DAILY HIGHLIGHTS FOR: 7 March 1996
Press Release
DH/2096
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS FOR: 7 March 1996
19960307 * Secretary-General, in message to mark International Women's Day, notes significant gains of last 20 years but says no society treats its women as well as its men.* Bosnian Federation police move into Sarajevo suburb of Hadzici; find 50 mostly elderly Serbs remain out of population of 9,000.
* More than 17,000 UNITA troops now quartered in Angola; parties agree quartering and formation of unified Angolan armed forces will be completed by June.
* Special Committee on Charter concludes session with recommendations on aid to third States affected by United Nations Sanctions.
* New round of United Nations-sponsored Guatemala peace talks to begin 27 March in Mexico City.
* Rwandan Government accepts Secretary-General's proposal to maintain the Office of the Special Representative in Kigali for six months.
* Comprehensive Plan of Action to resolve exodus of people from Viet Nam and Laos to formally end on June 30.
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The status of women had improved markedly in the half-century of the existence of the United Nations and there had been significant progress in the past twenty years, according to Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. However, no society treated its women as well as its men and progress had not been uniform, he said in a message to mark International Women's Day, read by his Special Adviser, Under-Secretary-General Rosario Green. Poverty and inadequate health care had a particular impact on the lives of women and their children. The majority of the more than 1.3 billion people struggling to survive on less than a single dollar a day were women.
The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing last September, declared that the empowerment of women living in poverty was central to all sustainable development efforts, he continued. Thousands of women who attended the Conference were taking the results to their communities. They were developing strategies and working to translate the global consensus into concrete action at the grass-roots level. The fresh surge of energy must be sustained and supported at all levels of the international community. It was critical for women's
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advancement that decisions made at major UN international conferences during the last five years were implemented. The conferences had defined an agenda for action in which women would be a positive force for change and progress for themselves and society.
There was a concrete strategy in the Organization to promote true gender balance in the international civil service, and he was holding managers accountable, the Secretary-General said. He had introduced an item on "the status of women in the secretariats of the United Nations system" in the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC). There must be vigilance particularly during the UN's financial crisis that the resolve to pursue strategies and plans are not weakened and women are not affected disproportionately, he added.
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Bosnian Federation police entered Hadzici today, the third of five Serb- controlled suburbs in Sarajevo which will come under Government authority and found only 50 mostly elderly Serb residents out of a total of 9,000. An estimated 60,000 Serbs have evacuated the capital in the last 25 days. Gangs of thugs have been telling residents to leave the suburb and burning houses and schools. The Federation police were accompanied by 53 United Nations civilian police monitors.
A number of officers sent to join the United Nations International Police Task Forces (IPTF) in Bosnia and Herzegovina had to be sent home after failing language or driving tests, the spokesman said. To date, 43 civilian police from 12 countries had to be repatriated, because they did not have the skills to drive on icy mountain roads or speak English adequately. The United Nations would implement a pre-screening process to help Governments test police, she added.
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In Angola, over 17,000 troops from the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) have been quartered in four sites, a spokesman for the Organization said today. The United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM) hopes to open four additional sites by next week to accommodate about 20,000 more troops.
At a recent meeting in Libreville, Gabon, Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos and UNITA leader Joseph Savimbi agreed that the quartering of UNITA troops and the formation of a unified Angolan armed forces would be completed by June, the spokesman said.
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The Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations has sent a report to the General Assembly containing recommendations on assistance to third States affected by UN sanctions. The Assembly was asked to consider an appropriate organizational framework to address implementation of Charter provisions on helping third States affected by sanctions imposed under Chapter VII. The Committee is mandated to examine issues relating to the maintenance of international peace and security, the peaceful settlement of disputes and the strengthening of the role of the organization. It concluded a two-week session yesterday.
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The United Nations will convene a new round of talks between the Government of Guatemala and the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) to be held from 27 to 29 March in Mexico City, a UN spokesman said today. The talks will focus on social and economic aspects of agrarian conditions in the country.
The Secretary-General was encouraged by the positive outcome of the last round of talks between the parties and the rapprochement achieved at a recent meeting between Guatemalan President Alvaro Arzu and the URNG leadership. He hopes significant progress towards concluding an agreement will be made at the upcoming round of talks, the spokesman added.
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The Rwandan Government has accepted the proposal made by the Secretary- General to maintain the Office of the Special Representative in Kigali for a period of six months. The decision was contained in letters received from the Foreign Minster of Rwanda and the Permanent Representative of Rwanda to the United Nations, according to a UN Spokesman.
The retention of the Office was one of the options put forward by the Secretary-General who said this office would work to strengthen the judicial system, facilitate the return of refugees and rehabilitate the national infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), reports from Kigali that during the month of February, over 23,000 refugees returned to Rwanda from Burundi, Zaire, Tanzania and Uganda.
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The Comprehensive Plan of Action to resolve the exodus of people from Viet Nam and the Lao People's Democratic Republic would formally come to an end on June 30, according to an announcement in Geneva. The Steering Committee of the International Conference on Indo-Chinese Refugees, which adopted the Plan seven
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years ago, declared that the Plan has successfully met its objectives and that clandestine departures from the countries of origin have essentially come to an end.
The decision to end the Plan of Action means that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), will phase out care and maintenance activities in South- East Asian camps for rejected asylum seekers as of 1 July. However, in Hong Kong, which shelters a large number of rejected asylum seekers, UNHCR will maintain alternative arrangements.
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