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United Nations Daily Highlights, 96-11-22United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSFriday, 22 November 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 United Nations Human Rights Field Operation in Burundi (HRFOB) has been told of a massacre of returnees which occurred on the night of 22/23 October in the Murambi Church in Buganda commune in the Cibitoke province. Two hundred and fifty eight people were killed, and a further 110 people were wounded. Of this number, 40 later died of their injuries - making the death toll 298. UN observers said that the perpetrators of the massacre used guns and hand grenades in the attack. Those killed and wounded were identified as being among the large number of refugees who had recently returned of their own accord from exile in Zaire or Tanzania. They were allegedly slaughtered by armed men in uniforms, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General Ahmad Fawzi said today, adding that they were among 400 Hutu returnees who had planned to sleep overnight in the church before setting out to their communes. Last week, the HRFOB had raised with the authorities in Bujumbura the United Nations' serious concern that returnees were being channelled into the Cibitoke and Bubanza provinces - areas where there was considerable confrontation between rebel forces and the government and where humanitarian workers had extremely limited access. UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy to the Great Lakes region Ambassador Raymond Chretien has been shuttling between various African capitals for talks with African leaders, the Spokesman for the Secretary General Ahmad Fawzi said today. The Special Envoy Friday met with the Prime Minister of Zaire and is expected to meet Salim Salim, Secretary- General of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and heads of state of Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroon, and South Africa, Mr. Fawzi added. Mr. Chretien is working on a number of aspects of this problem, the Spokesman stated adding that he was hoping to generate a political dialogue among the countries of the region which might eventually lead to a conference. He was to advise the Secretary-General on the viability of convening a conference, which will be a regional or international conference, according to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General. Mr. Chretien's second mission was to investigate the possibilities and the various scenarios for the multinational force, the Spokesman said. He was constantly in touch with his government which was leading the force, Mr. Fawzi stated, adding that he was also exploring the role of a potential Special Representative for the Secretary General who would be dispatched to the region following the end of Mr. Christian's mission and who would be expending a much longer time in the region. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has ascertained that there were around half a million refugees who were in eastern Zaire who have returned, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General Ahmad Fawzi said today. He added that they were hoping to see a repatriation of all the 1.2 million refugees who were in that area. It is estimated that there are around 700, 000 still in the region, the Spokesman said. Mr. Fawzi added that it was believed that west of Goma there were 100,000 refugees; and another 50,000, west of Sake. These figures included not only Rwandan refugees, but also Zairians who have been displaced by the fighting. The Observer of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jean- Paul Fallet has told the General Assembly that recent emergencies such as those in Liberia, Burundi and now eastern Zaire, underscored the importance of a clearly defined allocation of tasks between humanitarian organisations and regional political bodies. He added that the international community sometimes appeared to push humanitarian agencies to the forefront, rather than seeking political solutions. Mr. Fallet said it was important to enhance communication and consultation between appropriate political bodies and their humanitarian partners in emergency situations. An observer of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Eigil Pedersen said prevention and preparedness were the most effective ways of reducing conflict-induced human suffering. The Federation welcomed current work aimed at developing early warning systems, he stated adding that the development of local capacity for dealing with emergencies was also essential. The representative of the United States, Madeleine K. Albright told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) of the General Assembly that, despite good news on the human rights front over the last few years, many countries based their authority not on popular consent but on coercion. She added that the greatest divide in the world today was not between east and west, or north and south, but between those caught up in the habits and hatreds of the past and those striving to build the future. The US representative said Myanmar was one example where the authorities had their own version of reality, and the military had turned a blind eye to the production and trafficking of drugs. She expressed concern about actions in China that restrained the peaceful expression of dissenting views. Ms. Albright also cited widespread, consistent and gross abuses in Iraq, as well as reports of torture, and asked for Cuba to permit democratic change. The representative of China said that the representative of the United States had engaged in an unfounded attack and fit of finger- pointing regarding the situation of human rights in China, while serious human rights violations existed in the United States. The representative of Iraq, speaking in exercise of the right of reply, noted that any state that insisted on starving an entire population of 20 million citizens and continued to blockade it by all possible means was not entitled to talk about human rights. The Economic and Social Council has approved a draft resolution against corruption and bribery in international commercial transactions. It will have States pledge to deny the tax deductibility of bribes paid by any private or public corporation or individual of a Member State to any public official or elected representative of another country. The draft declaration will also require States to pledge to criminalise bribery of foreign public officials. The States will also agree that actions taken by them to establish jurisdiction over acts of bribery of foreign public officials in international commercial transactions will be consistent with the international law. An advance team of experts from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is about to arrive in Rwanda to help coordinate emergency agricultural assistance for the settlement of more than one million refugees and displaced rural people hard hit by the current emergency in Rwanda, Burundi and eastern Zaire. At the request of the Government of Rwanda, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf will lead a six-member advance team, which will include specialists in food security, agronomy and water control together with essential support staff. Additional FAO technicians will follow in order to provide comprehensive assistance to the country's hard-pressed Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock on the rehabilitation of the entire sector. UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Director- General Federico Mayor presented the first UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize of US$40,000 for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence to the Pro-femmes Twese Hamwe, a collective of 32 women's organisations in Rwanda. During the ceremony, held two days after the International Day for Tolerance, Mr. Mayor spoke of a "feeling of shame" regarding the recent events in the Great Lakes region of Africa and deplored the impotence of the international community confronted with the refugee crisis. The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and the Netherlands' Minister for Development Cooperation have signed an agreement regarding the project: "Growth, Employment, and Equity: Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1990s". The government of the Netherlands will make a contribution of up to US$985,000 to support the project. The project will carry out comparative research in ten countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico and Peru) in order to make available to the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean countries integrated policy options to produce growth, employment, and equity with a view to improving the performance of the regional economies as a whole. An additional paper will be written on the structural reform process in Suriname to broaden the coverage beyond the English- speaking countries. UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Director- General Federico Mayor has expressed his sorrow over the death of Abdus Salam, the Nobel Prize winning physicist from Pakistan who had a long history of collaboration with UNESCO. Professor Salam, 70, who won a Nobel Prize for his work in particle physics in 1979, died yesterday in Oxford, England. Mr. Mayor said that Professor Salam remained faithful to the double ideal of carrying out theoretical work and making sure that it resulted in concrete action that was beneficial to his fellow man and woman. He was always ready to make sure that scientific progress served to improve the lives of people everywhere and to reduce the gap between the richest and the most deprived. 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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