United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-11-16

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

BY FRED ECKHARD

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

UN HEADQUARTERS

NEW YORK

Tuesday, November 16, 1999

SECRETARY-GENERAL DISCUSSES FALUN GONG IN BEIJING

The Secretary-General met for almost two and a half hours this morning with Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan. Their wide-ranging discussions, which included the situation of the Falun Gong, continued over lunch.

This afternoon, the Secretary-General met with President Jiang Zemin for over an hour and then with Vice Premier Qian Qichen.

With all three leaders, he discussed a range of political, economic, social, disarmament and human rights issues, as well as regional matters in Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans.

The Secretary-General raised the Falun Gong issue with both the Foreign Minister and the President, who explained to him how they saw the problem. The Secretary-General stressed the importance of respecting the fundamental rights of those involved. He offered the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme's project on governance to help strengthen the country's capacity to deal with this problem in accordance with international practice and norms.

The Secretary-General concludes his visit to China tomorrow morning, and then flies to Istanbul, Turkey, the next stop on his current tour.

SECURITY COUNCIL DISCUSSES DRC, AFGHANISTAN

The Security Council today met in informal consultations on the situations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Afghanistan.

They began with a briefing on the DRC by the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Bernard Miyet, and Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahima Fall.

They briefed the Council on the recent meetings between Special Representative of the Secretary-General Moustapha Niasse and DRC officials, including President Laurent Kabila; and on the work of the UN technical team in the country. The technical team visited Goma yesterday, and is beginning a series of visits to smaller, rebel-held towns.

After the DRC briefing, the Council is expected to hear from Francesc Vendrell, Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, on Afghanistan.

The offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were closed today in Afghanistan following the violent demonstrations yesterday against the United Nations after UN sanctions against the Taliban went into effect. In those attacks, a UNHCR office in Farah was burned to the ground and other offices in Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kabul, Herat and Jalalabad were attacked.

Erick de Mul, the United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan, travelled to Kabul today with Louis Georges Arsenault, Country Representative for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), to request that the Taliban provide further cooperation in respecting security arrangements.

In response to questions on the slow deployment of UN forces in the DRC, the Spokesman said that delays in deploying liaison officers had resulted from the lack of security guarantees and of permission from the DRC Government for UN personnel to travel to all the areas specified in their mandate. He said that "there may be some frustration, but no guilt" in the United Nations' handling of the situation.

Eckhard added that the cease-fire agreement, although shaky, was now showing some results, including the mission of the technical team. "We keep plodding ahead here, two steps forward, one step back," he said.

SECRETARY-GENERAL HOPES FOR CONSENSUS ON IRAQ

In response to a question about Security Council discussions on Iraq, the Spokesman said the Secretary-General hopes that the five permanent members of the Security Council can build a consensus within the Council, and that Iraq will then accept the results. He noted recent reports of progress among the permanent Council members on Iraq but refused to comment on whether they were any closer to agreement.

KLEIN MEETING WITH MOTHERS OF SREBRENICA

Today in Sarajevo, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jacques Klein met for about an hour with a delegation of family members of victims of Srebrenica. During the meeting, Mr. Klein handed them a copy of the report of the Secretary-General on Srebrenica, which was made public yesterday unofficially. The group, called AMothers of Srebrenica@, had demonstrated last week in front of the UN building in Sarajevo, demanding to know when the report was going to be issued.

OGATA TO TRAVEL TO RUSSIA AS SECRETARY-GENERAL'S ENVOY

Sadako Ogata, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, will be travelling to Russia as the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General. She will leave today to follow up on the assessment mission that was sent to the Northern Caucasus from 3-8 November.

EAST TIMOR INQUIRY CLEARED BY ECOSOC

Yesterday, the Economic and Social Council endorsed the call by the Human Rights Commission for the Secretary-General to establish an International Commission of Inquiry on human rights violations in East Timor. The Council took that action by a roll-call vote of 27 in favour to 10 against, with 11 abstentions.

The members of the International Commission of Inquiry will meet in Geneva this week to prepare for their deployment to East Timor, and they are scheduled to travel to the region at the end of the week. They will interview witnesses and visit sites where rights violations were reported to have occurred. They will return to Geneva to prepare their final report to the Secretary-General, which must be submitted by 31 December.

NEW UNIFIL COMMANDER APPOINTED

The Secretary-General has appointed Maj. Gen. Seth Kofi Obeng of Ghana as Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). His appointment will take effect on 1 December. Major-General Obeng succeeds Maj. Gen. Jioje Konousi Konrote of Fiji, who has severed as Force Commander until 31 September. The Secretary-General pays tribute to Major-General Konrote for his service.

MEMORIAL SERVICES TO BE HELD FOR PLANE CRASH VICTIMS

Several memorial services are planned for the 24 passengers and crew members who died Friday in the air crash of the World Food Programme plane on its way to Kosovo. Tomorrow, there will be a memorial service at the World Food Programme headquarters in Rome, and Iqbal Riza, Chef de Cabinet of the Secretary-General, will attend. There will also be a service at the UN Headquarters tomorrow, near the Cafeteria between 12:45 and 1:00 p.m. The service will be chaired by Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette. In Pristina, the UN mission (UNMIK) will have a memorial service Friday, which will also be attended by the Chef de Cabinet.

CONFERENCE OF WOMEN JUSTICE MINISTERS BEGINS AT UN

Today and tomorrow, women justice ministers from more than 15 countries are participating in a meeting at UN headquarters. US Attorney General Janet Reno is delivering the keynote address today, in a meeting that is being chaired by former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell.

Last night, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette greeted the justice ministers and congratulated them on sharing ideas. She drew attention to the need to build strong democratic institutions and legal systems, and said she looked forward to the day when a permanent International Criminal Court will be able to deal with crimes against humanity.

UN WILL CONVENE MEETING ON CHERNOBYL THURSDAY

On Thursday, the United Nations will convene a meeting of the Quadripartite Coordination Committee on International Cooperation on Chernobyl. The Committee intends to raise awareness of the continuing economic, social, health and environmental consequences of the 1986 nuclear accident in Chernobyl.

The United Nations has requested a total of 9.5 million dollars to bring relief to the communities still affected by the disaster. It is estimated that even today, some seven million people in Belarus, the Russian Federation and the Ukraine suffer serious health problems from the accident, and have so far only received a small fraction of the assistance they need.

The meeting will be convened by Carolyn McAskie, Acting United Nations Coordinator of International Cooperation on Chernobyl, and will include senior officials from Belarus, the Russian Federation and the Ukraine. It will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday in the ECOSOC Chamber.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

In The Hague today, the Judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have chosen Judge Claude Jorda (France) as President of the ICTY, and Judge Florence Mumba (Zambia) as Vice-President.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said today that it has begun to distribute emergency home delivery kits to mothers in East Timor, who currently lack access to maternity care. UNFPA says that the kits provide basic supplies to perform clean, safe deliveries at home -- including soap, plastic sheeting, razor blades, cotton cloths and instructions. An estimated 85 percent of East Timorese babies are delivered at home, and 60 percent of these deliveries are not attended by a trained health professional, UNFPA says.

Thousands of winterized tents, sleeping bags and blankets are the priority for western Turkey following last week's earthquake, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). OCHA says that a tent city of 980 units has already been set up in central Bolu, while at least 3,500 tents have been sent to the region by Turkish authorities. The Turkish Government has reported that, as of last night, 452 people had died and 2,386 had been injured in the earthquake.

Tomorrow, at 11:30 a.m., Klaus T&ouml;pfer, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), will give a press briefing to introduce the 1999 UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize. The Prize will go to Mario Molina, the noted atmospheric scientist and Nobel Laureate for Chemistry.