 |
Compact version |
|
 |
        |
|
 |
||
|
Thursday, 26 December 2024
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
|
United Nations Daily Highlights 96-09-27United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSFriday, September 27, 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
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Tarja Halonen has urged the UN and Governments to aspire toward full and equal enjoyment of human rights by all women everywhere. She also called for the full implementation of children's rights, adding that such action was the guarantee against sexual exploitation. Ms. Halonen called on the member States to ensure sustained and integrated follow-up of the UN Conferences so as to fully implement the agreed programmes of action. The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Bin Mohamad told the Assembly that freedom of press was touted as a basic democratic principle, but that the control of the media by a handful of Western corporations had made nonsense of that principle. He said the Western media, manipulated and censored by those in control, invariably managed to distort reports so as to put anything happening in the South in the worst possible light. "Anything positive in the developing countries was ignored", the prime Minister said. Outlining the skewed nature of the ownership of world media, the Prime Minister said the monopoly on the electronic media by the North should be broken, and that the abuse of the ubiquitous Internet system be stopped. The Assembly heard that Portugal would host an exhibition, with the theme, "The Oceans - A Heritage for the Future". The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal, Jaime Gama, told the Assembly that the exhibition, planned for 1998 would be held in Lisbon. He said the central focus would be the relationship between the current state of knowledge on marine resources and the urgency in ensuring, through a rational and scientific management process, a greater ecological equilibrium on the planet. Underlining his government's resolve to encourage sustainable development, the Minister of State of New Zealand, Sir Robin Gay said Australia, by next year, would have increased its Official Development Assistance (ODA) by almost one third, adding that there would be a 24% increase in their funding for UN development agencies this year. The Minister of Foreign Relations of Mexico, Angel Gurria told the Assembly that his country enthusiastically supported the work being done by the UN and its specialised agencies on economic and social issues, and in particular the adoption of an Agenda for Development. He expressed concern at the action being taken through the promulgation of legislative instruments in the field of trade, suggesting that "dialogue, inclusion in multilateral forums, trade. investment and exchange of information and persons have proven to be the best way of disseminating the values we all share". The Permanent Observer for Palestine at the UN, Farouk Kaddoumi has urged the Security Council to demand the end of Israeli provocation and closure of the tunnel in East Jerusalem. He said the Council should send a fact finding mission and take appropriate action. Addressing the Council on Friday, at a meeting convened to consider the situation in the Arab occupied territories, Mr. Kaddoumi said the Palestinian people had been the subject of a brutal assault by Israeli forces which had caused eighty-six deaths and more than one-thousand wounded. The actions, he said, appeared to be designed by the current Israeli Government as a warning to Arab countries. The meeting was in response to a 26 September letter to the Council President from the Permanent representative of Saudi Arabia and chairman of the Arab Group. In the letter, the Arab Group condemned the action taken by the Government of Israel in opening an entrance to the tunnel extending under the western wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem. The Group also condemned the shooting by Israeli Army forces of civilian Palestinian demonstrators. The Observer for Palestine said the Israeli Government had taken a number of provocative steps, including encouragement of Israeli settlement and the destruction of a Palestinian settlement in East Jerusalem. He said Israel, instead of withdrawing from Hebron and the other occupied territories, had chosen to use military force. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, David Levy, outlining his Government's position refuted "in their entirety the distortions of fact that were being spread at the UN regarding the recent events". He said no claims against Israel could justify the use of live weapons by those empowered by recent agreements to ensure law and order. He maintained that the new Israeli Government had been subjected to calls for the normalisation process to be halted, and to threats that the intifada would return if Israel did not commit in advance to an outcome of negotiations. Mr. Levy called on the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority to exert the authority vested in him and exercise a restraining influence. Urging the Council not to assist in attempts to isolate and impose unacceptable positions on the Government of Israel, Mr. Levy said the Council must not lend its hand to the atmosphere of escalation. Reiterating the Palestinian position, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, Amre Moussa, said the lack of commitment by Israel now threatened to set back the entire process, returning the region to a cycle of violence and forcing Arab governments to reconsider their role in the peace process. Noting that Egypt had aimed to close the file on the Arab-Israeli conflict, he said the alternative to peace was something that the international community could not bear. The Security Council will continue its deliberations on the situation in the occupied territories. UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali remains gravely concerned about the situation in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, including the clashes that took place today at El Harem al-Sharif, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General Sylvana Foa said today. The escalation of violence over the past three days, which has produced the highest number of Palestinian casualties since the territories were occupied in June of 1967, and the armed confrontation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces only served to undermine all that has been accomplished in the past three years since the declaration of principles was signed, the Spokesman added. The Secretary-General has renewed his call for maximum restraint by both sides and for a rapid resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), she said. UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has found particularly regretful that President Najibullah, who had sought sanctuary at the UN Mission in Afghanistan Compound in Kabul was abducted from there, which is a breach of the inviolability of UN premises, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General Sylvana Foa said today. He has deplored the terrible loss of life in the battle for Kabul. The Secretary-General has for a long time been personally engaged with the Rabbani Government in efforts to try and get them to allow President Najibullah to leave the country, the Spokesman indicated. The Government responded that this was a national problem and his fate was up to the Afghan people. Since the fall of Sarobi, the UN personnel had spoken to President Najibullah about an attempt to get permission of the Government to move him outside of the UN Mission in Afghanistan Compound, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General said. He repeatedly rejected those suggestions, and said he felt safer in the compound than being driven to another point in the city. According to the Spokesman, yesterday at 4:00 pm, the Government soldiers who were guarding the UN compound in Kabul fled. At 1:40 am, five armed man entered the compound and took President Najibullah by force, whereas his younger brother was taken a few hours later. The bodies of President Najibullah, who was shot in the head, and his brother were left in a park hanging, according to the Spokesman. UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has urged the Foreign Ministers of the Group of 77 at their 20th Annual Meeting to continue to pursue a common mission: the international development agenda. He said the challenge for the Group of 77, and for the United Nations, is to move forward vigorously toward the one great objective of development. Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali stated that the recently concluded cycle of United Nations world conferences have provided a pragmatic and comprehensive basis for dealing with the major development issues of our day. "Our task now -- indeed, our obligation -- is to ensure attention to the follow-up phase at the highest political levels", he pointed out. The Secretary-General said that, while embarking on the fifty-first session of the General Assembly, he saw four areas that call for special attention: South-South cooperation, whose potential is far from fully exploited; keeping Africa as a top priority; United Nations' relationships with the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization; and, the external debt and the developing countries' struggle to emerge from their debt burden. "Every country must define its own development agenda and goals. Yet, in an increasingly integrated global economy, no country can attain these goals in isolation. No country can escape the imperative of international cooperation", the Secretary-General said. The UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) is launching a consolidated inter-agency humanitarian appeal for Iraq in order to cover the period October through December 1996, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General Sylvana Foa said. DHA is appealing for $39.9 million to meet the most basic needs of the vulnerable population of Iraq for the next three months. DHA has said the assistance programme details the emergency requirements until such time as Security Council resolution 986 may be implemented, the Spokesman said. This programme was put together in response to a deterioration in the humanitarian situation throughout Iraq. The recent outbreak of hostilities in the North has resulted in the displacement of about 20,000 people and another 39,000 people have fled to Iran. Many of the displaced refugees returning to their homes need immediate assistance. Schools, hospitals, water and sanitation systems have been damaged or looted, and at present, the majority of the civilian population in Iraq are living below the poverty line. Family incomes are generally no more than a fraction of pre-1991 levels. Malnutrition is rampant while over 50% of children and women are receiving less than half their caloric needs. This year, the international donors have given only $12.5 million to the UN, and about $17 million to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other bilateral programmes in Iraq, the Spokesman pointed out. Opium production, which had been skyrocketing in Afghanistan, has levelled off for the first time in 18 years, according to a new United Nations report. Production went from about 200 metric tonnes per year before war broke out in 1978 to more than 2,200 tonnes in 1995, following a brief surge to 3,400 tonnes in 1994. One factor that may have contributed to the levelling off is a decline in the farmgate prices of opium due to saturated markets in West Asia, Western Europe and North America, according to the survey, Afghanistan Opium Poppy Survey 1996, conducted by the Vienna-based UN International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP). The report has noticed a sharp increase in opium cultivation in Oruzgan and Qandahar provinces as resulting from Taliban-imposed ban on the use, cultivation and trafficking of cannabis. The Talibans, who oppose all forms of intoxication, have refused to declare a ban on the cultivation of poppy in order to protect their support base. They control nearly 95 per cent of the area under opium poppy cultivation. Afghanistan has 55,000 to 58,000 hectares of opium poppy fields, with the provinces of Helmand and Nangarhar accounting for 73 per cent of the production. If the present level of opium production is to be brought down to pre-war levels, major efforts will be required on the part of the Afghan authorities, rural communities, and relevant bilateral and multilateral programmes active in the country, according to the UNDCP. 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 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
All Rights Reserved.