United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-03-27

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 27 March 1998

HEADLINES

• Security Council establishes new United Nations peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic.
• United Nations concludes first weapons inspections at presidential palace in Baghdad.
• Secretary-General to travel to Moscow, Beijing and London to continue talks on Iraq agreement.
• Security Council sanctions committee chairman urges UNITA to comply with Angolan peace process.
• UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports that thousands are fleeing Sierra Leone.
• World Health Organization says guinea worm disease may be totally eliminated in near future.
• Governments agree to meet again in Montreal in June for talks on second treaty on trade in hazardous chemicals.
• United Nations looks at ways to assist drought-stricken Federated States of Micronesia.
• Staff member of UN High Commissioner for Refugees endures second month in detention.

In resolution 1159 (1998) unanimously adopted on Friday, the Council also welcomed the appointment by the Secretary-General of his Special Representative in the Central African Republic to head the Mission.

MINURCA will replace the Inter-African Mission to Monitor the Implementation of the Bangui Agreements (MISAB), whose mandate will expire on 15 April.

The Council adopted its resolution under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, which allows for enforcement. It also affirmed that in the discharge of its mandate, MINURCA may be required to take action to ensure security and freedom of movement of its personnel.

Member States were urged to contribute personnel, equipment and other resources to MINURCA in order to facilitate its early deployment. The Council also approved the Secretary-General's intention to establish a trust fund to receive voluntary contributions from Member States to support the activities of MINURCA.

The Council charged MINURCA with assisting in the maintenance and enhancement of security and stability, including freedom of movement, in Bangui and its immediate vicinity. MINURCA will also assist the national security forces in maintaining law and order and protecting key installations in Bangui. Further, the Mission will supervise, control storage, and monitor the final disposition of all weapons retrieved in the course of the disarmament exercise and ensure security and freedom of movement of United Nations personnel and the safety and security of United Nations property.

Among its other tasks, MINURCA will assist in a short-term police training programme and in other capacity-building efforts for the national police.

The Security Council stressed the importance of regional stability and the need to consolidate the progress achieved by MISAB. It underlined in particular, the need to assist the people of the Central African Republic to consolidate the process of national reconciliation and to sustain a secure and stable environment conducive to the holding of free and fair elections.

According to a United Nations spokesman, weapons inspections concluded at the Radwaniyah Presidential complex, approximately 20 kilometres west of Baghdad. Those inspections were conducted by 71 experts from the United Nations Special Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency, who were accompanied by senior diplomats from 20 countries.

Also on Friday, the United Nations Office of the Iraq Programme announced that the latest distribution plan for the "oil-for-food" programme for Iraq can be accessed on the Internet at http://www.un.org/Depts/oip/index.htm.

At a recent briefing on the oil-for-food programme, the Executive Director of the Office of the Iraq Programme, Benon Sevan, said that oil revenues available for the purchase of humanitarian supplies under previous phases of the "oil-for-food" programme had been exhausted. Under those circumstances, the Iraqi Government had requested that all medical applications still pending under those phases be transferred to the current phase, he added.

Mr. Eckhard was in Geneva travelling with the Secretary-General, who was there to chair a meeting of the United Nations Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC). The Secretary-General is scheduled to leave Geneva on Sunday for Moscow.

Noting that Mr. Annan had already met with officials in Paris and in Washington, Mr. Eckhard said that the Secretary-General "felt the agreement with Iraq was partly his responsibility, and he wanted to see that political support for it was sustained." The Secretary-General acknowledged the important role many capitals had played, but particularly the permanent members of the Security Council in endorsing his mission and in pressing Iraq to comply, Mr. Eckhard added.

Ambassador Njuguna Mahugu of Kenya met on Wednesday with the UNITA leadership in Andulo, according to a United Nations spokesman. Ambassador Mahugu urged UNITA to respect its engagements within the framework of the peace process, pointing out that the Security Council could consider lifting sanctions already in place when it next meets on the issue towards the end of April.

The Kenyan Ambassador also warned UNITA that the Security Council could impose additional economic sanctions if it was not satisfied that UNITA was making every effort to implement the 1994 Lusaka Protocol.

"Basically, UNITA has to complete the rapid demobilization of its remaining 1,500 troops, support the continuing normalization of state administration, transform its radio station into a non-partisan broadcast facility and move the leadership to Luanda, in order to fulfil its commitments to the peace process," United Nations Spokesman Juan Carlos Brandt told reporters in New York.

Ambassador Mahugu is scheduled to return to New York on 19 April, following his assessment of the impact of the air and travel restrictions imposed on UNITA, and his visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa, Namibia and Zambia.

UNHCR recorded almost 5,000 arrivals in Vahun, northwest Liberia, on Wednesday, 25 March, and expected to register more in the coming days, bringing the total number arrivals there since February to 40,000. Three quarters of those refugees are women and children.

The refugees "appear to be in generally good shape, but more and more are crossing with no belongings," said UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski. "We've managed to provide drinkable water and send in a dozen trucks of blankets, sheetings, kitchen utensils and soap," he added.

In Guinea, arrivals continue at a rate of around 1,000 a day in Foronkonia, according to UNHCR. Since mid-March, some 15,000 Sierra Leonean refugees have crossed over to Guinea.

WHO said that the disease, which was widely distributed at the beginning of the twentieth century, is now found only in sub-Saharan Africa and Yemen. Guinea worm disease, also known as dracunculiasis, is now prevalent in seventeen countries. There were less than 80,000 cases reported worldwide last year compared to some one million cases in 1989 when national surveys were first conducted.

Guinea worm, which is the largest tissue parasite affecting humans, is found in contaminated water. Once it infests a person, the parasite migrates through the body and eventually emerges from the feet in 90 per cent of the cases, causing oedema (a condition characterized by excess of watery fluids collecting in tissues of the body), a blister and then an ulcer.

According to WHO, there are no drugs to treat the disease and the strategy for its eradication involves interruption of transmission, surveillance and certification of eradication. WHO said that the provision of safe drinking water and surveillance of appropriate water supply systems and the chemical treatment of water are essential to eliminate the disease.

The treaty will focus on the release and emissions of POPs, which include some of the most toxic chemicals ever developed, such as adrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, dioxins, endrin, furans, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) and toxaphene. UNEP said that the negotiations, which will be held under its auspices, are to be completed in the year 2000.

UNEP said that the decision to hold the Montreal negotiations came just days after the governments had finalized the text of the Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous and Pesticides in International Trade, known as the "PIC Convention".

Negotiated under the auspices of UNEP and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the Convention will establish an international alert list and help developing countries obtain the information they need to protect themselves.

The Convention is based on the principle of Prior Informed Consent (PIC) which states that no dangerous substances should be exported unless explicitly agreed to by the importing country. The exporting country is notified about the products which the importing country no longer wants to receive. Decisions must be "trade neutral" which means that if a country does not wish to accept an import, it must not produce the chemical domestically or import it from non-Parties. The treaty also provides for the safe labelling of toxic chemicals in the event of an export.

UNEP said that at first the treaty will apply to approximately 27 chemicals, but in the future, potentially hundreds may be covered. The agency added that governments asked that the Convention be carried out on a voluntary basis immediately after a diplomatic conference in Rotterdam next September. At that conference, the Convention will be formally adopted and opened for signature by ministers and other senior officials, according to UNEP.

The prolonged drought has caused shortages of water in many areas, and many schools and public facilities remained without adequate water supplies, according to OCHA. Rivers have dried up and wells were dangerously low with increasing levels of salinity.

OCHA said that the national authorities were concerned about a possible public health crisis due to the increase in bacteria and contaminants in any remaining water supplies. The drought has depleted food supplies by causing stress on staple crops, especially taro, a situation which had been compounded by a decrease in the fish catch presumably linked to the variations in water temperature.

The President of Micronesia has determined that the affected states and local governments do not have the capabilities to cope with the effects of the drought and has requested assistance from the United States and the United Nations system.

Spokesman Kris Janowski told reporters in Geneva that Friday marked the end of the second month that Mr. Cochetel was held in captivity.

"UNHCR welcomes the appeal made by French President Jacques Chirac to Russian President Boris Yeltsin to do everything in his power to secure Mr. Cochetel's release," Mr. Janowski said.

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

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