United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-09-15

United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Wednesday, 15 September, 1999

Latest Developments

HEADLINES

• Security Council authorizes international security force in East Timor.
• UN food agency readying emergency air drop to feed East Timorese refugees.
• UN begins recruiting for new Kosovo Corps.

Acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter which authorizes the use of force, the Council decided that the mission should be collectively deployed in East Timor until replaced by a UN peacekeeping operation. Secretary- General Kofi Annan was invited to make recommendations on such an operation.

The adopted authorized the multinational force to protect and support the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) and to facilitate humanitarian assistance operations in the territory.

According to the terms of the resolution, the expenses of the force will be borne by the participating Member States, with a trust fund to be established by the Secretary-General through which contributions could be channelled to the States and operations concerned.

By other provisions of the resolution, the Secretary-General was also invited to prepare for a UN transitional administration in East Timor, incorporating a peacekeeping operation, to be deployed for the implementation phase of the 30 August popular consultation in which an overwhelming majority of the East Timorese had voted for independence from Indonesia.

The Council voiced deep concern for the deteriorating security situation in East Timor and condemned the violence that has gone unchecked for the past two weeks. Calling for an immediate end to the aggression and demanding that the responsible parties be brought to justice, the Council also stressed the responsibility of the Indonesian authorities to take immediate and effective steps to ensure the safe return of refugees to East Timor.

(Click here for of meeting.)

Using for the first time the innovative "snow-drop" technology, WFP will send to Darwin, Australia, a cargo plane loaded with 70 tonnes of high- energy biscuits packed in 350,000 plastic packages shaped into wings, allowing them to float and circle to the ground and ensuring a soft landing.

The UN food agency is also contracting commercial helicopters to deliver food to 30,000 people in the hills around the East Timor capital Dili.

Meanwhile, personnel from the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) has helped to deliver six metric tonnes of rice provided by the Indonesian military for some 50,000 residents of Dili who were hiding in the mountains near the town of Dare, about 10 kilometres south of the capital city. A UN spokesman said that according to a local priest, the displaced Dili residents, roughly half the capital's population, lacked food, especially milk for the children, and medical supplies to deal with diarrhoea and malaria.

UNAMET staff visited their abandoned compound last night and found the windows of their vehicles had been broken and the radios stolen, the spokesman said. On returning to the compound today, however, they found that some of the radios had been clumsily reinstalled.

The new force - which will be known as the "Kosovo Corps" - would be mobilized throughout Kosovo to help with reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts, and to respond to natural disasters and other emergencies, UN spokeswoman Daniela Rozgonova told a press conference today in Kosovo's capital, Pristina.

The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), in collaboration with the KFOR international security force and the Kosovo Liberation Army, was establishing and would oversee the activities of the Corps, expected to number 5,000, Ms. Rozgonova said.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) will begin screening applicants and registering potential candidates for the Kosovo Corps next week.

Also speaking at today's press briefing in Pristina, KFOR spokesman Major Ole Irgens said that the Kosovo Corps would not be an army or a defense force, nor would it play a role in law enforcement.

The UN Security Council had established KFOR as the one legal security presence in Kosovo; any other security presence is illegal, Major Irgens said.

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

United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article