United Nations Daily Highlights, 01-10-31

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

THE NOON BRIEFING

BY MANOEL DE ALMEIDA E SILVA

DEPUTY SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Wednesday, October 31, 2001

UN ENVOY MEETS WITH AFGHAN WOMEN

The Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, as part of his efforts to seek a broad-based Afghan government, met with a group of Afghan women earlier today to hear their views on the future of their country. The women were Afghan volunteers and non-governmental organization (NGO) workers currently located near Peshawar, Pakistan.

There should be a space for women development and education in the future of Afghanistan, one woman said. If we can get peace, we will be able to assert our rights.

There are too many walls encircling us, and we cannot be heard through these walls. We hope the United Nations can help us, said another.

Asked about whether a meeting had been requested between Brahimi and the Talibans senior official in Pakistan, the Spokesman said that Brahimi had received a request for such a meeting from the Taliban a few days ago. However, he said Brahimi would not be able to see the Taliban at this time. However, he added, the Taliban representative in Pakistan had met with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, among other senior officials. He stressed that the United Nations had maintained contact with the Taliban, and that Brahimi viewed it as necessary to have contacts with all sides to build a broad-based, multi-ethnic administration in Afghanistan.

UN TO DEAL WITH POLIO, MEASLES THREAT IN AFGHANISTAN

The UN Regional Health Coordinator for Afghanistan, Mohamed Abdi Jama, painted a bleak picture of the health situation, saying mass population movements and insufficient access to health services rendered the population highly vulnerable to infectious diseases.

The UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) today said more than 40,000 Afghan volunteers and health workers will fan out across Afghanistan to immunize a target of 5.4 million children against polio from November 6 to 8.

More importantly, UNICEF said they will deliver Vitamin A drops, which are thought to reduce by half the chances of a child dying of measles. Each year 300,000 Afghan children die of preventable causes, and 24 percent of those die from measles.

The World Food Programme (WFP) expressed concerns about the deteriorating security conditions, saying the already difficult task of getting food to Afghans in need could become impossible.

On Monday evening, the office of an NGO working with WFP in Kabul was attacked. Four guards were beaten and equipment, such as computers, was removed. In Kandahar, where WFP lost control of its stocks on October 16, the agency said it has received unconfirmed reports indicating that most of these stocks -- about 1,600 tons -- disappeared and that WFP vehicles have also been taken.

HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES URGES IRAN TO OPEN BORDERS

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers today reiterated a call for open borders in talks with Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and senior Government officials. Irans border with Afghanistan remains officially closed, as are Afghanistans borders with Pakistan and central Asian nations.

UNHCR also said that group of armed Taliban seized the agencys field office just across the border from Pakistan inside Afghanistan at Spin Boldak. There were no UNHCR staff in the office at the time.

The incident came just hours after a meeting between Lubbers and the Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan, during which Lubbers requested the Taliban to stop interfering with UNHCR property and staff, so that operations could continue inside Afghanistan.

SECURITY COUNCIL, ANNAN DISCUSS EAST TIMOR

This morning, in its closed consultations, the Security Council held a teleconference with Secretary-General Kofi Anna, who is in Geneva, to hear from the Secretary-General about proposals for a follow-on mission to succeed the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).

Following its consultations, the Council held a formal meeting on East Timor, in which it heard from the Secretary-Generals Special Representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Vieira de Mello noted that East Timors Constituent Assembly had supported independence by May 20, 2002 exactly 200 days from now. He proposed that, by independence, the UN military component in East Timor should comprise some 5,000 personnel, roughly 44 percent less than its current strength.

He added that, as Timorese take greater control over their governance, any precipitous reduction in government services should be avoided, and a minimum degree of support is needed to ensure that the new government does not falter. Despite progress toward independence, he stressed, the job we have all set out to do is not yet done.

Todays meeting, chaired by Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowan, also featured as a speaker the Chief Minister of the Second Transitional Government of East Timor, Mari Alkatiri, and officials from the World Bank and UN Development Programme.

The meeting is expected to continue this afternoon, and the Council will adopt a Presidential Statement on East Timor at the end of its meeting.

SECURITY COUNCIL URGES ACTION ON SOMALIA, INCLUSION OF WOMEN

Also this morning, the Security Council held two other formal meetings to close out its work for the month of October.

First, it adopted a Presidential Statement on Somalia, reiterating its support for the peace process begun in Arta, Djibouti, last year, and requesting the Secretary-General to dispatch an inter-agency mission to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the security situation in Somalia.

It then adopted a Presidential Statement on the role of women in peace and security, in which it reaffirmed its strong support for increasing the role of women in conflict prevention and resolution and urged the Secretary-General to report on gender mainstreaming in UN peacekeeping. It also urged him to appoint women as Special Envoys and Special Representatives.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Council, in a private meeting, discussed the Secretary-Generals latest report on Abkhazia, on which it was briefed by his Special Representative for Georgia, Dieter Boden. The Council also talked to Malkhaz Kakabadze, the Georgian Cabinet official dealing with the Abkhaz issue.

HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSIONER NOTES EFFECT OF SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS

In her annual report to the General Assembly, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson says there is no doubt that the international crisis following the September 11 attacks on the United States has broad ramifications for future human rights work.

In this context, she notes three guiding principles: the need to eliminate discrimination and build a just and tolerant world; the cooperation by all States against terrorism, without using such cooperation as a pretext to infringe on human rights; and strengthened commitment to the rule of law.

The report also reviews the work over the past year by the High Commissioners office, including efforts to advance human rights in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Indonesia, Chechnya and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

UN COMMITTEE NOTES VIOLENCE AGAINST PALESTINIANS

In its annual report to the General Assembly, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People says that, since the beginning of the new intifada last year, more than 660 Palestinians have been killed, and some 20,000 wounded. Moreover, the gains in the Palestinian economy in previous years are now all but gone.

The Committee views the breakdown in the peace negotiations with alarm, and calls for the immediate and comprehensive implementation of the recommendations of the Mitchell Committee, which it calls the most practicable route back to the peace process. A stepped-up engagement by the key international parties, it says, is now needed more than ever.

ANNAN, HEADS OF UN BODIES DISCUSS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

In response to questions about the meeting held Tuesday in New York between the Secretary-General and the heads of UN bodies, the Spokesman noted that during the meeting, the officials exchanged views on their respective bodies and also discussed the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, won jointly by the United Nations and by Kofi Annan.

They agreed that, at the Nobel Peace Awards ceremony, to be held in Oslo, Norway, on December 10, the President of the General Assembly, Han Seung-Soo, will receive the award, which consists of a diploma and medal, on behalf of the United Nations. Also, they decided that there should be only one Nobel lecture at the occasion, which will be given by the Secretary-General.

They further agreed that delegations attending the Oslo ceremony are to include the presidents of principal UN organizations, the heads of funds and programmes, and UN staff and personnel from UN Headquarters and the field.

The officials also agreed to take up at a later date the matter of how the Nobel Prize money is to be spent.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Asked about the formation of a transitional government in Burundi, the Spokesman noted that such a government was to be set up Thursday, and he noted the hard work of the Facilitator of the Arusha Process, former South African President Nelson Mandela, in forging agreement on that government.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Tuesday unsealed an indictment against a Bosnian Croat police commander, Pasko Ljubicic, who is accused of crimes against humanity in the Bosnian areas of Vitez and Busovaca in 1992 and 1993. The indictment alleges that Ljubicic had ordered subordinates to kill all Muslims of military age in several Bosnian villages, where approximately 100 civilians were killed.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today that the 49-member FAO Council has set the date for the five-year review conference of its World Food Summit. It has been rescheduled for June 10-13, 2002, in Rome.

The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Radhika Coomaraswamy, will visit Colombia for a week, beginning Thursday, to investigate violence against women in the countrys armed conflict.

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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