United Nations Daily Highlights, 96-12-12

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 12 December 1996

HEADLINES

• Abuse of government authority is not confined to countries in least developed world, UN Secretary-General says.
• Government of Guatemala and Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca sign agreement setting stage for national reconciliation.
• UNITA says it has quartered all soldiers and handed over armaments to UN Angola Verification Mission.
• There has been no improvement in financial position of United Nations, Senior UN official says.
• Administrative and Budgetary Committee of General Assembly takes action on financing of various peace-keeping missions.
• UN High Commissioner for Refugees mobilises emergency relief aid for some 100,000 Rwandan and Burundi refugees.

In an address to the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) Human Rights Day Conference, in New York, Thursday, Dr. Boutros-Ghali said even established democracies must be permanently on their guard against loss of liberties and the erosion of individual rights. "As human beings, we share a desire to live in peace, to enjoy basic freedoms, and to live our lives with dignity and free from government coercion and interference", he stated.

He said the United Nations had worked hard over the last fifty years to develop a comprehensive framework for the protection of human rights. "We have established precise international human rights standards," he said, adding that ways and means had been created to improve respect for human rights within Member States.

The Secretary-General said that the High Commissioner for Human Rights was developing ever closer links between the United Nations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). "Our partnership with civil society, and in particular the NGOs, is essential to the success of the United Nations human rights programme," Dr. Boutros-Ghali said.

The agreement was the last of the three accords which precede the signing of the final peace agreement together with the agreement on the timetable for the implementation and verification of the peace accords, scheduled for 29 December in Guatemala City.

The Spokesman said the Secretary-General has welcomed the signing of the agreement in the Guatemalan peace process, "which provides for members of the URNG to join the productive life of Guatemala as the basis for national reconciliation in the post-conflict period".

"They expect that these Police will be quartered within the next few days. UNITA also disclosed the existence of the members of the UNITA Presidents guard which needed to be given special consideration in connection with the special status of the UNITA President," the Spokesman said.

She said that as of Wednesday, the total number of UNITA soldiers quartered was 65,691 of whom 15,129 had deserted and 155 had died of various causes.

He said the unpaid assessments at the end of November were $700 million for the regular budget and over $1,700 million for peace-keeping budgets, adding that 97 Member States had made payment of regular budget assessments by the end of November compared to 72 member States in 1994.

Mr. Connor said the Organisation would still resort to borrowing from peace- keeping operations, adding that the continuing crisis diverts attention and would negatively impact on efforts for internal reform and renewal of the Secretariat.

For Member States that had paid up their dues to the missions, their respective shares in the balance would be applied against some of their assessments, the Committee noted. However, the respective shares of States that owed money to the missions would be used to reduce their arrears.

In another action, the Committee approved an oral decision to allow the General Assembly to appropriate an additional amount of $522,000 from the United Nations regular budget in 1997, should it adopt a draft resolution by which it would decide to convene a special session on international action to combat illicit drug abuse, production and trafficking in June 1998.

A seven-member mission would proceed to Shabunda from Kinshasha over the weekend to coordinate urgent relief for the refugees, the first major group to be located since hundreds of thousands dispersed in eastern Zaire last month.

Relief agencies, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), had already begun providing emergency assistance to the refugees in Shabunda town. The UNHCR team would look into the possibility of extending relief to the large concentrations of refugees outside the town. One major aim was to find ways of helping those who wish to return to Rwanda to do so.

"This is the first time we have located a significant number of refugees in the dense tropical forest of Zaire and we are doing everything we can to help them", High Commissioner Sadako Ogata said. However, she said the Shabunda operation would present major logistical challenges that would stretch the resources of humanitarian agencies.

Meanwhile, more than 300,000 Rwandan refugees in north-western Tanzania had fled the camps into nearby forests, moving south into a heavily forested area, according to the Secretary-General's Spokesman, Sylvana Foa.

The camps that were most affected were the Ngara area camps with 410,000 Rwandan refugees and Karagwe area camps with 124,000 refugees, the Spokesman said. She said about 15,000 refugees fled the camps over the weekend, adding that most of the refugees were seen to be heading towards Uganda, and that some 560 had reached Uganda.

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

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