DAILY HIGHLIGHTS FOR: 15 July 1996
Press Release
DH/2185
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS FOR: 15 July 1996
19960715 * Secretary-General pleased to learn of developments in Sudan humanitarian situation.* ECOSOC acts on Report of Sustainable Development Commission.
* ICTY team exhumes 60 corpses.
* 1994 Demographic Yearbook published.
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The Security Council has extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP) until 15 January 1997. Unanimously adopting resolution 1066 (1996) today, the Council stressed the need for the Republic of Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to agree on a settlement which would peacefully resolve their differences and the importance it places on mutual recognition among the successor States to the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, within their internationally recognized borders.
The Council determined that the situation in Croatia continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security and encouraged the parties to adopt the practical option proposed by the United Nations military observers to reduce tension, as referred to in the report of the Secretary-General of 27 June 1996.
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The Secretary-General was deeply concerned by the recent serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation in the Sudan, UN Spokesman Sylvana Foa said today. However, he was pleased to learn this morning that the Government of the Sudan is now permitting Operation Lifeline Sudan to operate their C-130 relief flights, she added.
The Spokesman recalled that the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) recently stated that July was critical because food stocks were low, the harvest not yet in, which put some 700,000 people at risk of food shortages.
"The Secretary-General says that continued authorization by the Government of the Sudan for this aircraft to deliver relief supplies in upcoming months is critical", Ms. Foa said. Dr. Boutros-Ghali hoped that the
Government of the Sudan would continue its cooperation and adhere to its commitments to the General Assembly to assist all persons in need throughout the country, she noted.
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The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has adopted without a vote, a draft resolution on the recommendation of the Commission on Sustainable Development by which the General Assembly would endorse the Washington Declaration and Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities. The draft resolution was adopted by an intergovernmental conference held in Washington, D.C., last year.
The Council also adopted, without a vote, two decisions submitted by the Commission by which it approved a request that the Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Panel on Forests should hold its third session at Geneva from 9 to 20 September, and its fourth session in New York for a period of two weeks in 1997. It took note of the Commission's report and approved the provisional agenda of its fifth session.
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Some 60 corpses have so far been exhumed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) team of experts at Cerska near Srebrenica, UN Spokesman Sylvana Foa said today.
Evidence collected from the corpses appears to refute Serb allegations that the corpses belong to soldiers killed in action, she added.
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The Statistical Division of the Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis (DESIPA), has just published the Demographic Yearbook 1994, which presents the economic characteristics of people for most of the countries or areas of the world.
This is the forty-sixth issue of the series, which began in 1948, according to DESIPA. The Yearbook shows the demographic characteristics of the world's economically active population by age, sex, industry and includes such data as the life expectancy of men and women in the countries of interest.
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