United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-04-09

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 9 April, 1998

HEADLINES

• Security Council requests Secretary-General to reactivate Commission of Inquiry into flow of arms in Great Lakes region.
• UN Investigative Team in Democratic Republic of the Congo suspends activities following arrest of UN human rights worker.
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calls attack on UN human rights worker in Cambodia "completely unacceptable".
• International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia detains two Bosnian Serbs accused of war atrocities.
• International Court of Justice urges United States not to execute Paraguayan national until it can decide case.
• Secretary-General's special envoy calls for concerted action to protect children and women in armed conflict.
• World Bank and International Monetary Fund approve debt relief packages for Mozambique and Uganda.
• Indonesia needs large-scale international assistance to overcome food shortages, according to UN food agencies.

Through its unanimous adoption of resolution 1161 (1995), the Council mandated the Commission to collect information and investigate reports relating to the sale and supply of arms and related materiel to former Rwandan government forces and militias in the Great Lakes region, contrary to Council resolution 918 (1994). The Commission is also mandated to identify parties aiding and abetting the illegal sale to, or acquisition of, arms by those forces and militias, and make recommendations on the illegal flow of arms in the region.

The Council called on all States in the Great Lakes region to ensure that their territory is not used as a base for armed groups to launch incursions or attacks against any other State in violation of the United Nations Charter and international law. The Council also called on Governments to cooperate with the Commission, and asked the Secretary- General to report within three months on the Commission's initial conclusions to be followed three by a final report on its recommendations three months later.

The Commission's last report to the Council in November of 1996 found that Rwandan government forces, including the Interahamwe militia, were continuing to receive arms from a variety of sources in violation of a Security Council embargo. In an addendum to the report, dated 26 January, the Commission said some of the information provided by Governments appeared to open up fresh lines of inquiry into arms transactions and the origins of weapons.

The human rights worker, Christopher Harland, was arrested Tuesday and put on a plane from Goma to Kinshasa, where he was detained overnight at the airport before being released on Wednesday afternoon. The spokesman said that in view of the serious nature of the circumstances, including the search and seizure of official UN documents, the Investigative Team had been instructed to suspend its activities until the facts had been clarified and explanations had been received from the Congolese authorities.

In a related development, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, earlier today described Mr. Harland's arrest as the latest in a "pattern of obstruction" which called into question promises by Kinshasa authorities to allow a proper investigation of allegations of grave human rights violations in recent years.

In a statement released in Geneva, Ms. Robinson said she was relieved that her colleague had been released unharmed. She remained deeply concerned, however, that his luggage, containing sensitive documents from his work in the Goma area, was opened and searched. "Clearly, there are justifiable doubts as to the value of maintaining the investigative effort in the Democratic Republic of the Congo," Ms. Robinson said. There was no excuse for the flagrant breach of a Governments's obligations under the Convention on Privileges and Immunities governing treatment of UN staff members, she added.

Ms. Robinson said her Office in Cambodia had lodged a protest with the Government, insisting that the incident be investigated and the perpetrators charged. The incident took place in front of a large number of people, including other armed policeman, who took no action to intervene.

The UN human rights workers were in Cambodia to assist in efforts to end violence and abuse in the country, Ms. Robinson said. They are working with the agreement of the Government which has a responsibility to ensure their full protection. It was essential that the Government honour its obligations by taking measures which end the intimidation, harassment and assaults on UN staff, she added.

Miroslav Kvocka and Mladen Radic are among 19 accused persons named in an indictment issued by the Tribunal in 1995 covering atrocities allegedly committed between May and August of 1992 against Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat civilians from the Prijedor district. The acts allegedly took place at a makeshift detention facility where the Serb forces abused and killed the prisoners.

The two accused detained on Thursday were indicted in their alleged capacity as superiors to others in the camp. They knew or had reasons to know that persons in positions of subordinate authority to them "regularly and openly killed, raped, tortured, beat and otherwise subjected prisoners to conditions of constant humiliation, degradation and fear of death," according to the indictment.

Mr. Kvocka and Mr. Radic will have the opportunity to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty at a hearing scheduled for Tuesday, 14 April.

The case concerns Angel Francisco Breard, who is scheduled to be put to death in the state of Virginia on 14 April. Paraguay contends that Mr. Breard was arrested, convicted, tried and sentenced to death without being advised of his right to assistance by the Paraguayan consulate. This, according to Paraguay, stands in violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to which both States are party.

In making its decision, the Court found that Mr. Breard's execution would "render impossible the ordering by the Court of the relief that Paraguay seeks" -- a re-establishment of the situation before the United States failed to provide the required notification.

The Court pointed out that the issues before it "do not concern the entitlement of the federal states within the United States to resort to the death penalty for the most heinous crimes". The ICJ also recalled that its function was "to resolve international legal disputes between States... and not to act as a court of criminal appeal.

In a declaration on the case, ICJ President Judge Schwebel said he had voted for the decision with "disquiet" because the evidence was bare. However, other considerations, including the United States's admitted failure of consular access in breach of the 1963 Convention, contributed to his vote.

On his recent official visit to Canada, Mr. Otunnu said local value systems within societies in conflicts were being radically shattered. The result was anything goes" and women, children and the elderly had all become fair game in the ferocious struggle to gain or maintain power. In the last 10 years, 2 million children had been killed in armed conflicts; an estimated 250,000 children, as young as 8 years old, had been used as soldiers; 12 million were left homeless; half of the estimated 53 million refugee and internally displaced people were children often orphaned.

Canadian officials reiterated their staunch commitment to Mr. Otunnu's mandate, and accepted his invitation to be part of a core group of countries at the forefront of his advocacy campaign.

The new assistance will reduce Mozambique's debt in an amount valued at over 70 per cent of the country's annual gross domestic product. The World Bank will provide part of its contribution in the form of International Development Association (IDA) grants -- as opposed to normal credits. Between now and June 1999, $270 million will be provided for work in agriculture, education, water and balance of payments support. The IMF will provide its assistance in the form of a grant to be used to service Mozambique's debt to the Fund.

The package is being implemented as part of an initiative for heavily indebted poor countries. Assistance is being provided to Mozambique in recognition of the country's record of economic reforms. According to the World Bank, the Government has reduced inflation from 70 per cent in 1994 to less than six per cent last year.

Commenting on the announcement on Thursday, Mozambique's Minister of Finance and Planning, Tomaz Salomao, expressed thanks for the package, but added that "considering that Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world, and one devastated by war, it would have been our desire to receive total debt forgiveness." He added that the relief being provided would allow the Government to use its scarce resources to address the urgent needs of the country's people."

The World Bank and the IMF also agreed that Uganda has met the requirements for receiving close to $650 million in debt relief from its external creditors. The relief amounts to a 20 per cent reduction in Uganda's external debt.

A recent FAO/WFP mission to Indonesia estimated that approximately 7.5 million poor Indonesians in 15 provinces could experience acute food shortages during the upcoming dry season. The agencies said the food deficit coincided with the country's reduced ability to buy imported goods in the wake of the current financial crisis. Steep increases in the price of food and rapidly growing unemployment were adding large numbers of people living below the poverty line, threatening food security of millions in the world's fourth most populous country. The FAO/WFP urged donor countries to assist Indonesia in managing its drought and financial-crisis related food problems.

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

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