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.
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Patt Haring | UNITEX : United Nations
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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.
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