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United Nations Daily Highlights 96-03-06United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSWednesday, 6 March 1996This document is prepared by the Central News Section of the Department of Public Information and is updated every week-day at approximately 6:00 PM. HEADLINES
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has called for the United Nations to take a new initiative to deal with the multinational dimensions of terrorism. In a statement issued in Mexico City yesterday, the Secretary- General said an upsurge in terrorism required the international community to stand together, speak out and unit against those despicable acts of violence. Referring to Monday's terrorist bombing in Tel Aviv, he said nothing could justify those who murdered and maimed innocent people. No grievance could excuse cowardly attempts to spread fear and death among a civilian population. Terrorists feared negotiations and rejected democratic processes, which was why they stepped up their attacks whenever there was progress towards peace, he continued. The international community must not let terrorists succeed, nor give credence to their explanations. The Middle East peace process and progress towards peace and justice must be steadfast and go forward. Meanwhile, the Secretary-General wound up his official visit to Mexico today, meeting first with United Nations staff and later with the Chairman of the Revolutionary Democratic Party and the former Mexican Ambassador to the United Nations, Borcillio Munez- Ledo. Cuba exercised the same right as all States to defend its territorial integrity, sovereignty and peace of its citizens, the Cuban Foreign Minister, Roberto Robaina Gonzalez said today. He was addressing a resumed session of the General Assembly on the downing of two American civilian planes by Cuban airforce jets on 24 February. He asked whether the sovereign right to defend borders and national security was only a prerogative of the powerful and not poor and countries. If the world tolerated what happened to Cuba it was tantamount to giving a free license to violate national sovereignty and convert all nations into potential victims. Would the United States have tolerated such provocations and accepted aircraft from Cuba or any other country illegally entering its airspace to drop subversive flyers, he asked? He said the incident on 24 February was not the result of a deliberate act by Cuba. In last twenty months, "Brothers to the Rescue", the organization which flew the planes, violated Cuban airspace 25 times. Twice, in January, they had dropped hundreds of thousands of subversive flyers over Havana. Cuba had begged the U.S. to prevent the flights which violated laws of both countries. Nothing was left for Cuba to do to prevent the incident except give up its dignity and sovereignty. In September 1994, United States civil aviation authorities admitted that the flights threatened the security of genuine efforts by the U.S. Coast Guard to rescue Cuban illegal emigrants. Referring to legislation passed by the United States Senate yesterday to tighten the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba, Mr. Gonzalez said the restrictions were an open challenge to the Assembly's condemnation of the blockade. The extraterritorial dimensions of the legislation went beyond national boundaries and violated the laws of many countries. It curtailed freedom of commerce, a sacrosanct principle of the contemporary economic system, and created international legal principles. The Permanent Representative of the United States, Madeleine Albright, exercising a right of reply, said her Government did not seek a confrontation with Cuba and the United States and its people wished the tragedy had not occured. However, it could not be silent when its citizens were murdered and could not allow the Cuban Government, which had ordered the crime, to transfer blame to the victims. The Cuban Government had knowingly and wilfully and in broad daylight, shot down two unarmed aircraft which were clearly marked as civilian. The aircraft were no threat to the Cuban people or Government, they were in international airspace and were destroyed intentionally and in violation of international law. A plan of action to resolve the exodus of refugees from Viet Nam and Laos will formally end on 30 June. The plan was adopted seven years ago by the Steering Committee of the International Conference on Indo-Chinese Refugees. The decision means the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will phase out care and maintenance of facilities in South- East Asian camps for rejected asylum seekers as of 1 July. It will maintain alternative arrangements in Hong Kong. The Agency's extensive programme to monitor people who have returned to Viet Nam and Laos and its financial assistance and micro-development project to facilitate the return of refugees will continue. The United Nations Centre for Human Rights will hold an expert seminar on the practical experiences of indigenous land rights and claims. The seminar, which will be held in Canada from 24 to 28 March, will mark the International Decade of Indigenous People. It will focus on three major themes: the negotiating process and legal arrangements for demarcating and titling indigenous lands; opportunities for economic development and arrangements for sharing resources; and the role of the United Nations in supporting land rights and development through training or use of natural resources. The Second Asia-Pacific Forum Urban Forum will focus on the looming crisis in Asian cities when it meets in Bangkok from 11 to 15 March. It will discuss a paper prepared by a group of experts from Asia and the Pacific under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). The paper examines accountability and transparency by politicians and public servants in the face of the impending crisis and "gangsterism" and corruption in public housing. The Forum's theme centers on what has been learned between the United Nations Conferences on Human Settlements, Habitat I and Habitat II. The United Nations and Brazil will hold a three-day inter- regional seminar on the role of public administration in developing infrastructure and protecting the environment. The seminar, which will begin tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, will address how governments and public administrators can manage new responsibilities arising from the need for economic growth in a framework of sustainable development. It will focus on appropriate infrastructural facilities, protection of the environment, and equitable social development. For information purposes only - - not an official record From the United Nations home page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgUnited Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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