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United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-05-02United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSFriday, 2 May 1997This 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
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has learned with profound dismay of the death of 43 seminarists, who were victims of an attack, at the Buta seminary, in the district of Bururi, in Burundi. According to a statement by the UN Spokesman, the attack took place in the early hours of 30 April. The Secretary-General has called on the people of Burundi to exercise moderation and refrain from such acts. He also urged them to use dialogue and negotiation to end the sufferings they have endured for so many years. Assaults on freedom of the press undermine the goals of the United Nations Charter, including the development and maintenance of democracy. That was part of the message of the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today to mark World Press Freedom Day, 3 May. He noted that without a free and unfettered flow of information, the aspirations of all peoples to social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom will not be realised. "Unless a vigilant press is free to shed light on matters affecting the well-being of every society, the global problems for which the United Nations is the world's leading forum -- poverty, environmental degradation, human rights abuses, terrorism, traffic in arms drugs, the empowerment of women, the welfare of the world's children -- will be immeasurably harder to solve," Mr. Annan said. The Secretary-General pointed out that the communications revolution had come after a heavy investment of resources in industrialised countries. However, he added, that it had in fact widened the gap between developed and developing countries in this respect. Mr. Annan called on the international community to respond by providing practical support so that developing countries can also reap the benefits of the new technologies. "In turn, developing countries should work to strengthen their national media organisations. This begins with Governments fully committed to the fundamental principal of freedom of the press," Mr. Annan noted. Meanwhile, the President of the General Assembly, Ambassador Razali Ismail of Malaysia has said that the lack of cultural and linguistic variation on the Internet and in other media was a just cause for concern, threatening to undermine the diversity upon which survival of society was based. "As we are increasingly able to gaze at satellite pictures of distant places or to dwell in virtual reality, life, people and events are stripped of their context so we are less able to recognise the common humanity and equal rights of all peoples in the world," he said. By early afternoon on Friday, it was reported that the leader of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo- Zaire (ADFL), Laurent Kabila, was proceeding towards Soyo, in northwest Angola, from where he would be transported by helicopter to the South African ship Outeniqua, once that ship was in international waters, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General Fred Eckhard said today. He added that President Mobutu of Zaire had boarded the ship from Pointe Noire, in the Congo. The Joint United Nations/Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Special Representative for the Great Lakes region, Mohamed Sahnoun, and President Mandela of South Africa were also aboard the ship, according to the Spokesman. Reported to be on board were the president of the Congo, President Lissouba, and the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, William Richardson. Meanwhile, the Spokesman said seven hundred and eighty one refugees were airlifted today to Kigali and Gisenyi by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), twenty-nine of whom were in critical condition. More than 30,000 refugees, he noted, were now in the camp of Biaro, south of Kisangani, where conditions remained bad, although access to the camp had been facilitated by the ADFL in the last few days, and cooperation between the humanitarian agencies and local authorities had improved. The Alliance, he said, was still insisting that all humanitarian staff must be accompanied by military escort to Biaro, and maintained a 4:00 pm curfew. He noted that the Alliance said these restrictions were for security reasons, he added. Meanwhile, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) today announced in Geneva that the 52 children and 10 adults, who had been abducted on 26 April from the pediatric hospital at Bukavu, had been released, according to the Spokesman. UNICEF reported that the children had been kept in a van container for three days and had not been given food or water. The Joint Investigative Mission into human rights violations in eastern Zaire today said in Geneva it hoped to get the cooperation of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (ADFL) to carry out its mission. Mission member Roberto Garreton, Special Rapporteur on Zaire, said one month might not be enough unless all the States and parties with influence in that territory cooperated with the Mission. Another Mission member, Bacre Waly Ndiaye of Senegal, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said one of the objectives of the Mission was to go to any place from where it received serious allegations, including Kisangani, Kasese and other places. The question of how to go to those places, he added, was an issue to be negotiated between the Mission and the ADFL. The Mission will leave for Kigali, Rwanda, on 3 May, with plans to travel to eastern Zaire on Monday 5 May to begin its investigations. A group of mostly young Serb men threw stones Thursday 1 May at two buses carrying Bosnian Muslims in Brcko, a northern enclave in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General Fred Eckhard said today. The Serb group, who assembled in front of the building of the UN High Representative in Bosnia, stoned the buses, causing minor injuries to a number of the passengers, according to the Spokesman, who also pointed out that the assembly and the stone-throwing seemed to have been organised. Several incidents which occurred in Brcko over the last few days have caused concern to the UN Mission in Bosnia, the Spokesman noted. The United Nations, the High Representative and others involved in the peace process have condemned the act, he added. A ceremony marking the completion of the third and final phase of demobilisation in Guatemala is scheduled to take place today, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General Fred Eckhard said. A total of some 2,900 ex- combatants of the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) will have been demobilised by then. The first phase began at eight assembly points on 16 April, while the second phase began on 26 April, the Spokesman pointed out. Some 46 per cent of the world's population are presently urban dwellers, a figure expected to rise to half of the global population by 2006, according to the recently published 1996 Revision of "World Urbanisation Prospects." The United Nations study, which incorporates newly available information from the 1990 round of censuses, reveals a lower pace of urbanisation than previously envisioned. According to the report, over three fifths of the population will be urban by 2030, five years later than previously anticipated. Projections show that by 2030, a little more than 8 of every 10 people will live in cities in the more developed regions, while 57 per cent of the population in the less developed regions will be urban dwellers. Tokyo is currently the largest urban agglomeration in the world, with 27.2 million residents in 1996 -- more than one and a half times as large as the world's second largest agglomeration, Mexico City, with 16.9 million. In three decades, a little more than one of every two Africans or two Asians will live in cities. More than 8 of every 10 Latin Americans, Europeans and North Americans will be urban dwellers and, three of every four Oceanians will live in cities. The Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Federico Mayor will honour the memory of Guillermo Cano - the Colombian war correspondent and humanist killed in the exercise of his profession - as part of World Press Freedom Day commemorations on Saturday 3 May, in Bilbao, Spain. Marisol Cano, widow of Guillermo Cano and director of the Miguel Cano Isaza Foundation, will attend the ceremony. It will be held within the framework of an international conference organised by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on the theme of "Prime Time for Tolerance - Journalism and the Challenge of Racism." In a message for the World Press Freedom Day, Mr. Mayor stressed that any "diminution" of press freedom is a diminution of democracy itself, and reiterated the Organisation's commitment to press freedom and pluralism world-wide. 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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