United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-03-19

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 19 March 1998

HEADLINES

• In Egypt, Secretary-General meets with officials to discuss regional and related issues.
• Head of UN special group inspecting Iraqi presidential sites announces names of participating diplomats.
• Security Council welcomes decision to extend international supervision of Brcko until end of year.
• UNESCO Director-General condemns atrocities committed by Taliban in Afghanistan.
• Pakistan's Foreign Minister blames stalemate in Conference on Disarmament on erosion of trust.
• World Health Organization warns that no country is safe from spread of tuberculosis.
• World Food Programme assesses nutritional status of children and feeding mothers in Iraq.
• Prosecution tells International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda that Akayesu had role in genocide.
• International Court of Justice accepts United States counter- claim in Iran vs. U.S. case.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accorded the United Nations Secretary- General head of state honours. During an hour-long meeting between the two, they discussed in detail the prospects for reviving the stalled Middle East peace talks. Also attending that meeting were both the Prime Minister, Kamal El Ganzoury, and Foreign Minister, Amre Moussa. The talks, described by the United Nations Spokesman as "warm and friendly", also touched on Iraq, Libya and Somalia.

The Secretary-General also met with Esmat Abdel Maguid, Secretary- General of the League of Arab States. They discussed the situation in Iraq, Libya and the Lockerbie case, the Middle East peace process, efforts by Egypt and Ethiopia to negotiate a peace agreement among the warring factions of Somalia as well as Egypt's support for the peace efforts of the Organization of African Unity regarding the Comoros, according to a United Nations Spokesman.

The Secretary-General had arrived in Cairo on Wednesday. At the airport, he told members of the press that he was "very happy to be back in Egypt." Recalling that he had lived both in Cairo and Ismailia in 1974, the Secretary-General said his arrival was "a little bit of a home coming for me."

Mr. Annan also recalled that he had worked closely with President Mubarak and Foreign Minister Moussa during the Iraqi crisis. "And so whatever little success I had, I did not do it alone," he said. "I had lots of support and I am grateful to the President for his advise and support during those critical weeks."

The group was set up under the Memorandum of Understanding concluded between Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Iraq to inspect eight presidential sites. Speaking to reporters in Geneva on Thursday, Mr. Dhanapala said he had received assurances from the Iraqi authorities that they would cooperate with inspectors and fully comply with the Memorandum.

In order to begin implementing the Memorandum, Mr. Dhanapala had invited 60 countries to appoint two diplomats, preferably Arabic- speaking, who were familiar with the region and could leave on short notice. Twenty-eight countries submitted names, of which 20 diplomats had been alerted that they should report to Baghdad by early next week.

The diplomats invited to participate in the initial round of visits to presidential sites are Cui Tiankai of China; Marcel Laugel of France; A. Kalugin of the Russian Federation; Simon Collis of the United Kingdom; Ryan Crocker of the United States; Josep Papp of Hungary; Gheoghe Tarlescu of Romania; Pietro Cordone of Italy; Saeed Saad of Sudan; E. Portella of Brazil; Babou Ousman Jobe of the Gambia; Alfred M. Moussotsi of Gabon; Roberto Garcia Moritan of Argentina; Michael Bell of Canada; Horst Holthoff of Germany; Andrej Zlebnik of Slovenia; Kim Woon-Nam of the Republic of Korea; Johan Nordenfelt of Sweden; Antonio Monteiro of Portugal; and a diplomat from Japan.

Under the 15 March decision by the Arbitral Tribunal an international supervisory regime shall continue in Brcko pending a final arbitration phase at the end of 1998. The regime was established by the Tribunal in February 1997.

Through a statement read out by its President, Abdoulie M. Sallah of the Gambia, the Council welcomed the 15 March "Supplemental Award" and called upon the parties to the peace agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina to implement the decision without delay, as they were obliged to do.

Recalling that the Tribunal's 1997 decision had helped to promote the start of a peaceful, orderly and phased return process in Brcko and the beginnings of the establishment of a multi-ethnic administration there, the Council considered the current decision to represent the best interests of the peace process.

The Council underscored the importance of prompt and full cooperation by the parties to implementation of the Dayton peace agreement in its entirety, including their cooperation with the supervisor for Brcko and with the Office of the High Representative.

Federico Mayor said in Paris on Thursday that he was horrified by mutilations and other "show-case" punishments carried out in public by the Taliban. He said the atrocities were committed in the name of justice based on an erroneous and unacceptable interpretation of the Koran.

Mr. Mayor said that as Director-General of UNESCO, an organization in charge of the values and examples handed down to children, he was "horrified by these inhumane and bloody spectacles regularly staged by the Taliban in the stadiums of Kabul." He characterized those practices as a travesty of justice which flouted Islam, "a religion based on love."

The head of UNESCO called for the isolation of the Afghan authorities calling them "barbarians who interpret the Koran as they see fit, who humiliate and discriminate against women to the extent of withholding education from girls."

"All those who supply arms and assistance to these madmen must cease to do so." Mr Mayor said. He noted that the Taliban authorities claimed that they were willing to support education for women but lacked the funds to do so. "Let those who financed their war now finance their schools for girls" he stressed.

Addressing the Geneva-based Conference, Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan said it would be even worse if the current stalemate reinforced the trend of seeking arms control agreements in other forums, with no regard for the absence of general consensus or participation by all those whose security interests were affected.

The Foreign Minister stressed the importance of pursuing nuclear disarmament within the Conference, saying the "nuclear nightmare is not over". Turning to the situation in the South Asia region, he said recent public utterances by the head of India's BJP party that India would "go nuclear" should evoke global concern.

Mr. Khan's statement drew a response from the Indian representative, who said it was regrettable that the Foreign Minister had sought to highlight issues which, if they were to be seriously addressed, belonged in the bilateral discussions between the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries.

Savitri Kunadi said the Disarmament Conference was the sole multilateral negotiating forum for disarmament, and it should focus on how to resolve the current impasse in the forum and leave talks between India and Pakistan at the bilateral level.

In a report released on Thursday, (WHO) said that lack of progress in sixteen key countries was threatening global TB control efforts.

The report, released in London by a group of experts said that global TB control targets for the year 2000 would not be met as the sixteen key countries had moved too slowly in using the Directly Observed Therapy Short Course (DOTS) strategy.

Dr. Lee Reichman who is a consultant for the World Health Organization and a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Global TB Epidemic which conducted the study said the re-emergence of the epidemic was largely due to neglect.

In an interview with United Nations Radio, Dr. Reichman identified factors for the spread of the disease as inadequate financial resources, human resource problems, organizational factors, lack of secure supply of quality anti-tuberculosis drugs, and a public information gap. He pointed out, however, that all these factors could be easily taken care of if there was political will.

The World Health Organization said there was hope that many trouble spots could soon become TB control success stories since 10 of the 16 countries have begun to use the DOTS strategy. Afghanistan, Iran, Mexico, Myanmar, Philippines, Russian Federation, South Africa, Sudan Thailand and Uganda began to implement DOTS in 1996. The data on the outcome of these efforts will be available later this year, WHO said.

The Spokesman of the United Nations Office of Humanitarian Coordination in Iraq, Eric Falt, said on Thursday that fifteen WFP international observers participated in the survey from 14 to 16 March.

The Nutrition Assessment Survey, which coincided with the national polio vaccination campaign, was jointly organised by the United Nations Children's Fund and the Ministry of Health.

Mr. Falt said that on average, the weight and height of 60 children under five were taken everyday in 87 health centres. That meant that the random sample of the survey was more than 15,000 children.

In addition, the mothers with children under two years of age were also weighed to find out their own nutritional status. "It has long been thought that a large proportion of nursing mothers are under-nourished and/or anaemic" the Spokesman added.

The result of the survey, which is expected to be published in April, will indicate the number and status of children suffering from malnutrition. It will also provide information on the nutritional status of nursing mothers, said Mr. Falt.

That according to the prosecution of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, who presented closing arguments in Akayesu's genocide case on Thursday. The prosecution told the Tribunal that Akayesu, who was Taba Commune's Bourgmestre, "had a duty to protect the population, and people looked up to him, but he betrayed them."

"He killed us, and killed our people, and even pursued those who fled to other communes," the prosecution quoted from a court testimony of one of the survivors.

The prosecution cited several incidents in which the accused was in a position to stop the massacres of Tutsis or the rape of women, but rather than doing so he ordered, or at least aided and abetted, the rapes and killings.

"We have a duty to tell Mr. Akayesu that what he did was bad," said Prosecutor Pierre Prosper. "We have a duty to tell the world that this should never happen again, and thus help prevent future genocides."

Iran's case dates back to 1992, when it charged that the United States had violated treaties between the two countries and international law in 1987 and 1988 when U.S. Navy warships caused destruction to three offshore oil production complexes owned and operated by the National Iranian Oil Company.

At first, the United States argued that the Court had no jurisdiction on the matter, but after the ICJ ruled in 1996 that it did have such jurisdiction, the United States filed its counter-claim. The counter-claim argues that Iran breached agreements by attacking vessels, laying mines in the Persian Gulf, and otherwise engaging in military actions from 1987 to 1988.

The Court's decision on Thursday to admit the United States counter- claim means that it will be examined by ICJ judges along with Iran's claims.

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

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