United Nations Daily Highlights, 03-09-24

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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, September 24, 2003

MIDDLE EAST: DIPLOMATIC QUARTET TO MEET IN NEW YORK FRIDAY

Principals of the diplomatic Quartet on the Middle East peace process are scheduled to meet at UN Headquarters this Friday. The meeting will be held from 9:45 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.

In addition to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the participants will be Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov representing Russia; Secretary of State Colin Powell representing the United States; and the European delegation will include Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, representing the Presidency of the European Union; Chris Patten, External Relations Commissioner of the European Commission; and Javier Solana, the European Unions High Representative for a Common Foreign and Security Policy.

UN AGENCY PROTESTS ISRAELI ACTION IN UN-RUN WEST BANK HOSPITAL

According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), earlier this morning Israeli troops entered a UN-run hospital in Qalqilya. Soldiers made the medical staff leave their patients and lie on the floor of the hospital.They searched the hospital room by room, and physical damage to the hospitals facilities took place.

UNRWA has formally complained to the Israeli authorities at this serious breach of both the UNs immunities and international humanitarian law.

In a meeting held today in Amman with 27 donor and host Governments, UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen pleaded for urgent funding for the agencys emergency operations in the West Bank and Gaza. The international community has so far pledged $31 million out of $103 million that had been sought in an appeal launched in June.

ANNAN TELLS SECURITY COUNCIL RULE OF LAW IS NOT A LUXURY

The Secretary-General opened a Security Council Ministerial Meeting on Justice and the Rule of Law: the United Nations Role chaired by the United Kingdom, the current Council president.

Stating that the rule of law is not a luxury, and that justice is not a side issue, the Secretary-General went on to say, A one-size-fits-all approach does not work. Local actors must be involved from the start. He added, We should, wherever possible, guide rather than direct, and reinforce rather than replace. The aim must be to leave behind strong local institutions when we depart.

The Secretary-General said that Liberia will be a test case, adding that the Council had responded to his recommendations by incorporating important rule of law components in authorizing the deployment of the UN mission in that country.

He also said that at times, the goals of justice and reconciliation compete with each other. Each society needs to form a view about how to strike the right balance between them, he said, but added that, in striking that balance, certain international standards must be upheld.

There should be no amnesties for war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity or other serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.

A presidential statement was read by the Council President, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who said an open debate would be held next Tuesday for further reflection and analysis on this subject.

ANNAN TO OPEN HIGH-LEVEL MEETING TODAY ON AFGHANISTAN

The Secretary-General is scheduled to open a closed high-level meeting on Afghanistan this afternoon at 3:00 p.m. at UN Headquarters.

The meeting, which will be chaired by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno, will take stock of the progress made so far in the country and plan ahead.

The President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, plus foreign ministers from 21 countries, representatives of the European Commission and the Council of the European Commission, are expected to attend the meeting.

ANNAN TO CONVENE MEETING THURSDAY ON DR CONGO

The Secretary-General is scheduled to convene a closed high-level meeting on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in the margins of the General Assembly at 3:15 p.m. Thursday.

It is expected that the deliberations of this high-level event will focus on the re-establishment of good-neighborly relations and the resumption of bilateral arrangements between the states of the Great Lakes region.

The Presidents of the DRC, Burundi and Mozambique, together with the Prime Minister of Rwanda, the Deputy Prime Minister of Uganda, and the Foreign Ministers of Angola, South Africa and Tanzania, are expected to participate.

ANNAN MEETS WITH IRAQ'S GOVERNING COUNCIL MEMBERS

he Spokesman, in response to questions, noted that the Secretary-General met this morning at 8:00 a.m. with a number of members of the Iraqi Governing Council and the Iraqi Council of Ministers, including Ahmad Chalabi, this months Council President, Adnan Pachachi and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, among others.

They discussed the current security situation in the country. The Secretary-General expressed his concern about the condition of his own staff in this context. They also talked of the prospects for a second Security Council resolution on Iraq, including both the role of the United Nations and the timetable for an early restoration of Iraqi sovereignty.

Asked about whether Chalabi had asked for a continued UN presence in Iraq, the Spokesman noted that Chalabi had expressed his hope that the United Nations would maintain a presence in Iraq. The Secretary-General responded that the safety of UN staff is paramount and is being kept under constant review.

As he said in his speech on Tuesday, subject to security considerations, the UN system is prepared to play a full role in working for a satisfactory outcome in Iraq.

Asked about numbers of UN staff in Iraq, the Spokesman said that there were close to 100 international staff in the country, including about 50 in Baghdad, in addition to some 4,200 local UN staff.

Asked why the Secretary-General met with Iraqi officials whose credentials had not been approved, the Spokesman said that it was not for the Secretary-General to decide on the validity of credentials; that is a job for the Credentials Committee of the General Assembly.

He said that all delegations are seated provisionally until the Credentials Committee, which is chaired by Fiji, gets to review their letters of credentials, which have to be signed by a Head of State, Head of Government or Foreign Minister. Even though such letters were to have been submitted by a week before the start of the General Assembly, he noted that, as of Tuesday, only 45 countries had submitted their credentials. The Committee traditionally does not submit a report until December.

The Spokesman said that the Iraqi delegation could sit in the Assembly unless a Member State challenged it.

ANNAN WELCOMES U.N.-EU COOPERATION IN CRISIS MANAGEMENT

This afternoon, the Secretary-General is expected to sign with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, representing the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, a Joint Declaration on cooperation between the United Nations and the European Union in crisis management.

He is delighted to do so, and hopes that this step will lead to even closer cooperation between the two organizations in both military and civilian areas of crisis management. The Secretary-General is particularly pleased that the declaration outlines specific areas where practical cooperation can advance, such as training, planning, communications and lessons learned.

CONTACT GROUP ON KOSOVO SUPPORTS UN ENVOYS EFFORTS

The Contact Group dealing with Kosovo consisting of France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, with representatives from the European Union met the Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Kosovo, Harri Holkeri, on Tuesday afternoon at the British Mission to the United Nations.

The Contact Group endorsed Holkeris proposal to launch the direct dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina on practical issues of mutual interest in Vienna in mid-October.

The Contact Group called on all the parties to work constructively towards early results and to seize the opportunity offered by these practical talks to improve the quality of life.

ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION IN VIETNAM IS PRAISED

The Associate Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Zéphirin Diabré, today praised Vietnam for transforming itself from a food hungry nation to the second largest rice exporter in the world, while he visited the country to mark the 25th anniversary of UNDPs presence in the country.

UNDP says that, largely due to land and price reforms, Vietnam reduced its poverty rate from well over 70 percent in the mid-1980s to about 29 percent today.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF SPEAKS OUT AGAINST BIAS: Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan today addressed a group of central and eastern European experts in Prague, the Czech Republic, and called on the regions leaders to speak out openly against xenophobia and racism. Noting that ethnic strife has led to bloody conflicts in places like the Balkans, he said that leaders must guard against extreme nationalism, accompanied by intolerance and hate speech.

UNICEF LAUNCHES VACCINATION CAMPAIGN IN AMAZON: The UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) today has launched an emergency vaccination campaign against hepatitis B for two ethnic groups in a remote region of the Peruvian Amazon, whose existence could be threatened by a prolonged outbreak of the disease.

GATHERING ON ROAD SAFETY BEGINS IN GENEVA: The World Health Organization said today that, with more than two people dying in the world each minute from traffic accidents, representatives from more than 20 of the world's leading road safety organizations are gathering in Geneva for the first time to embark on global road safety.

U.N. BUDGET: Today, Burundi paid more than $24,000 dollars, and Syria paid just over $1 million, to become the 104th and 105th Member States to have paid their UN regular budget dues in full for this year.

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