United Nations Daily Highlights, 02-05-22

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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

Wednesday, May 22, 2002

SECURITY COUNCIL TO CONSIDER EAST TIMORS UN MEMBERSHIP

At 3:00 this afternoon, the Security Council is scheduled to hold consultations to discuss, among other matters, the application of membership by East Timor in the United Nations. A note from the Secretary-General transmitting the application of UN membership by the Democratic Republic of East Timor has been sent to the Security Council and General Assembly.

The consultations are to take place during a brief suspension of the Councils public meeting that began this morning on Africa. Also during that suspension, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, has been asked to give a briefing on the latest situation in Kisangani, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Following that item, the Council is scheduled to take up Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, in addition to East Timors admission to the United Nations. A presidential statement on the recent elections in Sierra Leone and a resolution on the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are expected to be introduced.

The public meeting is scheduled to resume at 4:00 p.m.

SECURITY COUNCIL DISCUSSES AFRICAN CONFLICT PREVENTION

The Security Council is holding a public meeting on the situation in Africa.

At the start of the meeting chaired by Professor S. Jayakumar, Foreign Minister of Singapore -- which holds this months Council presidency -- more than 40 speakers were expected to take the floor.

After a briefing by Ambassador Jagdish Koonjul of Mauritius, chairman of the ad hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa, Economic and Social Council President Ivan Simonovic of Croatia, Ambassador Amadou Kebe of the Organization for African Unity and Ibrahima Fall, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, made statements before non-members took the floor.

Council members were invited by a show of hands to take the floor to respond in an interactive manner to points made by the non-members.

UN ENVOY, QUARTET MEET ARAFAT ON PALESTINIAN REFORM

The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Terje Roed Larsen, met in Ramallah today with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat along with three other members of the Quartet: U.S. Consul-General in East Jerusalem Ronald Schlicher, European Union Envoy Miguel Moratinos and Russian diplomat Sergei Biskov.

Larsen spoke to reporters after the two-hour meeting, saying that the Quartet had come to offer its full support to the reform initiatives undertaken by President Arafat.

The Quartet hopes the reforms, along with the ones proposed by the Palestinian Legislative Council, will be implemented as quickly as possible, Larsen added.

These reforms proposed by Palestinians for the benefit of Palestinians, the Special Coordinator went to say, are an important first step for achieving the vision we all share, and that is the establishment of a democratic, secure and economically viable Palestinian state alongside and at peace with Israel.

The Quartet also told Arafat that international community is prepared to provide the full measure of technical and financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority to help make that vision a reality.

The Quartet called on Israel to foster a climate conducive to reform, particularly by easing restrictions on the movement of Palestinian people and goods.

UN ENVOY VISITS KISANGANI AS INVESTIGATION PROCEEDS

This morning, the Secretary-Generals Special Representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Amos Namanga Ngongi, arrived in Kisangani.

He met there with a high-level delegation of the Rally for Congolese Democracy as well as with Bishop Konsego. The Bishop told Ngongi that the demilitarization of Kisangani was a prerequisite for peace to return to the city.

The UN Mission is continuing its investigation to establish the number of victims of the recent events.

The Spokesman confirmed that the 53 Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) police officers who had been pre-selected for eventual training as police instructors were alive. The UN Mission reported that four police officers had been killed in the past week, but they were not part of that group of 53 pre-selected officers.

AL QAEDA HAS DIVERSIFIED MOVEMENT OF FINANCES, SAYS REPORT

The report of the Monitoring Group on sanctions against Osama bin Laden, members of the Al Qaeda organization and the Taliban and others associated with them, was transmitted to the Security Council by Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso of Colombia in his capacity as Chairman of the Afghan sanctions committee.

The Group says that this first report covers the preparatory phase of its work. It makes a series of recommendations regarding the list of members of the Al Qaeda organization and the Taliban and other individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with them.

The report notes that Al Qaeda and its associates appear to have diversified the movement and security of their finances [by acquiring commodities such as gold and diamonds, and by using alternative remittance systems in addition to the formal banking system.]

The Group encourages states to become parties to the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, and those involved in the trade of rough diamonds to take part in the Kimberly process, a negotiating process to establish minimum acceptable international standards for national certification schemes of import and export of rough diamonds.

On the arms embargo, the Group recommends that all arms-producing countries become participating states in the Wassenaar Arrangement on export controls for conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies to increase the transparency of international arms exports.

Asked how many individuals and entities were included on the list of Al Qaeda and associated entities, the Spokesman said it was around 300.

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS CHANGES IN WORLD ENVIRONMENT

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) launched its report, Global Environment Outlook 3 (GEO-3) in London today, which says that over 70 percent of the Earths land surface could be affected by roads, mining, cities and other infrastructure developments in the next 30 years unless action is taken, with Latin America and the Caribbean likely to be the hardest-hit region, followed closely by Asia and the Pacific.

The report also says that by 2032, more than half of the worlds population could be living in severely water-stressed areas if market forces drive the political, economic and social agenda of the world.

In a look at what lies ahead, the report sets out four policy approaches leading to different outcomes in the next 30 years

UN HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICE ISSUES FINDINGS ON COLOMBIA VIOLENCE

The Colombia Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Tuesday afternoon published a report on its observation mission to evaluate violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Medio Atrato this month.

The Office collected testimonies in its report on what happened in the first few days of this month in that area, and found the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) to be responsible for the deaths of more than 100 civilians and injuries to some 80 others, stemming from their use of gas cylinder bombs (pipetas).

It also found the paramilitary United Self-Defence Groups of Colombia (AUC) also to be responsible for what occurred, saying that the paramilitaries had exposed the civilian population to the dangers of military action.

The report adds that the Government of Colombia failed to meet its obligations to prevent what occurred and to protect the civilian population. The Government, it says, did not heed early warning calls of the impending confrontation between the FARC and the AUC.

UN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP TO EXAMINE CUSTODY IN AUSTRALIA

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention will visit Australia, at the invitation of the Government, starting this Friday. The Working Group, headed by its Chairman, Louis Joinet, will meet with the Immigration Minister and other senior Government officials on Australias administrative custody of unauthorized arrivals into the country. The visit is to last through June 6, and the Group will report back to the Commission on Human Rights.

A group of international experts, who met last week in Geneva, recommended the amendment of the 1989 UN Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries to elaborate a more clear legal definition of mercenary activity.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Secretary-General Kofi Annan this morning returned to New York after a one-night stopover in London, at the tail end of his visit over the past week to Cyprus, Indonesia and East Timor. He is expected to return to UN Headquarters Thursday to hold his monthly luncheon with the members of the Security Council.

Asked about UN efforts in Madagascar, the Spokesman said the United Nations actively supported the efforts of the Organization of African Unity, and was monitoring the situation closely, but added, Its not going well.

In an effort to widen the international and bilateral efforts to rebuild Afghanistan, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government of India will hold a Joint Conference on South-South Cooperation and the Reconstruction of Afghanistan in New Delhi on Thursday and Friday. UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown and representatives from more than 45 countries, largely from the developing world, will attend the meeting and discuss how to support Afghanistans reconstruction.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) marked the International Day for Biological Diversity, being observed today. This year, the importance of forest biodiversity to the global environment is being highlighted. The Secretary-General, in a message, called biological diversity one of the pillars of human life and urged governments to ratify the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Protocol on Biosafety.

In Berlin on Tuesday, Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jacques Diouf addressed an international workshop on Polices Against Hunger, saying the right to food could help counterbalance bias in social systems and lead to good governance, inclusion and increased equality among citizens.

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues will wrap up its two-week session at UN headquarters on Friday, and the Secretary-General is expected to address a special meeting of the Forum..

Today, Andorra became the 78th Member State to pay its 2002 regular budget contribution in full with a payment of more than $44,000.

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants received signatures today from Bahrain, Russia and Suriname, Thailand and Malawi, bringing the total number of signatories to 151.