary-General was present at the meeting, and he and Brahimi spoke to the Council.

Brahimi afterward told reporters that he was preparing to go to the region in the next few days. He said he looked forward to talk to as many Afghan parties as possible. What is need, he said, was a home-grown Afghan solution. No one, he added, wants an arrangement imposed upon the Afghans.

Among Brahimis meetings today is one with the Afghan representative to the United Nations, Ravan Farhadi.

UN AGENCIES STEP UP RELIEF EFFORTS AT AFGHAN BORDER ZONE

On the humanitarian front, the World Food Programme ( WFP) and UN Childrens Fund ( UNICEF) are taking supplies to Afghans stranded in the no-mans land on the Afghan side of the border with Pakistan.

WFP started distributing high protein biscuits and reported that the people it has dealt with appeared to be tired and in pretty bad shape. Only a third of them had shelter materials with them.

UNICEF staff are conducting spot checks on the health conditions of children. Drinking water and sweaters were also distributed.

Inside Afghanistan, the UN Humanitarian Coordinators Office said that reports from Kabul indicate that several bombs have hit residential areas close to health and feeding centers. Residential areas are becoming more dangerous because Taliban troops have moved into those areas, spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker said from Islamabad. In the west, more and more people are becoming displaced, she added.

She also said that a hospital in Herat had been hit and was reportedly destroyed. It was a military hospital in a military compound on the eastern outskirts of the city. The number of casualties is not known.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees ( UNHCR) and its partners are preparing a temporary staging site a little over a mile from the Chaman border in Pakistan where they can provide for urgent humanitarian needs of the most vulnerable cases. Vulnerable groups would include women, mothers, children, the elderly and the disabled, as well as those requiring medical attention. The refugee agency meanwhile is continuing its work on establishing two longer-term sites.

UNHCR also said that the borders between Afghanistan and Iran and Pakistan remain closed. Both borders were reported to be quiet.

SECURITY COUNCIL DISCUSSES COUNTER-TERRORISM, DR-CONGO

After its consultations this morning on Afghanistan, Security Council members took up the work of the Counter-Terrorism Committee established by Resolution 1373. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock of the United Kingdom, chairman of the Committee, updated Council members on the work of the Committee and presented its work program.

The Council then discussed the ninth report of the Secretary-General on the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC). This mornings discussions are in preparation to the public meeting the Council is holding on the DRC on Wednesday. Following Wednesdays Council meeting, Amos Namanga Ngongi, the Secretary-Generals Special Representative to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, will brief reporters.

Under other matters, a draft resolution on Burundi is expected to be introduced.

On Monday afternoon, the Council held a public meeting on targeted sanctions, and, because not all speakers were able to take the floor at that debate, the meeting will resume in the coming days.

UNHCR CONCERNED ABOUT LINKING REFUGEES WITH TERRORISM

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees ( UNHCR) today drew attention to its concerns about the increasing public perception of refugees and asylum seekers as criminals and over attempts to create unwarranted links between refugees and terrorism.

The refugee agency has published 10 specific concerns over possible actions that may directly affect asylum-seekers and refugees for governments to look at as they consider various safeguards in their efforts to combat terrorism.

IRAQI OIL EXPORTS INCREASED SLIGHTLY

The Office of the Iraq Programme ( OIP) indicates that Iraq exported 15.9 million barrels of oil in the week of October 13-19, registering a slight increase from the previous weeks total of 14.7 million barrels.

The total estimated revenue earned in Phase X of the oil-for-food program has now reached just over $4 billion. Phase X will end on November 30.

At a briefing to the Security Councils 661 Sanctions Committee, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) expressed concern at the level of contracts placed on hold in the agricultural sector by the Committee, especially because of the impact that two consecutive years of severe drought in Iraq have had on agriculture.

TRIBUNAL RELEASES THREE BOSNIAN CROATS ON APPEAL

Today in The Hague, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) reversed on appeal the convictions of three Bosnian Croats who had been convicted last year to one count of a crime against humanity, ordering their immediate release. In addition, two other Bosnian Croats convicted in the same case had their prison sentences reduced.

Todays appeals judgment found that the evidence against two brothers, Zoran and Mirjan Kupreskic who had been sentenced respectively to 10 and eight years imprisonment was inadequate. In addition, additional evidence admitted on appeal against Vlatko Kupreskic, cousin of the other Kupreskic brothers who had received a six-year sentence demonstrated that circumstantial evidence used against him could not support his conviction. The convictions of all three members of the Kupreskic family were reversed and their release was ordered.

In addition, the Tribunal reduced the sentences against two other Bosnian Croats, revising Drago Josipovics sentence from 15 to 12 years in prison, and reducing Vladimir Santics sentence from 25 to 18 years.

All five had been tried for crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims in the Lasva River Valley on April 16, 1993.

UN CONCERNED ABOUT FOOD CRISIS IN SOMALIA

Kenzo Oshima, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, is deeply concerned about a worsening food crisis in Somalia, where the failure of seasonal rains in the spring and autumn has led to severe food shortages.

At present, although the UN system is in a position to deliver food, stocks are depleted. An estimated 40,000 metric tons of food are needed urgently to assist some 300,000 people at immediate risk of starvation. An additional 450,000 people are also increasingly vulnerable.

Non-food assistance, in particular water and medical supplies, is also needed to secure the well-being of tens of thousands of children who are at growing risk of malnutrition and disease.

The United Nations and its partners are doing their utmost to reduce vulnerability and to stimulate livelihoods. Oshima, in a statement issued Monday, urged the international community to provide the needed resources to forestall a serious humanitarian crisis.

ANNAN APPOINTS ENVOY FOR JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT

The Secretary-General has asked Jan Pronk to serve as his Special Envoy to work with political leaders at the highest levels to assess their views on the goals of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which is to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002. Pronk, currently Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment for the Netherlands, has agreed to take on that task while continuing his present duties.

The Secretary-General has also asked Nitin Desai, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, to act as Secretary-General of the Johannesburg Summit, and he also intends to establish a high-level Advisory Panel of distinguished expects to discuss new approaches for reaching the goals of sustainable development.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Secretary-General issued a report on humanitarian assistance to the Republic of the Sudan, covering the two-year period ending on July 15, 2001, in which he says that drought and security conditions in Sudan continue to deteriorate, causing malnutrition and vulnerability in the population to increase. He adds that humanitarian assistance is slowing the overall deterioration of the situation. However, he says, only a lasting peace settlement can provide a solution. The Secretary-General also asks the parties to work at reinstating humanitarian ceasefires.

The Secretary-Generals report on the situation in Central America notes that while armed conflict and the consistent violation of human rights have ended, the region has a long way to go before poverty and structural inequalities which gave rise to conflict are overcome. He called on renewed commitment to tackle the root causes of conflict and reaffirmed that the UN is ready to contribute in that endeavour.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson today condemned the killing last Friday of Mexican lawyer and human rights activist Digna Ochoa. Robinson said, Her murder is all the more tragic in that it threatens to dash the hopes that had risen recently in the country that intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders were finally being addressed seriously.

The United States today paid more than $138 million towards its regular budget arrears to the United Nations. The United States is now paid up fully for the regular budget to the end of 2000, and it has paid about $15 million towards its 2001 regular-budget assessment, amounting to some $267 million.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) today welcomed a major step forward in the protection of children from exploitation with the imminent entry into force of the optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. The protocol is to come into force three months after its received its 10th ratification, on January 18, 2002.

Guatemala today became the 66th country to sign the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism.

On Wednesday, which is United Nations Day, the UN Tour Guides will unveil their new uniforms from the Italian fashion house, Mondrian. The new uniforms, which for the first time also include maternity uniforms, will be worn by guides in New York and Geneva. They feature smart blue suits and shirts with ties for men and scarves for women. In May, the Italian company Valleverde donated the shoes to compliment the new uniforms for the guides.

The guest at Wednesdays noon briefing will be Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services Dileep Nair, who will discuss his Offices annual report, which will also be issued that day.

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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