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United Nations Daily Highlights, 96-12-02United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSMonday, 2 December 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 stated that the humanitarian situation in the Great Lakes region was undergoing dramatic changes and was likely to continue to evolve rapidly in the coming weeks. In his report to the Security Council on the implementation of Council resolution 1078, he noted that a practical way to avoid a humanitarian disaster is the establishment of some form of military presence in the region. In his report, which provides for the establishment of a humanitarian task force, Dr. Boutros-Ghali expressed concern that hundreds of thousands of refugees, together with internally displaced persons were still scattered in eastern Zaire without access to help from the international community. He stated that neither the United Nations nor the non-governmental organisation (NGO) community had the capacity in such conditions to secure access to the refugees and displaced persons and to deliver to them the relief they needed with the necessary speed. The Secretary-General said that it might be necessary for the United Nations to increase its presence in the subregion in order to assist Governments in that region to resolve the complex problems that were threatening internal cohesion. He pointed out in the report that his Special Envoy, Ambassador Chretien, had been asked to address this question and to make recommendations regarding the role of the United Nations in the subregion and the nature and structure of its future presence there. "The present situation in eastern Zaire, in all its complexity, may offer the international community a unique opportunity to address the roots of the problem that led to the establishment and perpetuation of the refugee camps there," Dr. Boutros-Ghali said. UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has released his report on the situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security. He stated that the immediate focus of the efforts of the UN Special Mission to Afghanistan is the negotiation of a ceasefire. This should be accompanied or followed by the demilitarisation of Kabul and the establishment of a neutral force to police the city while political dialogue continues, with the assistance of the Mission if the parties so wish, on the creation of a fully representative and broad- based mechanism for national reconciliation, he added. In the report, Dr. Boutros-Ghali proposed an increase in the Mission's military advisers from the current two to five, and the assignment of two civilian police advisers. He added that he had already taken the necessary steps to strengthen the Mission by appointing four additional political affairs officers. "In cooperation with the United Nations agencies and programmes operating in Afghanistan, the Special Mission will continue to raise with the relevant authorities issues of equal treatment, the observance of human rights, and the unhindered provision of humanitarian assistance to the needy," he noted. The government of Sierra Leone and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) on 30 November signed a Peace Agreement, under which the two sides declared the armed conflict in Sierra Leone to have ended with immediate effect. The Agreement was signed in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, by Sierra Leonean President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and the RUF leader, Corporal Foday Saybana Sankoh. Commenting on the agreement, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali expressed the hope that the conclusion of the peace agreement will usher in an era of peace, security and reconciliation, essential for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the country. He also commended the parties for their dedication and commitment to the peace process and urged them to implement the provisions of the accord in good faith. The Head of the Political Department of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Farouk Kaddoumi told the General Assembly as it began discussing the question of Palestine that the policies of the new Israeli government had caused the Middle East peace process to falter. He added that the mood of optimism which had followed the 1991 Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid had been replaced by skepticism. This had led some Arab nations to interrupt the process of normalising relations with Israel. The PLO official said the new Israeli Government, with its policy of expanded settlements ignored the principle of land for peace which was the cornerstone of the peace process. Also addressing the Assembly, the representative of Israel, David Peleg said the Government and people of Israel were committed to the peace process with the Palestinians and to the implementation of agreements signed by both sides. Mr. Peleg noted that, when the current negotiations on the implementation of the Interim Self-Government Agreement had been successfully concluded, direct negotiations would begin on all aspects of a permanent status, including the issue of the settlements. He urged the Assembly to refrain from adopting resolutions on those issues, which tended to predetermine the results of the negotiations before they were concluded. The discovery that biological-weapons programmes had been carried out by Iraq and the former Soviet Union was a sobering warning that the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (Biological Weapons Convention) must be strengthened, representatives of several countries said before the Convention's Fourth Review Conference. The representative of Iraq, Wagde Abbas said his country had cooperated fully with the United Nations inspection teams and had destroyed all its weapons in the biological field. He also called for any attempt to strengthen the Convention to be based on accurate assessment and to avoid "double standards," and said that any on-site inspectors should be committed to "rational behaviour" and should avoid resorting to "provocative methods." Several speakers said that measures to prevent development and use of biological weapons had to be balanced somehow with the need not to interfere with advancing research in biotechnology and with the transfer of knowledge and technology to developing countries. Earlier, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) called for a vigorous verification regime and increased vigilance over negative uses that can be made out of rapid scientific advances in biotechnology fields. The General Assembly would pave the way for a convention to establish an international criminal court, and take steps to suppress international terrorism, under the terms of two draft resolutions approved without a vote, as the Sixth Committee (Legal) concluded its work for the current session. With respect to the criminal court, the Assembly would set the dates for forthcoming meetings of the Preparatory Committee, so it might complete a draft convention for submission to a diplomatic conference of plenipotentiaries. Under a second text, the Assembly would call on all States to adopt specified measures to prevent terrorism and strengthen international cooperation against it. The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) concluded its current session by approving an orally revised programme of work for the 1997-1998 biennium. The Committee's agenda for its next session will include, among others, items such as social development; crime prevention and criminal justice; international drug control; advancement for women; report of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); promotion and protection of the rights of the children; programme of activities of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People; and, elimination of racism and racial discrimination. Senior government officials will be meeting from 2 to 6 December, at the headquarters of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss the Programme for the Periodic Review and Development of Environmental Law for the 1990s (Montevideo Programme II). The meeting will bring together officials, who are experts in environmental law, from 70 governments. Since the adoption of the Programme, UNEP has given high priority to the further development of environmental law aiming at sustainable development. In that context, further ways and means of increasing compliance with international environmental agreements have been explored. The World Intellectual Property Organisation has begun a Diplomatic Conference in Geneva which is aimed at adopting three new multilateral treaties. The Conference will also look at intellectual property in regard to databases and the ethical implications in the use of the Internet. Delegates from 160 Member States and representatives of more than 150 intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) will examine ways to update international copyright norms, with special emphasis on protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Protection of the Rights of Performers and Producers of Phonograms, according to a UN Radio report from Geneva. 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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