United Nations Daily Highlights, 96-12-11

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Wednesday, 11 December 1996

HEADLINES

• Security Council extends mandate of United Nations Angola Verification Mission until 28 February 1997.
• Situation of children in many parts of world remains critical, UN Secretary-General says.
• UN Secretary-General expresses concern about excessive levels of military forces and armaments in Cyprus.
• General Assembly hears of urgent need to support work of International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
• United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights says he is deeply disturbed by deteriorating human rights situation in Burundi.
• Director-General of UN Industrial Development Organisation expresses shock and distress at British Government's stated intention to withdraw from that Organisation.

Unanimously adopting resolution 1087 (1996) on Wednesday, the Council authorised the Secretary-General to commence the gradual and progressive withdrawal of UNAVEM III formed military units from individual quartering areas before February 1997. It said such withdrawal should not put at risk the successful completion of the peace process.

The Council reminded the Government of Angola and the Uniao Nacional para a Independencia Total de Angola (UNITA) to uphold strictly, without delay, their obligations under the Lusaka Protocol and commitments they entered into in Libreville and Franceville.

It urged the international community to fulfil its pledges to provide assistance to facilitate the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Angolan national economy and the resettlement of displaced persons.

The Council called on both parties to move rapidly on the political steps towards national reconciliation, including the assumption by UNITA deputies and officials of their posts, followed by establishment of a Government of National Unity and Reconciliation before 31 December 1996.

He said leaders were beginning to understand that the GNP was just one measure of growth. "Nations that nurture, protect and invest in their children's potential, are the nations that will tend to thrive", he said.

The President of the General Assembly, Ambassador Razali Ismail of Malaysia said the protection and welfare of children, all over the world, beyond politics and selectivity must be the continuing purpose of UNICEF.

He said although UNICEF had done well in identifying and mobilising resources, serious questions arose as to how to resolve the question of different institutions competing for contracting resources, in a world of depleting resources and the drying up of humanitarian impulses.

The Assembly President said the international community should be honest enough to recognise that poverty and the absence of development, in the context of an unjust world placed millions of children anguished, maimed and orphaned in poor countries.

In his report to the Security Council on the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), the Secretary-General said there was an urgent need for leaders on both sides to make a serious effort to reverse the negative trend of recent months and to lead their communities in a more positive direction. "In word and deed, efforts must be made to build trust and goodwill between the two sides", he said.

Noting that in the prevailing circumstances the UNFICYP presence on the island remained indispensable if the objectives set out by the Security Council were to be achieved, the Secretary-General recommended that the Council extend the mandate of UNFICYP for a further period of six months until 30 June 1997.

The President of the Tribunal, Laity Kama said that while the Tribunal had enjoyed support and encouragement from a number of States, it was regrettable that no African State had adapted its national legislation in order to contribute to its work.

Noting that the Tribunal had not enjoyed the support it expected from the international community, he stressed that if there were no indictments, no justice could be said to have been served.

The representative of Rwanda, Pierre-Emmanuel Ubalijoro, told the Assembly that while the former Rwandan leadership and its militias had butchered more than a million Rwandans, reports of systemic rape as a tactic of war received little attention. He said a survey by Rwanda's Ministry of Family and Women's Affairs estimated that more than 15,700 girls and women between the ages of 12 and 65 were raped.

"In view of this situation, there is an increasingly urgent need to strengthen the human rights monitoring operation in Burundi and I renew my appeal to the international community to support the work of my Office in Burundi," he said.

He said there was a major contradiction in the arguments put forward by the UK Government, stressing that UNIDO had gone through a fundamental and far- reaching reform process that had been broadly acknowledged worldwide and by the UK Government itself.

"Hitting out at the one organisation that did most in terms of reform is a powerful disincentive to reform. We did our job and took the lead in the UN system. The broader UN reform is not within the realm of UNIDO", the Director-General said.

Mr. Maria y Campos appealed to the UK Government not to abandon the developing world at this crucial point in their development. The benefits of globalisation, he said, must be shared with all nations, rich or poor.

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

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