United Nations Daily Highlights 96-08-23

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, August 23, 1996

HEADLINES

• UN Secretary-General says its' unlikely that the identification process in Western Sahara would be resumed soon.
• UN Secretary-General says he intends to deploy additional military observers in Liberia.
• The Security Council strongly reaffirms its support for the UN Special Commission.
• The Conference on Disarmament fails to reach consensus on whether to transmit the Negotiating Committee report to the General Assembly.
• UN Secretary-General's special representative to Burundi calls on the interested parties in the Burundian conflict to engage in discussions.
• UNICEF says shortages of vaccines and fuel are affecting its programmes in Burundi.
• The World Food Programme's first consignment of emergency food arrives in North Korea.
• The Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court discusses range and definition of penalties in draft statutes.
• UNDP helps over 50,000 soldiers in Angola enter civilian life.

In a progress report on the situation in Western Sahara, Dr. Boutros-Ghali said the current deadlock could be broken and progress achieved only when both parties - the Moroccan Government and the POLISARIO Front- recognised that identification was a scrupulous process based on clear principles.

Appealing to the two parties to demonstrate flexibility and to cooperate with efforts to find a solution to their differences, the Secretary-General called on both sides to uphold the ceasefire as efforts continued to seek a solution to the current impasse.

According to the Spokesman, the Secretary-General, in a progress report on Liberia said he intended to deploy an additional 24 military observers as well as a few more essential personnel in the fields of disarmament, elections, human rights, and administration to assist the UN Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL). "...He hopes the faction leaders will seize this opportunity to restore peace. If they don't, the international community may have no choice but to disengage itself from Liberia," the Spokesman said.

Noting that the decision would be based on whether the factions demonstrate their full commitment to the peace process, Dr. Boutros-Ghali said that ECOWAS had renewed its commitment to remain in Liberia until a new government was installed on 15 June 1997 in accordance with the revised timetable.

In a presidential statement read out by its President Ambassador Tono Eitel of Germany, the Council reiterated the importance it attached to full compliance by Iraq with its resolutions.

"It underlines the important role of the Special Commission's inspection teams and demands, once again, that they be given immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to any and all areas, facilities, equipment, records and means of transportation which they wish to inspect, and Iraqi officials whom they wish to interview, so that the Special Commission may fully discharge its mandate," the Council said.

He said the Security Council remained gravely concerned at the failure by Iraq to comply fully with its various resolutions.

Reminding the Government of Iraq that only full compliance with its obligations under the relevant resolutions would enable the executive Chairman of the Special Commission to present his report in accordance with Section C of Resolution 687 (1991),the President said the Council would continue to consider how best to ensure Iraq's full compliance.

Meanwhile, the President of the General Assembly has received a letter from the Permanent Representative of Australia to the UN, requesting that a meeting be held on 9 September to consider a text and to take action on a comprehensive nuclear test-ban treaty.

According to the Secretary-General's Spokesman Ahmad Fawzi, the Assembly president was in the process of consultation with regional groups.

In an interview with the UN Radio, the Special Representative said the UN wants everybody back on track on the reopening of a serious dialogue. He said all sections of the population, including the government and representatives of the international community, are feeling the effects of the economic embargo.

Meanwhile, UNICEF said it was concerned that children were already being affected by the sanctions recently imposed on the country, and that the situation would deteriorate unless steps were taken to ensure their special protection.

The agency said there was particular concern over fuel shortages which were hampering cross-border reunification programmes for 20,000 unaccompanied children and might paralyze immunisation activities.

UNICEF, together with other UN-agencies and non-governmental organisations, was advocating for protected supply routes, or so-called humanitarian corridors, to allow the continued flow of food, fuel, vaccines, medical supplies and other items essential for the well-being of children.

A United States cargo ship, carrying 13,000 metric tons of American rice, corn meal and corn soya blend, arrived on Tuesday and was presently unloading in Nampo harbour. WFP had been coordinating the food relief effort in North Korea since floods first devastated the country in the summer of 1995.

Several delegates went on to say that if the statute was to be considered representative of all the legal systems of the world, it should include the death penalty.

Citing the Islamic legal code of the sharia, the representative of Egypt said that the death penalty should be included as an option, perhaps with aggravating circumstances. Switzerland, referring to the principle of no penalty without law, called for a precise scale of penalties in the statute. Several delegations questioned the inclusion of fines as penalties, as provided for in the draft statute.

From the United Nations home page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.org

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