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United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-08-06United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSWednesday, 6 August 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 on Wednesday authorized the United Nations Member States participating in the Inter-African Mission to Monitor the Implementation of the Bangui Agreements (MISAB) to ensure the security and freedom of movement of their personnel. The Council acted under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter which authorizes the use of force to enforce its decisions. The authorization is for an initial period of three months. Through its unanimous adoption of a resolution, the Council welcomed the efforts of the Member States participating in MISAB, as well as of those States which support them. The MISAB, an 800-man force, was deployed in Bangui on 8 February. It is aimed at helping to bring stability to the Central African Republic which is facing a crisis created by army rebellions which broke out last year. The Council approved the Mission's continued conduct of the operation in a neutral and impartial way. The Council's action was in response to a request from President Ange-Felix Patasse of the Central African Republic. Reiterating its condemnation of the 25 May coup in Sierra Leone, the Security Council on Wednesday called on the military junta in the country to take immediate steps to bring about the unconditional restoration of the democratically elected government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. In a Presidential statement read out by Council President, Ambassador John Weston of the United Kingdom, the Council said it considered the military junta's attempt to set conditions for the restoration of the democratically elected government as unacceptable. It called on the junta to renounce its declared intention to remain in power and to resume negotiations with the ECOWAS Committee of Four Foreign Ministers without delay. The Council said it would be ready, in the absence of a satisfactory response from the junta, to take appropriate measures with the objective of restoring the democratically elected government of President Kabbah. At the same time, the Council expressed its concern at the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Sierra Leone and the continued looting and commandeering of relief supplies of international agencies. It called on the military junta to cease all interference with the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the people of Sierra Leone. United Nations overseers on Wednesday submitted to the Iraq Sanctions Committee the new oil-pricing formula for Iraq, a UN spokesman said. UN Spokesman Fred Eckhard said the formula would govern the sale of Iraqi oil under the oil-for-food programme. Under the "no objection procedure" the Sanctions Committee, which was set up under Security Council resolution 661, has until 8 August at 11 a.m. to examine the formula and to raise any objections. Ukraine on Wednesday became the ninth country to sign a memorandum of understanding on the stand-by arrangements for peace-keeping operations. The arrangements are meant to fill the three-to-six month gap between authorization of a peace-keeping mission by the Security Council and full deployment by standard recruitment methods. By signing the stand-by arrangement at UN Headquarters in New York, Ukraine joined the ranks of Jordan, Denmark, Ghana, Malaysia, Austria, Italy, Singapore and Bolivia. Under the arrangements, Ukraine will place infantry, military observers, engineers and Headquarters staff on stand-by for the United Nations peace- keeping operations. A total of 66 countries have expressed their willingness to participate in the stand-by arrangement regime, which was established in 1994. In the wake of warnings of a severe drought earlier this week by a UN inter- agency group, the UN food agency on Wednesday said that the famine in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, (DPRK) was on the verge of becoming a catastrophe. A spokesman of the World Food Programme (WFP) told United Nations Radio that the famine in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea might be worse than the recent famine in Ethiopia and Somalia. An earlier assessment by an inter-agency team found that the country may lose over a third of the harvest due to drought. WFP Spokesman Trevor Rowe said in an interview that some 22 million people were dependent on the civilian rationing system, adding that the rationing system was now empty. The world steel market sees itself threatened by possible oversupply in the short term and overcapacity build-up in the medium term, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE). In a just released pre-publication version of its 45th annual review of the steel market, the Commission points to a large expansion of total new crude steel-making capacity in North America and Asia for the period 1995/1996 to 1999. The ECE review, "Steel Market in 1996 and Prospects for 1997", also notes that the world steel industry is worried about the massive overcapacity in Russia and Ukraine. The study predicts that the overcapacity situation in both countries will continue at least until the year 2000. 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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