United Nations Daily Highlights 96-08-06

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, August 6, 1996

HEADLINES

• UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali suggests the Security Council consider further extending the UNTAES mandate.
• The World Food Programme says sanctions against Burundi may prevent humanitarian relief from entering that country; UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs examines the consequences of the sanctions.
• The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific says the region needs to increase investment in infrastructure.
• The UN Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission (UNIKOM) faces a 20 percent reduction in personnel.

The Secretary-General said the basic agreement that was reached by the Government of Croatia and the Croatian Serbs in Eastern Slavonia last November, established a transitional period of twelve months which may be extended for a further twelve months if so requested by one of the parties.

Senior Croatian officials had stated that the Croatian Government would not agree to any extension of the UNTAES mandate which expires 15 January 1997. They might however contemplate an extension of a few months with a revised mandate under certain conditions. At the same time, the local Serb regional Assembly in Eastern Slavonia decided in June to request the Security Council to extend the mandate of UNTAES for an additional twelve months until 15 January 1998.

The UNTAES mandate includes, economic rehabilitation, establishment of a fully operational multi-ethnic transitional police force, the facilitation of the return of displaced persons, construction of housing for the returnees, the issuance of Croatian citizenship documents to the residents of the region, organising of elections and the establishment of a joint Council of Municipalities.

Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali stated in his report that while UNTAES was making progress, he believed its tasks might not be completed within the current mandated period.

The Agency said that the cut-off of emergency food, medicine and fuel supplies could exacerbate ethnic tensions in Burundi. "Unless key neighbouring countries allow emergency supplies to enter, then the situation is likely to worsen," said WFP Spokesman Trevor Rowe. "This will force WFP to find other more costly alternatives to delivering food," he added.

Currently, WFP estimates it had a one month stockpile of emergency supplies in Burundi for an estimated 300,000 people. A key problem, according to the Agency, was that once transport operations were shut down, it required a long time to restart them. "If the situation continues as is, then we'll probably have to begin seriously worrying in a .... couple of weeks because it will be more difficult to replenish existing stocks." said Rowe.

Meanwhile, WFP was also concerned over the denial by the Government of Kenya of the Organisation's right to fly its King Air passenger aircraft to Kenya from Burundi. The move was expected to make it more difficult for WFP personnel and cargo to transit in and out of Burundi.

In a related development, the UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) has despatched a mission to Burundi to examine the consequences of sanctions against that country, the Secretary-General's Spokesman Sylvana Foa announced today. The sanctions were imposed against Burundi following a Military coup in July.

The five-person DHA mission was scheduled to leave Bujumbura Tuesday, enroute to Nairobi aboard a World Food Programme (WFP) flight. However, according to the Spokesman, the flight was not permitted to land in Nairobi due to current sanctions against Burundi.

According to a report, an ESCAP sponsored study found that the Asian and the Pacific region needed to invest some US$1500 billion for infrastructure by the turn of the century to sustain the current growth.

In an attempt to encourage countries to focus on the lack of infrastructure, the Commission, in 1995, adopted the New Delhi Action Plan for Infrastructure Development for the next five years. The Plan, to be launched at the Ministerial Conference in October, looks to the private sector as an investor and key player in the massive task.

The reduction in personnel, from a force of 245 to 195, will be gradually achieved at the time of rotation of officers. Among other responsibilities, UNIKOM is mandated to monitor the border between Iraq and Kuwait and to ensure that no military activity occurred in the demilitarised zone.

From the United Nations home page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.org

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