United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-04-01

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Wednesday, 1 April, 1998

HEADLINES

• In China, Secretary-General says United Nations should be global centre for preventing conflict.
• Secretary-General calls for "sense of urgency" in tackling environmental issues.
• Peace process in Angola is not completed as scheduled: United Nations spokesman.
• Security incidents force Burundians to flee to Congo-Kinshasa, says United Nations refugee agency.
• Heavy rains disrupt delivery of aid to refugee camps in United Republic of Tanzania.
• International Court of Justice gives United States and United Kingdom until 30 December to file on Lockerbie cases.
• In London, Deputy Secretary-General opens United Nations anti- landmine exhibit.
• United Nations humanitarian team assists in assessing situation in fire- affected Roraima state in Brazil.

Addressing the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing, the Secretary-General noted that armed conflict is increasingly targeting civilians. "Preventing these wars is no longer a matter of defending interests or promoting allies," he said. "It is matter of defending humanity itself."

Mr. Annan noted that time and again, the value of prevention was only recognized after it was too late to stop a deadly conflict. He called for making the United Nations a global centre for visionary and effective preventive action. At the same time, he recognized that prevention would only succeed if the root causes of conflict were addressed.

Sustainable economic development based on respect for human rights and legitimate government is essential to preventing conflict, the Secretary- General observed. "In this connection let me add, that I was particularly pleased to learn of China's intention to sign the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."

The Secretary-General recalled a Chinese proverb that it is difficult to find money for medicine, but easy to find it for a coffin. "Have we not seen enough coffins -- from Rwanda to Bosnia to Cambodia -- to pay the price for prevention?" he asked. Effective prevention, he stressed, would result in human security in all its aspects -- economic, political and social.

"In a world in which environmental problems above all others transcend borders and knit us together in common purpose, we must rely on each other, " Mr. Annan said in his message, which was delivered on his behalf by UNEP Executive Director Klaus Topfer. "In a very short period of time, the GEF has proven itself to be an innovative financial mechanism for the protection of the global environment," the Secretary-General said. He noted that its work programme was under way in more than 110 countries and had built a range of valuable partnerships with its 161 participating members, other multilateral financial institutions and the conferences of the parties and subsidiary bodies of the global environmental conventions reached at Rio.

He commended the provision by the GEF of new and additional financial resources to alleviate major threats not yet addressed at the national level due to scarcity of resources, particularly in the less developed nations.

United Nations Spokesman Juan Carlos Brandt told reporters that Tuesday was to have marked the conclusion of the 1994 Lusaka Protocol, but that did not prove to be the case. Radio Vorgan of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) continued to broadcast on Wednesday morning, in spite of assurances given by UNITA that it would cease on 31 March. "So as far as this particular issue is concerned, we will believe it when we don't hear it," he said.

The telephone conversation that was to have taken place on Wednesday between UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi and Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos did not occur for what were described as "technical reasons," Mr. Brandt added.

However, Mr. Brandt said, UNITA Vice-President Antonio Dembo was due to arrive in Luanda shortly, heading a leadership delegation that was expected to include Alcibiades Sakala, UNITA's Foreign Affairs Secretary, and two other leading personalities. That should mark the first step of the UNITA leadership's transfer to Luanda, Spokesman Brandt added.

Mr. Dembo was expected to bring a letter from Dr. Savimbi to President Dos Santos concerning the arrangements for extending State administration to Andulo and Bailundo, where UNITA headquarters is located.

Although the deadline for completing the peace process had not been met, the process was still moving forward, according to Mr. Brandt. The Security Council was scheduled to consider the mandate of the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) at the end of April, he noted.

In a related development, Mr. Brandt announced that the present MONUA Force Commander, Major-General Philip Sibanda, would be leaving his post in the next few weeks after two and a half years of distinguished service in the cause of Angolan peacekeeping. He would be succeeded as Force Commander and Chief Military Observer by Major-General Seth Kofi Obeng from Ghana.

UNHCR said that around 3,000 people had sought refuge near Sange and Kiliba, 40 and 25 kilometres north of Uvira respectively. The United Nations refugee agency said that the refugees had told of renewed fighting in the Buganda, Murwi and Gihanga communes in Burundi.

UNHCR said that it was planning to open a nutrition centre in the Uvira area for the many arrivals from Burundi who were "significantly malnourished." Some of the refugees had been wounded in the fighting in Burundi, according to UNHCR.

The United Nations refugee agency said that local authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had allowed it to assist the new arrivals and other refugees who had emerged from nearby villages during the same period.

In its latest update on the Great Lakes region, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that it had worked with non- governmental organizations to make the worst sections near Kibondo passable. However, sections of the road to the Lugufu camp, which is sheltering 30,000 people, were underwater causing routine immobilization of large trucks bringing food from Dar es Salaam. This delay had forced aid workers to distribute half rations of food, UNHCR said.

UNHCR also reported that it had registered 500 Rwandan refugees since the beginning of the year. The United Nations agency said that by agreement with the Tanzanian government, the refugees had been transferred away from the Rwandan border to Mkungwa camp pending determination of individual status.

In a related development, Tanzanian police had identified and separated from refugee camps approximately forty Burundians suspected of engaging in military activities. Those individuals had been taken to Kigwa, about 200 kilometres from the border with Burundi.

UNHCR also said that it had strengthened local law enforcement capacities by providing personnel, communications equipment and transport in order to ensure that only civilians remained in the camp.

At the end of February, the ICJ had ruled that it does have jurisdiction to deal with two cases. Libya 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. All 270 people aboard the flight died, as well as 11 people on the ground. 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.

The incident prompted the Security Council to impose sanctions against Libya pending a resolution of the issue. According to the ICJ, the United Kingdom and the United States contested the Court's jurisdiction, arguing that they had no legal dispute with Libya regarding the Convention. But the Court ruled otherwise, noting that the Security Council resolutions cited by the United Kingdom and the United States were adopted after Libya filed its application to the Court on 3 March 1992.

The counter-memorials called for in Wednesday's decision would constitute a response to Libya's original memorial on the merits of the two cases.

The exhibit, entitled "Landmines: The Human Cost", was produced jointly by the Museum and the United Nations. It looks at the use of landmines in modern warfare and efforts being made to reduce the threat they pose to civilians in former war zones. The exhibit includes examples of landmines from the Second World War and a mine-field simulation. It is dedicated to the memory of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and features information on her campaign to ban landmines.

Earlier in the day, the Deputy Secretary-General had had breakfast with Lord Judd, a member of the House of Lords who, like Ms. Frechette, is very concerned with the issue of development. "As you know, the Deputy Secretary- General has stressed the need to make the UN a leading centre of development policy and development business," a United Nations spokesman pointed out.

Later, she met with officials in London representing United Nations agencies, such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the World Bank and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), as well as the United Nations Association of the United Kingdom (UNA-UK).

Ms. Frechette had lunch with Jeremy Greenstock, who will soon become the new Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations.

Ms. Frechette, who had arrived in London on Monday, met on Tuesday with the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, William O'Neil. She later attended a luncheon with Roy Maclaren, High Commissioner of Canada. After this, the Deputy Secretary-General participated in a seminar at the Overseas Development Institute featuring non-governmental organizations (NGOs), policy analysts and others on the question, "Is there a distinctive development agenda for the UN?"

OCHA said on Wednesday that the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team was also looking into international relief requirements to combat forest fires which have devastated areas in the state of Roraima.

Since arriving in Brazil on Sunday, the seven-person UNDAC team, including two United Nations Environment Programme experts, had met with Brazilian authorities who made a thorough presentation on the general situation in the affected area. They also informed the team of the measures which have so far been taken at a federal and state levels to fight the fire.

The state of Roraima in the north of Brazil, bordering Venezuela and Guyana, has the lowest demographic density of one inhabitant per square kilometre. It has a population of 247,000 and the third biggest indigenous community in Brazil.

According to the authorities involved in the emergency, the current fires have been caused by the drought induced by the El Nino weather phenomenon and inadequate agricultural practices. In 1997, there was no rainfall between September and December, a period during which rainfall is usually 600 millimetres. The severity of the problem had been increased by the practice of burning fields for pasture and agriculture, the authorities said.

OCHA said that Argentina and Venezuela had helped fight the fires by deploying firefighters and helicopters to the affected region.

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

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