United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-03-05

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From: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.org

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 5 March 1998

HEADLINES

• Prakash Shah of India named by Secretary-General as his Special Envoy in Baghdad.
• Secretary-General reschedules planned Middle East trip for mid- March.
• Secretary-General, General Assembly President condemn bombing in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
• United Nations refugee agency helps this year's first group of Afghans return home from Pakistan.
• United Nations Deputy Secretary-General urges women to recommit themselves to realizing equal rights.
• World Health Organization says over 100 countries are free of guinea worm disease.
• United Nations agricultural agency says treating cows with BST hormone is safe.

Relating his decision to the President of the Security Council in a letter sent on Thursday, the Secretary-General cited the need for "improved lines of communication between the Government of Iraq and my Office in order to help avert the development of such difficulties into fully fledged crises threatening to undermine international peace and security in the area."

Mr. Shah's office in Baghdad, which will have the assistance of a small team, should be established by the end of this month, according to the letter.

As Special Envoy, Ambassador Shah will be charged with following all developments relating to the United Nations, and will support the Organization's activities in the arms control, humanitarian, and economic and social fields. Special attention will be given to "any crisis or problem which might benefit from intervention by United Nations Headquarters," the Secretary-General wrote.

Mr. Shah served as India's Permanent Representative to the UN in New York from 1995 to 1997. He was India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva, from 1991 to 1992.

The 58-year old diplomat has held a range of government foreign policy positions. He was India's Ambassador to Japan from 1992 to 1995. From 1985 to 1986, Mr. Shah was Joint Secretary in charge of the Persian Gulf region. He also represented India in Venezuela, the Netherlands Antilles, Malaysia and Brunei.

Serving as the Director of the Ministry of Petroleum from 1975 to 1977, Mr. Shah handled India's external relations in the field of petroleum and petrochemicals, including negotiations on contracts with west Asian and other suppliers. From 1971 to 1975, he was the First Secretary/Counsellor for Petroleum Affairs at India's Embassy in Tehran. During that period, he was also accredited to represent his country in Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Lebanon.

According to United Nations Spokesman Fred Eckhard, the Secretary- General will visit Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Syria as well as areas under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.

That trip had been planned for February, but was postponed in the light of the Iraq crisis. The original itinerary had included Jordan, but the Secretary-General was not able to include that country in the rescheduled trip because of prior commitments on the Jordanian side. "However, the Secretary-General does hope to make a trip to Jordan at the earliest mutually convenient time," Mr. Eckhard said.

Spokesman Fred Eckhard said that once again, the Secretary-General condemned, in the strongest possible terms, the use of violence against civilians. "Terrorism cannot be condoned in any circumstances."

The Secretary-General called for an end to the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, which has brought considerable suffering to many innocent non- combatants, and for a peaceful, negotiated settlement of the problem. He also extended his condolences to the families of the victims.

The President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko of Ukraine, was shocked to learn about the bomb explosion. "The President is appalled by this senseless act of violence against civilians that deserves unequivocal international condemnation," said his Spokesman, Alex Taukatch.

Mr. Taukatch said the President urged perpetrators of terrorist acts to "break the vicious circle of violence that only brings suffering to non- combatants while preventing a peaceful resolution of conflicts".

In the aftermath of the tragedy in Sri Lanka, the President stressed the importance of the early entry into force of the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, adopted by the Assembly last December.

The refugees, who had spent 18 years in Pakistan since fleeing the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, are the first group to return home under a new repatriation scheme launched by UNHCR last summer.

"The group repatriation scheme is still in its infancy," said Martha Juarez, the Assistant Representative of the United Nations refugee agency. According to Ms. Juarez, the scheme involves identifying groups of people who wish to return home but are unable to do so for a number of reasons. She added that the repatriation scheme was "a complicated business" and could take a long time for discussions to develop to the point where a group "actually gets up and goes."

UNHCR said that the home village of the repatriated refugees was largely destroyed during the fighting between Soviet forces and the mujahadeen. As part of a package offered to the refugees when they returned, UNHCR will help them rebuild their houses. Together with other agencies, UNHCR also committed itself to helping the returnees reclaim parts of their land which degenerated during their absence. That assistance will include improvement of drainage, building of dykes and cutting back of reed.

Afghan refugees remain the largest refugee caseload in the world for the 18th year in succession, with 1.2 million in Pakistan and 1.4 million in Iran. They are also the largest in the post World War II era to return home, with more than 3.9 million refugees returning so far, despite the continuing conflict in their home country, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

Opening a panel discussion at United Nations Headquarters commemorating International Women's Day (8 March), Ms. Frechette said that the movement of women's rights was one of the most momentous in the history of humankind.

Ms. Frechette said that the relationship between non-governmental organizations and governments was often adversarial and that it needed not be so. She said that achieving the goals of the women's movement required the building of truly global partnership of solidarity, a partnership which came alive at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna, and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing.

Noting that this year marked the fifth anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, Ms. Frechette said the Human Rights Conference had been a watershed in the recognition of women's rights as human rights and human rights as women's rights.

With the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action, the world saw the first truly comprehensive plan in 12 critical areas of concern to the advancement of women, Ms. Frechette said. She added that non- governmental organizations were instrumental in crafting sections on women's rights in a process which generated a new international sisterhood. There was no going back from the Platform for Action, the Deputy Secretary-General stressed.

Thanks to sustained eradication efforts, the disease, also known as dracunculiasis, has been confined to 17 countries, all but one of which - - Yemen -- are in sub-Saharan Africa.

The guinea worm is the largest of the tissue parasites, according to WHO. The disease is transmitted through contaminated water. WHO estimates that nine out of 10 people living in the depressed areas of Africa south of the Sahara still have nothing else to drink but meagre quantities of impure water, which exposes them to serious diseases like dracunculiasis. In countries where guinea worm disease is endemic, water is rare, and often a single, stagnant source is the only supply for an entire community.

"Guinea worm causes dreadful suffering and disability among the world's most deprived people," said the Director of WHO's Division of Control of Tropical Diseases, Dr. Kazem Behbehani. "It affects equally children, women and men, handicapping farmers, hampering women in their daily chores and affecting children's schooling, but we can stop this disease from being a scourge," he said.

WHO efforts to eradicate guinea worm disease focus on community surveillance systems; intensified case-containment measures; filtration and chemical treatment of water supply systems; and health education.

The joint FAO/World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Food Additives concluded that there were no food safety or health concern related to BST residues in products such as milk and meat from treated animals.

The Committee determines the safety of residues from veterinary drugs in food and establishes acceptable daily intakes and maximum residue limits for certain drugs when they are used on food-producing animals.

Regarding the maximum residue limits for BST, the Committee found that available data on the identity and concentration of residues of the drug in animal tissues provide a wide margin of safety for consumption when the drug is used properly. It concluded that the presence of drug residues in animal products does not present any health concerns.

Disagreement over the use of BST has complicated trade in dairy products between the United States, where the drug is widely used, and the European Union which has opposed the use of the hormone.

From the United Nations home page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.org

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