United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-04-15

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, 15 April 1997

HEADLINES

• Speakers in the Security Council urge warring parties in Afghanistan to cease military activities and engage in political dialogue to form broad- based government.
• United Nations Secretary-General says the Special Commission on Iraq has undertaken extraordinary efforts to satisfactorily conclude the full accounting of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
• United Nations Secretary-General may soon appoint new Special Representative for Liberia.
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says it hopes to start the airlift of Rwandan refugees to Goma on Thursday.
• Permanent Observer for Palestine urges the international community to support a special emergency session of the General Assembly on the issue of the construction of settlements in East Jerusalem.
• Commission on Human Rights adopts measures relating to human rights matters in Somalia and Cambodia.

As the Council began an exchange of views on the situation in Afghanistan, representatives called for an end to international interference in Afghanistan and urged the parties to reject the idea of a military solution to the conflict.

Several speakers also expressed concern over the presence of international terrorists and the growth of the narcotics trade in Afghanistan, as well as the treatment of women in the territory under the control of the Taliban.

The Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai, said that Taliban soldiers, heavily reinforced from outside Afghanistan, were preparing a new offensive in northern Afghanistan. He called on the newly- elected Prime Minister of Pakistan to shift Pakistan towards the path of mutual respect and neighbourliness, since a "positive regional atmosphere" was important to the cessation of the current crisis.

Joining a number of speakers in expressing particular concern about the situation of women in Afghanistan, the representative of Chile urged that the human rights of women not be "sacrificed on the altar of peace". The Security Council should not endorse a peace settlement which consolidated condemnable practices against women, he said.

In a report to the Security Council on the activities of United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), the Secretary-General said the Special Commission had undertaken extraordinary efforts to bring to a satisfactory conclusion the full accounting of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles, in order to be able to make sure that all the proscribed items have been disposed of.

"During the period under review, Iraq has generally cooperated with visiting UNSCOM teams. A major exception has been Iraq's protracted refusal to permit the removal of missile remnants which the Commission, in the beginning of November 1996, had excavated for analysis abroad", the Secretary-General stated.

While the monitoring system continues to function, certain actions by Iraq in seeking to impede and limit inspection activities and endanger aerial operations call into question Iraq's long-term intentions and constitute a challenge to the system as a whole, he noted.

"The firm commitments made recently by the Deputy Prime Minister to maintain the monitoring system to the satisfaction of the Commission, IAEA and the Security Council, give rise to the hope that the deterioration will be reversed so that the system can again engender the required confidence to assure the international community that Iraq has not resumed prohibited weapons activities", Mr. Annan said.

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General is continuing his official visit to Italy. On Tuesday, Mr. Annan met with the heads of the World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), according to the Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Juan Carlos Brandt.

"It was an excellent opportunity for the Secretary-General to express his views on the need for better coordination among the agencies", the Spokesman said. Mr. Annan also met with His Holiness Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, exchanging views on the Middle East, the Great lakes region and the situation in the Balkans.

It was the intention of the Secretary to appoint Mr. Tuliameni Kalomoh, currently serving as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Namibia, to that post, the Spokesman said. Once appointed, the new Special Representative for Liberia would travel to Monrovia to take up his new assignment.

The airlift operation could start initially with an air bridge to Goma if the Alliance accepted it, the Spokesman said, adding that UNHCR was continuing to negotiate the possibility of using other areas.

The first group, would consist of some 80 unaccompanied children, he said. A transit centre for the departing refugees was being set up at Lula, seven kilometres outside Kisangani, he noted. On the possible threat of cholera, the Spokesman said the outbreak would not affect the airlift. Isolation centres had been set up and medicine sent to the area, he added.

The action of the occupying Power endangered the Arab-Israeli peace process and constituted a threat to international peace and security, he warned. The new settlement, Jabal Abu Ghneim, was designed to bring in 25,000 Israeli settlers and would isolate the Arab neighbourhoods and Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. the Observer said.

Speakers expressed support for an emergency Assembly session. Committee Chairman, Ibra Deguene Ka of Senegal proposed that the draft resolution to be considered by the emergency session contain an appeal by the Assembly to the signatories of the peace accords to "protect and save the peace process".

Among 25 other texts adopted by the Commission over the course of an extended meeting in Geneva were resolutions condemning terrorism, hostage- taking, torture, and violence against women. The resolutions also call for greater protection for the rights of detainees, efforts to end the practice of involuntary disappearances, and more vigorous support for freedom of expression and opinion.

In a resolution on assistance to Somalia in the field of human rights, the Commission called upon all parties to the conflict in the country to work towards a peaceful solution to the crisis. It urged them to respect human rights and international humanitarian law pertaining to internal armed conflict.

Several resolutions dealt with indigenous peoples. They included approval of the holding of a second workshop on the possible establishment within the United Nations system of a permanent forum for indigenous people.

On the question of human rights and terrorism, the Commission condemned all acts, methods and practices of terrorism, regardless of their motivation, in all forms and manifestations, wherever and by whomever committed, and called upon States and the international community to take all possible measures to combat terrorism.

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

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