United Nations Daily Highlights, 01-11-13

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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, November 13, 2001

ANNAN WELCOMES END OF TALIBAN RULE IN KABUL

Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a statement today, welcomed the fact that in the last few days the people of Kabul and other cities in Afghanistan have been freed from the oppressive and intolerant Taliban regime. At the same time, he reminded the United Front and other Afghan forces of the need to adhere strictly to their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.

The Secretary-General reiterated the urgent need to establish a broad-based and fully representative Government in Afghanistan. To this end, he has instructed his Special Representative, Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi, to re-double his ongoing efforts.

ANNAN SAYS UN CHALLENGE ON AFGHANISTAN IS MOST URGENT

The Secretary-General and his Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, met with the Security Council this morning in a public meeting on the future of Afghanistan.

Speaking to the Council, the Secretary-General said the challenge faced by the United Nations "is now perhaps at its most urgent stage." He called for action to meet the humanitarian needs of the Afghan people.

UN ENVOY BRIEFS COUNCIL ON OPTIONS FOR AFGHANISTAN

Following the Secretary-Generals statement, Brahimi briefed the Council on his recent mission to the region, the diplomatic efforts underway, the humanitarian action being undertaken and presented objectives and spelled out approaches for the way ahead.

He spelled out a five-step approach, which he said was widely discussed by the Afghans themselves, for a political transition with the goal of creating a broad-based government.

He also outlined three options a security force and listed them in the order of desirability. The most desirable would be for an all-Afghan security force; then, the option of a multinational force; and in lowest preference, the possibility of a UN peacekeeping force.

He spoke about the need for security arrangements as even more urgent for Kabul.

Against the backdrop of fast-moving events on the ground, Brahimi also said that his deputy, Francesc Vendrell, has been instructed to go to Kabul as soon as security conditions permit.

He also reported that security assessments are being made for the return of international staff to Afghanistan as soon as possible. One such mission, to the northern city of Faizabad, has been completed, and he said staff are expected back in a day or two. Another security assessment took place today from Termez, Uzbekistan to Hairaton, Afghanistan.

Brahimi emphasized that the longer-term objectives for Afghanistan remain the same, despite the pace of the current events on the ground.

The men and women of Afghanistan have suffered much and have been disappointed often, he said. They refuse interference, yet they call for help. They expect much from the United Nations and they are not sure it will deliver. They do not understand why their country is being attacked, why what little infrastructure is there is being destroyed and civilians including children are being killed by stray bombs.

He appealed to all to show the people of Afghanistan that the international community is not going to give up on them this time.

By noon, 36 speakers were inscribed for the day-long Councils debate.

Asked why UN peacekeeping was the least preferred option outlined by Brahimi, the Spokesman explained that it takes months to put together a peacekeeping force, and the United Nations does not have the time to do that for Afghanistan. Also, he said, an unstable situation is not a suitable environment for a peacekeeping mission.

Asked about the prospects for a multi-national force, Eckhard said that ideally, the Security Council would give its blessing for such an arrangement and a nation with the capacity to do so would take the lead in forming it.

In response to questions about a possible meeting of Northern Alliance and other Afghan leaders, the Spokesman said there had been some discussion of holding such a meeting at a UN center in Europe, such as Vienna or Geneva, as well as consideration of possible locations in the Middle East. He noted the possibility that an Afghan city could be a venue. Brahimi, he said, expected a meeting in days, rather than weeks.

The sudden fall of Kabul, he added, should affect the United Nations thinking on whether it can get the parties to agree to a formula for power-sharing.

UN AID AGENCIES FOCUS ON STAFF SAFETY IN AFGHANISTAN

UN humanitarian agencies have been concentrating today on the safety and security of local staff in Afghanistan as the situation on the ground is shifting rapidly.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinators Office for Afghanistan reported from Islamabad today that UN staff in Kabul are safe, with security being assigned to protect UN premises amid reports of some looting in the capital. The World Food Programme (WFP) said that as of Monday, its e-mail communication with local staff in Kabul has been restored, and that initial reports indicate that its warehouse in the capital is intact, with no food stolen.

The UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF), meanwhile, reported the overall security situation in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif as unstable, marked by the random movement of armed people. On Monday, a UNICEF sub-office in that city was looted by armed men after its capture by the Northern Alliance.

Several sources on the ground in Mazar-i-Sharif have corroborated to the Humanitarian Coordinators Office that more than 100 young Taliban recruits who had been hiding in a school in that city were killed by Northern Alliance forces on Saturday.

Because of fear and uncertainty caused by the recent fighting, commercial Afghan truckers used by WFP for food delivery did not want to move from the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Peshawar, so no food trucks travelled into Afghanistan today from Pakistan. However, in the past 12 days, the agency has delivered 27,000 tons of food into the country, more than half its monthly target.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that the quickly-changing military situation has not resulted in any new reports of refugee flows or large-scale displacement. UNHCR is urging all combatants to respect civilians and exercise restraint in order to avoid any possible new waves of refugees. Meanwhile, the agency continues to maintain a high level of emergency stocks in Peshawar and Quetta in case of a new influx.

Asked about the return of staff, the Spokesman noted that international staff, who had been pulled out of Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks on the United States, were to return to Faisabad.

The fall of Mazar-i-Sharif, he added, could open up supply routes for aid workers to the northern highlands, where aid was needed most.

He noted that, in addition to humanitarian workers, some UN civil affairs officers who had previously been in Afghanistan may also return, to advise the Afghan parties as they form a government.

Asked how many local UN staff were in Afghanistan, the Spokesman said that a precise number was hard to determine, but at the start of the recent conflict, there had been roughly 700.

UN RIGHTS CHIEF WARNS AGAINST ATROCITIES IN KABUL

[Speaking in New Delhi, India, Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged the United States and the United Kingdom to exert influence on the Northern Alliance to ensure that its capture of Kabul did not lead to a bloodbath.

"[They] have to make it very clear," she said, " that there will be no toleration of massacres, of rapes and abuse of civilians."

There will be no impunity for those who commit such crimes, the High Commissioner warned.]

PARTIES TO CTBT CONFERENCE ADOPT DECLARATION

The Conference on the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) ended this morning, just about an hour ago, with the adoption of the final declaration and report of the Conference.

In its final declaration, the participating States reaffirmed their strong determination to enhance international peace and security and stressed the importance of a universal, and verifiable, CTBT for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. The States also called upon all States to maintain a moratorium on nuclear weapons test explosions and underlined the importance of signing and ratifying the Treaty.

Over the past three days, 108 States in all attended the Conference.

LEVEL OF IRAQ OIL EXPORTS CONTINUES TO FALL

The UN Office of the Iraq Programme reports that the level of Iraqi oil exports under the United Nations oil-for-food programme continued to fall in the week ending on November 9.

Averaging just over 1.5 million barrels per day, the oil exports totalled 10.9 million barrels, down from the previous weeks total of 14.6 million barrels.

YUGOSLAV TRIBUNAL SENTENCES THREE IN KERATERM CASE

Today in The Hague, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced three Bosnian Serbs who had been found guilty of crimes committed against non-Serbs in the Bosnian municipality of Prijedor in 1992.

Dusko Skirica, who was the Commander of Security at the Keraterm detention camp at the time, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while Damir Dosen and Dragan Kolundjiza, who worked at the camp, were given sentences of five and three years, respectively.

UNAIDS CHIEF WELCOMES CONFERENCE IN CHINA

Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), addressed the first Chinese National Conference on AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, which opened in Beijing today, saying the meeting was a truly significant turning point not only for the response to AIDS in China, but also for the global response to AIDS.

He said that the Chinese national conference was of global significance, because what happens in China over the next two decades will determine the global burden of HIV/AIDS.

IN REPORT, ANNAN WELCOMES DOUBLING OF DEMOCRACIES

The Secretary-General, in his report out today on UN support for the promotion or consolidation of new or restored democracies, says that among the most remarkable achievements of the past decade has been the near doubling of the number of democracies across the globe.

He says that there can be no single prescribed form of democracy, but adds that the status of human rights is an important barometer of a healthy democracy. He also welcomes the growing international trend to condemn unconstitutional removals of Governments or attempts at outright subversion of democracy.

UNICEF INFORMED OF ILLNESS AFTER VITAMIN CAMPAIGN IN INDIA

In India's north-eastern state of Assam, one child has died and some 600 have been hospitalized following a state-wide Vitamin A campaign that had been carried out last Sunday with support from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

UNICEF is in touch with India's Ministry of Health and is waiting for the results of what exactly caused the death and the hospitalizations among the children.

UNICEF noted erroneous international media reports about the situation, claiming that as many as 10 children died following a campaign to administer polio vaccines.

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Over 3 million children ranging in age from 1 to 5 years old received vitamin A in Assam on Sunday in the third round of a bi-annual state-wide campaign. No complications had been reported in the two previous rounds.

Vitamin A is given to prevent blindness and to help boost children's immunity against disease.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Among the signings yesterday, New Zealand became the tenth country to ratify of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. With this ratification, the requirements have been met for the entry into force of the Protocol and this will occur in three months time, on February 13, 2002.

Today, there will be number of instruments of ratification deposited for various treaties. China this morning acceded to the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings and this afternoon, Hungary will ratify the same Convention. Also this afternoon, Jamaica will ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that the food situation in Somalia is deteriorating rapidly. The main crop season this year has been reduced by drought to the lowest level in seven years and recent heavy rains in the Ethiopian highlands have caused overflows of rivers in Southern Somalia displacing large numbers of people and aggravating the food supply situation.

Asked about deliveries of mail to UN Headquarters, the Spokesman said that all regular mail has been held since October 24 as a precautionary measure.

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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