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United Nations Daily Highlights 96-08-23United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSFriday, August 23, 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 said that it was unlikely that the identification process in Western Sahara would be resumed soon. In a progress report on the situation in Western Sahara, Dr. Boutros-Ghali said the current deadlock could be broken and progress achieved only when both parties - the Moroccan Government and the POLISARIO Front- recognised that identification was a scrupulous process based on clear principles. Appealing to the two parties to demonstrate flexibility and to cooperate with efforts to find a solution to their differences, the Secretary-General called on both sides to uphold the ceasefire as efforts continued to seek a solution to the current impasse. UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said he intended to provide the Security Council by mid-October with recommendations on an enhanced role for the United Nations to support the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Secretary- General's Spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said today. According to the Spokesman, the Secretary-General, in a progress report on Liberia said he intended to deploy an additional 24 military observers as well as a few more essential personnel in the fields of disarmament, elections, human rights, and administration to assist the UN Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL). "...He hopes the faction leaders will seize this opportunity to restore peace. If they don't, the international community may have no choice but to disengage itself from Liberia," the Spokesman said. Noting that the decision would be based on whether the factions demonstrate their full commitment to the peace process, Dr. Boutros-Ghali said that ECOWAS had renewed its commitment to remain in Liberia until a new government was installed on 15 June 1997 in accordance with the revised timetable. The Security Council has strongly reaffirmed its full support for the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) in the conduct of its inspections and other tasks entrusted to it by the Council. The Council's statement came on the eve of the planned visit to Baghdad by the Executive Chairman of the Special Commission. In a presidential statement read out by its President Ambassador Tono Eitel of Germany, the Council reiterated the importance it attached to full compliance by Iraq with its resolutions. "It underlines the important role of the Special Commission's inspection teams and demands, once again, that they be given immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to any and all areas, facilities, equipment, records and means of transportation which they wish to inspect, and Iraqi officials whom they wish to interview, so that the Special Commission may fully discharge its mandate," the Council said. He said the Security Council remained gravely concerned at the failure by Iraq to comply fully with its various resolutions. Reminding the Government of Iraq that only full compliance with its obligations under the relevant resolutions would enable the executive Chairman of the Special Commission to present his report in accordance with Section C of Resolution 687 (1991),the President said the Council would continue to consider how best to ensure Iraq's full compliance. The Conference on Disarmament has failed to reach consensus on whether to transmit the report of its negotiating committee on a nuclear test-ban to the UN General Assembly. The report reflects the inability of the international community to agree on a test-ban treaty, according to a UN Radio report from Geneva. It said that the five nuclear states - China, France, the United Kingdom, United States, and the Russian Federation were among countries expressing support for the draft treaty. India, however, rejected the draft because it said the draft contained no time table for the nuclear weapons States to get rid of their arsenals. Meanwhile, the President of the General Assembly has received a letter from the Permanent Representative of Australia to the UN, requesting that a meeting be held on 9 September to consider a text and to take action on a comprehensive nuclear test-ban treaty. According to the Secretary-General's Spokesman Ahmad Fawzi, the Assembly president was in the process of consultation with regional groups. The Secretary-General's Special Representative to Burundi Mr. Marc Faguy has called on all interested parties in the Burundian conflict to engage in discussions to address the major problems of the country including the restructuring of the armed forces, the reform of the police, efficient and impartial administration of justice and, education and medical services. In an interview with the UN Radio, the Special Representative said the UN wants everybody back on track on the reopening of a serious dialogue. He said all sections of the population, including the government and representatives of the international community, are feeling the effects of the economic embargo. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has said that contrary to media reports, it had no plans to suspend its operations in Burundi. The agency had eight international and 74 national staff members in Burundi and its programmes were continuing in health, water and sanitation, education, nutrition, psycho-social recovery and family tracing. Meanwhile, UNICEF said it was concerned that children were already being affected by the sanctions recently imposed on the country, and that the situation would deteriorate unless steps were taken to ensure their special protection. The agency said there was particular concern over fuel shortages which were hampering cross-border reunification programmes for 20,000 unaccompanied children and might paralyze immunisation activities. UNICEF, together with other UN-agencies and non-governmental organisations, was advocating for protected supply routes, or so-called humanitarian corridors, to allow the continued flow of food, fuel, vaccines, medical supplies and other items essential for the well-being of children. The World Food Programme's first consignments of food under its expanded emergency operation for North Korea had arrived in the flood stricken country and would soon be distributed to some 1.5 million people. A United States cargo ship, carrying 13,000 metric tons of American rice, corn meal and corn soya blend, arrived on Tuesday and was presently unloading in Nampo harbour. WFP had been coordinating the food relief effort in North Korea since floods first devastated the country in the summer of 1995. The statute of the proposed international criminal court should contain clearly defined penalties, speakers told the Preparatory Committee for the Establishment of the International Criminal Court on Thursday. Several delegates went on to say that if the statute was to be considered representative of all the legal systems of the world, it should include the death penalty. Citing the Islamic legal code of the sharia, the representative of Egypt said that the death penalty should be included as an option, perhaps with aggravating circumstances. Switzerland, referring to the principle of no penalty without law, called for a precise scale of penalties in the statute. Several delegations questioned the inclusion of fines as penalties, as provided for in the draft statute. The UN Development Programme was helping over 50,000 Angolan soldiers enter civilian life and find jobs through vocational and business skills training. UNDP and the UN office for Project Services were supporting this effort as part of the country's peace process. Of the more than 50,000 soldiers being assisted and trained, 30,000 were disabled and 3,000 are youths. UNDP was also working to prepare the country for the transition from humanitarian aid to assistance programmes that focus on reconstruction, rehabilitation and longer-term development. 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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