United Nations Daily Highlights, 02-11-14

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

OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY HUA JIANG

DEPUTY SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN

HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Thursday, November 14, 2002

ANNAN URGES CONTINUED HUMANITARIAN AID FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA

Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a statement released through his Spokesman, expresses his grave concern about the humanitarian crisis in Southern Africa. He appeals to the international community to continue to provide additional assistance.

He remains especially concerned about the situation in Zimbabwe which is deteriorating fast and where almost 7 million people will very soon be in need of food aid. The Secretary-General notes the continuing reports of politicization in food distribution and humanitarian assistance in general. Those distributing aid have an obligation to ensure that it is given to beneficiaries based on their needs and not upon political affiliation.

The Secretary-General fully supports the zero tolerance policy on the politicization of food distribution established by the World Food Programme.

He appeals to the Government of Zimbabwe to hold to its commitment to ensure that political considerations do not affect food aid efforts within the country. The international community must be vigilant in ensuring that relief is made available quickly to the people in Zimbabwe.

ANNAN TRAVELS TO GENEVA TO START EUROPE VISIT

The Secretary-General traveled to Geneva, where he is scheduled to meet Friday with Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Paul Biya of Cameroon, following the ruling by the International Court of Justice last month on their border dispute.

[From Geneva, the Secretary-General is scheduled to head to the Balkans, arriving on Sunday in Sarajevo. While in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he is expected to hold meetings with UN officials and staff, as well as the country's authorities. He is then expected to proceed to Kosovo, the rest of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Croatia, before heading to the Netherlands and France.]

Wednesday, he went to the White House to meet with President George W. Bush. Each of them made brief comments to the press before their meeting.

The Secretary-General said that terrorism is a scourge that affects all of us, regardless of region or religion. And we need to stand together to defeat terrorism. In this context, he praised the work of the UN Security Council in getting all nations to work together on it.

On Iraq, he thanked the President for taking the multilateral route through the United Nations.

In his meeting with the President, Vice-President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Secretary of State Colin Powell, among others, were also present. They talked of the current changing of the guard in China, the new Security Council Resolution on Iraq, peace efforts in the Middle East, a range of African and Latin American issues, the Secretary-Generals recent initiative on Cyprus, Afghanistan, international terror, Chechnya, and the UNs Capital Master Plan for revamping the Headquarters building.

At a press encounter after the meeting, the Secretary-General was asked whether the letter he received that day from Iraq saying they would admit UN weapons inspectors was in compliance with Security Council Resolution 1441. Yes, he replied. Iraq has accepted.

Asked about his level of confidence after receiving the letter, the Secretary-General said, We all have to be a bit patient. The inspectors will be there in a few days and were going to test it. He added, I think the issue is not the acceptance but performance on the ground.

A journalist asked him about Cyprus, and he said he was sure President Bush would do everything he could to help find a settlement. And I think we really have a chance, he added.

He then returned to New York, where he again spoke to reporters, reiterating his message on Iraq that I expect them to cooperate, and if they dont, of course the inspectors know what to do. He also noted the encouraging signals on Cyprus that have been coming out of Ankara, Athens, Washington, D.C. and other capitals.

UNMOVIC CHIEF TO STOP IN PARIS ON HIS WAY TO CYPRUS

The Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, Dr. Hans Blix, is scheduled to leave New York for Paris Friday evening. There he plans to meet with French government officials.

He is then expected to be in Cyprus on Sunday. He and Dr. Mohammed el-Baradei, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency are planning to then travel to Iraq as scheduled on Monday.

Blix is scheduled to speak to reporters at Friday's noon briefing.

SECURITY COUNCIL HOLDS OPEN MEETING ON TIMOR LESTE

The Security Council is holding an open meeting on Timor Leste, with a briefing by the Secretary-Generals Special Representative Kamalesh Sharma.

In his statement, he paid tribute to the leadership and the people of the country. He noted that it is true that expectations from the leadership, which faces expressions of patience and expectation , run high within the population.

"In a new democracy, this in itself is a healthy phenomenon," he said.

Sharma also noted the role played by the international community: "The nature of involvement of the United Nations has been unique and of long standing," he said, but the international communities, institutions and the civil society's participation and engagement have helped the successful transition of the third UN mission in the country.

Sharma underscored the new challenge in the region -- terrorism, which he said constituted more than a passing threat. He appealed to put in place protective and institutional measures to reduce vulnerability.

This afternoon, the Security Councils Counter Terrorism Committee and the Somalia Sanctions Committee were scheduled to meet.

UN MISSION CONDEMNS KILLING OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN KABUL

The UN Mission in Afghanistan, working in cooperation with the Afghan Human Rights Commission, has looked into the deaths earlier this week of two students, and the wounding of 15 others, at Kabul University, and today said that the shooting of the students could not be justified by concerns about self-defense or public safety. The Mission in Afghanistan condemned the shooting and believes that the authorities must launch an official investigation and take appropriate sanctions against those responsible. The Mission also expressed its view that student grievances can be addressed through dialogue between students, academic authorities and the Government.

The UN Mission today also raised its grave concerns with Afghan Government authorities and northern leader Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum over credible reports it has received of serious incidents related to a possible investigation into mass graves found earlier this year in Dasht-e-Leili, in northern Afghanistan. The Mission noted credible reports of harassment, arbitrary detention, torture and extrajudicial execution against Afghans who may have information about what happened in Dasht-e-Leili. On Monday, the UN Mission and Afghan Human Rights Commission sent a joint team to the north to look into those reports, and that investigation is still underway.

Also on Afghanistan, the Secretary-General issued a report today to the General Assembly on emergency international assistance for that country, in which he says that the last eight months have been momentous for Afghanistan, but it still continues to face serious humanitarian challenges. Afghanistans precarious situation, he writes, suggest two particularly important priorities: to ensure that the winter response plan being prepared by UN agencies and the Government has sufficient resources, and that Member States provide support for the Governments own core costs and efforts to support its people, through the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund.

UNHCR URGES LITHUANIA, POLAND TO TAKE IN CHECHNYA ASYLUM SEEKERS

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees have urged Lithuania and Poland not to close their doors to asylum seekers from war-torn Chechnya.

The UN refugee agency officials said they were concerned about reports of Chechen asylum seekers being barred from entering the two countries following the recent Chechen terrorist attack in Moscow. Last week, Lithuanian border guards refused entry to 26 Chechens and returned them to Belarus. At least 17 of them were detained by Belarus authorities and subsequently put on a train bound for Moscow. Their current whereabouts are unknown. In neighbouring Poland, charity groups have reported dozens of cases of Chechens being turned away from the country's eastern border since the October 23 terrorist attack on a Moscow theatre by Chechen separatists.

Poland and Lithuania are both signatories of the 1951 Refugee Convention and candidates for membership in the European Union.

UN ENVIRONMENT CHIEF UPDATES ANNAN ON DEPLETED URANIUM IN BOSNIA

UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Klaus Töpfer to the Secretary-General, presenting the latest information collected by a UNEP team that over the past month was studying the presence of depleted uranium in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The expert team investigated 15 sites in that country, and, following an examination of depleted uranium levels at those sites, the Environment Programme advises that proper decontamination of any building targeted by depleted uranium is ensured, and it has provided advice on decontamination to the relevant authorities.

The team also took almost 200 environmental samples, including 42 water samples, and will be able to address the issue of the effects of depleted uranium in the groundwater when its final report is ready in March 2003.

AGREEMENT ON TRANS-ASIAN HIGHWAY CLOSE TO BEING SIGNED

An Asian highway network stretching 130,000 kilometers across the continent, from the Pacific Ocean to the borders of Europe, is close to becoming a reality with the formal adoption of the network expected in 2004, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) said today.

This week, a working group responsible for drawing up an agreement to set up an Asian Highway Network finalized a draft, whose formal adoption by the Governments associated in this effort is expected to result in improved trade links in Asia.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Asked about reports that the Secretary-General had given the Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash more time to consider the documents recently given to him on the future of the island, the Spokeswoman said she could not confirm that report. She added the Secretary-General had expressed his hope that he would hear back from both leaders within a week. He did not wish to impose a deadline, the Spokeswoman added, on the parties, but he felt that one-week was sufficient. Asked about a deadline of next month's European Union summit, the Spokeswoman said it was important to first hear back from both Mr. Denktash as well as the Greek Cypriot leader, Glafcos Clerides.

Friday in Pretoria, South Africa, the Secretary-Generals Special Envoy, Moustapha Niasse is scheduled to swill re-open the informal consultations process with the components of the Inter Congolese Dialogue.

UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Mark Malloch Brown is visiting Rwanda, where Wednesday he visited a former military school and barracks in Kigali, the capital, that has now been transformed into the Kigali Institute for Science and Technology, with more than 1,600 full-time students. The Rwandan Government launched the Institute with UNDPs support three years after the 1994 genocide, and it is helping to rebuild Rwandas technical expertise at everything from candle-making to computer science. Malloch Brown was impressed by what he saw, saying he would like to see the Institutes model replicated on a small scale in the countrys rural areas.

The World Heritage Congress begins today in Venice, Italy, ending on Sunday, which will mark the 30th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention. The theme of the Congress is Shared Legacy, Common responsibility and will assess the implementation of the Convention so far and look at ways to mobilize support for heritage conservation programmes.

Today, Kazakhstan became the 115th Member State to pay its 2002 regular budget contribution in full with a payment of more than $322,000.

This afternoon, Nicaragua will become the 58th country to ratify the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. This Convention came into force in April of this year.

Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General United Nations, S-378 New York, NY 10017 Tel. 212-963-7162 - press/media only Fax. 212-963-7055

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