United Nations Daily Highlights, 01-07-19

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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

OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK Thursday, July 19, 2001

SECRETARY-GENERAL LEAVES GENEVA FOR ROME

Secretary-General Kofi Annan met this morning with Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Executive Director Peter Piot in Geneva to put the final touches on his draft statement on AIDS that he will deliver at the Group of Eight (G-8) Summit in Genoa Friday.

He is now in Rome, and will leave for Genoa at mid-day on Friday.

At 5:00 p.m., local time, on Friday, the Secretary-General will participate in a ceremony for the Global AIDS and Health Fund attended by the eight Heads of State or Government. He will make a statement, which will be broadcast live into the media center at the Summit. The audio of that speech will be available live at Headquarters.

At 7:00 p.m. local time, the Secretary-General will participate in an outreach session, where the G-8 leaders will meet with a number of Heads of State or Government from developing countries for a discussion of how to achieve the Millennium Summit goal for the reduction of poverty. A number of heads of international organizations will attend that working session as well.

The Secretary-General will then attend a working dinner for those same participants, hosted by the President of Italy, Carlo Ciampi, to continue the discussion on poverty.

UNAIDS DIRECTOR NOTES RISING GLOBAL RESPONSE TO AIDS

Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, today addressed the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) that is meeting in Geneva. He introduced the UNAIDS report to ECOSOC and the report to the UNAIDS Programme Coordination Board.

He said that only now, for the first time since the world first heard of AIDS twenty years ago, "a global response is emerging that matches the devastating scale of the epidemic itself."

Piot noted that AIDS is uniquely devastating because young adults are most affected. Ten years or more have been stripped from average life expectancy in the worst affected countries. "Within two decades, some of these countries will have more surviving adults in their sixties and seventies than in their forties and fifties," he added.

The UNAIDS report's statistics show that even the increase in momentum in the fight against AIDS has not kept pace with the demands of the epidemic.

SECURITY COUNCIL DISCUSSES IMPACT OF AFGHAN SANCTIONS

The Security Council held consultations this morning on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.

Kenzo Oshima, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs introduced the Secretary-Generals report on the humanitarian implications of the measures imposed by Security Council resolutions1267 and 1333 on Afghanistan, which came out earlier this week.

Following the consultations, Council President Wang Yingfan of China said the Council had taken note of the report, including its conclusion that the humanitarian effect of the sanctions has been limited.

UNHCR: AFGHAN REFUGEES ARE ABLE TO RETURN TO THEIR HOMES

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) found in a survey of Afghans who have been repatriated to their homes that 93 percent of the returning Afghans were able to go back to their home villages. Of the small minority who told UNHCR that they did not go back to their homes, many said they had found work elsewhere, or had found their land affected by landmines or drought.

A slim majority of the Afghans interviewed for the survey -- 51 percent -- said they had recovered their original homes and land, but 29 percent reported that their homes had been completely destroyed.

Ahmed Said Farah, UNHCR's chief of mission for Afghanistan, said, "It is a good sign that a majority of the Afghans returned to their own homes and villages, but the situation inside Afghanistan continues to be critical." He noted that, among those who were interviewed, many reported limited access to services like health care and education.

NEW HEAD OF INDIA-PAKISTAN FORCE APPOINTED

The Secretary-General has appointed Maj. Gen. Hermann K. Loidolt of Austria as Chief Military Observer in the UN Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP). General Loidolt is to succeed Maj. Gen. Manuel Saavedra of Uruguay, whose one-year term as Chief Military Observer expired on July 10.

General Loidolt has served in the Austrian Armed Forces for more than 30 years, and is currently the Director of Information Technology Acquisition in the Department of Communication and Electronic Equipment in Austria's Ministry of Defence. In the 1970s, he also had served in the Austrian Battalion of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan Heights.

SMALL ARMS CONFERENCE NEGOTIATIONS INTENSIFY

The United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects again went into a night session last evening, as negotiations intensified on the revised Programme of Action. Considerable progress has been made, but there are still a number of paragraphs to be agreed on. The Conference will tackle them today, with the Conference set to end Friday.

A gun sculpture opened today at the south end of the General Assembly Public Lobby. This exhibit, entitled "Transforming Arms into Ploughshares," displays a number of small gun sculptures from Mozambique, including chairs that have been made from parts of guns that were used in that country's civil war. The exhibit is organized by the Christian Council of Mozambique and sponsored by the Mission of Mozambique, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and others.

HIGH-LEVEL ENVIRONMENT TALKS RESUME IN BONN

The high-level segment of the resumed climate change talks began this afternoon in Bonn, with the President of the Sixth Session of the Conference, Jan Pronk, and others speaking at a brief ceremony.

Earlier this morning, the President had asked the co-chairs of the four negotiating groups that had been formed earlier this week to present their results so far, and received summaries that set out the options and remaining questions each group faced.

Negotiations will now be taken up by the high-level officials, including some 85 ministers, who have arrived in Bonn. The high-level negotiations are scheduled to begin this evening at 7 p.m. and to continue throughout the weekend.

ANNAN NOTES FOLLOW-UP ON CIVILIANS IN ARMED CONFLICT

In a letter to the Security Council, issued today, the Secretary-General noted activities to follow up on the Council's practical steps about the protection of civilians in armed conflict.

In it, the Secretary-General agreed with the Council's suggestions on the need for close cooperation and joint strategic planning between the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. He said he has requested the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to develop operational procedures in cooperation with the Peacekeeping Department to enhance cooperation.

He added that he will report regularly to the Security Council on the status of initiatives concerning civilians in armed conflict, beginning this November.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

In response to a question on Under-Secretary-General for Management Joseph Connor's assignment concerning a video made by UN peacekeepers after the abduction of three Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, the Spokesman stressed that the investigation was to look into the circumstances under which the tape was made and circulated in the UN system. Contrary to some media reports, he said, it was not an investigation into allegations of collaboration between the peacekeepers and Hezbollah, although the terms of reference of Connor's mission are sufficiently broad to explore other avenues of interest as the information warrants.

Asked about the Secretary-General's schedule over the next month, the Spokesman noted that he would travel in August, combining some official visits with a small amount of vacation. More details will be announced later.

The Spokesman, in response to a question on support for outside monitoring in the Palestinian territories, noted reports in the media that the foreign ministers of the Group of Eight (G-8) countries had approved a statement recommending international monitors.

Asked about whether US arrears to the budget have been paid, the Spokesman said that they have not. He added that Under-Secretary-General for Management Joseph Connor intends to travel to Washington to determine when the money will be paid.

In Rome today, Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), gave a preview to the media of his message to the upcoming G-8 summit in Genoa, in which he urged world leaders to summon the necessary political will to increase investment in agriculture. He called for them to contribute to a $500 million Trust Fund for Food Security, which would be used to support agriculture in poor countries.

On Wednesday, Lithuania became the 97th Member State to pay its 2001 regular budget dues in full with a payment of more than $175,000.

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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