United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-10-22

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Wednesday, 22 October 1997

HEADLINES

• UN Secretary-General pledges accountability and calls for financial support in speech on his reduced budget.
• UN Secretary-General, saying conflict in Brazzaville threatens regional peace, stands ready to help if asked.
• UN Secretary-General says situation in Sierra Leone remains serious as the junta continues to prevaricate.
• President of Mozambique calls on the United Nations to recommit itself to consolidating peace in his country.
• Drug-resistant tuberculosis is spreading globally, UN health agency reports.
• UNAIDS review of 68 reports shows sexual health education promotes safer - - not increased -- sexual activity.
• UN refugee agency plans to start repatriating last group of Tajik refugees in Afghanistan.
• In UN's humanitarian committee, views differ on how to combat violence against female migrant workers.
• Executive Director of UNICEF says the well-being of children must be at centre of efforts to combat poverty.
• UN Food and Agriculture Organization says Mongolia is facing a serious food deficit and needs emergency aid.
• Photographic exhibit portraying UN's efforts to achieve nuclear disarmament opens at UN Headquarters.

The Secretary-General's budget -- his first since assuming office in January -- amounts to $2,583 million, representing a reduction of $20.3 million over the current period. The proposed budget also foresees a net reduction of 1,182 posts.

"Member States, for their part, must deliver on their own obligation to provide continuous, predictable and assured political and financial support", the Secretary-General told the Administrative and Budgetary (Fifth) Committee. He cautioned that implementation of the proposed budget as well as his reform plan would not be possible unless the Organization's financial footing was restored. "The United Nations must have the resources it needs to fufil its potential", he noted.

In a report submitted to the Security Council on Wednesday, the Secretary- General says that in the event that the United Nations is requested to provide assistance to help ensure the safety and security of humanitarian operations, he is prepared to draw up plans for a suitable United Nations presence.

The Secretary-General will also initiate preparations for assisting in a programme of national reconciliation, leading to the holding of free and fair elections with the participation of all parties. The Special Representative of the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity in the Great Lakes Region, Ambassador Mohamed Sahnoun, is exploring ways of promoting those objectives, according to the report.

The Secretary-General says he intends to provide the Security Council with a more detailed assessment of what needs to be done for emergency humanitarian relief, electoral assistance, and a possible rehabilitation and construction programme.

In his latest report, submitted to the Security Council on Wednesday, the Secretary-General says that the attitude of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) towards the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) "continued to be marked by prevarication and a seeming insistence on holding on to power".

The Secretary-General points out that there have been clashes between AFRC troops and forces of the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) in Freetown, and around Jui where ECOMOG troops were attacked by the AFRC. There were also reports that on 15 October, ECOMOG planes dropped bombs near Freetown that did not explode.

According to the Secretary-General's report, some 1,200 Sierra Leonean troops, including the Kenema Brigade Commander, are reported to have defected to ECOMOG. There were also reports of fighting between the AFRC and Kamajors in the diamond-rich Tongo Fields, and between the AFRC troops and Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fighters over resources.

Mr. Annan says that looting by armed men in uniform continues, and that equipment and vehicles were stolen from the offices of CARE and Cause Canada. These armed men and youth gangs mobilized by the AFRC also looted or set on fire homes of prominent individuals in Sierra Leone, including President Tejan Kabbah.

The Secretary-General points out that civilian life continues to be seriously disrupted. The general work stoppage is continuing, and despite the call by the AFRC for the start of the school year, teachers have continued with their strike and parents are reluctant to send their children to school because of the security situation. Members of the Sierra Leonean Journalists Association have refused to re-register as demanded by the AFRC.

The Secretary-General says that the serious humanitarian situation in the country poses a dilemma for the international community because of the lack of security and safety.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, President Joaquim Alberto Chissano said that the United Nations and the international community at large had invested a great deal to ensure a lasting peace and stability in Mozambique. "Your effective work has helped in putting an end to the suffering of our people in a complex peace process."

President Chissano said the cost of peace was high but would have been higher if the international community had failed to fulfill its obligations. The advent of peace, he added, had made it possible for Mozambicans to rededicate themselves to the implementation of sound political and economic reforms.

The Mozambican leader said peace and stability "can neither be ensured with a mere holding of multiparty elections, nor should they be seen as a simple absence of military conflict". He said recent history proved that in conflict resolution, a proper balance should be struck between the need for elections and their inherent hostile propaganda, and the need for reconciliation that should follow the aftermath of a democratic process.

"Our task, today, is to guarantee that a culture of peace is embedded in all citizens' minds as an important step forward in conflict prevention and management", President Chissano stated.

Released by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, the report is based on the study of 50,000 TB cases in 35 countries. It found that there are already many countries with 1,000 or more cases of drug-resistant TB including the Russian Federation, India, Latvia, Estonia, Argentina, C“te d'Ivoire and the Dominican Republic.

Drug resistance is caused by inconsistent or incomplete treatment of TB, according to WHO. Many patients fail to take all their medicines consistently because of the extended treatment period or because they no longer have any of the outward symptoms of the disease. In addition, many health workers prescribe the wrong drugs or the wrong combination of drugs.

"While this study demonstrates a dangerous problem, it also directs us to a powerful solution", said Arata Kochi, Director of WHO's Global TB Programme, referring to the DOTS strategy, which focuses on curing every TB case. DOTS provides a standardized combination of the most effective medicines, ensures that those medicines are taken regularly until patients are cured, and monitors patients' overall progress so that action can be taken if a cure is not being achieved.

Good TB control which cures patients has proven successful in preventing drug resistance in Algeria, Chile, the United Republic of Tanzania and New York City.

The review of 68 reports on sexual health education from France, Mexico, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom and a number of Nordic countries is "the most comprehensive and up-to-date review of studies in this field", according to UNAIDS.

Among its main conclusions, the review found that education about sexual health and/or HIV does not encourage increased sexual activity; good quality programmes help delay first intercourse and protect sexually active youth from sexually transmitted diseases; and sexual health education is best started before the onset of sexual activity.

"Globally, there has been some increase in political commitment and in programmes responding to the right of people to be educated about their health, but much more needs to be done, especially in the area of sexual health", said UNAIDS Executive Director Dr. Peter Piot. "He noted that the review showed that the quality of those programmes was critical to reducing the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. "The most important conclusion is that failing to provide appropriate and timely information to young people for fear of encouraging sexual activity is not now a viable option."

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) announced on Wednesday that the repatriation, which may take up to five weeks, is aimed at taking advantage of improved security along the route from Sakhi to the river port of Hairaton and the border with Uzbekistan.

The camp, which is believed to be still holding between 5,000 and 7,000 refugees, has been caught in the crossfire as the opposition and the Taliban forces continued to exchange rocket fire. At least one refugee was killed as many as 40 were wounded by rocket crossfire. Sakhi Camp was also dangerously exposed during the first battle for possession of Mazar-i- Sharif in May but there were no casualties reported.

According to UNHCR, a breakthrough for the repatriation of the refugees occurred last week when truck and bus drivers in Mazar-i-Sharif agreed that the road was now safe for the transportation of the refugees and all their belongings to Hairaton. Another positive development happened this week when the Uzbek authorities agreed on a range of measures to facilitate the transit of the refugees through Uzbekistan.

The first group of approximately 320 refugees are scheduled to leave Sakhi Camp on Friday.

While Singapore's representative said it would be impossible to come up with an international norm to address the issue given the diversity of domestic conditions in receiving countries, the representative of the Philippines came out strongly in favour of international action.

Heng Jee See of Singapore told the Committee that the low participation -- nine countries -- in the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families showed that "the vast majority of us have reservations on whether a global approach is the best way to deal with the problem".

But Rosario G. Manalo, the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines, called on all States to ratify that Convention.

Mr. Heng stressed that Singapore did not condone the abuse of any worker by employers, and had strict laws to protect women migrant workers which were impartially enforced. He also recommended that any resolution adopted by the Committee on the issue should call attention to the responsibility of States which send migrant workers to other countries.

Ms. Manalo said that "despite the efforts of many countries of origin and the cooperation by a number of countries of destination, reports of violence against women migrant workers continue to be documented, ranging from exploitative terms and conditions of work, unpaid salaries, physical abuse, sexual harassment and rape, trafficking and forced prostitution, and sometimes even death".

In remarks made on Wednesday following the observation of the International Day for the Elimination of Poverty, Carol Bellamy said that no strategy to eradicate poverty could succeed unless it addressed the survival, protection, and full development of the world's children. "Children are the hope of any society's future -- and yet they bear a disproportionate burden of poverty. The deaths of 12 million young children a year from causes that are entirely preventable are stark testament to that fact."

Ms. Bellamy said it was unacceptable that in the midst of a $2.8 trillion global economy, 1.3 billion people, half of them children were, living in absolute poverty. The rising number of those people, she added, was beyond comprehension as overall aid to the world's neediest countries had plummeted to record lows.

Faster economic growth, she pointed out, must be achieved in ways that would benefit the poorest. She listed seven areas of focus to end child poverty: meeting the minimum United Nations target of official development assistance (ODA) of 0.7 per cent of donor countries' gross national product (GNP); reinvigorating efforts to minimize the impact of debt on the poorest countries; removing protectionist barriers to allow the poorest nations to benefit from globalization; adopting a realistic formula to meet social developmental goals; assisting the least developed countries; strengthening micro-finance programmes to help the poor; and emphasizing programmes that promote the efficient use of available resources.

"Allowing the number of poor to grow is both an obstacle to economic growth and human development and a violation of children's rights", Ms. Bellamy said.

According to a special report of the FAO Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission to Mongolia released on Wednesday, 43,000 of the most vulnerable people in Mongolia need urgent emergency aid. According to FAO, the number of people experiencing a dramatic fall in nutritional standards is growing.

FAO says that economic reforms have resulted in a significant increase in poverty, loss of employment, reduction in consumption, and cuts in safety nets as well as social sectoral services. The most affected people are vulnerable groups such as the unemployed, the elderly, female-headed households, children, pensioner and small herders whose purchasing power have been significantly decreased by high inflation, according to FAO.

The transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy has seriously affected agriculture in Mongolia, says FAO. The withdrawal of substantial technical and economic assistance from the former Soviet Union has added to Mongolia's agricultural woes.

The FAO mission which lasted for two weeks estimated that Mongolia would need 90,000 tonnes of food for 1997/98, and that the absolute poor need 23, 000 tonnes of emergency food aid. Approximately 453,000, or 20 per cent of the population of Mongolia, are poor.

Grappling with one of the most urgent issues of the past 50 years - - nuclear disarmament -- the exhibition of photographs portrays steps that have been taken towards the eventual total elimination of nuclear weapons. It also shows how the non-nuclear weapon States have worked together over the years with the nuclear weapon powers towards the joint goal of ridding the world of the nuclear threat.

The exhibition, which will run through 20 November, was organized by three non-governmental organizations associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information: Fusen Heshi No Kai (Veterans Against War, Japan), Veterans for Peace (United States) and Franciscans International. It is cosponsored by the United Nations Centre for Disarmament Affairs and the NGO Committee on Disarmament Affairs, and supported by the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations.

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

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