United Nations Daily Highlights, 00-07-18

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

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE NOON BRIEFING
BY FRED ECKHARD
SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

• Under Secretary for Peacekeeping, H&eacute;di Annabi, presented the Secretary General’s report on the United Nations Mission for a Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) during morning consultations. The Secretary General reported that despite numerous efforts by his Personal Envoy James Baker III, no progress was made during the last round of talks held in London on June 28 between the Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco. Still the Secretary General is hopeful that some headway can be made during the forthcoming expert-level talks scheduled to be held later this week in Geneva.

• A recommendation is made to extend the mandate MINURSO by another three months until October 21, 2000.

• A vote on a resolution is expected on Monday July 24.

• The Council also resumed its discussions on the United Nations mission in Sierra Leone.

• The Security Council has scheduled its monthly luncheon with the Secretary-General, who is returning to work at UN headquarters Wednesday morning.

• The situation in Sierra Leone remains tense and unpredictable.

• A Nigerian peacekeeper has been killed in an exchange of fire when his patrol ran into suspected combatants of the Revolutionary United Front on Sunday near Rogberi Junction in western Sierra Leone. The incident took place on Sunday, and his body was recovered Monday.

• On the humanitarian front, the health situation for displaced civilians in Mile 91 continues to deteriorate due to poor water and sanitation conditions. A key obstacle to expanding programs in Mile 91 is the lack of Ministry of Health staff, who have left due to security concerns. Malnutrition has also increased.

• WFP and its partner CARE are in the process of distributing 700 metric tons of food in one-month rations to about 60,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Mile 91 town. The process of identifying suitable sites for the new camps is underway.

• The Secretary-General’s report on the UN mission in Sierra Leone due Wednesday is being delayed by a few days.

• The Secretary-General has invited Force Commander Vejay Jetley to New York on Monday to personally brief him on the extraction.

• In response to a question on whether or not the nature of the UN mission in Sierra Leone had changed, the spokesman said, "The operation has not been converted to a military operation, a peacekeeping operation is a military operation. It’s an operation which does not use normal military methods except when they have to fight there way out of a tight corner. "

• The Spokesman will look into getting the Jetley, to brief journalists when he is in New York next week.

• In response to a question asking for more information on the death of the Nigerian peacekeeper, the Spokesman said his death was not linked to the extraction operation. A Nigerian unit came across a group of RUF fighters while on routine patrol. There was an exchange of gunfire and the Nigerians took one casualty.
• In response to a question about the total number of casualties, the reporter was informed following the briefing that since May 1, at least seven peacekeepers -- one Indian, one Jordanian, five Nigerians -- have been killed in the line of duty and at least eight others are reported missing.

• In the town of Arta, near Djibouti, The Somalia National Peace Conference voted overwhelmingly on Sunday to approve the Somali Transitional Charter, which is to serve as an interim constitution for the country.

• The aim of this document is to provide the framework for federal structure for Somalia as a means of bringing all elements of society back into the political process.

• The Peace Conference, which has been meeting since the 2^nd of May and which continues to meet, is attended by 810 delegates representing clan elders, civil society and women’s groups. More than 1,00 others are attending as observers.

• A UN Development Programme team, led by Randolph Kent, will be visiting Djibouti on Thursday of this week to meet with delegates and assess future development projects in Somalia.

• Fifty Burundian women delegates and observers are participating in an All-Party Burundian Women’s Peace Conference from July 17-20 in Arusha, Tanzania.

• The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation are convening the conference, the first of its kind.

• The report of the Secretary-General on the elaboration and implementation of the long-term program of support for Haiti is out today.

• This report will be the basis for the Economic and Social Council meeting on Haiti which will be held this coming Monday.

• The report notes that "considering the key role that a duly constituted government and elected parliament would have to play in creating a conducive policy environment, it remains difficult at the present time to lay out a precise timetable for the elaboration of a coherent long-term program of support for Haiti that would meet the approval and draw active support of the international community."

• The program notes that the groundwork for such a program is being laid through the ongoing Common Country Assessment, the planned formulation by the interim government of a medium-term development strategy, and later a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper with the support of the World Bank and the IMF, and the formulation in 2001 by the UN in Haiti of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework.

• This report has been prepared in response to ECOSOC resolution 1999/11 of July of last year which requested the Secretary-General to "take the necessary steps to develop (…) a long-term strategy and programs of support for Haiti", in consultation with the Haitian government. The report's symbol is E/2000/63.

• In response to a question on the Secretary-General’s goals in Haiti, the Spokesman that he wanted to see a legitimate government elected by procedures that meets international standards. "When there is such a government, we want to work closely with them to get the economy back on a secure footing," he said. "The immediate objective is political and the medium and long-term objectives are developmental. "

• As part of the humanitarian segment of its 2000 substantive session, the Economic and Social Council will hold a panel discussion Wednesday at 10 a.m. on internally displaced persons. The Panel, moderated by Emergency Relief Coordinator Carolyn McAskie, will feature presentations by the Humanitarian Coordinators for Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Georgia.

• Following that, comments will be made by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata; the Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund, Carol Bellamy; the Director General of the International Committee for the Red Cross, Paul Grossrieder; and Francis Deng, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Internally Displace Persons.

• Ogata is scheduled to speak today at a luncheon in her honor hosted by the New York University School of Law and Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. The subject of her address will be "Protecting People on the Move," with a particular focus on protecting the rights of Internally Displaced Persons. The High Commissioner has just completed her 31^st mission to Africa, home to the majority of the World’s Internally Displaced Persons.

• The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today announced a major relief operation to help more than 1.6 million famine-threatened people survive the worst drought in Afghanistan in more than 30 years.

• Under this new emergency operation, WFP will bring about 120,000 metric tons of food into Afghanistan at a cost of $55.4 million over the next 12 months.

• The extremely low of precipitation has destroyed almost all the rain-fed crops in the country and decimated the livestock.

• In response to a question on the latest violence in the Maluku Islands in Indonesia, the Spokesman said the United Nations had no independent confirmation of what has been going on the Maluku. We have a very small humanitarian presence there. The Secretary-General called Indonesian President Wahid from Geneva about 12 days ago to express his concern about the rising level of violence. There was no discussion during that conversation of issues that are being reported now such as logistical support or even possibly peacekeepers. There has been no contingency planning from the United Nations on sending peacekeepers.

• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today began a two-day meeting with representatives of UN agencies and non-governmental organizations to review assistance activities in West Timor. This followed the cancellation last week of a program to register remaining East Timorese refugees in West Timor because of continuing harassment and intimidation of aid workers and refugees by pro-Indonesian ex-militias.

• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), at its upcoming 22^nd Regional Conference for Europe to be held in Porto, Italy to be attended by 42 European Ministers of Agriculture, will review food security in Europe.

• Also available are today’s briefing notes from Geneva and the highlights of the 22^nd plenary session of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia held on 13 and 14 July.

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