United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-09-09

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, 9 September 1997

HEADLINES

• High Commissioner for Refugees appeals to Security Council to persuade Governments in Great Lakes region to reverse "crisis of protection".
• Joint UN/OAU Envoy in Great Lakes Region and Gabon's President convene summit to discuss crisis in Congo-Brazzaville.
• Iraq says it will provide information on biological weapons to UN special disarmament commission.
• UN Transition Mission in Haiti continues search operations following yesterday's ferry disaster.
• UNICEF reports severe malnutrition spreading among children in Sierra Leone.
• International Monetary Fund working to mitigate marginalization of poor countries in globalized economy.
• Governments meet in Montreal to strengthen protection of ozone layer.
• In rare moment of agreement, Disarmament Conference decides to transmit its report on just-concluded 1997 session to UN General Assembly.

High Commissioner Sadako Ogata briefed the Council this morning on recent events, recalling that last week, military forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo surrounded a transit centre in Kisangani and forced some 800 Rwandan and Burundi refugees to return to Rwanda. Mrs. Ogata told reporters that she had informed the Council that UNHCR would be obliged to suspend its operation with regard to Rwandan refugees in Congo under the current conditions. "The weight that the Council has in the international community is very, very heavy, and Council members would be in a position to persuade governments who are hosting refugees to allow the proper treatment of these people," she said.

Following the High Commissioner's briefing, Security Council President Bill Richardson of the United States reiterated the strong support of Council members for UNHCR's work. "We all agree that the work of the United Nations High Commissioner makes a vital contribution to the safety of the refugees as well as the prospect for a return to peace, social harmony and development in the region," he told members of the press.

Their actions follow on Monday's decision by President Pascal Lissouba to unilaterally appoint the Mayor of Brazzaville, Bernard Kolelas, as the country's new Prime Minister. A UN spokesman told reporters that the action was taken without consultation with the mediators or with former President Denis Sassou Nguesso.

Ambassador Sahnoun and President Bongo hope to convene the Friday summit with the participation of the heads of State of the International Mediation Committee, which includes Senegal, Mali, Benin, Chad, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon as Chair. Leaders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola are also being invited.

Following a series of high-level meetings during his recent trip to Iraq, Ambassador Butler reported progress on technical issues, including questions relating to the accounting of missiles and special warheads.

The Special Commission is expected to require several months to verify information it receives on Iraq's biological weapons.

Between 300 and 400 people are believed to have died when the ferry sank. Mr. Eckhard conveyed UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's condolences to the families of the victims and the Haitian Government.

UNICEF is alarmed at the lack of a clear and speedy exemption process for humanitarian supplies to the sanctions imposed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), according to the spokesman. "Unless a political situation is found, the nutritional status of the population, especially the children, is bound to deteriorate, and a rise in morbidity and mortality will become inevitable," he said.

UNICEF, along with several non-governmental organizations, is working in Sierra Leone to provide health kits, essential drugs and immunisation in accessible districts, as well as water, sanitation and makeshift schooling. It is also supporting therapeutic and supplementary feeding centres in the country's four largest towns. "Nevertheless, measles outbreaks with child deaths have been confirmed in three districts in the northern province," the spokesman said, noting that malnourished children who contract measles have only a 50 per cent chance of surviving.

The IMF report, which reflects the views of its Executive Board, states that globalization might adversely affect employment opportunities and wages in some segments of society in the short-run while the economy adjusts. But globalization has not been the principal force behind the unfavourable effects on employment and income distribution observed in some developed countries, according to the report.

Although standards of living have improved remarkably in most developing countries over the past 30 years, the Board expressed disappointment that per capita income levels there were not advancing toward advanced-economy levels. Per capita incomes in many developing country regions had actually been declining relative to those in advanced economies. Countries that had aligned their policies with the forces of globalization had fared well, but those that had not "were likely to experience declining shares of world trade and private capital flows, and to find themselves falling behind," the report states.

The IMF expressed concern about the problems faced by low-income countries struggling to avoid being marginalized in the increasingly globalized world economy. At a press briefing today in New York, IMF Chief Editor Ian S. MacDonald spoke of "the risk that in the trend towards globalization, the poorest countries could be left on the side," adding that, "the IMF is very conscious of this and this is an important focus of our management."

Initiatives taken by the Fund in response include continuing the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility -- which supports the Fund's poorest members -- beyond the year 2000, when its resources were expected to be fully committed. A joint initiative of the IMF and the World Bank to release the debt of the most heavily indebted poor countries is also under way. That initiative is designed to ensure that heavily indebted poor countries with a sound track record of economic adjustment can attain a sustainable debt situation over the medium term.

In addition to negotiating these matters, participants will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Protocol, which is monitored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Said UNEP Executive Director Elizabeth Dowdeswell, "The history of the Montreal Protocol is a cause for celebration, but we must not be complacent. Saving the ozone layer remains the responsibility of us all."

Under the Montreal Protocol, Governments have agreed to phase out the major chemicals that destroy ozone in the stratosphere. Because developed countries are responsible for the bulk of historical and current emissions and have a greater technological capacity to adapt, they have agreed to take the lead. Developing countries receive grace periods for phasing out chemicals and a pledge of financial and technical support.

The report's adoption followed months of debate about which subjects deserved the Conference's immediate attention. As in previous years, a number of members, including those in the Group of 21 non-aligned States, considered that priority should be given to the issue of nuclear disarmament. But other members, including countries in the Western Group, argued that emphasis should be placed on negotiations to ban anti- personnel landmines and the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons. With no agreement on these matters, the programme of work was never adopted.

The Conference was able, nonetheless, to appoint "special coordinators" to explore issues related to the establishment of a possible mandate on reconsideration of the agenda; improvement of the Conference's functioning; and the question of anti-personnel landmines.

According to the Special Coordinator on anti-personnel landmines, John Campbell of Australia, a majority of the members were in favour of, or at least not opposed to, appropriate work commencing in the Conference on anti- personnel landmines. While serious caution had been expressed by some delegations, he said, the mandate which enjoyed the widest support would have the Conference adopt a step-by-step approach to the elimination landmines beginning with work on exports, imports and transfers. He added that most delegations would prefer to decide on a specific mandate in early 1998.

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

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