DAILY HIGHLIGHTS FOR: 12 January 1996
Press Release
DH/2058
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS FOR: 12 January 1996
19960112 * Security Council extends UNOMIG mandate till 12 July, subject to review if mandate of CIS peace-keeping force changed; condemns ethnic killings and violence in Abkhazia, Georgia.* Secretary-General discusses United Nations reform and restructuring with President Chirac in Paris.
* IFOR offers to help International Criminal Tribunal locate evidence of mass graves in Bosnia.
* Bosnian International Civilian Police Force has 1246 out of the 1700 officers needed.
* Director-General of WHO seriously concerned at increased targeting and hostage taking of patients and health personnel during armed conflicts.
* Peter Hansen appointed Commissioner-General of UNRWA.
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The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) for a further six months until 12 July 1996. The extension will be subject to review if the mandate of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) peace-keeping force is changed.
In unanimously adopting resolution 1036 (1996), the Council called on the parties to improve their cooperation with UNOMIG and the CIS peace-keeping force to provide a secure environment for the return of refugees and displaced persons. It also called on them to honour their commitments to the safety and freedom of United Nations and CIS personnel with regard to UNOMIG's inspections of heavy weapons storage sites.
Condemning the ethnic killings and continuing human rights violations in Abkhazia, Georgia, the Council called upon the Abkhaz side to ensure the safety of all persons under its control. It also called on the parties, particularly
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the Abkhaz side, to achieve substantive progress, without further delay, towards a comprehensive political settlement and to cooperate fully with the efforts by the Secretary-General and the Russian Federation.
The Council demanded that the Abkhaz side accelerate significantly the voluntary return of refugees and displaced persons by accepting a timetable proposed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It also demanded that the Abkhaz side guarantee the safety of spontaneous returnees already in the area and regularize their status in accordance with the Quadripartite Agreement of April 1994.
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Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali met with President Jacques Chirac in Paris today and discussed a wide range of issues, particularly reform and restructuring of the United Nations and its current financial situation, according to a United Nations spokesman. They also discussed the situation in Burundi, Rwanda, Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the conflict between Eritrea and Yemen. Yesterday, the Secretary-General met with the French Foreign Minister, Herve de Charrette.
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) led Implementation Force (IFOR) has offered to help the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia locate evidence of mass graves in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a United Nations spokesman said today. Prosecutor Judge Richard Goldstone will meet with NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana in Brussels on 19 January to finalize cooperation on the matter.
To date, the International Criminal Tribunal has been repeatedly denied access by Bosnian Serb authorities to sites around Prijedor and Srebrenica, where mass graves are allegedly located, the spokesman said. However, IFOR's deployment should allow for unrestricted access as provided for in the Dayton peace agreement. The Tribunal welcomed any action to locate and secure evidence of atrocities.
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More personnel have been promised for the international civilian police force for Bosnia and Herzegovina, a United Nations spokesman said today. To date, 1246 out of the 1700 officers needed have been pledged. Already, 153 police are deployed throughout the country, with 62 in the capital, Sarajevo and 10 patrolling the Serbian suburb of Ilidza.
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The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, has expressed serious concern at the recent increase in armed attacks and hostage-taking operations targeting patients and health personnel. In a statement issued yesterday, Dr. Nakajima said a deliberate hostage-taking operation against a hospital was a flagrant violation of international law and human rights, including the rights of the sick to medical help and protection. Attacking hospitals full of suffering people was immoral and no goals could justify such inhumane treatment.
Dr. Nakajima called on warring parties to respect human rights, accord amnesty to patients and health personnel, regardless of their religious, political or social affiliation, and to respect the sanctity of health facilities. He also called on governments, religious leaders, private organizations and individuals to help ensure that hospitals, the sick and health personnel were not targeted.
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Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has appointed Peter Hansen as Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) effective 20 January, a spokesman for the Organization said today. Mr. Hansen has been Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs since March 1995. Previously, he was Executive-Director of the Commission on Global Governance and the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations.
The General Assembly established UNRWA in 1949, when there were approximately 700,000 Palestinian refugees. Currently, 3.2 million registered refugees are living in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Agency provides them with education, health, relief and social services. It employs some 20,000 staff, nearly all of them Palestinians, and has a budget of $666 million for 1996-97.
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