United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-07-23

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 23 July, 1998

HEADLINES

• Security Council members call on parties in Sudan to honour their commitments under ceasefire agreement.
• UNICEF chief warns that without effective ceasefire in southern Sudan, mass starvation could ensue.
• United Nations panel in Algeria meets with high-level government officials.
• Secretary-General's Special Representative for Georgia strongly condemns "terrorist act" against peacekeepers.
• Secretary-General, on official visit to Mexico, says its economic growth should reach all Mexicans.
• UN Environment Programme calls for solutions to disputes over trade rules and environmental agreements.
• Back from Southern Africa, UN Goodwill Ambassador Danny Glover says people are key to alleviating poverty.
• International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia confirms that death of suspect last month was suicide.
• UN High Commissioner for Refugees renews appeal for release of detained staff member Vincent Cochetel.

Speaking on behalf of the members, the President of the Security Council, Sergey Lavrov of the Russian Federation, called on the parties to honour their commitments.

Ambassador Lavrov also said Council members hoped that the ceasefire would facilitate the peace process and alleviate the humanitarian situation in Sudan. "The members of the Council strongly welcomed the IGAD's efforts to help bring this conflict to an end," he said.

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy, who recently visited the famine- stricken towns of Wau and Panthou in Bahr Al-Ghazal, said that the ceasefire should be expanded in order to ensure that urgent humanitarian relief reaches those in need.

"The suffering I witnessed in these famine-stricken areas was horrific," said Ms. Bellamy in a statement issued in Nairobi. "Children, who should be running and playing, have become mere skeletal figures, too weak to stand and barely able to feed themselves."

"Most shocking of all were the rows of freshly dug graves in Wau town, where I was told that 51 children and adults had died only hours earlier," she said.

Ms. Bellamy said the ceasefire was a welcome start, but stressed that what children and their families needed was a prolonged period of peace encompassing the entire area of southern Sudan. "Every day the lives of countless Sudanese children and their families are being shattered by the devastating effects of war -- not only by bullets, but by the slow, relentless destruction of their homes, schools and livelihoods," she said.

The recently concluded three-month ceasefire is expected to allow humanitarian agencies to continue delivering assistance under Operation Lifeline Sudan, which brings together all agencies and non-governmental organizations working in the country.

The UNICEF Executive Director appealed to the international community to redouble efforts to help facilitate an urgently needed political solution in Sudan. She said more resources were needed to carry out the critical humanitarian relief operation there.

On Wednesday afternoon, panel members met with Algeria's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Attaf.

According to a United Nations spokesman, the panel's programme for Thursday includes meeting with the country's Prime Minister, Ahmed Ouyahia, as well as its Minister of the Interior, Mustafa Benmansour.

Later in the afternoon, the panel is scheduled to meet with the Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adami, followed by a meeting with the President of the Constitutional Council, Saaed Bouchaeer.

The panel plans to meet with a cross-section of leaders from the Government as well as civil society, according to the spokesman, who said panel members would visit different parts of Algeria.

The panel is headed by Mario Soares, the former President of Portugal. Its other members are I.K. Gujral, the former Prime Minister of India; Abdel Karim Kabariti, the former Prime Minister of Jordan; Donald McHenry, the former United States Ambassador to the United Nations; Simone Veil, former Secretary of State of France; and Amos Wako, Attorney-General of Kenya.

Following its mission, the panel will present a report to the Secretary- General, which he will make public.

The Special Representative, Liviu Bota, was responding to an incident on Wednesday in which nine members of the collective peacekeeping forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) were injured by a remote- controlled explosive device in the southern part of the Gali district. All of the wounded were hospitalized and two are in serious condition.

In a statement released on Thursday, Mr. Bota demanded that the sides "take effective measures to put a stop to such subversive and terrorist acts, which objectively undermine the peace process." An investigation is being carried out with the participation of the two sides as well as the CIS peacekeeping force and the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, the second set of talks between Georgia and the Abkhaz side began on Thursday under Mr. Bota's chairmanship. The talks, which are being held in closed session, are expected to last until Saturday. The parties will review the state of negotiations on the main aspects of a comprehensive settlement of the conflict, and identify areas where concrete political progress might be made. They would also consider the return of refugees and displaced persons, as well as efforts in the economic, humanitarian and social areas.

The Secretary-General observed that like other nations, Mexico was undergoing a radical transformation of its economy. "Liberalization and globalization are the order of the day." Despite the upheaval that came with the process, he noted that Mexico had improved its economy last year, while foreign direct investment had reached an all-time high. "A central challenge is to ensure that such gains reach all Mexicans," he stressed. In that effort, Mr. Annan noted, Mexico could provide lessons to other countries, such as those in Asia which are undergoing financial crisis.

The Secretary-General made his comments in a speech to the Foreign Ministry which was largely devoted to the threats posed by what he calls "uncivil society" -- terrorists, drug dealers and other criminals working against the social fabric. He praised Mexico's role as a "driving force" behind the recent United Nations General Assembly special session on the world drug problem. Noting that the Assembly had adopted a plan to eradicate opium poppy, coca and cannabis in 10 years, Mr. Annan said it "gives us new reason to be optimistic."

The Secretary-General observed that the United Nations is well placed to combat corruption, drug abuse, and the traffick in people and arms, which all have a significant international dimension. "Through the United Nations, sovereign States can harmonize their policies so that strong laws exist everywhere," he said. "Through the United Nations, development projects can improve State administration and remove the despair that contributes to these problems."

Mexico was the last stop of the Secretary-General's five-nation tour of Latin America.

In a speech to the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Committee on Trade and Environment, UNEP official Jacqueline Aloisi de Larderel called for the construction of a durable framework of cooperation between the environmental and trade communities.

Speaking on behalf of UNEP Executive Director Klaus T”pfer, Ms. Aloisi de Larderel emphasized that was time to move from discussions to concrete action on the relationship between environmental agreements and international trade rules. She stressed that such discussions may have created a shadow of uncertainty regarding some policy approaches.

Given the accelerating pace of global ecological destruction, she called for replacing uncertainty with productive synergies between trade and environmental policies. Specifically, UNEP asked WTO to clarify what it considers to be "sustainable trade policies".

The world-renown actor recently completed a nine-day visit to Namibia and South Africa, where he witnessed first-hand how United Nations projects are helping people. "I saw individuals successfully working collectively from the grassroots level to the policy level to eradicate poverty in their community and country," Mr. Glover said at a press conference in New York.

Mr. Glover cited several examples of how additional resources could help people to improve their own lives. In Khotsong, South Africa, $1,500 could allow a homeless woman to build her own home. In Ekamba, Namibia, two additional sewing machines would enable a woman's collective to sew enough clothes to sell in the marketplace in order to support their families.

"Their determination and hard work made me even more determined to use my position as the UNDP Goodwill Ambassador to tell the world that they just need us to assist with additional human and financial resources," he said, adding, "It doesn't take much for us to assist."

But Mr. Glover also acknowledged the need to overcome severe inequality plaguing the region. He pointed out that Namibia's per capital income was $14,000 for whites, and just over $100 for Africans. But despite the legacy of 300 years of apartheid during which people were not allowed to study math or science, a UNDP-supported technical college in the Oshakati region of Namibia is now thriving, thanks in part to the work of United Nations volunteers from all over the world.

Mr. Glover's next trip will take him to Southeast Asia later in the year. He said he hopes to have some impact on the worst cases of poverty within the next ten years, and added that he would share his experiences with other celebrities who were considering their own involvement in such activities.

There was no sign of a criminal act, according to the report. It found that all of the rules of detention had been observed, and that there was no negligence on the part of the Tribunal's staff.

Mr. Dokmanovic, who was suffering from depression, had been under special medical observation at the time of his death, and was being checked every half-hour. "This is one of the highest levels of supervision other than the 24-hour watch by closed circuit TV," the report states. Between regular checks, Mr. Dokmanovic hanged himself using a tie which he had fastened to the top hinge of his door.

In order to ensure that lessons are learned from this tragic incident, the Tribunal is establishing a working group to study the issue of suicides in prison, according to the report. The working group will review the preventive measures applied in various detention systems.

Friday will mark the sixth month since Vincent Cochetel was abducted by armed men from his residence in North Ossetia. He has been held at an unknown location since then.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, on Thursday said it was an outrage that Mr. Cochetel is still being held hostage. "I appeal to the kidnappers to release him immediately," she said. "My heart goes out to his wife and his young daughters, and to his other family members and friends around the world who anxiously await his release, " she added.

Mr. Cochetel's abduction is one in a series of incidents which illustrate the growing dangers of humanitarian work, according to UNHCR. This month alone, a total of seven United Nations workers were killed in Afghanistan, Georgia and Tajikistan. The agency blames the increasing risks on the proliferation of undisciplined armed groups fighting civil wars in many parts of the world.

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

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