DAILY HIGHLIGHTS FOR: 11 March 1996
Press Release
DH/2098
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS FOR: 11 March 1996
19960311 * Secretary-General says only global approach will stop terrorism; to attend anti-terrorism summit in Egypt.* United Nations to launch System-wide Special Initiative on Africa this week.
* After 18-hour delay, full UNSCOM team begins inspection of building in Baghdad.
* Negotiations begin on legally binding agreement to control international trade of hazardous chemicals and pesticides.
* Budget of $6.1 million for International Tribunal for Law of the Sea approved.
* Special Adviser Kittani in Tehran meets with leadership of United Tajik opposition.
* UN Observer killed in Georgia as vehicle hits mine.
* In former Yugoslavia, reports from Sarajevo of further deterioration of law and order in suburbs.
* ESCAP Human Resources Development Award won by non-formal training institute in India.
* Most Rwandan children witnessed violence and killing during 1994 genocide, UNICEF survey finds.
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Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has said only a global approach would stop terrorism in its tracks. The comments came as he was preparing to leave New York tonight to attend the summit conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt which has been called to confront the acts of violence which threaten the Middle East peace process.
The Secretary-General was invited to Wednesdays summit by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and President Bill Clinton of the United States of America, to join other world leaders involved in the peace process. A United Nations spokesman said the Secretary- General feels it is very important that world leaders get together
and act because terrorism has a global dimension and only a global approach would stop it in its tracks.
From Egypt Mr. Boutros-Ghali goes on to Geneva for meetings with the team working on the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty. Later, he will embark on his trip to the Far-East.
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The United Nations is launching a System-wide Special Initiative on Africa this week. Friday's launching of the 10-year, multi-billion dollar programme of concrete actions is aimed at providing renewed impetus to Africa's development. It will include participation by the World Bank, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organization of African Unity (OAU).
The Special Initiative is the United Nations system's most significant mobilization of support for the development of a continent's people, as well as its largest coordinated action. Implementation of the Initiative will require up to $25 billion, mostly from the reallocation of existing resources at the national and international levels. The World Bank has agreed to take the lead in mobilizing the bulk of this funding, which will go primarily towards improving basic education and health in Africa. Peace-building, good governance, and water and food security are among the Initiative's other areas of emphasis.
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After having been delayed for eighteen hours, a full inspection team from the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) entered a building in Baghdad to conduct a planned inspection. This followed unanimous actions by the Security Council, which, through its President, stated that Iraqs refusal to admit entrance into the building constituted a violation of Security Council resolutions.
The site had been secured by the Commission inspectors throughout the period of Iraqs refusal to grant immediate access, according to UNSCOM. The Commission had reason to believe that material related to banned weapons were at the site. The full inspection of site, including document and computer searches is continuing peacefully with 28 personnel involved under the direction of the Chief Inspector of the team.
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In Brussels, negotiations have begun on a legally binding agreement that will control the international trade of hazardous chemicals and pesticides. The negotiations on a legally binding instrument will complement steps already taken by a few countries to enact laws requiring their own export industries to comply with
the decisions of importing countries. The main purpose of the future agreement is to help countries move towards more effective chemicals management and help phase out the use of the most hazardous compounds. Training and capacity-building will therefore be an important part of the negotiations. Initial efforts by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to promote chemical safety were voluntary. However, as some pesticides and other chemicals that are banned or severely restricted in certain developed countries are still widely used elsewhere, particularly in developing countries, the governing bodies of the FAO and UNEP introduced the voluntary "prior informed consent" procedure in 1989.
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The Meeting of States Parties of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has approved a budget of $6.1 million for the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and its administrative organ - the Registry. The money is for an initial period covering 1 August 1996 to 31 December 1997. The budget for the initial period will be financed by all States parties to the Convention as of 1 August. Contributions by States parties will be based upon the scale of assessments for the regular budget of the United Nations.
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The Secretary-General's Special Adviser Ismat Kittani was in Tehran over the weekend, meeting with the leadership of the United Tajik opposition. The opposition has agreed to extend the existing cease-fire agreement unconditionally for three months, according to a United Nations Spokesman. However, the opposition declined to accept the Government's invitation to attend the special session of the Tajik Parliament which has been scheduled for today. Mr. Kittani is currently in Dushanbe, where he addressed the parliaments special session this morning. He informed it of the oppositions agreement to extend the cease-fire saying, given a similar statement made earlier by the President of Tajikistan, he considers that the extension of the cease-fire had now been agreed by both sides.
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In Georgia, a member of the United Nations Observer Mission was killed when his vehicle hit a mine on Saturday. The peacekeeper from Bangladesh was killed instantly by the explosion, according to a Spokesman for the Organization. Two others - a Hungarian military observer and an interpreter were also injured, but their injuries are not considered life-threatening.
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In the former Yugoslavia, there are reports from Sarajevo that law and order have further deteriorated in the suburbs of Ilidca
and Grbavica over the weekend. The vacuum of authority created by the rapid departure of Serb police authorities without the existence of effective federation control has resulted in lawlessness characterized by robberies, arson, intimidation and in a couple of cases, murder, a UN Spokesman said today.
The two suburbs have no police force to maintain law and order. Most of the Serb police officers have already been evacuated and the few remaining are unwilling or incapable of discharging police functions. The residents who remain there have no fire protection since all the fire-fighting equipment have been withdrawn, she said. The consequent condition of terror is forcing the few Serbs who might want to remain to join the exodus.
The heads of the Implementation Force (IFOR) contingent and the International Police Task Force (IPTF) met with about a hundred, mostly elderly Ilidza residents Saturday trying to allay their fears and persuade them to stay.
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The 1995 UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Human Resources Development Award has been won by the Social Work and Research Centre, a non-formal training institute in Rajasthan, India. The Centre caters to "unemployable" young men and women who have been rejected by the formal education system, according to the United Nations Information Service (UNIS).
The Centre, known as Barefoot College, was founded in 1972 based on the belief that village youth can be trained by their peers in a variety of higher skills that do not require degrees. Two generations of teachers, doctors and engineers have passed through the College and are now engaged in providing basic services to support their communities.
The 1995 Award is being sponsored by the Government of Japan. The winner will receive a cash prize of $20,000, which will be presented to the Director of the Centre, Bunker Roy, in April at the United Nations Centre in Bangkok during the fifty-second session of ESCAP.
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Ninety-five percent of Rwandan children witnessed violence and killing during the genocide of 1994, according to a survey conducted by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which notes that children were subjected to "unprecedented levels of exposure to traumatic events."
The report highlights the findings of a national baseline trauma survey carried out in 1995 by UNICEF's Trauma Recovery Programme based in Rwanda's capital, Kigali. Over 3,000 children, aged between eight and nineteen years were interviewed. The Report notes that more than one-third of children interviewed had seen
children taking part in killings, 31 per cent had witnessed rapes, nearly 80 per cent had lost immediate family members during the war and more than one-third of them had witnessed the murder of family members. Almost all of the children believed they would die during the fighting.
The UNICEF survey report concludes that there is no baseline in modern history that enables one to compare adequately the magnitude of traumatic events that these children have personally witnessed during the genocide.
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Please Note: The first headline in Fridays Highlights should have read as follows:
Security Council asks Secretary-General to maintain United Nations Office in Rwanda headed by his Special Representative.