United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-11-13

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 13 November, 1998

HEADLINES

• Security Council meets with Secretary-General for over five hours on Iraq; discussion will continue Saturday.
• Independent inspection agents assisting United Nations withdraw from Iraq. * Security Council members confirm support for African efforts to settle conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
• Secretary-General calls for end to attacks on civilians in wake of killings of civilians by Government forces in Burundi.
• As Buenos Aires climate change meeting draws to a close, delegates negotiate how to curb emissions.
• UNICEF appeals for over $3 million to help victims of Hurricane Mitch in Central America.
• Yugoslav troops looking for arms threaten to burn villages, Kosovo villagers tell United Nations refugee agency.
• United Nations refugee agency interviews Namibians crossing to Botswana to determine refugee status.
• Member States in General Assembly pledge over $120 million for United Nations refugee agency's activities.
• UN food agencies say Democratic People's Republic of Korea still needs food aid despite improved harvest.
• Secretary-General welcomes agreement to form coalition government in Cambodia.
• Secretary-General concerned at deteriorating situation and tensions in Myanmar.
• At International Criminal Tribunal, suspect pleads not guilty to murder of Belgian soldiers and former Rwandan Prime Minister.
• International Court of Justice to consider immunity of United Nations human rights expert in early December.
• United Nations expert on toxic wastes to visit Costa Rica and Mexico.
• United Nations Department of Public Information launches Internet home pages in Arabic and Chinese.

After the meeting, Council President A. Peter Burleigh of the United States told reporters that the Council would meet again on Saturday afternoon.

Speaking on behalf of Council members, he reiterated their strong support and endorsement of the Secretary-General's appeal of 11 November to the Iraqi authorities. "We appreciate the role the Secretary-General is playing in close consultation with the Council in trying to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis," said Mr. Burleigh.

"I had a very constructive and useful discussion with the Council members," Secretary-General Kofi Annan said after emerging from the Council meeting after 8 pm. "All stressed the desirability of a peaceful and diplomatic solution, but events on the ground may be running away from us - I don't know," he added.

Mr. Annan told members of the press that he would take the opportunity to once again urge President Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi leadership to "take the wise decision" of resuming cooperation with the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"I hope that this appeal, which has been made by many people -- many in the region, and myself -- will be listened to by the Iraqi authorities," the Secretary-General said. He noted that if they did heed the appeal, it would be possible to move forward with the comprehensive review, once Iraq had rescinded its decision to halt cooperation with the UNSCOM and IAEA weapons inspectors, as the Council had already indicated. After the comprehensive review had been conducted, "hopefully in a reasonable period, and they will have to cooperate with UNSCOM, once that is done, I trust that the Council will be in a position to lift the sanctions," said Mr. Annan. "I hope that they will be in a position to act, and act as soon as possible," he added.

"This decision was taken, without prior consultation, by Lloyds Register, a United Kingdom company, which is contracted by the United Nations to provide inspection and authentication services at the Umm Qasr port and the Trebil border crossing with Jordan, the Al-Waleed border crossing with Syria and the Zakho border crossing with Turkey," said Benon Sevan, Executive Director of the United Nations Office of Iraq Programme. Fifty four staff of Lloyds Register were based at those points.

Under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding between the United Nations Secretariat and the Government of Iraq detailing arrangements for the implementation of the oil-for-food programme, and the procedures of the Security Council's sanctions committee, the independent inspection agents are stationed at the border crossing points to provide authenticated confirmation of the arrival in Iraq of humanitarian supplies. Payment to suppliers from the United Nations Iraq account is subject to the inspection agents confirmation of arrival.

"Without this certification the bank holding the United Nations' Iraq account will be unable to make payments to suppliers with contracts governed by the procedures of the 661 [sanctions] Committee," observed Mr. Sevan. He said he had informed the Permanent Mission of Iraq and would also be consulting with the Security Council sanctions committee on the matter. "The Office of the Iraq Programme is examining various options with a view to restoring inspection services with the least possible delay in order to maintain the flow of food, medicine and other essential humanitarian supplies into Iraq," Mr. Sevan stressed.

Following a briefing of the Council by Ambassador Mohammed Sahnoun, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy in Africa, the President of the Security Council, Ambassador Peter Burleigh of the United States told the press that the members of the Council supported the proposals of the OAU Heads of State on Ethiopia and Eritrea. Council members considered the proposals, which are aimed at resolving the border dispute between the two countries, fair and balanced, according to Ambassador Burleigh.

The Council encouraged the parties to be flexible and to give serious consideration to the proposals. It called on Ethiopia and Eritrea to refrain from the use of force as they explored a peaceful resolution of the conflict through this process, Ambassador Burleigh added.

The President of the Security Council said that the Council asked that the parties guarantee the safety and freedom of operation of non- governmental organizations.

The Security Council invited the Secretary-General to consider how the United Nations might respond to the OAU's request for United Nations support should the OAU's proposals be accepted by both parties.

In a statement issued by his spokesman, the Secretary-General said that he was shocked by reports of the killings in Mutambu commune in Rural Bujumbura province last week.

Mr. Annan took note of the statement by the Government that an Inter- Ministerial Commission had been established by President Pierre Buyoya on the incident and looked forward to any early report.

"It is imperative that all violence and attacks directed at civilians come immediately to an end and that all parties involved in the Burundi conflict ensure the full respect of international humanitarian law and humanitarian principles," the Secretary-General stressed.

Participants are working on an agenda for implementing the mechanisms to reduce those emissions, as called for in the Kyoto Protocol adopted at the Third Conference of the Parties, according to United Nations Radio. Chief among the mechanisms is "emissions trading" under which States could sell their excess of clean air as credits to countries struggling to fall below their emissions ceilings. The United States wants unlimited trading, while the European Union favors some control over that practice.

United States Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat said in Buenos Aires that his country supported emissions targets for developing countries. "What we would consider meaningful participation, by many, not necessarily all, but many developing countries would be taking a growth target, so that emission could grow, but have lower than a business-as-usual basis."

The developing States say emission controls place a greater burden on their economies than on the industrialized countries.

The European Union, siding with the developing countries, expressed hope that transfer of technologies to those nations could be one of the points of agreement with the United States at the Buenos Aires Conference, according to United Nations Radio.

UNICEF said that without urgent provision of clean safe water, basic hygiene and essential drugs, killer diseases like cholera, dysentery, malaria, and measles could soon threaten the lives of thousands of children. "Unless we move quickly, what is already a catastrophic regional disaster could become even worse," said Carol Bellamy, UNICEF's Executive Director.

She said that at least $3.7 million was needed by UNICEF over the next 30 days to address the most urgent needs of children and women most of whom were from the poorest sectors of society. She said that without speedy help, these survivors of Hurricane Mitch whose housing conditions were unhealthy long before the hurricane struck, could fall prey to disease and starvation.

The hurricane, which is one of the worst natural disasters to hit the region in the 20th century, left tens of thousands of people homeless in Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. Costa Rica and Belize have also required urgent emergency assistance.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Yugoslav troops were reported to have entered the village of Ljubizda outside Prizren in search of weapons, detained 2,4000 villagers for more than 24 hours and threatened to burn the area unless guns were surrendered.

The agency said that the residents and village leaders told it that 200 soldiers in six armoured trucks had arrived at Ljubizda at 11:30 a.m. on Monday. The troops were reported to have gathered 400 men at a store and took 2,000 women and children to an adjacent school where they were held until 3 p.m.

16 men were reportedly taken to Prizren for questioning and were allegedly beaten. The men were then lined up against a wall and soldiers were told to cock their automatic weapons and stand behind the men for two hours.

The United Nations agency said that the villagers had told a visiting UNHCR team on Wednesday that they might have to flee unless international monitors were able to prevent a repetition of the incident.

The agency said that international observers in Prizren had confirmed that they had received similar reports of the army threats against other villages and suspected entry points for gun smugglers near the Albanian border.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said on Friday that several hundred Namibian separatists who fled to Botswana in the past weeks had told it they the were renouncing their armed struggle for the independence of the Caprivi Strip.

According to UNHCR, an initial group of 93 armed independence fighters from the area in the eastern part of Namibia arrived in Botswana on 27 October. The United Nations agency said that the separatists, who claimed that they were being persecuted, had initially stated that they would return to fight for the independence of the Caprivi Strip, in the eastern part of Namibia which shares borders with Botswana, Zambia and Angola.

UNHCR said a group of 400 Namibians which included women and children had been moved away from the border to Mahalapye, 200 kilometres north of the capital Gaborone. The agency has proposed the screening of the group to determine their validity to refugee status. The United Nations agency said that the Government of Botswana had assured UNHCR that the group would not be forcibly sent back.

The pledges were made during a meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee of the General Assembly for the Announcement of Voluntary Contributions to the 1999 Programmes of UNHCR.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, told the meeting that over the last three years, her agency had progressively reduced its financial requirements, from $1.4 billion in 1996 to $995 million in 1998. However, she said, annual contributions had failed to meet those targets, leading to the repeated readjustment of budgets established on the basis of needs to match funding projections.

Mrs. Ogata stressed the importance of striking a balance between the limitations imposed by decreasing funds, and the very broad range of needs of her agency. "I am very concerned that this balance is tilting - - year after year -- towards funding imperatives, rather than the needs of refugees." She said that reducing her agency's budget had left the UNHCR unable to meet some of the real needs of refugees, returnees and other displaced persons. The cost in human terms had been great, she said.

Opening the meeting, the Assembly President Didier Opertti of Uruguay said the complexity and magnitude of the current refugee problem made its solution beyond the response capacity of any single nation or organization. The international community had the principles, legal instruments and operational capacity to deal with the concerns of UNHCR he said. What was needed now was adequate financial support, he added.

Pledges were made by representatives of Switzerland, Algeria, Thailand, Hungary, United States, China, Belgium, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Malaysia and Austria.

Benin, Greece, Monaco, Netherlands and Portugal informed the Committee in writing that they were making pledges for the needs of the UNHCR.

Representatives of Norway, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Republic of Korea and South Africa said that their countries were unable to give exact figures to be pledged today and would provide them at a later date.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said in the report, made public in Rome on Friday, that the country would enter 1999 with a large food deficit and would need to import 1.35 million tonnes of food grain, including 1.05 million tonnes as food assistance.

The report, based on the findings of a crop and food supply assessment carried out by a team which toured the country extensively last month, forecasts the country's cereal production for 1998/99 at 3.5 million tonnes, which is 30 per cent higher than last year's severely reduced crop. However, the report adds, this harvest is not enough to cover minimum consumption needs for eighty months. It points out that apart from foreign exchange constraints that limit commercial imports, the general economic decline in the country and natural disasters have seriously compromised food security in the country.

The report recommends that out of the 1,05 million tonnes of food aid needed, some 480,000 tonnes should be targeted mostly to children, hospital patients and pregnant and nursing women.

The report also calls for immediate attention to be focused on improving supplies for agricultural production, mainly fertilizers, spare parts and fuel to enable the country to produce enough food to meet its minimum needs. "It is imperative that the international assistance to agriculture be increased substantially from its current low levels," the report says, adding that food security in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will crucially depend on solutions to the major economic difficulties in the country.

In a statement issued by his spokesman in New York, the Secretary- General paid tribute to King Norodom Sihanouk who presided over a meeting between the leadership of Cambodia's People's Party and FUNCIPEC which agreed to convene a newly elected National Assembly on 25 November and form the government.

Mr. Annan also congratulated Samdech Hun Sen and Prince Norodom Ranariddh for the outcome of their summit meeting. He expressed the hope that this initial agreement would lead to the early formation of a new Government that would mark the opening of a new chapter of reconciliation and cooperation among political parties in Cambodia.

In a report to the General Assembly, the Secretary-General recalled that his Special Envoy, Mr. Alvaro de Soto visited Myanmar twice this year and met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs in New York to discuss a range of issues which had been repeatedly raised by the General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission in their annual resolutions.

Mr. Annan said that the issues raised with the authorities of Myanmar included, in particular, progress towards the restoration of democracy in the light of the 1990 elections, the opening of a substantive dialogue with political parties, particularly the National League for Democracy (NLD) and its General Secretary, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and representatives of the national races. Mr. de Soto also raised the issue of restrictions on the functioning of the NLD and other political parties, the situation of human rights and, in this connection, the need for the Special Rapporteur to visit Myanmar.

On the issue of a dialogue with political parties, in particular the NLD and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Government maintained that the party and Aung San Suu Kyi in particular had adopted a negative approach towards the Government's actions which made it difficult to establish contacts with that political party. Regarding the visit of the Special Rapporteur, the Government reiterated that he would be invited at an opportune time, the report of the Secretary-General said.

Mr. Annan said that, for its part, the NLD reported an overall deterioration of the situation in the country. There were widespread harassment against its members and supporters, including forced resignations from the party, arbitrary arrests, torture, suppression of freedom of expression and association, and severe and enforced restrictions on movement and other normal political activities.

The Secretary-General said that he was disappointed by his inability to report that the Government had made progress in addressing repeated appeals to take measures to improve the situation in the country. He said that he believed efforts should be intensified in the coming months to address those appeals.

Those charges include responsibility for the murder of 10 Belgian soldiers of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR), and the former Rwandan Prime Minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, in April 1994 in Rwanda.

According to the indictment, Mr. Ntuyahaga was responsible for disarming and arresting the ten Belgian soldiers who had been sent to escort the Prime Minister. "Immediately thereafter, members of the Presidential Guard, the Para-Commando Battalion and the Reconnaissance Battalion proceeded to track down, arrest, sexually assault and kill the Prime Minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana."

By preventing the UNAMIR personnel from protecting and escorting the Prime Minister, Mr. Ntuyahaga, is alleged to have facilitated her assassination.

It is also alleged that after their arrest the Belgian soldiers were taken to Kigali camp by Ntuyahaga in a Rwandan Army minibus. On arrival at the camp, the accused addressed the Rwandan soldiers who were there and asserted that the Belgian soldiers were responsible for the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana. Immediately thereafter, the UNAMIR soldiers were attacked and beaten by Rwandan soldiers in the presence of Rwandan Army officers including Mr. Ntuyahaga. Four of the Belgian soldiers were killed on the spot, and the remaining six withstood several attacks for a number of hours before finally being killed.

All these actions, it is alleged, were part of a systematic attack against a civilian population on political or national grounds, thereby constituting a crime against humanity.

The Court will hear oral statements on 7 and 8 December in the request for an advisory opinion concerning the Difference Relating to Immunity from Legal Process of a Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights.

The United Nations will be the first to speak. Costa Rica, Italy and Malaysia will follow, according to the ICJ.

The case centres on differing interpretations of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. The Economic and Social Council had requested the Court to offer its opinion as to the Convention's application to the suit against submitted to the Court.

So far, written statements on the matter have been submitted to the Court by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan as well as , the following States submitted written statements within the time-limit fixed: Costa Rica, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States. Greece submitted a written statement after expiry of the time-limit, but the President of the Court gave leave for this late filing.

Further, as provided by the Order of 10 August, the Secretary- General and the above-mentioned eight States had until 6 November to file written comments on the other written statements. Besides the Secretary- General, the following States submitted such written comments: Costa Rica, Malaysia and United States. A written communication was also received from Luxembourg.

The written statements and the written comments are not yet available to the press and public. They will be made public after the opening of the oral proceedings.

The request for an advisory opinion was made last August by the Economic and Social Council. The case relates to Param Cumaraswamy, a Malaysian jurist who in 1994 was appointed Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers by the Commission on Human Rights, a subsidiary organ of the Council.

Mr. Cumaraswamy currently faces several lawsuits filed in Malaysian courts by different plaintiffs for damages in a total amount of $112 million. The plaintiffs assert that he used defamatory language in an interview he gave in 1995 to International Commercial Litigation magazine.

However, according to the Secretary-General, Mr. Cumaraswamy spoke in his official capacity as Special Rapporteur and was thus immune from legal process by virtue of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.

Moves by the United Nations Secretary-General to ensure respect for this immunity did not lead, in his view, to any appropriate intervention by the Malaysian Government in the Malaysian courts.

At the invitation of the Governments of the two countries, Ms. Ouhachi- Ksentini will hold consultations with officials and with representatives of non-governmental organizations on issues pertaining to her mandate. In Costa Rica, she will also meet with representatives of the Inter-America Court of Human Rights in order to examine legal measures aimed at countering the illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes in the Latin American region. She will also visit Paraguay and Brazil at a later date.

With this latest initiative, the DPI is reinforcing its continuing commitment to making information available to as wide an audience as possible in the most cost-effective manner.

Among other features, the new pages contain information about the United Nations and its organs, the Organization's Charter, the Statute of the International Court of Justice, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the latest report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Organization, numerous resolutions of the General Assembly from its fifty-second session, as well as the agenda and programme of work for the fifty-third session.

Also included are lists of Member States, information for delegations, online tours of Headquarters and the United Nations Office at Geneva, as well as parts of the "CyberSchoolbus" educational project.

The sites are located at http://www.un.org/arabic and http://www.un.org/chinese, respectively.

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

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