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United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-05-09United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSFriday, 9 May 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
A General Assembly ad hoc committee charged with the task of formulating proposals to reform the Security Council, completed another round of consultations today reporting gained momentum and "a consolidation of ideas". The body, which is officially known as the Open-Ended Working Group on the Question of Equitable Representation On and Increase In the Membership of the Security Council, focused on a broad range of issues related to the Council's size, composition and decision-making. Summing up the latest round of deliberations, the Group's Chairman, President of the General Assembly Ambassador Razali Ismail of Malaysia, said in a statement that the session had been marked by great interest to the stance of the Council's Permanent Members who were pressed by delegations for "specific responses to specific questions". Regarding the Council's size, Ambassador Razali noted that it was clear that the number of 20 or 21 in both permanent and non-permanent categories was not acceptable to the mainstream. He suggested that in the future the group should be able to converge around a figure of more that 21 and not beyond 26. Ambassador Razali also reported that expansion in both categories had been further endorsed by the mainstream, consolidating the right of developing countries to permanent membership. On the issue of decision- making, the veto came in for considerable scrutiny. The session had clearly demonstrated, stressed Ambassador Razali, that "many countries will not accept differences or discrimination between the P5 and the incoming permanent members. If there is no way in curtailing the veto or eliminating it, it is argued that the new permanent members must have the same rights". Looking ahead towards renewed deliberations of the Working Group in June, Ambassador Razali said today in an interview with UN Radio that there appeared to be broad acceptance of the need to move to another level of decision-making. At the end of the session, said Ambassador Razali, he had asked delegations if the time had come to proceed through a process of distillation to decide on the necessary elements of a comprehensive package that would find general agreement. "The majority of members answered in the affirmative the question I posed to them today", he noted. "I was surprised that so many countries came out in support of that". UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, on a third day of his official visit to China, arrived in the Chinese province of Xi'an on Friday, where he held meetings with the Provincial Governor and other local officials. They discussed United Nations programmes in the province. The Secretary- General is expected to arrive in Shanghai on Saturday where he will address the Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute of International Relations. Mr. Annan is scheduled to depart from China on Sunday. The three-member mission sent by the UN Human Rights Commission to investigate massacres and other human rights violations in eastern Zaire has expressed regret that the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo/Zaire (ADFL) has not allowed the mission to enter eastern Zaire. The Human Rights Joint Investigative Mission to Eastern Zaire which was established on 15 April 1997 by the Geneva-based United Nations Commission on Human Rights, has been in Kigali, Rwanda with its team of forensic experts for five days awaiting clearance from ADFL to begin its work. In a statement issued today, the mission called on the ADFL to fully and unconditionally cooperate with it to do its job which, it said, remained a priority issue for the international community. The mission accused the ADFL of being its own judge and jury, by proposing that a team of "national experts" should be involved in the investigations of human rights violations in eastern Zaire. The mission said it no longer had enough time to conduct sufficient investigations in Zaire in order to present a substantive report to the UN General Assembly by the end of June. "In these circumstances, the report we will now prepare for the General Assembly will reflect our efforts to date, the most recent evidence available for human rights violations in eastern Zaire and make recommendations for the remaining period of our mandate." The members of the mission expressed hope that the ADFL would reconsider its position and allow them to carry our their investigations in eastern Zaire in the coming months in order to present a comprehensive report to the Commission on Human Rights when it holds its next session in March- April 1998. The Special Representative of the United Nations/ Organization of African Unity to the Great Lakes region Ambassador Mohammed Sahnoun was in Geneva to discuss the situation in the region with officials of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs and the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He was expected to leave for South Africa over the weekend. In another development, nearly 1,800 refugees were airlifted back to Rwanda on Friday. UNHCR has secured an agreement with the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo/Zaire (ADFL) for a second train to run between Biaro and Kisangani to allow the movement of a total of 2000 refugees per day to the transit centre in Kisangani by train and the same number by truck. UNHCR said that access to refugees remained a problem for relief workers in eastern Zaire. It said it continued to receive reports of "killings and disappearances of refugees in many areas of Zaire." The number of military and civilian police personnel serving on United Nations peace-keeping operations has reached almost 24,000, according to the data released today at UN Headquarters in New York. A fact sheet prepared the UN Department of Public Information in consultation with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations indicates that as of 30 April, 23,874 military and civilian police personnel served on 17 UN peace-keeping operations around the world. 71 countries contributed staff to those missions. The total cost of running these peace-keeping operations between 1 July 1996 and 30 April was $1.3 billion. Since the beginning of UN peacekeeping operations in 1948, there have been 1,503 fatalities involving military, civilian, international and local personnel. The Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) has called for the establishment of two new technical committees on transport and on international trade issues. The call came during ESCWA's 19th ministerial session which was held in Beirut from 5 to 8 May. The proposed committees, comprising representatives of member States who are experts in transport and international trade issues, will formulate priorities for the Commission's work in those fields and would play a coordinating role in regional efforts. The session also called for strengthening the role of ESCWA as a key forum for coordinating the economic and social policies of member States. 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 |
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