United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-10-28

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, 28 October 1997

HEADLINES

• United Nations emphasizes humanitarian support for Congo- Brazzaville as conflict ends.
• United Nations evaluation team in Central African Republic is assessing peacekeeping mission there.
• Security Council stresses importance of demining in Angola following attacks against deminers.
• United Kingdom invites UN Secretary-General to send representative to examine Scotland's legal system.
• Draft resolution would have General Assembly stress need for cooperation to prevent currency turmoil.
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights tells Algeria that she did not request special meeting on situation in that country.
• UN Colloquium commemorating fiftieth anniversary of International Law Commission opens in New York.
• Ghana expresses regret that the United Nations African Institute for Crime Prevention does not have money to do its job.
• Trial Chamber of Tribunal for former Yugoslavia postpones indefinitely hearing of Kovacevic case.
• World Health Organization's first Asia Pacific Forum on Stroke Management continues in Australia.
• "AIDS Clock" sponsored by UN Population Fund will go on display at UN Headquarters.
• Pakistan ratifies Chemical Weapons Convention.

United Nations Spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters on Tuesday that the rapid assessment mission dispatched by the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs to Brazzaville had returned to Kinshasa on 24 October. The mission is now preparing an appeal for Congo-Brazzaville which is expected in mid-November, he added.

In a related development, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is expected to send a mission from Kinshasa to Brazzaville this week to assess the situation of the returning refugees from Kinshasa, in Democratic Republic of the Congo.

According to the United Nations Spokesman, there are approximately 35,000 individuals who have registered. "Refugees have already started crossing the river by barge despite a restriction on cross-river transportation by the Democratic Republic of the Congo", Mr. Eckhard said.

The mission, which is expected to be in the country for three days, will assess the work done by the Inter-African Force to Monitor the Implementation of the Bangui Agreements (MISAB), which is monitoring the surrender of weapons by former rebels, militias and other illegal holders of arms.

Meanwhile, the President of the Republic of Gabon has requested the President of the Security Council to "take the necessary steps to extend the Inter-African Force for three months as from 6 November 1997".

In a letter to the President of the Security Council dated 23 October, President Omar Bongo of Gabon said that the presence of MISAB contingents in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, "continues to be useful and necessary, especially because there are known to be continuing tensions in the Central African subregion".

President Bongo said that the adoption of Security Council resolution 1125 (1997), by which the Council approved the mandate of MISAB, "served as a catalyst and facilitated the monitoring of the surrender of weapons by the former rebels, the militias, and all other illegal holders of weapons".

The Central African Republic has been torn by three rebellions in eight months, the root causes of which have not yet been fully dealt with, President Bongo said in his letter.

Speaking to reporters following a briefing of the Security Council on Angola, Ambassador Somavia said that demining was part of the world movement for removing landmines.

He made those comments in the wake of the killing on 23 October of two international deminers, a German and a Zimbabwean, from the Xongoroi team site in the Benguella province. The team of the deminers from a German non- governmental organization called Santa Barbara was ambushed by about 20 unidentified people, who also killed two Angolan national police and a local government official. A civilian police observer of the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) from India was injured.

The President of the Security Council said that this incident was being investigated. "MONUA's preliminary assessment is that the attack is not simply an act of banditry."

There was another armed attack on 27 October on the Santa Barbara team near Xongoroi "but luckily there were no casualties or injuries", Mr. Somavia said.

Since the attack, the demining team has been re-deployed from the area, Ambassador Somavia said. He said the Security Council supports the work of the people working in the field in Angola, particularly the non- governmental organizations that are involved there.

Ambassador John Weston of the United Kingdom told correspondents in New York today that the British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, maintained the Government's position that a trial should be held in Scotland or the United States. "This initiative will help those who have doubts about a trial in Scotland to reassure themselves that it will be entirely transparent and fair."

The visit would give the observers opportunities to see the Scottish judicial system firsthand, and to examine the facilities and procedures for the trial itself. "Of course there can only be a trial if Libya gives up the two suspects for trial in Scotland as the United Nations has demanded."

Asked why the United Kingdom didn't just "call the bluff" of Libya to hold the trial in a third country, Ambassador Weston said "I'm not going to be drawn into that kind of hypothetical quagmire".

Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is working to determine its competence to deal with a case brought by Libya on the matter. Libya argues that the alleged acts were covered by the 1971 Montreal Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation.

Instead of being dealt with in the framework of the Montreal Convention, the matter fell to the Security Council, which in January 1992, adopted a resolution urging Libya to "immediately provide a full and effective response to those requests". The Council imposed sanctions against Libya pending cooperation.

The draft resolution, introduced in the Assembly's Economic and Financial (Second) Committee, would also request the Secretary-General to analyze current trends in global financial markets, in close cooperation with heads of the Bretton Woods institutions and the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The draft would further request that recommendations be made in the World Economic and Social Survey and the Trade and Development Report on how to address the problem of fluctuations in global financial markets.

Another draft resolution, on enhancing international cooperation towards a durable solution to the external debt problem of developing countries was introduced in the General Assembly's Economic and Financial (Second) Committee on Monday.

According to the text, the Assembly would call for reducing the requirements for debt relief under the World Bank's Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative. Specifically, it would ask that the required length of a sound economic track record be reduced. The Assembly would also encourage bilateral donors to contribute to Trust Funds set up by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for that Initiative.

A draft resolution was also introduced on permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and of the Arab population of the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources. It would have the Assembly reaffirm the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and the population of the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources, including land and water. Israel would be called upon not to exploit, deplete or endanger the natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.

In a letter to Algerian Ambassador Mohamed-Saleh Dembri, the High Commissioner, Mary Robinson, "makes very clear that she did not at any time suggest that there should be a special session, as such a matter is entirely within the competence of Member States and the Commission itself", according to John Mills, the media and information officer to the Office of the High Commissioner. He told reporters in Geneva that Mrs. Robinson is scheduled to meet the Ambassador on Wednesday.

Addressing participants, the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko of Ukraine, praised the Commission's work over the years, noting that its draft articles had been transformed into major global conventions. "Particularly commendable is the work of the Commission on the draft code of crimes against peace and security of mankind and the draft statute of international criminal court", he said.

The United Nations Legal Counsel, Hans Corell, expressed hope that the Colloquium, by bringing together a mixed group of policy-makers, practitioners, participants in international law-making and experts from the academic world, would generate ideas for strengthening the International Law Commission.

Thirty expert guests from academic and research institutions from around the world had been invited to participate in the Colloquium to serve as a catalyst for the discussions, he said. Thirteen of the experts had also prepared "ideas" papers and would serve as panelists to present their proposals and suggestions for strengthening the Commission in the various aspects of its work.

Speaking in the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural (Third) Committee, Ambassador Jack Wilmot said that admittedly it was the primary responsibility of African countries to sustain the Institute, but since most of them were confronted with serious financial problems, "we once again appeal for the understanding of all our partners so that adequate funds are provided within the overall appropriation of the United Nations programme budget and other extra-budgetary resources for the Institute".

Ambassador Wilmot said the United Nations Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders continued to promote and coordinate technical cooperative activities in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice systems in Africa. "Indeed, the sixth session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice held in Vienna, in April/May 1997 recognized UNAFRI as a very useful vehicle for enhancing regional cooperation and coordination in fight against crime", he said.

Trial Chamber II, consisting of presiding Judge Stephen, Judge Karibi-Whyte and Judge Jan, postponed sine die the hearing scheduled for Friday 31 October because medical reports concerning the health of Mr. Kovacevic had not yet been completed. These reports were to be examined by the Trial Chamber in its consideration of the Defence application for Mr. Kovacevic's provisional release.

In its Scheduling Order, the Trial Chamber instructed the parties to advise it once the medical examinations of the accused have been completed and reports obtained.

The Defence Council had argued that Mr. Kovacevic should be provisionally released because his health was failing. During the preliminary motions hearing on 10 October 1997, both the Defence Council and the Prosecution agreed that medical tests should be carried out on Mr. Kovacevic in order to verify the Defence's allegations that his health was failing.

In another development, the Registrar of the Tribunal on 27 October 1997, withdrew the assignment of Anthony D'Amato as lead counsel with effect on the same day, following a request by Mr. Kovacevic. The Registrar appointed Dusan Vucicevic as lead counsel.

The three-day forum co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Stroke Foundation (NSF) of Australia, which opened on Monday, is part of the global initiative of the WHO to increase public and professional awareness of stroke.

More than 400 delegates are holding plenary meetings, workshop sessions, special lectures, and poster presentations on this health condition. "This international conference provides a much needed platform for invaluable exchange of information on stroke-related issues. It will enable us to develop strategies aimed at reducing mortality and morbidity from what is, unfortunately, the most common cause of death worldwide, and the most common cause of long-term disability", said Conference Chairman, Professor Geoffrey Donnan.

Stroke kills about 5 million people annually, and another 30 million are suffering, to a greater or lesser extent, from its effects.

The global initiative to raise public and professional awareness about stroke was launched by WHO in 1993. The initiative consists of regional conferences co-sponsored by WHO and interested organizations in host countries. Pan European Consensus Meeting on Stroke Management was the first such conference held in Halsingborg, Sweden, in November 1995.

Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the Untied Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will officially open the exhibit.

The AIDS Clock reveals a hand sweeping over images of people living in the age of AIDS while ticking off a new HIV infection every ten seconds. There were more than 3.1 million new HIV infections during 1996, approximately 8, 500 per day, according to UNAIDS.

"One of the unique features of the AIDS Clock is that, with its moving images, it gives a human face to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and at the same time, brings home the reality that over six people around the world become infected with HIV every minute. Today, people need to be reminded that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is far from over", said Dr. Piot.

"In addition to being a personal and family tragedy, AIDS is a threat to national development, taking women and men in their 30s and 40s, their most productive years", said Dr. Sadik. "Reproductive health care programmes have a major role to play in HIV/AIDS prevention, particularly in helping women and young people to better protect themselves from infection", she added.

Pakistan's Ambassador, Ahmad Kamal, transmitted the instruments of ratification to the Secretary-General on Tuesday. His country had signed the Convention, which currently has 165 signatories, on 13 January 1993.

Under the terms of the Convention, each State party undertakes to destroy chemical weapons and production facilities. The Convention establishes a comprehensive verification system within the framework of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. It was the first disarmament agreement negotiated within a multilateral framework that provides for the elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.

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

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