United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-05-12

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Monday, 12 May 1997

HEADLINES

• UN Secretary-General pays tribute to Japan's efforts to assist developing countries.
• UN Secretary-General expresses shock at the loss of life following an earthquake in Iran.
• UN human rights officials in Geneva deplore obstacles to investigative mission to eastern Zaire.
• First medical supplies under the oil-for-food programme begin arriving in Iraq.
• UNICEF calls for the creation of a court to prosecute crimes against children.
• Deployment of a multinational force in Albania reported to have a positive effect on security situation in the country.

Mr. Annan, who is in Japan on a three-day official visit, discussed the question of economic assistance to developing countries during his meeting with Foreign Minister Yukihiko Ikeda. Among other topics, the two leaders focused on United Nations and Security Council reforms, humanitarian assistance to the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, human rights, as well as the situation in Zaire and Afghanistan.

Earlier, Mr. Annan told the staff at the United Nations University that the Organisation must never be a distant bureaucracy, but must reach out in unison to explain its work and promote its objectives.

The Secretary-General's visit to Japan follows a three-day official visit to China. On Saturday, he told the Academy of Social Sciences and Institute of International Relations in Shanghai that China's political weight and economic dynamism gave it a unique opportunity to play a distinctive role in the shaping of the post cold-war political order. "In addition to China's political influence, her role as economic engine- house has engaged the interest of the world", Mr Annan stated.

The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has decided to launch an appeal for international assistance through the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Teheran and the UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA). DHA's situation room in Geneva is helping to coordinate the international response to the disaster.

Ralph Zacklin, who is currently in charge of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights/Centre for Human Rights in Geneva, said on Monday that he deplored the fact that obstacles created by ADFL had effectively prevented the Joint Investigative Mission into human rights violations in eastern Zaire from entering the area to carry out tasks set out in a mandate established by the Commission on Human Rights on 15 April.

Mr. Zacklin issued a statement following a meeting with members of the investigative mission who had just returned from Kigali, Rwanda, where they had spent a week awaiting final clearance from ADFL to begin work in eastern Zaire.

The three-member mission, along with a five-member team of forensic experts, left Kigali on Saturday when it became clear that the authorities in eastern Zaire would not allow them to enter the territory to do their job.

In a related development, members of the investigative mission told a press conference in Geneva on Monday that they had been shocked by the attitude of the Alliance that prevented the inquiry from going on.

Roberto Garreton of Chile, Special Rapporteur on Zaire, stressed that accepting the conditions of the Alliance would have meant altering the principles governing the work of bodies of the Commission of the Human Rights. Another member of the mission, Bacre Waly Ndiaya (Senegal), the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, said that the mission requested the Commission on Human Rights to continue to exert pressure for the inquiry to go ahead.

Despite all the obstacles, the mission is preparing a report to submit to the General Assembly by 30 July. The mission is prepared to return to eastern Zaire once there are assurances from ADFL of its full and unconditional cooperation, including security arrangements.

Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General Juan Carlos Brandt told a press briefing that some 100,000 bags of I-V solution would be tested and then distributed. He said that the arrival of the medical supplies was the beginning of an effort to alleviate the distressing situation in Iraq's health sector. More medical supplies were expected to be shipped to Iraq later this month.

Carol Bellamy, the Fund's Executive Director called for the establishment of an international criminal court and a permanent prosecutor's office so that atrocities committed against children in conflict cannot go unpunished.

In a statement following the conviction last week by the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia of a Bosnian Serb soldier on 11 counts of crimes against humanity, Ms. Bellamy said the conviction restored faith in the international legal system.

The call for action by UNICEF endorses the recommendation of a recent UN- sponsored report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children. That report, presented to the United Nations General Assembly in November 1996, warns that if perpetrators of war crimes go unpunished, it would lead to contempt for the law and renewed cycles of violence.

UNICEF Executive Director said that a permanent court for the prosecution of war crimes against children, would not only speed up the process, but would be a major step toward protecting children caught up in armed conflict.

"A permanent international criminal court, and a permanent prosecutor's office would mean that, for the first time, the world will have the capacity to bring to justice those responsible for the torture, the rape and murder of children," Ms. Bellamy said.

The report, which was submitted to the Security Council on Friday, states that the deployment of the multinational protection force in Albania has reached a level of just over six thousand units or 90 percent of the total envisaged.

Noting that commercial and industrial activities are resuming and schools are being reopened, the report states, however, that organised crime and racketeering are still continuing in areas where police control remains insufficient. There have been also instances of isolated clashes.

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

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