United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-07-01

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 1 July, 1999

Latest Developments

HEADLINES

• UN moves to set up judicial system in Kosovo.
• Kosovo refugees returning home with "lightning speed", says UNHCR.
• Armed militia attack second UN compound in East Timor.
• Slow growth of global economy poses threat for poor nations, UN warns.
• World Food Programme announces major relief effort to help flood-ravaged Bangladesh.
• UN's law of sea tribunal renders first judgement in dispute over unlawful arrest of ship.

Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello, who is in charge of setting up the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), appointed nine judicial officials who will serve on "a kind of itinerant court", according to a UN spokesman. The court will provide due process throughout Kosovo to people arrested and held by the KFOR international security forces, which up to now have been releasing suspects in accordance with European Commission guidelines requiring detainees to be brought before a judge or court within 48 hours of arrest.

Meanwhile, Mr. Vieira de Mello, continued to discuss reintegration problems and the maintenance of essential services with ethnic Albanian political leaders. In his latest meeting with them in Pristina on Wednesday, he also addressed the need for Albanian leaders to call on their supporters to reject extremism and violence.

Mr. Vieira de Mello said he would consult separately with the various parties before making a final decision on his proposed high-level transitional council. The council, which would include representatives from the Albanian and Serb communities, would act as a consultative body on Kosovo-wide issues.

In an attempt to ease tensions between ethnic Albanians and Serbs, Mr. Vieira de Mello and his UNMIK team also travelled to the towns of Mitrovica, Orahovac, Pec and Prizren to meet with community leaders.

Speaking at a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Petersen said over half a million people had flooded back in the last two weeks. While UNHCR was pleased that people were able to return home, reclaim their property and prepare for what would be a difficult winter, the agency was at the same time concerned that the refugees were returning to a security, political and economic vacuum.

Mr. Petersen said UNHCR and its humanitarian partners could help with immediate relief by providing food and emergency shelter, but they did not have the resources to engage in the larger reconstruction which was "absolutely essential to consolidate the returns".

One of UNHCR's main concerns in Kosovo was protection, said the Assistant Commissioner. An estimated 50,000 to 60,000 Serbs had left in the last two or three weeks and the UN agency was urging all sides to exercise restraint so as not to provoke a new refugee exodus of Serbs who were not involved in atrocities and who wanted to stay but were "dead scared".

The UN agency was particularly concerned about some 5,000 Krajina Serbs who were "under immediate and direct threat", said Mr. Petersen. These people were sheltering in collective centres and many would have to be evacuated for their own safety. Belgrade had been forcing some Serbs who had fled Kosovo back against their will, he added.

Mr. Petersen said UNHCR had also appealed to the international community not to forget the impact the refugee crisis had on Montenegro and the asylum countries -- Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which together had taken in about 850,000 people. He also urged third countries who had taken in refugees as part of the emergency evacuation programme not to rush to send them back until conditions in Kosovo improved.

Yesterday's attack in Vikeke follows an incident Tuesday in which about 200 militia threw rocks and severely damaged the UN electoral office in Maliana. One UN staff member and about a dozen local Timorese were injured.

According to UN officials in Dili, in the latest episode about 15 members of a militia surrounded and threatened UN staff at their residence. After a discussion between staff members and local police, which at some point involved a local militia leader, there seemed to be agreement that a similar incident would not happen again. However, shortly afterwards the militia showed up again, triggering the decision to temporarily relocate the electoral officers. Seven other staff, including UN civilian police and a security officer, remain behind.

At a news conference in Dili, the spokesman for the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), David Wimhurst, said that the chief of security for UNAMET had been dispatched to Vikeke and would meet with local police officers.

The UN hoped that the situation would stabilize and staff could return to their work, Mr. Wimhurst said. In the meantime, UNAMET would report the situation to UN Headquarters in New York, where Secretary-General Kofi Annan could eventually make his own assessment of the security situation in East Timor.

In response to a question, Mr. Wimhurst said the UN was not considering provisions to arm its civilian police. "The Indonesian police are mandated to protect us and that situation is not going to change," he said.

Meanwhile, a UN spokesman in New York announced that information about UNAMET and its activities was now available on the Internet at www.un.org/peace/etimor/etimor.htm. The site contains UNAMET civic education materials, UN documents on East Timor, UNAMET radio programmes and other facts and figures. In addition to English, some of the information will soon be also available in Tetun, Bahasa Indonesia and Portuguese.

The report on "The World Economy in 1999" says that an external shock of market turmoil set back and even reversed those countries' efforts to foster the expansion of the modern sectors at the very point when they seemed set to take fuller advantage of their integration in the global economy.

"The financial crises of the past two years, and ensuing economic slowdowns, have dealt a stunning blow to world development prospects," said UN Under- Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Nitin Desai, who presented the report at a press conference at UN Headquarters.

The UN is forecasting world economic growth of only 2 per cent for 1999, following an estimated growth rate of 1.9 per cent last year. Meanwhile the growth rates in the developing countries of 1.7 per cent in 1998 and 2.5 per cent in 1999 figure to be considerably lower than in any other year of the current decade. The economies in transition, which had achieved an average growth of 2.4 per cent in 1997 after years of steep decline in the early 1990's, have lost their momentum. The UN projects economic decline of 1/2 per cent in those countries in 1999.

The report suggests that a growth rate of output per person of about 3 per cent a year needs to be sustained to allow progress in raising living standards and reducing poverty. Only 13 developing countries are forecast to grow enough to meet that benchmark in 1999, compared to 39 in 1996.

The "World Economy in 1999" report is on the agenda of a high- level meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council to be held in Geneva on 5 July. The report follows UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan' letter last month to the G-8 summit in Cologne, Germany, in which he called on the leading industrialized countries to take measure to increase world economic growth and to take greater account of the needs of the poor.

The year-long operation will focus on rebuilding activities while also providing food relief to the poorest and most vulnerable segments of the population affected by the worst floods in country's history.

The Rome-based UN agency will provide food to 2.9 million Bangladeshis, 631, 000 of whom will receive the ratios as payment for their efforts to reclaim rural roads, community fish ponds, plantations and flood protection embankments.

As part of this food-for-work programme, participants will also raise the level of public grounds and houses to limit future flood damage. The operation, which follows a seven-month emergency relief programme immediately following the floods, will also help 360,000 Bangladeshi women to restart their small trade- and agriculture-based enterprises.

WFP, the world's largest food aid agency, emphasized the country's pressing needs because of its endemic poverty and vulnerability to natural disasters.

"We at WFP strongly urge the donor community to help us in our effort to rebuild Bangladesh's infrastructure, which was so heavily damaged by the floods," said Azeb Asrat, the agency's programme coordinator for Bangladesh.

The Hamburg-based Tribunal awarded Saint Vincent and the Grenadines over $2.1 million as compensation and allotted damages to individual members of the crew and other persons on board.

The case stems from an incident in October 1997 when the M/V "Saiga" flying the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was attacked by a Guinean patrol boat, which arrested the tanker's crew members, confiscated the cargo and seized the ship.

The Tribunal found that Guinea had used excessive force and endangered human life in that incident. It also said there was "no excuse" for the fact that the Guinean officers fired directly at the ship with live ammunition from a fast-moving patrol boat without issuing any of the signals and warnings required by international law and practice.

The 21-member Tribunal is a forum for settling disputes arising out of the interpretation or application of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which entered into force in 1994.

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

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