United Nations Daily Highlights 96-09-27

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, September 27, 1996

HEADLINES

• Finland urges the UN and Governments to aspire toward full and equal enjoyment of human rights by women everywhere; General Assembly continue debate on wide range of issues.
• Security Council discusses the situation in the occupied Arab territories.
• UN Secretary-General remains concerned about situation in the occupied territories; calls for maximum restraint by both Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
• UN Secretary-General regrets abduction of President Najibullah from UN sanctuary and loss of life in battle for Kabul.
• UN Secretary-General urges Foreign Ministers of Group of 77 to continue pursuing international development agenda.
• UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs launches $39.9 million inter-agency humanitarian appeal to meet basic needs of Iraqi population.
• Opium poppy production in Afghanistan high but stabilised, new UN survey finds.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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