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United Nations Daily Highlights 96-05-08United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSWednesday, May 8, 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
The Security Council has decided to extend the mandate of the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III) for two months. Adopting resolution 1055 of 1966 unanimously, the Council expressed regret at the overall slow pace of implementation of the peace process, which is far behind schedule. It urged the Government of Angola and Uniao Nacional para a Independencia Total de Angola (UNITA) to abide strictly by their obligations under the Lusaka Protocol as well as subsequent commitments entered into. The Security Council today expressed profound concern at recent instances of failure to cooperate with the International Tribunal. In a presidential statement, members of the Council deplored the failure to date of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to execute the arrest warrants issued by the Tribunal and called for the execution of those warrants without delay. Reading the statement Ambassador Qin Huasun of China, Council President for May, said members of the Council underlined the importance of the obligations of all states to cooperate with the work of the Tribunal, in particular their obligation to execute arrest warrants transmitted to them by the Tribunal. The Van Kappen report is balanced and objective, UN Spokesman Sylvanna Foa said today. She noted that the report had sparked some very emotional responses. "There are those who seek to discredit not only the report but its author, the Secretary-General and the UN itself." The Spokesman said the report was prepared by the Secretary- General's military adviser, Major-General Franklin Van Kappen and its findings borne out by "independent outside experts'. Ms. Foa said the report fulfilled an essential obligation of the United Nations to investigate an incident in which peace-keepers were injured and more than a hundred civilians killed inside a United Nations compound. It's intent was not to embarrass or accuse any Member State. Rather, she added, it was to establish the facts so that steps could be taken to avoid a recurrence of a similar incident. The Secretary-General ordered the report following the 18 April Israeli shelling of the UN Compound at Qanna in Lebanon. The first defendant to appear before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is Dusko Tadic, a civilian arrested by the German Police in Munich on 13 February 1994. He was indicted by the ICTY a year later, 13 February 1995. The trial opened yesterday at The Hague, marking a significant step in the fulfillment of the mandate entrusted to the International Tribunal by the Security Council. Mr. Tadic was first indicted by the ICTY but, subsequently, the indictment has been amended twice. The final indictment, 14 December 1995, supersedes all previous indictments, by which the Defendant is charged specifically with 34 counts of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, including 12 counts of grave breaches; 10 counts of violations of the laws and customs of war and 12 counts of crimes against humanity. The charges include wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, wilfully causing great suffering, murder, inhuman acts, and rape. Over 100 witnesses are expected to testify during the trial, the duration of which is forecasted in terms of months. The opening of the trial marks the first occasion for the implementation of international humanitarian law, a body of law designed to regulate the conduct of combatants and to protect civilians during wars. However, the trial is seen in the context of a continuum that began with the establishment of the Tribunal in 1994. To date, fourteen indictments have been issued, relating to 57 accused persons and four deferral proceedings have been held. The Appeals Chamber has sat once. Also, pre-trial proceedings have begun or are pending in three other cases, involving six defendants. Their trial will commence in the next few months. The efforts of the Department of Public Information deserve adequate financial means, Sebastiano Cardi the representative of Italy, told the Committee on Information yesterday. With fewer resources available, DPI should turn to electronic communication. Speaking on behalf of the Group of Western and Other States, the Italian representative praised the fast production and very high quality of the daily press releases and expressed his Group's support for the work of the Department, including the guided tours. DPI has an essential role to play in promoting the image of a new, strengthened United Nations, said Grethel Obando-Berrocal, the representative of Costa Rica, speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China. Pim R.J. Dumore, the representative of the Netherlands, speaking on behalf of the Group of Western and Other States, commended the DPI for its excellent work in connection with the United Nations fiftieth anniversary. He stressed the usefulness of DPI's publications and the important role of the information centres. "Those who want contracts from the United Nations must ensure that they are not indebted to the Organization," Morgan A. Brown, the representative of Ghana told the Administrative and Budgetary (Fifth) Committee as it discussed the UN financial situation yesterday. He said it was glaring that defaulting States were reaping from the Organization more than they were giving to it. Waste and overlap also contributed to the financial crisis, Mr. Brown noted. Member States should pay their dues without conditions, said the representative of Bangladesh, Syed Rafiqul Alom, enquiring whether there was any scope for the payment of dues to be legally linked to preconditions. Meanwhile, Canada's representative Sam Hanson, expressed concern about cross-borrowing while Patricia Holland the representative of the United Kingdom, sought clarification regarding the legality of the practice. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali would be authorized to commit up to $1.1 million to maintain the United Nations presence in El Salvador from 1 May to 31 December, should the General Assembly adopt a draft resolution on the United Nations Office of Verification in El Salvador, according to an oral decision adopted yesterday by the Administrative and Budgetary (Fifth) Committee. The draft resolution would have the Assembly establish the Office to follow up the implementation of the peace accords in El Salvador to the end of 1996. To be financed within existing resources, the Office is to be headed by a Director with 7 international staff and 3 civilian police, supported by 11 local staff. By a special resolution, the Palestine National Council had stressed that the United Nations and the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People should continue their work until such time as Palestine became independent, Nasser Al-Kidwa, Observer of Palestine, yesterday told the Committee. The Council had also eliminated provisions of the Palestine National Charter, contradictory to the contents of letters exchanged between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel in September 1993. The Middle East was undergoing a delicate phase of change and the international community should be especially vigilant of the peace process in that region, said Ibra Deguene Ka, Senegal's representative and Committee Chairman. He called for the Organization to maintain its "principled position" regarding the situation in Palestine. The Disarmament Committee has concluded its 1996 substantive session by adopting a set of draft guidelines for international arms transfers. The completion of the guidelines is in response to an Assembly resolution of 6 December 1991 which called upon States to give high priority to eradicating illicit trade in weapons and military equipment. Subsequently, the Assembly requested the Commission to expedite its consideration of the issue with special emphasis on the adverse effects of illicit transfer of arms and ammunition. Gheorghe Chirila, Chairman of the Working Group 1, in his introduction to the report, praised the positive political attitude and spirit of compromise along with a spirit of realism in negotiating the text, which represented a substantial consensus in a complex and sensitive field. Luvsangiin Erdenechuluum, representative of Mongolia and Chairman of Working Group II, expressed praise for the "display of goodwill and spirit of cooperation and understanding, despite deep-seated differences". The report was introduced by the Commission's Rapporteur, Rajab Sukayri, representative of Jordan. He said the significant achievements of the substantive session were the result of the continuing cooperative atmosphere which had characterized the work of the Commission. In the general discussion, a number of delegates expressed regret that an item on nuclear-weapon-free zones could not be included in the 1996 agenda. Over the course of the session, delegates also expressed general support for the future role of the Commission in the overall field of disarmament. Many saw it as an important forum for non-nuclear and developing States. The States parties to the Convention on Prohibition or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects has adopted new curbs on the use, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines. At the end of the second resumed session of the Review Conference of the Convention, meeting in Geneva since 22 April, the 55 States parties adopted an amended Protocol II to the treaty prohibiting the use of non-detectable anti-personnel mines. Among the features of the revised Protocol are: restriction of the use and construction of remotely delivered mines. The new restrictions will apply not only to States parties but also to "parties to a conflict". Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, in a message to the final meeting of the resumed session, said the progress made at the Review Conference fell short of expectations. In his statement delivered by the Director- General of the UN Office in Geneva, Vladimir Petrovsky, the Secretary- General welcomed the extension of the scope of the Convention and the inclusion of responsibility for mine clearance. However, he said the revised mines Protocol did not reflect the groundswell of international public opinion for banning land mines. In their Final Declaration, States parties also agreed to hold the next Review Conference no later than 2001. Given the United Nations' lack of funds, the Committee on Natural Resources should focus on those agencies and groups that have funding available and are ready to take up the assignments, experts told the 24- member Committee as it continued consideration of UN system activities in the field of water and mineral resources. Committee members stressed the increasing role of regional commissions and said it was therefore important to increase their effectiveness and coordination. "It is high time that we begin to bring about real change in development on the ground," said the expert from Benin while the expert from China expressed concern about the fact that most of the regional commissions concerned were not represented at the meeting. Other experts pressed for an intensification in the flow of information from the Secretariat to Committee members. Representatives from the Department for Development Support and Management Services and the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development responded that lack of funds had made it difficult both to bring people to meetings and to coordinate the activities of different agencies. The expert from Australia urged the Committee to follow the lead of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). A representative of the Agency had outlined one of its programmes, which involves partnership in undertaking an initiative. The world meat economy would be little affected in the medium-term by the current Bovine Spongiform Encepholopathy (BSE) crisis, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). FAO's initial assessment is based on results obtained from its World Food Model, which "suggest that the global impact of the BSE crisis on prices, production, consumption and trade of the main livestock products is likely to be small". BSE, or Mad Cow Disease, was elevated to crisis level, when the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee of the United Kingdom announced on 20 March that the most likely explanation for ten cases of Variant Creutzfeldt- Jakob Disease (V-CJD) in people under 42 was ingestion of beef products from cattle with BSE. The FAO report was produced for its Intergovernmental Group on Meat, meeting in Bologna, 8 - 10 May. It provides basic information on the current state of knowledge on BSE and the possible linkages between BSE and V-CJD. The report also assesses the possible impact of the crisis on the world meat economy using the Organizations's World Food Model, based on certain assumptions rather than firm policy decisions. Should, however, the link between BSE and V-CJD eventually be proven, the effects would be much more profound and long lasting, says FAO. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has announced that today it has appointed well-known model and actress, Vendela Kirsebom, as its Spokesperson. The appointment was made as the model undertook her first official duty for the Agency at the High School of Fashion Industry. She was addressing two classes and encouraging students to participate in the Olympic Aid-Atlanta Children's Campaign; a programme encouraging young people in the United States to raise funds for their peers in countries caught in war. As a UNICEF spokesperson, Vendela will join a select group of UNICEF celebrities who act as advocates for UNICEF's work on behalf of children. UNICEF says Vendela will focus in particular on the issue of girls' education. 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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