 |
Compact version |
|
 |
        |
|
 |
||
|
Sunday, 24 November 2024
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
|
United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-03-19United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSWednesday, 19 March 1997This 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
The Security Council has expressed disappointment at the lack of progress on the implementation of the Plan for the settlement of the question of Western Sahara. In a Presidential statement released on Wednesday, the Council President, Ambassador Zbigniew Wilosowicz of Poland said the Council concurred with the United Nations Secretary-General's assessment that it was essential to maintain the cease-fire, a breach of which could seriously threaten regional stability. "It believes that the presence of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) has been essential in helping the parties to maintain their commitment to the cease- fire," Ambassador Wilosowicz said. He stated that the Council was looking forward to receiving the Secretary-Generals assessment of the future tasks and configuration of MINURSO. In another action, the Security Council on Wednesday said it remained deeply concerned that, although the Government of Croatia maintained that it had deployed the necessary number of police officers, Croatian Serbs continued to live in conditions of serious insecurity throughout the areas which had been designated United Nations Protected Areas (UNPAs). The Council called upon the Government of Croatia to take further steps to restore a climate of law and order in those areas. "The Security Council expresses its concern that there continued to be little progress with regard to the return of Croatian Serb displaced persons and refugees to the area", the President said. He said the Council called on the Government of Croatia to accelerate its efforts to improve conditions of personal and economic security, to remove bureaucratic obstacles to the rapid issue of documentation to all Serb families and to resolve promptly the property issue. "The Council calls upon the Government of Croatia to remove uncertainty about the implementation of its amnesty law, in particular by finalising without delay the list of war crime suspects on the basis of existing evidence and in strict accordance with international law, and to put an end to arbitrary arrests, particularly of Serbs returning to Croatia," Ambassador Wilosowicz said. The Council was concerned that the Government of Croatia continued to withhold its full cooperation with the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, he said. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday arrived in South Africa on his first official visit since taking office. In his remarks following arrival in the country, Mr. Annan commended South Africa for the way it resolved its problems. "It reminds me of the great African capacity for forgiveness, for reconciliation", he noted. "Even though we have difficult crises in the Great Lakes region, in Eastern Zaire, I hope the kind of experience, the kind of spirit, that made it possible to bring South Africa to where it is today would also prevail in our discussions with other Governments and the other peoples of the continent as we move ahead to discuss their crisis", Mr. Annan said. The Secretary-General will also visit Namibia, Angola and will attend the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Central Organ for Conflict Resolution Summit in Lome, Togo. The United Nations on Tuesday appealed for $324.5 million to meet the emergency humanitarian needs of over 1.4 million refugees, internally displaced persons and returnees affected by the ongoing emergency in the Great Lakes region. The United Nations Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for the Great Lakes Emergency, prepared by the United Nations agencies and non-governmental organisations operating in the region, covers the period January to December 1997. Programmes and activities within the Appeal will address emergency humanitarian needs for 460,000 internally displaced people and refugees in Zaire, 615,000 internally displaced people and refugees in Burundi, 326,000 in the United Republic of Tanzania, 33,000 in Uganda and Zambia. The World Health Organisation (WHO) Wednesday announced a breakthrough in the control of tuberculosis which will make it possible to save millions of lives and dramatically reduce the threat of multidrug-resistant strains in the next decade. The new form of treatment, Directly Observed Treatment Short- course (DOTS) is causing the global TB epidemic to level off for the first time in decades, according to WHO. It said a global assessment has revealed that use of the DOTS strategy has virtually stopped the epidemic's upward surge. "Computer projections of the future impact of wide scale use of DOTS show that it can quickly cut the current annual number of TB cases in half during the next decade, WHO said. "DOTS is the biggest health breakthrough of this decade, in terms of lives we will be able to save", according to Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, Director- General of the WHO. He said the Organisation anticipated that at least 10 million deaths from tuberculosis would be prevented in the next ten years with the introduction and extensive use of the DOTS strategy. The new strategy combines a powerful multidrug therapy with a new state-of- the-art health management system to make it nearly a certainty that every TB patient treated will be cured, WHO said. The Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People has deplored the beginning of construction of a new settlement at Jabal Abu Ghneim, east Jerusalem, despite the overwhelming opposition of the international community as expressed in a resolution adopted by the General Assembly last week. In a statement Tuesday, the Bureau expressed its "most serious concern at the negative implications that this decision may have for the future of the peace process". It called for an end to the policies of military occupation, land confiscation and settlement, and for the resumption of negotiations based on the agreements already reached. The United Nations World Food (WFP) Programme plans to increase its emergency assistance to North Korea, where critical food shortages caused by two years of heavy flooding have brought the country to the brink of a major humanitarian disaster, according to WFP Executive Director, Catherine Bertini. Ms. Bertini on Tuesday returned from a three-day visit to the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. She said the WFP plans to expand its current emergency program to feed all children under the age of six in North Korea through supplementary feeding at nurseries and kindergartens. "The food situation in North Korea is clearly getting worse and it is the children who are most at risk," Ms. Bertini said. "While there, I saw young boys in a nursery who were almost skeletal and who were clearly malnourished. Helping them is now a matter of urgency," she stated. The Attorney-General of Kenya, S. Amos Wako, has been elected President of the Assembly of the International Seabed Authority for its 1997 session, currently meeting in Kingston, Jamaica. Mr. Wako, appointed as his country's Attorney-General in 1991, has held several United Nations posts. From 1982 to 1992, he was Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on Summary or Arbitrary Executions, and in 1993, he was Chairman of the United Nations Panel of Inquiry appointed by the Secretary-General at the request of the Security Council to inquire into the Harbel massacre in Liberia. 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 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
All Rights Reserved.