United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-10-27

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, 27 October, 1998

Latest Developments

HEADLINES

• Security Council members express renewed concern at intensified rebel activity in Sierra Leone.
• Seeking to break deadlock on Western Sahara referendum, Secretary-General recommends identification of "contested tribes."
• UN High Commissioner for Refugees urges top Serbian official in Kosovo to arrange return of displaced persons.
• United Nations refugee agency helps Liberians who fled last month's fighting in Monrovia.

Following consultations, the President of the Security Council, Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock of the United Kingdom, told the press at United Nations Headquarters that Council members were concerned about the atrocities perpetrated against the civilian population, the use of children in the fighting, and the continuing humanitarian and refugee crisis in the country.

Ambassador Greenstock said that Council members noted that rebel activity near the Sierra Leone/Liberia border had given rise to increased tension between the two countries. Welcoming the resumption of political dialogue between the presidents of the two countries, Council members called for continued dialogue and implementation of the confidence-building measures that were agreed to in July, Ambassador Greenstock added. Council members encouraged the presidents of Sierra Leone and Liberia to use for this purpose the opportunity of this week's summit of the Economic Community of West African States held in Abuja, Nigeria.

Members of the Security Council called on Member States and the donor community to make further contributions to assist the deployment of the Economic Community of West African States Military Observer Group (ECOMOG) in Sierra Leone to support the Sierra Leonean Government's disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programme and to address the humanitarian needs of the country.

Council members underlined that the only lasting solution to the cycle of violence in Sierra Leone was a political one based on national reconciliation and encouraged all efforts in this direction, including on the part of the Government of Sierra Leone itself, Ambassador Greenstock said.

The referendum aims to provide the people of Western Sahara with the choice between independence or integration into Morocco.

In his latest report to the Security Council, released Tuesday, the Secretary-General says that following his representatives' contacts with the parties last week, both Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO) have accepted his proposals.

In the light of this, the Secretary-General recommends that the Council extend the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to 30 April 1999, when the identification of the contested tribes is scheduled to be completed. The referendum itself is scheduled to be held in December 1999.

The Secretary-General was prompted to present his own arbitration in order to break the deadlock over the inability of the Moroccan Government and the Frente POLISARIO to reach a compromise on the "contested tribes."

Mr. Annan's proposal is based on the Settlement Plan accepted by both parties, which stipulates in part that the Identification Commission should consider "applications from persons who claim the right to participate in the referendum on the grounds that they are Western Saharans and were omitted from the 1974 census."

"In order to avoid taking an arbitrary decision which might lead to the exclusion of persons who are eligible to vote, having regard to respect for that democratic principle, I see no other alternative than to ask the Identification Commission to proceed now to consider requests from any applicants from the tribal groupings in question who wish to present themselves individually, in order to verify whether they have the right to vote," writes the Secretary-General. He stresses that the parties will have to honour their obligation to not sponsor or present for identification anyone from those tribal groupings, while not blocking them from presenting themselves either.

Noting that the identification of the contested tribes will prolong the Identification Commission's work, the Secretary-General recommends that the appeals process for all other tribes be conducted simultaneously so as not to postpone the referendum for too long. In order to do so, a provisional list of all those identified so far -- with the exception of the contested tribes -- should be published by 1 December.

To carry out this work, the Secretary-General proposes that the Council increase the number of the members of the Identification Commission gradually from 18 to 25, and that the necessary support personnel also be increased.

The Secretary-General stresses that the Moroccan Government, the Frente POLISARIO and the Algerian and Mauritanian Governments must grant the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees all necessary facilities and guarantees to prepare for the return of refugees in an optimum manner.

Meanwhile, a United Nations spokesman announced on Tuesday that the Secretary-General would visit the Maghreb region from 7 to 16 November, with stops in Mauritania, Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

"The internally displaced persons said they are prepared to return to their villages in the Komorane area if police withdraw and stop harassing them," UNHCR Spokesman Kris Janowski told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

A UNHCR team which visited Kisna Reka on Sunday was told that the displaced people continued to hear gunfire from Serbian military and police positions during the night, keeping children awake and crying, according to Mr. Janowski. "UNHCR teams on Monday saw checkpoints being dismantled, sandbags swept away and temporary barracks burned hours before a NATO deadline on Tuesday for the withdrawal of Serbian security forces in Kosovo," he said.

On Monday, the agency led convoys to Belonica in Malisevo and Dobrosevac in Glogovac to deliver aid for some 7,500 internally displaced people. Nine trucks carried supplies from the World Food Programme (WFP), Mercy Corps International and Danish Church Aid, including wheat flour, milk powder, margarine, marmalade, oil, salt, sugar, biscuits, jackets, blankets, mattresses, used clothes, stoves and soap.

Kris Janowski, a Spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told the press in Geneva that the security incidents took place in the Liberian capital on 18 and 19 September. The refugees, mostly women and children, received one month's food ration as well as blankets, kitchen sets and other basic supplies from UNHCR.

UNHCR has repatriated some 80,000 Liberians from Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea over the past year, while an estimated 150,000 more have gone home spontaneously from camps near the border. "Demand for repatriation remains high, with the rate of return slowing nonetheless over the past month due to difficulties brought on by the rainy season," Mr. Janowski observed.

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

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