United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-10-24

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 24 October 1997

HEADLINES

• In UN Day message, Secretary-General calls for renewed faith in "our one and only" instrument of progress.
• United Nations is prepared to send an advance team to plan for possible peace-keeping role in Sierra Leone.
• UN Drug Control Programme and Afghanistan will cooperate to eliminate poppy production there within five years.
• Human Rights Committee regrets Jamaica's withdrawal from First Optional Protocol to International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
• Middle East peace process is in "dark tunnel", Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat tells UNESCO meeting.
• Intra-East Timorese Dialogue expresses concern about violence in East Timor and commits to promoting peace.
• With UNHCR assistance, 300 Tajik refugees leave Sakhi camp in Afghanistan for their home country.
• Developing countries introduce draft resolution proposing that UN convene conference on financing development.
• Women's Peace Petition with 100,000 signatures presented to President of General Assembly.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued this appeal in his UN Day message, promising that the United Nations for the next century would develop new partnerships, with individual men and women, with non- governmental organizations, with the private sector and with peoples at large. The United Nations would ensure "that no one is left behind and that no suffering is left unchallenged", he said.

"Recommit yourselves to helping the United nations help you make your societies more peaceful, more prosperous, more just and more promising", the Secretary-General urged. "In return, we pledge ourselves to the achievement of a United nations from which we all can gain, and in which we all can play a part in pursuit of a better future."

General Assembly President Hennadiy Udovenko of Ukraine, said that if there is one signal feature that characterizes the United Nations on its fifty- second birthday, it is a growing sense of optimism that the Organization is capable of internal change. "We all know that in the natural world, one of the key characteristics of a survivor is the ability to adapt to a changing environment. This is no less true for such human creations as multilateral organizations."

On the eve of UN Day, citizens and civil society groups gathered around the globe for the Second Worldwide Vigil for the United Nations to reaffirm their support for the Organization. In his message to the Vigil, the Secretary-General said he was "thrilled to know that people in cities around the world have gathered to show their solidarity with the United Nations and its indispensable work for peace, development and human rights".

"At the same time", he added, "I am convinced that there should be no need for such an event; no need for the United Nations to exist in a perpetual state of financial instability; no need for an Organization that seeks to fulfil the highest aspirations of humankind to be thwarted not by enemies but by the very States who created it, endowed it with an enduring, universal vision and pledged their steadfast support".

One of the participants in the Vigil, Jim Olsen of the United Nations Association of the United States of America, told the press that most United States citizens wanted their country to meet its financial obligations to the Organization. Bill Pace of the World Federalist Movement said statistics about the UN budget should be considered in perspective. He noted that the United States federal budget amounted to about $6,000 per capita. In contrast, all of the United States assessed dues, including those for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), came to roughly $6 per person -- "less than the cost of a movie".

"We are now studying this document carefully as it envisages some peace- keeping functions for the United Nations similar to the role we played in Liberia, where we monitored the peace-keeping work of a regional force", said United Nations Spokesman Fred Eckhard on Friday.

Mr. Eckhard said the United Nations was still waiting for more details on the agreement, and had a number of questions that needed to be clarified.

He said that the agreement would have to be formally presented to the Security Council for its endorsement.

"This pact opens the doors to the alternative development projects and also to close cooperation with the local political entities on the side of law enforcement", Pino Arlacchi told reporters at a press conference in New York. A long-term plan has been developed by the United Nations International Drug Control Programme to eliminate all poppy production in Afghanistan which would cost $25 million annually for alternative development and law enforcement. "If the international community supports us in this direction, in five or six years we could eliminate the poppy production in that country and in ten years time we will consolidate this result", Mr. Arlacchi said.

The agreement was reached following six months of negotiations between the Drug Control Programme's office in Islamabad and the Taliban. Mr. Arlacchi will travel to Afghanistan next month to conclude the formal agreement.

In September, the UN Drug Control Programme released a study showing that Afghanistan's opium poppy production had risen to 2,800 metric tons in 1997 -- an estimated 25 per cent increase over last year. The survey found that 96.4 per cent of Afghanistan's total opium production originates in provinces currently under control of the Taliban.

The Committee was reacting to an announcement made on Thursday by Jamaica that it would withdraw from the Protocol, which provides for the confidential examination of communications from individuals who claim to be victims of a violation of the rights enshrined in the Covenant.

In a statement delivered on behalf of the Committee, the Chairperson, Christine Chanet, said the withdrawal was "a sad and a serious matter". She said the decision was a step backwards and an unfortunate development for human rights in Jamaica and expressed hoped that the Government would reverse its decision and continue its collaboration with the Committee.

"Jamaica's reasons for wanting to withdraw have to do with the administration of the death penalty", according to John Mills, the Spokesman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. He explained that the Committee was currently dealing with 47 cases of Jamaican individuals. The decision, he said, "doesn't stop the Committee from dealing with these [cases]; it doesn't stop Jamaica being requested to take account of the Committee's views on these matters. It is only when the withdrawal enters into force on 23 January that individuals would no longer be able to apply to the Committee in the manner that they are able to now".

Mr. Arafat also blamed the Israeli Government for "relentlessly pursuing its attempts to complete the 'Judaization' of the Holy City of Jerusalem and obliterating its Palestinian and religious identity". He went on to say that Israeli's pursuit of "expansionist settlers' policies" in Jerusalem "are aimed at conferring legitimacy upon the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and at voiding the peace process of its substance, since settlements and peace are incompatible, just as peace and terrorism are incompatible".

Mr. Arafat also reaffirmed the "clear and firm Palestinian position of condemnation and rejection of acts of violence and terrorism of all kinds and forms, and of all who stand behind them". He said the Authority was exerting every possible effort to maintain security and to thwart such acts of terrorism. Adding that terrorism must be cut at the root, he said its causes included occupation, settlements, collective sanctions, arbitrary arrests and closures, as well as economic and food embargoes.

Responding to an invitation from the President of the Palestinian Authority to attend the celebration of the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor said the "Bethlehem 2, 000 Project" to prepare for that event was a priority for UNESCO. Director- General Mayor also said UNESCO would spend $14 million on educational and cultural projects in the Autonomous Palestinian Territories.

The gathering, which began at Krumbach Castle on 20 October, was attended by East Timorese figures representing a diverse cross-section of political opinion, from East Timor, Indonesia and other parts of the world.

The "Krumbach Declaration" indicates the willingness of the participants to continue with the All-Inclusive process, which began in 1995 at the initiative of the Secretary-General. It also reaffirms the need for measures to promote and protect human rights, especially those of women, children and youth.

In addition, the participants, responding to the request of the tripartite talks involving Indonesia and Portugal under the auspices of the Secretary- General, approved the name, objectives and organizational structure of the East Timorese cultural centre. The centre will be known as the "Centre for Culture and Development of Timor Larosae [the indigenous appellation of East Timor]".

The outcome of the meeting will be conveyed to the tripartite talks through the Secretary-General's Personal Representative for East Timor, Ambassador Jamsheed Marker.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that the group was among some 7,000 refugees in the camp who were trapped when fierce fighting broke out in the area. At least one refugee was killed and many were wounded when a shell landed in their midst several weeks ago.

The first group was transported to the Afghan border town of Hairaton where it will spend the night in a UNHCR transit centre. On Saturday morning, the refugees will be transported by barge across the river into Uzbekistan where they will board trains home to Tajikistan.

A UNHCR spokeswoman expressed hope that the transportation of the refugees would mark a "happy ending" to the story of up to 60,000 Tajik refugees who had fled the 1992-1993 civil war in their country to Afghanistan.

The draft calls for the Assembly to establish an intergovernmental preparatory committee to examine in depth issues relating to the financing of development. That committee would also be mandated to propose, no later than the end of the current Assembly session, specific dates and an agenda for the conference. The Secretary-General would be requested to provide, in collaboration with the Bretton Woods institutions, suggestions for a possible agenda and support for the committee.

The draft, which was introduced in the General Assembly's Economic and Financial (Second) Committee, would request the United Nations funds and programmes to support the work of the preparatory committee. Regional development banks would be invited to participate. The Bretton Woods institutions would be invited to support and collaborate "in the launching and realization of the conference".

Before meeting the President, a delegation of women participated in a press conference where they explained the aim of the petition. Noeleen Heyzer, Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), said that in the petition, women are calling on all Governments to use a fraction of their military budgets to help education and employment for the next five years.

Cora Weiss, Vice President of the International Peace Bureau, said that women have had enough violence. "As we come to the end of the bloodiest century in the history of humankind, women have had enough and have come together."

"All we are asking is that every country across the board transfer a very small fraction of their military budget to support sustainable communities, to support health, education, employment, job training, literacy, clean water, things that will help women achieve their rightful place in society", said Ms Weiss.

The women also called for greater participation by women in decisions concerning war and peace. They pointed out that most of the victims of war are women, some of whom have been raped during conflicts. The women also said that women tend to be peace-makers.

The women will continue collecting signatures for the Women's Peace Petition until the year 2,000.

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

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