United Nations Daily Highlights, 01-10-29

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

THE NOON BRIEFING

BY FRED ECKHARD

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Monday, October 29, 2001

UN AFGHAN ENVOY MEETS WITH PAKISTANI OFFICIALS IN ISLAMABAD

The Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, arrived in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Sunday, after stopping overnight in Saudi Arabia, where he had met with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal. In Islamabad today, he met with Pakistani Foreign Secretary Inam-ul Haque and had a working lunch with Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar. The Special Representative also met with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, who just returned from Islamabad from a visit to Quetta. The UN Spokesman in Islamabad, Eric Falt, quoted Brahimi as having said today, If a way can be found to liberate and empower the people of Afghanistan, this is something the international community can eventually be proud of. On Tuesday, Ambassador Brahimi will be seeing Afghans, from political actors to civil society representatives. Ashraf Ghani, an expert on Afghanistan who is himself an Afghan, has just joined the Special Representatives team. Ghani has been seconded to Brahimis staff by the World Bank.

Asked if Ambassador Brahimi would be going to Kabul, the Spokesman said that the current security situation would not allow for such a trip. The Ambassadors next stop, the Spokesman added, will be Teheran later this week; other visits are possible before he returns to New York in time for the General Assemblys general debate, which begins on November 10.

Asked what Ambassador Brahimis mission entails, the Spokesman answered that his objective is to see whether a broad-based government could be put together by the Afghans themselves, and what possible shape this government could have.

Asked to comment on reports that Ambassador Brahimi would not be meeting with representatives of the Taliban in Pakistan for logistical reasons, the Spokesman answered that Brahimi is open to the idea of a meeting with anyone involved in the process, and that he hoped a meeting between the two could occur.

UN REFUGEE CHIEF CALLS ON PAKISTAN TO ALLOW MORE AFGHANS

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers is expected to meet Tuesday in Islamabad with President Pervez Musharraf, Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar and other senior Pakistani officials.

In those meetings, he will repeat UNHCRs call for Pakistan to open its borders, and will urge greater flexibility by Pakistan in deciding which vulnerable Afghan refugees can enter the country.

Over the weekend, he met with local officials in Quetta and visited the border area at Chaman, including the Killi Faizo staging camp that has been set up in the Western province of Baluchistan. As of this afternoon, there are more than 1,300 Afghans at that site.

UNHCR believes that the number of Afghans who have illegally crossed into Pakistan could total more than 80,000. As a result, Lubbers has been discussing the possibility of opening some camps that are being set up in Pakistan immediately.

Meanwhile, UNHCR has received reports from some Afghans who have been using two camps based in Nimruz, on the Afghan side of the Afghanistan-Iran border; some Afghans there have expressed fears that they could be forcibly recruited or used as human shields by the Taliban. The Nimruz camps, as of last night, held some 7,800 people.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has stepped up food deliveries to Afghanistan from neighboring countries, loading about 1,500 tons of food today from Peshawar, in north-western Pakistan. However, WFP says that insecurity, fuel shortages and the lack of trucks make it a problem to distribute food inside the country.

So far, the agency and its non-governmental partners have been able to distribute enough food to last for about a month for two million Afghans only about a third of the Afghans who need food aid.

Asked about the size of the UN presence in Afghanistan, the Spokesman said there is no international staff in the country at this time, although the possibility of international staff returning to the northern part of Afghanistan is being studied. He added that the United Nations continues to employ national staff in Afghanistan, estimated at some 700 people.

ANNAN CONDEMNS KILLINGS OF WORSHIPPERS IN EASTERN PAKISTAN

Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a statement issued by his Spokesman, expressed his utter repugnance at the murder of innocent worshippers Sunday in the church of Saint Dominic's in eastern Pakistan. He condemned it as a cold-blooded act of indiscriminate violence and conveyed his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. No cause can ever be served by the killing of innocent civilians, the Spokesman said.

The Secretary-General called on the Pakistani authorities to bring those responsible to justice and redouble their efforts to ensure freedom and security for Pakistanis of every religion and ethnicity.

SECURITY COUNCIL SUPPORTS MULTINATIONAL FORCE IN BURUNDI

This morning the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution (1375), in which it reaffirms strong support for the Burundi transitional government, which will be installed on November 1, and also expresses its strong support for the establishment of an interim multinational security presence in Burundi.

The resolution also urges the international community to provide additional assistance to Burundi, including by honoring fully the pledges made by donors during the Paris Conference of December 2000.

The resolution was discussed in closed consultations prior to the public vote. During consultations, Council members were also briefed by Kieran Prendergast, Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, on the latest developments in the Middle East.

Council members also received a briefing by Hédi Annabi, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, on the shooting down of a UN helicopter in Georgia on October 8 and the general security situation in that country.

Following the meeting on Burundi, the Security Council held a private meeting with Judge Gilbert Guillaume, President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) during which he briefed Council members on recent cases before the Court. This is the second time the ICJ President has briefed the Security Council.

IN REPORT, ANNAN NOTES DETERIORATION IN ABKHAZIA

The Secretary-General, in his latest report on the work of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia ( UNOMIG), which was issued today, says that the shooting down of a UN helicopter earlier this month in Abkhazia, killing all nine people on board, marked a new low in the situation.

He calls the October 8 shoot-down an outrage, and says it raises serious questions about the failure of the Georgian and Abkhaz sides to ensure the security of UN personnel.

He says that both sides in the conflict have contributed to the present deplorable state of affairs, and he notes the efforts of his Special Representative for Georgia, Dieter Boden, to re-establish a dialogue between the Georgian and Abkhaz sides.

The report notes in particular the worsening situation since late August in the Kodori Valley, where Georgian armed irregulars, together with a predominantly Chechen group of fighters, have clashed with Abkhaz forces. It also notes that the activities of the armed irregulars have led to the serious destabilization of the situation in the conflict area.

The Secretary-General calls on both sides to respect the ceasefire, stop encouraging any military action and return to the peace process without reservation or procrastination.

REFUGEES CONTINUE TO RETURN TO EAST TIMOR

Some 600 East Timorese in West Timor refugee camps went back to East Timor on Saturday, as witnessed by top officials from East Timor, Indonesia and the UN Mission in East Timor ( UNTAET).

Approximately 3,200 East Timorese refugees returned home this month, which is the highest number of returnees in a single month since March 2000. More than 188,000 East Timorese have returned voluntarily to East Timor since October 1999.

The Security Council will hold a public meeting on East Timor this Wednesday in the presence of Sergio Vieira de Mello, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for East Timor, and Mari Alkatiri, Chief Minister of the Second Transitional Government.

MILOSEVIC MAKES COURT APPEARANCE ON NEW CROATIA CHARGES

This morning in The Hague, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) heard a briefing by the friends of the court (amici curiae) on the motion by former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, challenging the legality of the court on grounds of political bias. The friends of the court have been appointed by the Tribunal to provide legal assistance for Milosevic.

In the afternoon, Milosevic made his first appearance before the court on charges alleging his responsibility for crimes committed in Croatia.

The office of Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte confirmed today that, next week, it would present for review by Tribunal judges new charges against the former Yugoslav President, including the charge of genocide, for crimes allegedly committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It will be up to the Tribunal judges to review and then confirm the Bosnia indictment.

Del Ponte will also seek the joinder of all the charges against Milosevic those previously filed concerning Kosovo and Croatia, and those still to be filed on Bosnia, if they are confirmed.

UN DEPLETED URANIUM STUDY BEGINS IN YUGOSLAVIA

On Sunday in Belgrade, the UN Environment Programme ( UNEP) announced that a team of experts is visiting the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia this week to investigate sites in Serbia and Montenegro that were targeted by ordnance containing depleted uranium during the 1999 Kosovo conflict.

This mission will build on a study published earlier this year on the environmental impact of depleted uranium in Kosovo. The UNEP team will take samples and measurements at sites in Serbias Presevo Valley and Montenegros Cape Arza.

The team, which is led by the chairman of the UNEP Depleted Uranium Assessment Team, Pekka Haavisto, will visit sites targeted during the conflict as well as areas where decontamination work has since taken place.

CLIMATE CHANGE MEETINGS OPENS IN MOROCCO

The seventh Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Climate Change got underway today in Marrakech, Morocco. During this mornings plenary, delegations representing 164 countries elected Mohamed Elyazghi, Moroccos Environment Minister, as conference president.

Starting Tuesday, and until the start of the high-level segment a week from this Wednesday, delegates will meet in working groups in an effort to translate the political principles reached at the Bonn meeting last July into a detailed operational rulebook for the Kyoto Protocol.

The conference, which is scheduled to run until November 9, brings together over 4,000 participants, including official delegations, non-governmental organizations and media.

ARAB TRADE MINISTERS CONFER BEFORE QATAR MEETING

Trade and Economic Ministers from Arab states gathered at UN House in Beirut today in an effort to seek a joint position ahead of the Fourth World Trade Organization ministerial conference, which is to be held in Qatar from November 9 to 13.

This two-day meeting is organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), in cooperation with the World Trade Organization, the UN Conference on Trade and Development and the Arab League.

In her opening remarks, ESCWA Executive Secretary Mervat Tallawi called for increased coordination and economic integration among Arab countries. "Arab countries will undoubtedly be affected by this [recession] and this is why we should be prepared and work on softening the impact," she said.

LONDON CONFERENCE TO REVIEW GLOBAL COMPACT PROGRESS

Today and Tuesday, an international conference will be convened at the British Petroleum training center in London to review the progress of the Global Compact.

The conference will seek to chart how participating companies can share their experiences in working with the principles of the Compact and how an Internet data bank and learning resource tool can be set up to provide information and commentary on corporate citizenship.

The conference will involve 80 participants, including representatives of major corporations, academic experts, and leaders from the labor, human rights, and environmental movements from around the world.

A report on the results and conclusions of the conference will be posted on the Global Compact Web site (www.unglobalcompact.org).

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Asked about whether the United Nations had information about the fate of three Israeli soldiers seized by Hezbollah last year, the Spokesman said that the United Nations had no way of knowing whether or not they were alive. He added that the Secretary-General had tried, unsuccessfully so far, to facilitate an exchange of persons between Lebanon and Israel.

The Secretary-Generals Personal Representative for southern Lebanon, Staffan di Mistura, announced that on Tuesday and Wednesday, he will be meeting with new local officials who were elected in the municipal elections held in southern Lebanon in September 2001. The visit should provide him with a firsthand view of the current needs of the south and the priorities set by the local administration.

Today, the Second Committee of the General Assembly begins its discussions on the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and the high-level advisory panel for the Summit, appointed by the Secretary-General last week, held its first meeting. Nitin Desai, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and the Secretary-General for the Summit, will brief the press Tuesday at 12:45 about the Summit preparations. He will be accompanied by the Chairmen of the five regional roundtables for the Summit, held earlier this year.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA) has announced that a United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination team conducted an assessment mission to flood-affected areas of Guinea in cooperation with the government of Guinea and UN agencies. The team said that some of the most urgent needs of the population had not yet been met and are asking donors for assistance to meet these needs.

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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