United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-03-20

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 20 March 1998

HEADLINES

• Security Council increases number of civilian police observers serving with UN Observer Mission in Angola.
• Libya tells Security Council that sanctions are moot in wake of International Court of Justice ruling.
• In Beirut, Secretary-General says difficulties in Middle East peace process should not be cause for despair.
• Secretary-General blames foreign interference as a major cause of prolonged conflict in Afghanistan.
• UN refugee agency reports despair among ethnic Albanians who also terrified Serbs in Kosovo.
• Coordinator of UN operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina calls for more female officers there.
• Defeat of apartheid does not mean end to efforts against racial discrimination, says Secretary-General.
• World Health Organization warns that a number of chemicals disrupt endocrine systems.
• Head of UNESCO says scarcity of water has potential to unleash conflicts.

In resolution 1157 (1998) unanimously adopted on Friday, the Council said the observers would assist the Government of Unity and National Reconciliation and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) to resolve disputes during the normalization of State administration. They would also identify and investigate allegations of abuse and facilitate the training of the Angolan National Police according to internationally accepted standards.

The Council requested the Secretary-General to keep the modus operandi of the civilian police component under review and to report by 17 April on whether its tasks could be performed on the basis of a more limited increase in the number of personnel or with a reconfiguration of existing personnel.

The Security Council also asked the Secretary-General to report by the same date on the status of the implementation of the peace process, with final recommendations regarding the modalities of the United Nations presence in Angola after 30 April.

The Council stressed the urgent need for the Government and in particular UNITA to complete the implementation of all remaining obligations under the Lusaka Protocol and relevant Council resolutions. It also demanded that UNITA stop its pattern of delays and linkages.

Reiterating its belief that a meeting between the President of the Republic of Angola and the leader of UNITA could accelerate the process of peace and national reconciliation, the Council urged the UNITA leadership to move to Luanda, as agreed upon in the Protocol.

It called on the Government and UNITA to complete immediately the demobilization of all remaining military elements of UNITA, the normalization of State administration throughout the national territory, and the transformation of Radio Vorgan into a non-partisan broadcasting facility, and to resume without delay the disarmament of the civilian population.

In the resolution, the Council also called on the Government to continue to give priority to peaceful actions that would contribute to the successful conclusion of the peace process and to refrain from any action, including excessive use of force, which might undermine the process of normalization of State administration or lead to renewed hostilities.

The Council asked Member States to implement fully and without delay the travel and other restrictions imposed on UNITA as specified in resolution 1127 (1997). It reiterated its request that Member States having information on flights and other actions prohibited in that resolution provide that information to the Committee dealing with Angola. The Council requested the Secretary-General to report on those violations by UNITA and certain Member States in his report due before 17 April.

Furthermore, the Council urged the Government and in particular UNITA to cooperate fully with the National Institute for the Removal of Unexploded Ordnance and to provide information on minefields.

Last month, the ICJ decided -- over objections by the United States and the United Kingdom -- that it has jurisdiction over cases brought against those countries by Libya. Tripoli contends that the United Kingdom and the United States do not have the right to compel it to surrender two Libyan nationals suspected of having caused the destruction of Pan Am flight 103, which crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland on 21 December 1988.

The incident prompted the Security Council to impose a wide range of aerial, arms and diplomatic sanctions on Libya pending its renunciation of terrorism and its action to ensure the appearance of those charged with the Lockerbie bombings before the appropriate courts in the United Kingdom or the United States. Libya argues that it is authorized to try the suspects under the 1971 Montreal Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation. It has also offered to have the suspects tried in a third country or at The Hague.

Libya's Foreign Minister, Omar Mustafa Muntasser, told the Council that the sanctions were collective punishment against his entire country as a result of nothing more than a mere suspicion of two of its citizens. He added that Council sanctions had become irrelevant and moot, since the Court had accepted jurisdiction in the matter. He said they should be lifted.

United States Ambassador Bill Richardson said that the rulings by the International Court of Justice in no way questioned the legality of the Security Council's actions affecting Libya or the merits of the criminal cases against the two accused suspects in the Lockerbie case. The Court had simply said that the parties must now argue the legal merits of the case. While the case was proceeding, Libya must comply with its obligation pursuant to Security Council decisions and turn over the two accused suspects for a fair trial, he said.

Ambassador John Weston of the United Kingdom stated that Libya was misrepresenting the facts on the ICJ ruling. He said the Court's decision was not a decision that Libya's claim was valid nor was it in any way a decision on the merits of the case against the two accused. Most importantly, it was not a decision that Council resolutions were invalid. Those resolutions were unaffected by the Court's ruling and therefore remained in force, he stressed.

Noting that Thursday had marked the twentieth anniversary of the Security Council's adoption of resolution 425 (1978) -- which calls for the cessation of Israeli military actions against Lebanon and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the country -- the Secretary-General said "too many anniversaries have passed" without the resolution's implementation. "I hope the day will soon come when resolution 425 (1978) is fully implemented, in recognition of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon," he said.

The Secretary-General said the current peace process gave the region the best chance for peace it ever had. "We recall, though it is painful, the price paid by the people of this country -- by innocent men, women and children -- for the heart-rending civil war that harrowed this nation for all too long; we recall the plight of millions of refugees which continues to this day; we recall the tragedy of Qana less than two years ago," Mr. Annan said. "Such events are difficult to understand, harder to accept and impossible to forget," he added, stressing that it must never happen again.

The Secretary-General made his remarks at the inauguration of the United Nations House in Beirut, which will bring together staff from many parts of the UN system, including the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The ESCWA returned to Beirut permanently after having been located in six different countries over 25 years. The Secretary-General said this was "a symbol of the peace, stability and peaceful coexistence of cultures that has come back to Lebanon."

The Secretary-General called for a "hard look" at the external aspects of the problem. He said that the countries concerned must make genuine efforts to agree on measures to curb the flow of arms to Afghanistan. "I am obliged to repeat the plea already made so many times by my predecessors and me: that those Member States concerned should heed the wish of the ever more desperate Afghan people that they cease supplying war-making materials to the Afghan factions," the Secretary- General stated.

Mr. Annan reports a new spirit of cooperation between Iran and Pakistan which offers promise on the regional front, noting that the two countries had together sponsored a resolution on Afghanistan at the last meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

The report calls for urgent attention to allegations of mass killings by the Afghan factions. The most recent allegations concern new atrocities by the Taliban soldiers during their two-week occupation of Faryab Province. "While most residents of the affected villages fled before the Taliban advance, some of the noncombatants left behind -- mainly the very old, women and small children -- had reportedly fallen victim to acts of rape, murder, arson, looting, beatings and abductions."

The Secretary-General says he is consulting with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, on how to establish the facts about the allegations. He notes that the Afghan parties must cooperate if this effort is to succeed.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Spokesman Kris Janowski said that UNHCR was the first humanitarian agency to enter the village of Donjil Prekaz in the Drenica area on Thursday. He said that the area was a collection of four predominantly ethnic Albanian hamlets which bore the brunt of the Serb police crackdown.

"We found the four hamlets almost completely deserted. One of them was flattened" the Spokesman said. He added that in another village further up the hill, UNHCR staff spoke to an old man who said he and another old person were the only ones who dared to stay in the village overnight. "He wept when telling us about the March 5th police sweep, saying that all his people wanted was to be left in peace" Mr. Janowski said.

According to Mr. Janowski, others said that they were afraid to spend the night in the village. He said the men would come in during the day and spend the nigh in t he surrounding hills. He characterized the atmosphere in the area as "extremely tense."

Most of an estimated 20,000 inhabitants of the Drenica area, including both minority Serbs and majority Albanians, had fled, UNHCR said. Most of them had been displaced within Kosovo and another group of 5,000 mostly Slavs who feared attacks from Albanians had fled to neighbouring Montenegro, Mr. Janowski added.

Mr. Janowski said the Albanians were not the only victims of terror as they too terrified both the resident Serb population and the Croatian Serbs who lived in Kosovo. The Croatian Serb refugees asked to be taken out of the province, Mr. Janowski pointed out, adding that an 14,000 of them were trapped in "an unenviable situation" in Kosovo. Those refugees should be going back to their homes in Croatia's Krajina region "except that they are not really welcome there" said Spokesman Janowski.

He also said continued harassment of ethnic Serbs in Croatia's Eastern Slavonia region was causing more and more people to leave for Serbia worsening the already precarious refugee situation.

Elisabeth Rehn told reporters on Friday that family violence and rape were not ranked high on the priority of investigators. "These are bad crimes and they must also be investigated," she said, adding, "we need more female police, both from the International Police Task Force (IPTF) and on the local level."

In his latest report on the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Secretary-General calls for increasing by 30 the staff of the IPTF to meet expanded needs in the areas of public security management, organized crime and drug control. He also calls for 26 additional UNMIBH professionals to facilitate judicial reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ms. Rehn called attention to the need for improvements in the judiciary, noting that even a splendid local police force was no help if the trial process and courts were not impartial. She said it was unacceptable that "if the judge is from one ethnicity and the accused from another then the outcome of the trial can be very negative for the accused."

In his message on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination traditionally observed on 21 March, the Secretary- General says that events over the past few years give ground for both optimism and renewed vigilance.

He says that on the one hand there was the defeat of apartheid in South Africa, a triumph for the universality of human rights and a defeat of the evil of domination based on race. On the other, he adds, there have been campaigns of "ethnic cleansing" and genocide, where race, ethnicity or religion "marked individuals for expulsion or slaughter."

The United Nations leader observes that racial minorities and immigrants often become targets for discontent in societies facing economic difficulties and modernization. "The lesson is clear: the victory over apartheid must not be seen as an excuse for complacency but as a new call to action."

The Secretary-General recalls that the commitment to the elimination of racial discrimination "lies at the heart of the founding purpose of the United Nations." He says that the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should renew the message that all humankind is entitled to the rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration, regardless of race, colour or origin. He adds that people should try to live up to the fiftieth anniversary motto of "All human rights for all."

According to the Secretary-General, much of the responsibility in the promotion of human rights lies with governments. He identifies legislation, education and policies as the primary tools to prevent racial discrimination in the future, to redress its effects in the past, and to build tolerant and equal societies in the years to come.

Mr. Annan says that governments that had not done so can ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. He also notes that only 25 States have accepted an Optional Protocol of the Convention allowing individuals to petition the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

The Secretary-General concludes by calling on people to remember next month the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, and to pay tribute to him and all those who have given their lives to build a world free of discrimination.

WHO said that these chemicals known as "Endocrine disruptors" affect the functions of the body governed by the endocrine system and "have, thus, the potential of causing adverse effects to health." The United Nations agency says that one of the "most impressive" consequences of such hormonal interferences cold be the decrease in sperm count and quality recently reported in a number of countries.

"The use of chemicals in practically every aspect of life has grown very rapidly in the last few decades," noted Dr. Maged Younes of the WHO Programme for the Promotion of Chemical Safety. According to Dr. Younes, out of over 11 million known chemicals, about 100,000 were being produced on an industrial scale and approximately 1,000 to 2000 new chemical entities were being introduced each year. Dr. Younes said that human beings were being exposed to many of the chemicals in commercial production, and thousands of substances of natural origin, which may be present as pollutants and contaminants in food, environmental media and commercial products.

The endocrine disruptors may interfere with hormones at various levels including synthesis, storage, release and transport. The organs that may be potentially affected by the chemicals include male and female reproductive systems, the central nervous system, the thyroids and the immune systems. WHO said that there are also indications that exposure to the chemicals could alter physical and mental development in children. According to WHO the damage to developing organisms may be more severe and permanent than in adult organisms.

A Steering Group of scientific experts has been formed to permanently scrutinize these chemicals. The Group held its first meeting in Washington D.C on 16 to 18 March 1998 at the Pan American Health Organization, which is also the WHO Office for the Americas. The meeting was jointly convened by International Programme on Chemical Safety and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. The Group will provide guidance for and participate in the development of a global inventory of research on endocrine disrupting chemicals and produce an international assessment of the "status of the science of these substances.

Speaking at the international conference on Water and Sustainable Development, hosted by the French government at UNESCO Headquarters, Federico Mayor stressed the need for international cooperation in preserving water.

The UNESCO Director-General told government ministers from 80 countries, officials from international, local and non-governmental organizations, business leaders and scientists that over-use was turning water into a scarce resource. He said that the dwindling of water resources was due to population growth, waste and pollution. "As it becomes increasingly rare, it becomes coveted, capable of unleashing conflicts," he pointed out.

Mr. Mayor highlighted the activities of UNESCO in the preservation of water resources beginning in the early 1950's through the International Hydrological Programme. He stressed that the programme was integrated both qualitatively and quantitatively and included beliefs, value systems, behaviour, cultural habits, and the interaction between water and civilization.

For his part, French President Jacques Chirac called for immediate action, saying that water consumption was increasing twice as fast as the world's population. President Chirac warned that the population was doubling every two decades. He said that at the turn of the century the amount of fresh water available to each inhabitant will be a quarter of what it was in 1950 in Africa and one third of what it was in Asia and Latin America.

President Chirac, like Mr. Mayor, argued that the technical means to tackle this problem were available. "In these times of globalization, sustainable development consists of organizing, on a global scale, a common management of scarce resources", he said.

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

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