United Nations Daily Highlights, 96-11-18

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Monday, 18 November 1996

HEADLINES

• UN Secretary-General launches inter-agency flash appeal for Great Lakes region.
• Security Council authorises establishment of temporary multinational force in eastern Zaire.
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says it has mobilised staff and resources to meet needs of Rwandan refugees.
• Disarmament and International Security Committee asks General Assembly to call on States to prevent violent disintegration of States.
• Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee approves texts on refugees, use of mercenaries, trafficking in women and smuggling of aliens.
• Special Rapporteurs present country reports on Human Rights to Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee.
• All-male composition of International Law Commission should be rectified, Legal Committee is told.
• Yugoslav Sanctions Committee presents final report to Security Council.

The appeal was an emergency interim measure that would respond in a flexible and well-coordinated manner to the most pressing needs of the target population, and would cover a three-month period, from 1 November to 31 January 1997.

The assistance sought from the international community would be used to supply emergency food aid and to address nutritional requirements, as well as to provide for clean water and sanitation, health services, shelter and other non-food needs.

In a statement at the launching of the appeal, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said he had received graphic reports of massacres, mass starvation, women forced to abandon their children, and of refugees uprooting trees to such the moisture from the roots in a desperate struggle to survive.

"The situation in eastern Zaire is extremely volatile. Some hope has been sparked in the last few days by the return of almost 400,000 refugees from the Goma area to Rwanda. Another 100,000 persons from the Bukavu region are also reported to be moving towards and hopefully on to Rwanda," the Secretary-General said.

Unanimously adopting resolution 1080 (1996), the Council welcomed the offers by Member States, in consultation with the States concerned in the region. It decided that the operation should terminate on 31 March 1997.

The Council decided that the cost of implementing the force should be borne by participating Member States and by voluntary contributions, and welcomed the establishment of a trust fund with the purpose of supporting African participation in the multinational force. It also expressed the intention of authorising the establishment of a follow-on operation to succeed the multinational force.

Addressing the Council, the representative of Canada said that 20 countries had already committed more than 10,000 peace-keepers to the multinational force, with the main body coming from France, United Kingdom, United States and Canada.

He called for more contributions to the trust fund to support the participation of African countries in the operation. The mission did not envisage disarmament or interposition as elements of the force mandate, he stated, adding that its primary mission would be the delivery of humanitarian aid.

High Commissioner Sadako Ogata said she was elated with the news of the repatriation. "It is difficult to express what I feel seeing all these refugees heading home. We have been planning and waiting for this to happen for two years," she said.

By nightfall on Saturday, some 200,000 Rwandan refugees had returned to Rwanda since they began flooding in the Rwandan border town of Gisenyi at mid-morning Friday from the Mugunga and Lac Vert camps about 25 kilometres west of Goma. Field officers said the rate of arrivals Saturday was 12,000 per hour.

According to the text, the Assembly would stress the importance of good neighbourliness and friendly relations among States, affirm the need for strict compliance with the principle of the inviolability of international borders and affirm the need for strict compliance with the principle of the territorial integrity of any State.

By another draft, the Assembly would note the decision of the States parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) to hold in April 1997 the first meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the NPT Review Conference, which is to be held in the year 2000.

The Secretary-General, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), States, and regional and non-governmental organisations would all be asked to increase their capacity to deliver humanitarian emergency relief foe refugees and displaced persons. The international donor community would be asked to assist in the rehabilitation of the environment and infrastructure in countries of asylum affected by refugees.

The Committee also approved a draft resolution on the use of mercenaries to violate human rights and impede the right of peoples to self-determination. According to terms of the text, the Assembly would urge all States to enact legislative measures to ensure their territories were not used for mercenary activities.

In another action, the Assembly would call on Governments to criminalise trafficking in women and girls. The Assembly would also condemn and penalise all offenders involved, including intermediaries, while ensuring that the victims were not penalised.

He said a coherent system of justice should be established, in accordance with international human rights and norms and the rule of international law. The Special Rapporteur cited reports of extra-judicial executions by members of the Taliban movement, as in the case of the assassination of former President Najibullah.

Events of the last weeks in the Great Lakes region of Africa had confirmed the seriousness of preventing another human catastrophe, according to the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Burundi, Sergio Pinheiro.

He said economic sanctions against the country should not be lifted until the authorities pursued efforts for a cease-fire between the parties and human rights violations had been investigated. The moral conscience of all mankind was being challenged by the suffering of many people in the region.

Rajsoomer Lallah, the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said various laws in the country criminalised the exercise of basic human rights. Where they did not, executive orders greatly restricted those rights. He said allegations of people arrested and detained for the peaceful exercise of their basic human rights derived substance from the very existence and nature of the restrictive laws.

The Commission should also work on laws relating to environmental protection and the peaceful uses of outer space, he said. The representative of Israel drew attention to the procedure for determining membership in the Commission, which was based on membership in a regional group. The right of every State to nominate a candidate was denied if it did not belong to such a group, a situation which applied to his own country, he said.

The Chairman of the Committee Ambassador Juan Somavia of Chile said that the Committee recognised the crucial role played by the countries neighbouring the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. "Most of these countries had submitted applications under Article 50 of the United Nations Charter with respect to the special economic problems encountered by them as a result of their carrying out the mandatory measures," he said.

He noted that, overall, the level of compliance by States with the comprehensive mandatory measures was good. "However, in the case of the arms embargo, the Committee feels that consideration may have to be given to ways and means of promoting the effectiveness of arms embargo", he said.

Ambassador Somavia said the report contained a number of recommendations that might be of help to the Council in refining the instrument of sanctions with a view to increasing its effectiveness as a peaceful means of conflict management and preventive action and minimising its collateral humanitarian effects.

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

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