unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (08/14/89)
UN WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS Security guard killed in attack on office of United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) in Namibia. Non-aligned countries join call for Security Council meeting on situation in Namibia, citing South Africa's "non-compliance" with provisions of United Nations independence plan. Security Council meets again on charges by Panama of "hostile actions" by United States. # # # United Nations officials reported today what they described as "a grave incident" which took place yesterday in Namibia, at the regional office of the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) at Outjo, north of the territorial capital of Windhoek. The office was said to have been "attacked and substantially damaged" by what appeared to have been gunfire and explosives, possibly hand grenades. A security guard assigned to the UNTAG premises by a private firm in Windhoek was killed in the attack. Later in the day, a similar attack was carried out against a drill hall in a military compound in the same village. Members of the Kenya battalion of UNTAG are housed within the compound, and weapons are stored there. In the second incident, damage was reported to be light, and there were no injuries. The Secretary-General's special representative for Namibia, Martti Ahtisaari, issued a statement deploring all acts of terrorism, whether directed against the United Nations or any other party. He said he expected all Namibians to unite in condemning such acts, and to reaffirm their commitment to a peaceful transition to independence in accordance with the Security Council's resolution 435. He said UNTAG would not be diverted from its task of supervising and controlling the implementation of resolution 435, and would "resolutely press ahead" with the independence process for Namibia. Mr. Ahtisaari sent representatives to Outjo to assess the situation. # # # The movement of non-aligned countries has joined the African Group of United Nations member-countries in calling for an urgent meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Namibia. The African Group in a letter to the Council President, said the situation was "deteriorating". In a further letter, Isack Mudenge of Zimbabwe, current Chairman of the non-aligned, asked the Council to consider "South Africa's non-compliance" with the requirements of the Council's resolution 435 of 1978, under which Namibia is being brought to independence. Members of the Council are expected to hold consultations on the requests next Wednesday, and a series of formal Council meetings is likely to follow. # # # The Security Council met today at the request of Panama which said, in a letter, that it was facing a "grave situation" as a result of United States intervention in its internal affairs, and that since the Council had discussed the matter in April, "United States troops in Panamanian territory have continued the dangerous escalation of their acts of intimidation, provocation and aggression". Panama's Minister of External Relations, Jorge Ritter, in an extensive presentation, told the Council that since the Panama Canal Treaties had come into force in 1979, there were recognized procedures covering actions of United States troops. Recently, he said, those procedures had been ignored; hostile actions by the United States had increased and there had been "hundred of cases" of incidents by United States troops against Panamanian citizens. Mr. Ritter said the United States actions were those of an army of occupation. The United States had been trying to provoke responses that would justify taking Panama by force. He called on the Council for a decision on whether the United States actions constituted aggression. The United States, he said, was running out of excuses and the Panamanian people were running out of patience. For the United States, Herbert Okun said the Council had spent valuable time and resources listening to "groundless complaints from the representative of the Noriega regime", whose statement was "full of fabrications and falsehoods". Mr. Okun said General Noriega had nullified elections in which opposition candidates had won by a majority of three to one. The Organization of American States (OAS) had taken up the matter, and the Noriega regime's "manoeuvering" in the Security Council was an effort to divert attention from what the OAS was trying to do. He said augmentation of United States military forces in Panama was in direct response to hostile actions of the Noriega regime. The United States wished to abide by the Panama Canal Treaties. The real problem in Panama was General Noriega, who was hanging on to power "only through force and for his own personal benefit." The next Council meeting on the issue will take place after consultations among Council members. * Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501) -- unitex - via FidoNet node 1:107/520 UUCP: ...!rutgers!rubbs!unitex ARPA: unitex@rubbs.FIDONET.ORG --- Patt Haring | UNITEX : United Nations patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange
unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/24/89)
UN WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS Posting Date: 09/24/89 Source: UNITEX Network, Hoboken, NJ, USA Host: (201) 795-0733 ISSN: 1043-7932 GENERAL ASSEMBLY APPROVES AGENDA OF 155 ITEMS FOR FORTY-FOURTH SESSION The General Assembly today approved the recommendation of its General Committee that it consider 155 items on the agenda of its forty-fourth session The items up for renewed consideration at the current session include the situation in the Middle East and the question of Palestine, the return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin, peace initiatives in Central America, and South Africa's policies of apartheid. The Assembly will also consider such new items as observer status for the Council of Europe in the General Assembly, a United Nations decade of international law, illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and transnational criminal activities, the establishment of an international criminal court with jurisdiction over such crimes, and an alternative framework for African structural adjustment. The Assembly, on the question of Namibia, took note of Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar's statement that the United Nations independence plan for Namibia includes informal understandings on the question of impartiality, one of which indicates that consideration of the question at the regular session be suspended during the Territory's transition to independence. The Assembly also approved the allocation of items among its seven Main Committees, deciding, for example, that the Special Political Committee would discuss the protection and security of small States as a new item, and its Economic Committee would discuss special economic and disaster relief assistance as well as the external debt crisis of developing countries. * Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501) --- Patt Haring | United Nations | FAX: 212-787-1726 patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information | BBS: 201-795-0733 patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange | (3/12/24/9600 Baud) -=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-