United Nations Daily Highlights 96-08-12

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Monday, August 12, 1996

HEADLINES

• UN Secretary-General proposes the establishment of a human rights office in Abkhazia, Georgia.
• A motor-cycle demonstration in Cyprus turns violent, resulting in the death of a Greek-Cypriot demonstrator and the wounding of 12 UN personnel.
• The World Food Programme has welcomed the decision of the Government of Tanzania to allow humanitarian aid deliveries to reach Burundi.
• The Ukraine and the European Union express support for the draft Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.
• An agricultural research group says half the world's five billion acres of tropical forests are threatened by agriculture.
• The International Monetary Fund and the UN Development Programme have signed an agreement to strengthen collaboration towards economic growth in developing countries.

"In his report to the Security Council, the Secretary-General envisages that the High Commissioner for Human Rights would deploy one professional officer to Abkhazia on the understanding that the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) would also deploy one qualified person," the Spokesman noted.

The report sets out the modalities of the proposed human rights programme as well as options for its financing and notes that for reasons of efficiency and security, the proposed Human Rights Office would be located together with the UNOMIG office in Sukhumi, Georgia.

The Security Council earlier reaffirmed the necessity for the parties to the Georgian/Abkhaz conflict to strictly respect human rights and expressed its support for the Secretary-General's efforts to improve their observance as an integral part of their efforts to reach a comprehensive political settlement.

"The Government had persuaded the demonstrators to desist from the original plan to break through the cease-fire lines, en masse, however, the Cyprus Police acted slowly when groups of demonstrators breached the UN Buffer Zone in several places at the same time," the Spokesman said. She added that the Turkish Forces at the same time allowed Turkish- Cypriot civilians, armed with sticks and pipes to enter a military zone where access is normally restricted and to pass through into the UN Buffer Zone where they clashed with demonstrators.

Despite the efforts of the UN Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), to control the situation in the Buffer Zone, an estimated 70 civilians were injured on both sides and one Greek Cypriot demonstrator died as a result of injuries sustained. Twelve UN personnel were also wounded, the Spokesman said.

"We hope the same spirit of cooperation will prevail among the other countries of the region to ensure that humanitarian relief operations are not derailed as a result of sanctions," the Executive Director of the WFP, Catherine Bertini said. She praised the spirit of cooperation and respect for humanitarian aid demonstrated by the Government of Tanzania, and thanked former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere for his strenuous effort to ensure the passage of humanitarian relief.

It is estimated that some 300,000 people depended on WFP's relief efforts with over one month of food supplies remaining inside Burundi.

As the meeting raced to conclude a draft Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty in time for submission to the upcoming session of the General Assembly for signature, the representative of the Ukraine, Oleg Shamshur, informed the Conference of his Government's decision to endorse the draft treaty. He said the draft represented a sound compromise, but expressed regret at the fact that some relevant proposals were missing from the draft treaty.

Speaking on behalf of the European Union, the representative of Ireland, Anne Anderson, announced the Union's backing of the draft treaty. The European Union, according to Anderson, felt a spirit of compromise must prevail although its members were not fully satisfied with the treatment of some key issues in the draft treaty.

The representative of India, Arundhati Ghose said article 14 of the draft treaty sought to force India to sign on. That provision, she noted, created obligations for the country without its consent, which was contrary to international law.

Meanwhile, the group of 21 non-aligned countries submitted a "programme of action for the elimination of nuclear weapons". Introducing the document, the representative of Egypt, the Group's Coordinator, said the programme contained concrete proposals for measures to be carried out by the proposed ad hoc committee on nuclear disarmament in three phases.

The Group stated that half the world's five billion acres of tropical forests were threatened by agriculture, and mostly by poor farmers in the developing world who were forced to slash-and-burn a patch of forest to grow crops, and then move on to clear another patch once the soil was depleted. "There is no magic bullet to saving the world's tropical forests, " said Ismail Serageldin, CGIAR's chairman. "What is needed is a comprehensive effort to attack the root causes of deforestation -- poverty, rising population, bad natural resource management and distorted forest policies," Mr. Serageldin noted.

Under this new initiative, UNDP and the IMF would work together to help developing countries devise and put in place macro-economic policies that achieve both economic growth and people-centred development. Special emphasis would be placed on post-crisis and near-crisis countries, as well as countries engaged in market-oriented reforms and transition.

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

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