United Nations Daily Highlights, 96-12-23

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Monday, 23 December 1996

HEADLINES

• Security Council extends mandate of UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus for another six months.
• General Assembly President views just concluded Assembly with sense of accomplishment for the work completed.
• Members of Security Council agree with Secretary-General's report calling for appointment of another special envoy for Great Lakes region.
• Secretary-General welcomes signing of water-sharing treaty between India and Bangladesh.
• Leading women scientists and technologists from Asia and the Pacific agree to use their expertise to help women living in poverty.
• UN Development Programme joins inter-agency appeal for nearly $50 million for Somalia.
• Former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide is to be awarded UNESCO's prize for Human Rights Education.

The Council in particular, deplored the unnecessary and disproportionate use of force by the Turkish/Turkish Cypriot side, as well as the largely passive role played by the Cypriot police in response to civilian demonstrations. The Council emphasized the responsibility of both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot parties to maintain law and order, and demanded that they prevent unauthorized incursions into the buffer zone. It called on the parties to accept as a package, without delay or preconditions, the reciprocal measures proposed by UNFICYP, among them, to extend the 1989 unmanning agreement to other areas where the two sides remain in close proximity to each other; to prohibit loaded weapons along the cease-fire lines; and to adopt a code of conduct, based on the concept of minimal force and proportional response, to be followed by troops on both sides along the cease-fire lines.

The Council further called upon the military authorities on both sides to clear all minefields and booby-trapped areas inside the buffer zone without further delay; to cease military construction in the immediate vicinity of the buffer zone and to refrain from any military exercises along the buffer zone.

He cited among the major accomplishments of the Assembly, the appointment of a new Secretary-General and the passing of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Nevertheless, Ambassador Razali says while the CTBT is extremely important, it is not the kind of CTBT that some members of the international community would have liked to see happen.

"It still very much keeps with the nuclear weapons States the monopoly of having those weapons and there are no clear steps that could taken later towards dismantling what they have or taking the political decision to give up the idea of having nuclear weapons. I don't think the world is any safer until and unless the people who have nuclear weapons clearly make the philosophical commitment to give up those weapons and until they do that there will be others who will try to be a nuclear weapon power also," the Assembly President said.

The members of the Council also agreed that in the light of the new situation in the region, the functions of the multi-national force will come to an end. "The general feeling is that in the next few months, the Council should take a more comprehensive and more integrated approach to the issue. Suggestions were made in increasing the involvement in the debate of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) and other humanitarian organizations. And, finally, the members of the Council shared the view that genocide cannot remain unpunished and expressed their strong support for the International Tribunal for Rwanda", the Council President said.

In the statement, Friday, the Secretary-General warmly welcomed the conclusion of the bilateral treaty in New Delhi on 12 December by which the Governments of India and Bangladesh agreed to the sharing of the Ganga/Ganges waters at the Farakka Barrage.

Dr. Boutros-Ghali paid tribute to the Prime Ministers of India and Bangladesh on their statesmanship, and the spirit of friendship and good neighbourliness that they have displayed in signing this important treaty. The Secretary-General expressed his sincere hope that the treaty will be implemented in the spirit in which it was concluded to the benefit of the peoples of the two countries.

The Director of the UN Development Programme (UNDP)'s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific said the next step will be to enlarge the group to cover more countries. The group is so far made up of women from China, Fiji, India, Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam.

UNDP's Resident Representative in Somalia said that the cost of operating in Somalia may be high, but he warned that the cost of abandoning emergency areas would be even higher. UNDP is supporting community-based development and rehabilitation programs in Somalia and is also helping build up local government bodies in the absence of a national government.

The $46 million would help strengthen and expand community development schemes now underway and retrain demobilized soldiers.

Mr. Aristide also created the Aristide Foundation for Democracy, which encourages the democratic participation of all sectors of Haitian society, including the poorest.

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

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