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United Nations Daily Highlights 96-08-05United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSMonday, August 5, 1996This document is prepared by the Central News Section of the Department of Public Information and is updated every week-day at approximately 6:00 PM. HEADLINES
UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has expressed deep concern over the difficulties faced by the UN Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) in securing funding for the operation of existing local administrative structures in its area of operations. In a letter to the President of the Security Council, Ambassador Tono Eitel of Germany, on Friday, Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali said the precarious state of finances for administering the region has begun to erode public confidence in UNTAES. "If resources for funding the local administration are not found and disbursed in the coming three to four weeks, UNTAES may be faced with a rising tide of social unrest as the financial situation deteriorates," the Secretary-General said. The Secretary-General said the Transitional Administrator has been actively pursuing all possible sources of funding for the local administration, to no avail. "It is regrettable that the Croatian Government has not yet been sufficiently forthcoming in providing such funding, despite its obligation to cooperate fully with UNTAES and its evident responsibility to financially support the orderly administration of a region whose peaceful reintegration into Croatia is the basic objective of UNTAES," the Secretary-General said in his letter. According to Dr. Boutros-Ghali, UNTAES would require US$2 million per month, with an estimated US$10 million to cover the next 5-6 months. The Secretary- General concluded by stating that he was "gravely concerned that the deteriorating situation will jeopardize the viability of what has so far been a successful mission". The Security Council has agreed to the UN Secretary-General's proposal that the military component of the UN Support Mission in Haiti (UNSMIH) should be made up of contingents from Bangladesh, Canada, Pakistan, and Trinidad and Tobago. The Council also agreed that Algeria, Canada, Djibouti, France, India, Mali, the Russian Federation and Togo would contribute the police component. The Support Mission, comprising 600 troops and 300 civilian police, will assist the Government of Haiti in the professionalisation of the Police and the maintenance of secure and stable environment for establishing and training an effective national Police force. UNSMIH's mandate is due to end 30 November 1997. The private and public sectors combined would have to invest an additional US$31 billion a year in agriculture over the next two decades in order to keep up with increasing demand for food in developing countries, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO) said. The Organisation said that US$19 billion a year in incremental investment will be needed at the farm level and for post-harvest storage and processing, and the remaining US$12 billion for expanded rural infrastructure and rural social services. The estimates are contained in "Investment in Africa: Evolution and Progress," one of a series of provisional technical papers prepared for the World Food Summit to be held 13-17 November at FAO Headquarters in Rome. Leaders of close to 200 countries who are scheduled to attend the Summit are expected to renew their commitment to the goal of poverty alleviation and universal food security and agree on a plan of action to be implemented in partnership with international and non-governmental organisations and other sectors of civil society. Describing farmers and other private investors as "the key to rising food output", the report noted that nearly three-quarters of the future investment needed in the developing countries would, as in the past, consist of private commitments by farmers for land improvement, new equipment, expansion of livestock herds and plantations, often in the form of family labour and for private investment in the post-production chain. "The remaining quarter, representing about US$41 billion per year, will consist of complementary public investment to create and maintain the conditions for profitable private sector agricultural investment", the report stated. The second part of the second session of the International Seabed Authority, to be held in Kingston from 5 to 16 August, would be devoted to a range of organisational questions, including the election of members of the Finance Committee and the Legal and Technical Commission, as well as the presiding officers of the Assembly and the Council. The Authority's 1997 budget will also be considered. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea envisages the International Seabed Authority as the organisation that would administer the utilisation of the resources of the deep seabed, resources that have been declared by the General Assembly of the United Nations as "the common heritage of mankind". For information purposes only - - not an official record From the United Nations home page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgUnited Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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