United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-09-16

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 16 September, 1999

HEADLINES

• Security Council opens debate on protecting civilians in armed conflict.
• General Assembly President says UN reform, debt relief among key issues of millennium's final session.
• Senior UN official in East Timor surveys damage in aftermath of two weeks of violence.
• UN relief agencies gearing up preparations for humanitarian assistance efforts in East Timor.
• Kouchner discusses UN Kosovo operation with Russian Foreign Minister.
• Fatal attack against aid worker in Sudan condemned by UNICEF, top UN humanitarian official.

In introducing his report at the outset of the discussion, the Secretary- General Kofi Annan said the United Nations must respond by more than "meetings, speeches and reports" to ensure that crises around the globe are brought to an end.

"It must respond in the name of the principles of the Charter and the values of humanity," the Secretary-General said. "The essence of the United Nations work is to establish human security where it is no longer present, where it is under threat, or where it never existed. This is our humanitarian imperative."

The report contains 40 concrete recommendations, which the Secretary- General said he believes can help improve the security of civilians in armed conflict and provide the Council with tools and strategies, which it can use to respond to particular situations.

In her remarks to the Council, Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said civilians were no longer just victims of war but rather regarded today as instruments of war. "Starving, terrorizing, murdering, raping civilians - all are seen as legitimate," she said, calling it a terrible state of affairs in the year after the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Council suspended its meeting until Friday morning, when it is expected to take action on a draft resolution.

At a press conference Thursday, Mr. Gurirab said that UN reform, including the membership of the Security Council, and alleviating the heavy external debt of developing countries were some of the key issues on the 172-item agenda of the current Assembly session.

"The United Nations belongs to all of us - big and small, rich and poor, developed and developing," Mr. Gurirab said. "The time has come for us to have a look at the ways in which we do business at the United Nations."

The President also noted that one of the issues closest to his heart is the plight of the world's children, "who languish in horrific conditions created by armed conflicts, created by us, the adults."

Mr. Gurirab praised the Security Council for adopting last month its first- ever resolution specifically dealing with the welfare and protection of children in armed conflict and reiterated his pledge to do whatever he could "in the worldwide campaign against this scourge."

According to the spokesman, Brigadier General Rezaqul Haider of Bangladesh visited Baucau, about 100 kilometres east of the capital Dili, where he saw roughly every other house looted and burned. 53 UN vehicles were found trashed and unusable. Much of the central market was also burned out, although about a dozen vendors were selling items on the street.

General Haider was able to speak to some local people, who were smiling but who "had the fear of the unknown in their eyes," spokesman Fred Eckhard said. One woman told the General she was from Dili, and that militia from Baucau had rounded up her family and forced them to the town. The male family members had escaped into the hills, she said.

International staff in Baucau witnessed a farewell ceremony at the airport for the local militia, who then marched in smart military formation onto an Indonesian C-130 aircraft and flew off. The Baucau militia appeared to be in the process of liquidation, General Rezaqul said.

Meanwhile, Indonesian and Australian military officials continued their talks on the operational relationship between the multinational force and the Indonesian Army, Mr. Eckhard said. Preparations for the Security Council-authorized mission in East Timor were under way in Darwin, Australia.

The coordinator of the UN's humanitarian efforts in East Timor, Ross Mountain, arrived in Darwin, Australia, where various UN agencies are finalizing preparations to deploy to the territory's capital Dili over the weekend, spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

The World Food Program (WFP) is charged with running logistics and food operations, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will be responsible for non-food items and the protection of displaced persons and refugees and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) will oversee health and water.

A joint mission of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the International Red Cross is scheduled to travel from Dili to Dare during the next two days to deliver relief supplies to internally displaced persons concentrated at a camp.

According to UNICEF, as many as half a million people have been forced from their homes and are facing severe nutritional and health risks. Some 75,000 are estimated to be under the age of five.

During a two and a half hour meeting, Dr. Kouchner and Foreign Minister Ivanov reviewed the protection of ethnic groups in Kosovo, particularly Serbs, and the need to speed up the process of reconciliation, according to a statement released Thursday by the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

During the meeting, in which the Russian Foreign Minister reiterated his support for UNMIK, issues of sovereignty and demilitarization in Kosovo were also considered.

Speaking to the press following the talks, Dr. Kouchner said the security and protection of all minorities in Kosovo were his constant preoccupation. In meetings last week in New York, he had urged the international community to double the proposed capacity of the UN international civilian police force in Kosovo to 6,000. Currently there are 1,200 UN police deployed in Kosovo.

Responding to a question on the demilitarization of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), due to be completed 19 September, Dr. Kouchner said he hoped by that date "no one will be wearing uniforms or bearing arms other than KFOR and the UN international police" in Kosovo.

While the KFOR international security force is responsible for KLA demobilization, UNMIK would participate in efforts to transform the KLA into a civilian defence corps to help with reconstruction and respond to emergencies, he said.

In a statement issued today in New York, UNICEF lamented with profound regret and sorrow the passing away of Dr. Ayub Sheikh Yerow who died Thursday morning from a gun shot wound in a North Mogadishu hospital.

Dr. Ayub was wounded on the evening of 15 September while travelling by road on a planning assignment for the October National Immunization Day to vaccinate approximately one million children in Somalia.

"Dr. Ayub's death adds one more to a growing list of casualties involving humanitarian workers courageously seeking to carry on life-saving missions in extremely dangerous situations," UNICEF said, stressing that such attacks were a completely unacceptable violation of international law and fundamental human rights.

Echoing this sentiment, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Sergio Vieira de Mello, said in a statement that the attack served as "a grim reminder" of the impunity with which lives are taken in conflict areas around the world.

"I trust that local authorities will take immediate measures to apprehend those responsible and ensure that the safety of humanitarian workers is guaranteed," Mr Vieira de Mello said.

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

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