United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-05-11

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, 11 May, 1999

Latest Developments

HEADLINES

• UNHCR warns funds are drying up for aid to Kosovo refugees.
• High-level meeting in Geneva to examine UN system's response to the Kosovo crisis.
• UN refugee agency to team up with Microsoft to register Kosovo refugees in Albania.
• Gift from Israel unveiled at UN to mark 50th anniversary of country's membership in the Organization.

UNHCR appealed for $143 million for its Kosovo operations for the first six months of this year, but so far has received only $71 million and all of that has been spent. If significant resources were not announced immediately, the agency said, it would not be able to make essential commitments to assist the refugees.

High Commissioner Sadako Ogata appealed particularly to European countries to provide the financial means to cope with what she called a European tragedy. "We are providing only the most basic needs of the refugees and there is so far no end to the conflict in sight or to the human suffering," Mrs. Ogata said.

UNHCR said it is working with European donors to reduce bureaucratic hurdles which have delayed contributions. But funds were needed now to improve sanitation in overcrowded camps and step up garbage collection to avoid outbreaks of disease in the summer heat. Water is being provided by tankers, a very expensive exercise.

"Improving camp conditions as summer approaches is a top priority," Mrs. Ogata said, noting that the UN agency had to deal with one of the largest refugee flows Europe has seen this century. "But we also need to prepare for new refugee flows and to be ready to help refugees to return home as soon as that is possible."

In only six weeks, around 780,000 refugees have fled to neighbouring countries, according to UNHCR. Some 36,000 have been evacuated to other parts of Europe, North America and Australia, but 423,000 remain in Albania, 241,000 in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, 63,000 in Montenegro and 18,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Since the end of March, UNHCR has put into place a supply pipeline in which over $37 million has been invested. Five planes per week are bringing 2,000 tents into Skopje and Tirana, 40,000 kitchen sets have been delivered and 100 trucks are being loaded each week in various European countries with blankets, mattresses, hygienic parcels and other aid materials.

At the meeting, which is scheduled to begin on Thursday, the Secretary- General will be joined by his two Special Envoys for the Balkans, Carl Bildt and Eduard Kukan. Also attending the high-level conference will be the President of the World Bank and the heads of UN agencies, funds, programmes and departments dealing with political affairs, peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, human rights and development.

On Friday, the participants will be joined by representatives of non- governmental organizations operating in the Balkans, as well as the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Ottunu.

The new registration system will provide relief agencies with a critical tool to registering refugees quickly, issuing new identification documents, and facilitate the reunification of separated families. UNHCR said the first phase of the registration will begin on 17 May while the final phase, including issuance of identity cards, will commence in early June.

More than 400,000 Kosovars have crossed the border into Albania in the past six weeks and the majority have been stripped of all identification. Many have been separated from their families.

"We are very impressed with the generous and quick response by Microsoft and its partners", said High Commissioner Sadako Ogata. "Without their help the registration exercise would be substantially more difficult," she added.

Meanwhile, UNHCR is stepping up its efforts to move refugees away from the borders areas in countries neighbouring Kosovo. Agency staff are planning to take refugee leaders from the camps in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on "look and see" visits to Albania.

In the northern Albanian border area of Kukes, where there are close to 100, 000 refugees, UNHCR has started its latest information campaign to persuade them to move to other parts of the country. The campaign will explain that the area is not considered safe, and that arrangements to receive refugees further south are in place.

At an unveiling ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York, Secretary- General Kofi Annan said that the lintel had made "quite a journey: from the far reaches of antiquity to the modern era; from a house of worship to this house of diplomacy; and from the land of prophets and penitents to this new site amid the art and peoples of many nations."

Noting that the lintel had found a new home, Mr. Annan told an audience, which included Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon, that today a new climate had taken hold in relations between Israel and the United Nations. The Secretary-General stressed that the goals sought by Israel -- peace, security and an end to fear and upheaval -- were the United Nations goals that the Organization sought for all peoples.

"I have no doubt that Israel and the United Nations will continue to work as partners, in the Middle East and beyond," the Secretary-General said as he conveyed his congratulations and best wishes to the Government and people of Israel on the occasion of the anniversary.

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

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