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United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-04-01United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSTuesday, 1 April 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
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) field officers are describing the situation in Zaire as "catastrophic" and calling for immediate action to be taken to stabilise the situation. "We are currently working to prevent the refugees being pushed further back, to offer them assistance where they are and to push forward with plans for their repatriation," UNHCR said in a statement. According to UNHCR, while workers were cleaning up Lula, outside of Kisangani, they found 50 bodies in the remains of the makeshift huts. The agency also indicates that pushing the refugees back all the way to Ubundu is not only inhumane, but will also make it logistically impractical to reach them. UNHCR field officers report that there were very few children under five years of age among the refugees. Most of these young children did not survive the ordeal of the long march the refugees went through the last five months. UNHCR says now the agency is practically racing against time to prevent deaths among the survivors. UNHCR needs full humanitarian access to all sites where the refugees are in order to assist and safely repatriate them. The ship SS Virtue, carrying 37,240 tons of Australian wheat, and the SS Gunay, carrying 29,162 tons of French wheat, arrived 31 March in Umm Qasr, Iraq, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General Fred Eckhard said today. Both ships started unloading immediately, and the dispatch to Government warehouses began. A third ship, the SS Lima, with 35,450 tons of Australian wheat, is expected to arrive 2 April, according to the Spokesman. It will have to wait until one of the first two ships finish unloading. The Spokesman for the Secretary-General indicated that, in total, 90,000 tons of food supply have now reached Iraq, out of an anticipated 2.272 million tons of food. The Iraqi Ministry of Trade has also informed the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq that a supplement of two kilograms of flour would be added immediately to the seven kilograms Iraqis normally receive on a monthly basis, according to the Spokesman. The 40,000 tons of Argentine wheat flour required will be taken from existing Government stocks. He added that distribution, which could begin on 2 April, will apply to the fifteen central and southern governorates of Iraq, and, for the first time since 1993, to the three northern governorates of Erbil, Dohuk and Suleymaniyah. Meanwhile, the United Nations has provided Iraq with its weekly report on the implementation of Security Council resolution 986, the "Oil-for-Food" resolution, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General said, adding that, as of 28 March, 41 contracts were approved with a total volume reaching 113.2 million barrels. The total proceeds from the oil sales reached 824 million dollars as of 28 March, the Spokesman noted, pointing out that, of this amount, 544 million had been allotted to humanitarian supplies, 247 million to the Compensation Fund, and the rest to other programme elements. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will take part in a live world- wide radio broadcast to discuss international developments and global issues with journalists from radio networks in five continents. During an unrehearsed question-and-answer show, scheduled to be aired on 2 April, originating in the studios of United Nations Radio in New York, the Secretary-General will field questions from foreign affairs correspondents and editors at radio stations in Australia, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya, the Netherlands, South Africa and the United States. The one-hour programme, which is the first ever live international radio broadcast connecting so many radio networks simultaneously with a United Nations Secretary-General, has been organised by United Nations Radio with the participation of the following: Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Sydney; All India Radio (AIR), New Delhi; Channel Africa, Johannesburg; Deutsche Welle, Cologne, Germany; Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), Nairobi; Radio Netherlands, Hilversum; Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), Tokyo; and the Voice of America (VOA), Washington, D.C. The broadcast will be in English but some stations will provide interpretation for local audiences. The show - scheduled to go on the air at 11 a.m. (EST) - will be simultaneously posted "live" on the Internet through the courtesy of Media on Demand, a New York-based communications company. It can be accessed via the United Nations Home Page (http://www.un.org), Audio-Visual Services area. After the broadcast, the programme will be available on demand as a sound file on the Media on Demand home page (http://www.internetbroadcast.com). The show will also be made available on the United Nations Radio Bulletin Board (tel. 212-963-3777) starting at 1:00 p.m. In a report on the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM), the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan recommends that the Mission be maintained. Mr. Annan notes that UNIKOM continues to monitor the demilitarised zone and the Khawr Abd Allah, and, through its vigilance, has contributed to stability and calm along the Iraq-Kuwait border. "In conclusion I wish to pay tribute to the Force Commander and to the men and women under his command for the manner in which they have carried out their task. Their discipline and bearing have been of a higher order, reflecting credit on themselves, their countries and the United Nations," the Secretary-General says. The United Nations today appealed for US$ 68.2 million to address the humanitarian needs in Sierra Leone following five years of civil conflict, which formally ended with the signing of the Abidjan peace accord on 30 November 1996. The overall improvement in the security climate, combined with efforts made by the Government of Sierra Leone, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organisations to promote the advantages of timely resettlement, has resulted in the return of approximately 517,000 of the estimated 1.6 million displaced people to their areas of origin. The humanitarian programme reflected in the Appeal, for the period from March 1997 through February 1998, is designed to promote the consolidation of peace and to assist the affected population in attaining higher levels of self-sufficiency. Accordingly, food aid will be provided to sustain people displaced or impoverished by the war, to facilitate their return to their communities and to support them while they strive to produce their own sustenance. The Appeal covers programmes of the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), UN Volunteers (UNV), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA). The appeal also contains annexes reflecting the activities and requirements in 1997 of the International Committee of the Red Cross (US$ 16.4) and of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (US$ 1.9). The Executive Director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, said that the exclusion of girls and women from the public sphere in Afghanistan had disastrous consequences for the entire nation. Since their military victories in the summer of 1995, the Taliban militants, known for their ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam, have barred girls and women teachers from the classroom and ruled that women may not work. Schools have just opened throughout Afghanistan after the winter recess -- but there were no girls in sight. "Not only are they shut out of educational opportunities, but they are denied the right to contribute to their families' welfare and the country's economy," Ms. Bellamy said. The Taliban have used the argument that there are not sufficient funds to provide for girls' education. But according to UNICEF's Executive Director, the real economic issue is that the exclusion of girls from schools and women from the workforce is seriously undermining the economic and social development prospects of Afghanistan. In recent weeks, humanitarian organisations had expressed cautious optimism at an apparent softening of the Taliban position on girls' education, according to UNICEF. Last month, at a meeting in Kabul between the Minister of Education and United Nations' representatives, an agreement was reached to allow girls up to nine years old to attend school. Days later, however, the Minister reversed his position, leaving girls and women teachers excluded from schools. Qatar, in its capacity as the current chairman of the Arab group, delivered on 31 March a letter to the Secretary-General requesting an emergency special session of the General Assembly on the subject of illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied Arab territories, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General Fred Eckhard said today. The special session would be called within 24 hours of the Secretary- General determining that the majority of Members of the Assembly supported the request, the Spokesman added. The Committee on Relations with the Host Country delayed for one day action on a recommendation that the General Assembly consider, on an urgent basis, the diplomatic parking issue in New York City. The delay was requested by several delegations to allow them to obtain instructions from their respective Governments. Several speakers brought up the possibility of transferring functions and bodies to another city, such as Geneva or Vienna. Some speakers cautioned against inflammatory rhetoric that could interfere with the process of finding a solution and called on the Committee to continue its efforts. The Government of Colombia considered itself bound by the provisions obligated by the Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, the Committee on Human Rights was told, as it began examination of the country's fourth periodic report on its compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Carlos Vicenti de Roux, Presidential Adviser on Human Rights, told the Committee that, while that would not change the conduct of the country's public forces -- police and military -- it sent a very strong message with respect to the Government's commitments to those humanitarian guidelines. Commenting on Colombia's fourth periodic report, the Human Rights Committee's expert member from Ecuador, Julio Prado Vallejo said the human rights situation in Colombia was marked by abuses from the Government's security forces, the corrupting power of drug trafficking, frequent violations by guerrilla groups, and serious criminal acts carried out by paramilitary forces. 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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