United Nations Daily Highlights, 01-07-12

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

BRIEFING

BY FREDERIC ECKHARD

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK Thursday, July 12, 2001

(Press "Ctrl

SECRETARY-GENERAL BEGINS VISIT TO GERMANY

The Secretary-General began his visit to Germany in Munich this morning, where he visited a police training center and addressed former and future participants in UN peacekeeping missions. "As one peacekeeper to another," he told the Bavarian police, "let me say 'dankeschon'."

He then met with the Minister President of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber, for about an hour. In remarks after that meeting he spoke of the fight against HIV/AIDS and the need to work in partnership against the disease. Mr. Stoiber then had the Secretary-General and his wife Nane to lunch.

In the afternoon, he flew to Berlin, and went to the Foreign Ministry to meet with Joschka Fischer. He arrived a few minutes early, to find the Foreign Minister talking to some 500 French and German graduate students. Mr. Fischer invited the Secretary-General up onto the stage with him, to the delight of the students, who gave him a standing ovation. He addressed them briefly.

The Secretary-General and the Foreign Minister then met for about 45 minutes. They told the press afterwards that their talks had focussed on the Middle East and the Balkans. On the Middle East, the Secretary-General said that Germany and the international community had a role to play. He went on, "The US, the EU and the UN--all of us have a role to play." We should have a transcript of that press encounter shortly.

The Secretary-General accompanied the Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, and the President of the Parliament, Wolfgang Thierse, to view a segment of the Berlin Wall with a sculpture on it. The segment will come to the UN in October as part of an exhibit.

This evening, the Secretary-General will meet with German Minister of Defence Rudolf Scharping before attending a dinner in his honour hosted by Mr. Fischer.

DSG SAYS COST OF NOT PREVENTING VIOLENCE ENORMOUS; GA PAYS TRIBUTETO ITS 41ST PRESIDENT

At a General Assembly plenary meeting this morning, the Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Frechette, presented the Secretary-General's report on the prevention of armed conflict. In her statement she said that "the costs of not preventing violence are enormous. They are counted not only in damage inflicted but also in opportunities lost" and she drew attention of the membership to the Secretary-General's ten principles to guide future approaches to conflict prevention.

At the beginning of the GA session, delegates stood in a minute of silence in tribute to Humayun Rasheed Choudhury of Bangladesh, President of the 41st General Assembly, who died yesterday. The Deputy Secretary-General said that Humayun Choudhury had "represented his country with devotion, and served at the United Nations with distinction" and that at a challenging time in the life of the Organization, "we were privileged" to have him as President of the General Assembly.

DISCUSSIONS ON SMALL ARMS CONTINUE

Today is day four of the Small Arms Conference. Thirty-four speakers are scheduled to take the floor, continuing the Conferences Ministerial segment.

Negotiations on the draft Programme of Action will continue in closed session this afternoon. A new draft is expected to be issued early next week.

The Conferences side events continue and today is Africa Day for NGOs. The International Action Network on Small Arms has organized meetings on small arms issues in Africa and NGO Caucus on Africa.

There will also be panel discussion on field experience and lessons learned on weapons collection, management and destruction and the human costs of small arms and light weapons.

TEENAGE GIRL KILLED IN HOUSE OUTSIDE SREBRENICA

The United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina ( UNMIBH) said a 16-year-old Bosniac girl, Mehla Dzuric, was killed around 11:00 p.m. local time yesterday, when several bullets from an automatic rifle were fired into a house in Vlasenica, outside Srebrenica. The girl and her family had recently returned to the area. This is the second time that this particular house had been fired at in the last six weeks. The property was secured by the police shortly after the incident. There are no suspects at this time.

UNEP HEAD CALLS FOR COORDINATED RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE

Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP) said today that scientific evidence shows that climate change is the most serious socio-economic and environmental problem facing humanity. He urged governments to build a basis for long term structured and coordinated response to the problem at next weeks resumed sessions of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn Germany.

EAST TIMOR COUNCIL TOLD SECURITY IS HIGHEST PRIORITY

In a three-hour question and answer session before the East Timorese National Council, the Special Representative of the Secreatry-General, Sergio Vieira de Mello, today stated that security is the highest priority in East Timor. Vieira de Mello also told Council members that a special assessment security team was recently formed to evaluate the security situation in some of the Timorese Districts. The team had already started working.

The National Council will be officially dissolved on Sunday, 15 July, the day the campaign for the 30 August Constituent Assembly starts.

RETURNEES TO FYROM DECREASING

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today that the number of people returning to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) has decreased over the past days. Currently some 500 people are returning a day. The majority of the returns are to the FYROM capital, Skopje, while very minimal movement has been observed to Kumanovo and Tetovo area.

UNHCR has also expressed concern that officials at the Blace border crossing continue to reject those without valid passports. UNHCR has raised this issue with the authorities in Skopje.

The UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) reports the organized return yesterday of 210 internally displaced Albanians to their home village in Depce in the Presevo Minicipality.

HEADS OF AID AGENCIES CALL FOR BALANCED RESPONSE TO CRISES

In a rare joint statement, the heads of the four main United Nations aid agencies said in Geneva today that poor funding and lack of security were threatening humanitarian work worldwide. Kenzo Oshima, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund ( UNICEF), Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) and Ruud Lubbers, High Commissioner for Refugees, called for a more balanced response the worlds humanitarian crises. Oshima said that without stronger commitment from donor countries, humanitarian agencies would not be able to serve the needs of those affected by conflict or natural disaster. Bertini said rapid response to a call for aid for the Horn of Africa averted a famine last year but the response this year has not been adequate. In response to a question, the Spokesman said that the Secretary-General was concerned about the lack of response by donors to appeals for humanitarian aid and that he backed the appeal of the heads of the UN agencies.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Security Council has not scheduled consultations for today. No further meetings are expected until Tuesday, when Council members are expected to hold consultation on Burundi. The Third Assessment Report of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been published in three volumes. The first volume covers the scientific basis of the assessment, the second looks at impacts, adaptation and vulnerability and the third is entitled Mitigation. Summaries of policymakers and technical summaries of the report are available on the webstie of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change. Carla del Ponte, Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda announced today in Geneva that a series of arrests was carried out by the Rwanda Tribunal in three European cities. Emmanuel Ndindabahizi, former finance minister of the interim government was arrested in Brussels. Emmanuel Rukundo, former army chaplain was arrested in Geneva. Simon Bikindi, a well-known singer and former official of the youth ministry was arrested in the Netherlands. The three were charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity. Italian authorities postponed a fourth arrest on the grounds that there was no proper legal basis.

In response to a question on the allegations of the bribery of Indian peacekeepers in UNIFIL, the Spokesman said that there had been a vigorous denial by Timor Goksel, the Spokesman for the United Nations force in Lebanon. He added that the allegations could come up in the internal investigation being conducted by Joseph Connor, Under-Secretary-General in the Department of Management, and that Mr. Connor had not yet indicated the scope of the investigation or if it would be carried out by him alone or by a panel.

Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General United Nations, S-378 New York, NY 10017 Tel. 212-963-7162 Fax. 212-963-7055

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