United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-03-24

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Wednesday, 24 March, 1999

HEADLINES

• Security Council meets in emergency session as NATO launches airstrikes.
• Secretary-General deeply regrets failure of diplomacy to halt bloodshed in Kosovo.
• All UN humanitarian workers out of Kosovo; few staff remain in Belgrade.
• Yugoslav diplomat says NATO attacks would be blow to international relations and prestige of United Nations.
• Security Council members express support for establishment of national unity government in Guinea-Bissau.
• UN refugee chief urges stronger action to prevent violence against civilians during armed conflicts.
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights praises United Kingdom court ruling in Pinochet case.
• Top UN peacekeeper says cooperation with regional organizations should not leave UN on sidelines of conflict.
• Population Preparatory Committee chairman urges donors to raise commitment to UN action plan.
• Nations to set up worldwide high-tech network to monitor illicit drug crops.
• UN health chief urges stronger commitment to fight tuberculosis.

Several delegates described the NATO action as a last resort to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo after the failure of all diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution. Security Council resolutions recognized that the situation in Kosovo was a threat to regional peace and security and invoked Chapter VII of the Charter, they said.

However, other representatives condemned what they described as the unilateral use of force against a sovereign State, in violation of the United Nations Charter and without Security Council authorization.

Ambassador Sergey Lavrov of the Russian Federation, said his Government was "profoundly outraged" at the NATO attacks, which he warned could have long- term negative consequences for a settlement in Kosovo, security in the Balkans and also for stability of the "whole contemporary multipolar system of international relations". He demanded an end to the military action.

The United States representative, Peter Burleigh, said NATO had initiated action with the greatest reluctance to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and deter further aggression and repression in Kosovo. Yugoslavia's continuing offensive was threatening stability in the region.

The representative of France, Alain Dejammet, said Belgrade had failed to honour its international obligations and its agreements. The international community could not abandon the Kosovo people to violent repression. Human rights was also at stake. Belgrade must be convinced that the only way to settle the situation was by halting military action and accepting the Rambouillet agreements.

Jeremy Greenstock of the United Kingdom said President Slobodan Milosevic was once again forcing people out of their homes and burning entire villages creating 65,000 newly displaced people in the last month alone. Every means had been tried to avert the situation, he said. As an exceptional measure, on the grounds of overwhelming humanitarian necessity, military intervention was legally justifiable.

Ambassador Huasun Qin of China said the NATO action had seriously exacerbated the situation in the Balkans in blatant violation of the UN Charter and international law. The problem was an internal matter which should be solved by the parties in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. China was opposed interference in the internal affairs of another State on whatever pretext or in whatever form and he called for an immediate end to the military attacks.

The representative of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Vladislav Jovanovic, said NATO's attack was brutal and unprovoked. His Government had not threatened any country, but had only sought to solve an internal problem, resist terrorism and prevent secession of part of its territory. He warned that NATO must assume responsibility for the unforeseen consequences of their actions and said his country had no alternative but to defend its territorial integrity by all means.

The Secretary-General was speaking at UN headquarters in New York after NATO missiles struck at the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Throughout the last year he had appealed to the Yugoslav authorities and the Kosovo Albanians to seek peace over war, compromise over conflict, he said. "It is indeed tragic that diplomacy had failed, but there are times when the use of force may be legitimate in the pursuit of peace."

In helping maintain international peace and security, Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter assigns an important role to regional organizations, the Secretary-General said. But, under the Charter, the Security Council had primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security -- and this was explicitly acknowledged in the North Atlantic Treaty. "Therefore the Council should be involved in any decision to resort to peace," he said.

A UN spokesman said that remaining staff in Belgrade included personnel from the UN High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, described Tuesday's decision to evacuate her staff from Kosovo as "tormenting" and vowed that the agency would go back to the province as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, UNHCR reported on Wednesday that about 300 people had crossed from Kosovo to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, but there were no major movements of refugees across borders.

At a UN press conference in New York before the attacks were launched, Ambassador Vladislav Jovanovic said the United Nations had been systematically pushed aside from taking part in the resolution of the Kosovo crisis. The attacks by NATO would transform it from a defensive military alliance to an aggressive one, he said.

Ambassador Jovanovic said his Government was in a position to control and rule its territory without any foreign military presence. What existed in Kosovo was not war, but terrorism that was openly assisted by some Western countries. The road to a political solution was still open if Western countries were seriously interested in a final political settlement through the resumption of talks.

In a statement to the press, Council President Huasun Qin of China said that Council members wished that the timetable for general elections in Guinea-Bissau could be worked out at an early date and called for United Nations assistance.

Members of the Council called on States to provide financial assistance for rehabilitation work in Guinea-Bissau and to ECOMOG -- the West African peacekeeping force. They said they expected the round table conference scheduled for early May in Geneva would be successful.

In remarks to the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Ms. Ogata said civilians were increasingly becoming targets of armed conflicts, from Kosovo in the Balkans and Sierra Leone in Africa to Indonesia in the Far East. Brutality against civilians was a feature of today's conflicts with women and children being particularly victimized.

Ms. Ogata warned against efforts to dismiss international human rights standards as "utopian aspirations". Humanitarian work alone could not be a substitute for timely and firm action on a political level, she said. In Kosovo where a quarter of the population had been driven from their homes, "even the most determined humanitarian action could not prevent a slide towards disaster".

The House of Lords handed down its landmark ruling on Wednesday denying Senator Pinochet's claim that he was immune from extradition proceedings. However, the Law Lords ruled that most of the charges be dropped because they dated before 1988 when Britain adopted an international law banning torture.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, described the ruling as a "vigorous endorsement" of the view that torture was an international crime subject to universal jurisdiction. "National courts can try torturers even when the crime had been committed elsewhere," Ms. Robinson said in Geneva.

The Law Lords left no doubt as to the applicability of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to anyone accused of such crimes, said Ms. Robinson. Their decision, she said, was another significant step in the international struggle against impunity.

In his opening statement to the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bernard Miyet stressed that the UN Charter underlines the primary role of the United Nations in maintaining international peace and security.

Mr. Miyet said that United Nations operations represented formal external intervention that was unique in its legitimacy and in its ability to draw the world's attention. It was up to the international community to make proper use of the extraordinary instrument it had created.

In other business, Ibrahim Gambari of Nigeria was elected Chairman of the Special Committee as it meets to consider reports by the Secretary-General on the implementation of recommendations regarding peacekeeping operations made by the Special Committee and the enhancement of African peacekeeping capacity.

Speaking at a briefing on Wednesday, the chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the special session of the General Assembly for the review and appraisal of the implementation of the programme of action of the ICPD, Ambassador Anwarul Chowdury of Bangladesh, pointed out that resources from donors to support population policies in the developing nations had fallen in the past two years.

The Preparatory Committee is being held at UN Headquarters from 24 to 31 March, ahead of the 30 June to 2 July special session of the General Assembly.

Also speaking at the briefing, Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director or the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said the agency planned to raise about $400 million for its programmes this year. The funds are expected from Member States, some of who have already announced their pledges, as well as from foundations and other non-governmental sources.

The Commission on Narcotic Drugs adopted at its annual meeting a resolution requesting the UN International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) to help governments develop the capacity to monitor illicit growing of the coca bush, cannabis plant and opium poppy, in order to meet drug control targets set at last June's General Assembly Special Session to eradicate illicit crops.

The UNDCP would establish a central data bank with information supplied by governments on illicit cultivation and report annually to the Commission on progress made in eliminating these crops.

"This is a big step forward in the strategy to eliminate illicit crops worldwide," said UNDCP Executive Director Pino Arlacchi. "The international community now has an instrument that will accurately measure all progress to eradicate illicit crops and promote alternative development."

The Commission's agreement is the follow-up to an action plan drawn up at the June 1998 Special Session of the General Assembly on international drug control when nations agreed to design monitoring systems for illicit drug crops and report their findings to UNDCP.

"We are at a crossroads in the global tuberculosis epidemic," said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). "We have a cure, we need to mobilize the world to use it."

A WHO report said the agency's recommended treatment was effective against the rise of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and the eight million new cases of TB each year.

To overcome inadequate responses by countries to the epidemic, WHO announced the launch of a new initiative, in partnership with other organizations, to accelerate the control of TB by 2005. Despite some progress over the last four years in combating TB, the agency said it fell short of targets set for 2000 for detecting and treating the disease.

In Africa, where one-third of TB patients are also infected with HIV, cure rates are reported to be low. "Fortunately, TB can be cured, even in HIV- infected individuals, if it is diagnosed in time and treated properly," said Dr. Peter Piot, head of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

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

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