PEACEWATCH
Reported by Russell Taylor
| Home | In This Issue | Archive | Français | Contact Us | Subscribe | Links |
| Security Council Agrees on Interim Arrangements in Iraq | ||
As the UN Chronicle went to press, the United Nations Security Council on 22 May adopted with near unanimity a resolution granting wide interim governing powers to the United States and its coalition partners and including a role for the United Nations in the reconstruction of Iraq. Adopted by 14 to 0, with Syria absent, resolution 1483 (2003) lifts sanctions imposed almost 13 years ago on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait, allows for full resumption of oil sales to restore economic activity for reconstruction, sets up a government infrastructure under the new Authority, and calls on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to appoint a Special Representative. It also allows for a Council review in 12 months' time. Mr. Annan said he would name "without delay" the Special Representative, for whom he requested full Council support.
The pace of the agencies' return remains dependent on the UN assessment of security and the United States' declaration of "permissive environments" in areas of need. WFP has launched the largest emergency operation in its history, and as of 8 May over 100,000 tonnes of food (enough to feed 6.75 million people for a month) had been delivered since the start of the conflict. Along with 12 million litres of water, UNICEF has delivered vaccines for 240,000 children, and therapeutic milk and high-protein biscuits for 240,000 malnourished children and 130,000 pregnant/lactating women. It is also implementing a "School in a Box Programme" to speed the reopening of schools. The UN is reactivating systems of humanitarian delivery with the Iraqi Ministry of Trade and other ministries. Local technicians are helping on needs and populations to be targeted. WHO has, as of 8 May, assessed nearly 300 health facilities and delivered emergency health kits for 150,000 patients, enough for three months. UNDP is focusing on emergency repairs to the electricity network, and damage assessments are being carried out in several major cities. Job creation programmes are being launched in garbage disposal and small-scale infrastructure rehabilitation. UN-Habitat is checking war-damaged public buildings and housing, and conducting emergency assessment of solid waste disposal and sewage in Basra. The UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), through the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), has been undertaking assessments in the south and established a Mine Action Coordination Group in Basra. UNMAS will help coordinate the work of the United Nations system, specialist non-governmental organizations and coalition forces in the clearance of unexploded ordnance. UNOPS is working on resuming its mine action programme in the three northern governorates. In addition to advocating on behalf of some 1,000 asylum-seekers caught in "no man's land", the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is sending tents, mattresses, blankets and other non-food items to Baghdad to assist up to 2,000 Palestinian refugees evicted from their accommodation. Similar assistance is being brought in to northern Iraq for returnees. UNHCR has issued a preliminary repatriation and reintegration plan to help up to 500,000 Iraqi refugees to return home. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is working with aid groups to transport medical equipment and supplies to Iraq. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Office of the UN Coordinator for Iraq are providing coordination tools, such as the Humanitarian Information Center. During the conflict, UN humanitarian operations in Iraq were maintained as far as possible. WFP national staff organized food distributions to internally displaced persons in the three northern governorates, assessed the public distribution system, supported the delivery of food, worked to open corridors from Turkey, Jordan and Iran into Iraq, and delivered 37,000 metric tonnes of food from the beginning of the war through 23 April. In northern Iraq, local staff of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN continued to provide basic inputs to farmers, monitor possible outbreaks of animal diseases and plant infestations, and provide support to protect the current harvest. UNICEF local staff delivered humanitarian supplies, worked to maintain potable water, prevented further losses of humanitarian assets and helped stop a diarrhoea outbreak among children in Baghdad. WHO local staff assessed the health situation and hospitals and supported Iraqi health professionals. UNOPS, UN-Habitat, the International Organization for Migration and UNHCR also monitored the movement of and assisted third-country nationals and asylum-seekers. |
| Mission of Peace: The UN and Ralph Bunche |
| The first International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers is being celebrated on 29 May 2003—fifty-five years after the Security Council authorized the first UN peacekeeping operation.
The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) in the Middle East was a mission without precedent. It was the first time that the Council acted to send international soldiers under the new UN flag, with a new mission of maintaining international peace and security. Ralph Johnson Bunche, whose centenary will be commemorated in our next issue, had just come to the United Nations a month earlier, but was almost immediately appointed by the Secretary-General to effect the arrangements for the first group of UNTSO military observers. It was the beginning of a seminal involvement in UN peacekeeping. Since then, some 1,800 men and women serving in a total of 58 UN peacekeeping operations have paid with their lives for peace—nearly 40 of them while with UNTSO. Today, nearly 37,000 United Nations peacekeepers are deployed in 14 missions, along with over 10,000 other international and local civilian personnel. They come from almost 90 different countries. The International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers is meant to commemorate the sacrifice and selfless commitment of all peacekeepers who have served, and continue to serve, in so many countries and on so many battlefields. |
| AFRICA |
| Noting the challenges to the stability of Côte d'Ivoire following a coup attempt in September 2002, the Security Council adopted a resolution on 13 May authorizing a new United Nations Mission in Côte d'Ivoire (MINUCI) to help guide efforts to implement the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement, a French-brokered peace accord reached in January that calls on the Government, rebels and political opposition to share power in a transitional government until elections in 2005. MINUCI will include a military component, based on an option proposed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, complementing the operations of the French and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) forces. The military component would also provide input to forward planning on disengagement, disarmament and demobilization, and identifying future tasks, in order to advise the Government and support the French and ECOWAS forces. In early May, referring to the violence in the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Council called on all sides to end actions that threatened to undo a fragile ceasefire plan in the area. Members "urged all Congolese parties and all States in the region to support the process initiated by the Ituri Pacification Commission and to refrain from any activity which could undermine this process". In a bid to end nearly five years of violent conflict, rival militia and tribal groups in the northeast of the DRC had agreed in mid-April to set up an interim body to manage that region until a new post-war national government takes over. The 177 delegates of the Commission adopted a series of interim measures to end the hostilities and provide a provisional administration in Ituri District, highlighted by the creation of the power-sharing 32-member Provisional Assembly. Under the presidency of the Secretary-General's Deputy Special Representative for the DRC, Behrooz Sadry, the Pacification Commission agreed that the 18-member Commission of Prevention and Verification would examine the causes of the conflict and establish measures to prevent any escalation. Citing "active support" by Liberia of rebel groups that were having a destabilizing effect on West Africa, the Security Council in May renewed sanctions against that country, extending them to include a ban on timber exports in addition to existing arms and diamond embargoes. The Council first approved the sanctions in May 2001, after determining that President Charles Taylor's government had helped the rebel Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone to fight the Government there. Following an investigation, the Panel of Experts on Liberia's compliance with international sanctions indicated that the ongoing conflict had spilled over into Sierra Leone, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire, threatening the region as a whole. According to the experts, Monrovia and rival rebel groups continued to violate the UN arms embargo. |
| ASIA PACIFIC |
| After a briefing by United Nations envoy in Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi, the Security Council on 6 May expressed serious concern at the deterioration of security in many areas of the country and at recent attacks on UN and other aid organizations personnel. Rivalries between factions and local commanders, impunity for human rights violations and the daily harassment of ordinary citizens by commanders and local security forces challenged the Bonn Peace Agreement, concluded by Afghan political leaders in December 2001 and aimed at establishing a representative government by 2004. Forces believed to be associated with the Taliban, al Qaeda and Hekmatyar had been stepping up operations against the coalition, according to Mr. Brahimi who expressed concern over the security of UN and other civilian personnel. Saying that the Organization must continue to play a central role in efforts to assist the Afghan people to consolidate peace and rebuild their country, the Council on 28 March extended the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) for another 12 months. The UN social and humanitarian committee would have the General Assembly approve the draft agreement between the United Nations and Cambodia to set up a war crimes court to try the former leaders of the Khmer Rouge. The resolution urges Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Cambodian Government to "take all measures to allow the agreement to enter into force and be fully implemented". Once adopted, "Extraordinary Chambers", comprising one trial court and one Supreme Court with a mix of international and Cambodian judges, would be created. The head of the UN Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET) has told the Security Council that the new timetable for the gradual withdrawal of UN peacekeepers in Timor-Leste was critically important in addressing the criminally and politically motivated threats to security in the country. "A surge in violence at this time could potentially generate a demoralizing psychological apprehension in the population of a recrudescence of violence", Kamalesh Sharma said. Ambassador José Luis Guterres of Timor-Leste told the Council that the violence of last December and the subsequent terrorist activities of January this year had created some fears about the country's future security. However, the firm and transparent response of the United Nations and his Government provided reassurance and had reasserted confidence and stability. UNMISET had been and continued to be effective, he added, and much progress had been made in the capacity-building of Timorese police and military. |
| MIDDLE EAST |
| In April, the diplomatic Quartet released its "road map" for a permanent and comprehensive settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a move welcomed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who urged the two sides to embrace the plan. In a joint statement, representatives of the Quartet—United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, Russian Federation Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, European Union (EU) High Representative for Security and Foreign Policy Javier Solana, and Secretary-General Annan—said: "The Quartet today presents to the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority a road map to realize the vision shared by the United States, the European Union, the Russian Federation and the United Nations of two States—Israel and Palestine—living side by side in peace and security. The members of the Quartet will work with the parties and key regional actors towards the implementation of the road map, in accordance with that vision". Within hours of the swearing-in of the new Palestinian Government, the document was handed over to its Prime Minister, Abu Mazen, by UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Terje Roed Larsen, acting United States Consul General in East Jerusalem Jeff Feldman, Russian Federation Middle East envoy Andrei Vodvin and EU Middle East Envoy Miguel Moratinos. At about the same time, the United States Ambassador to Israel, Dan Kurtzer, delivered the road map to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. |
| EUROPE |
| Although an important step had been launched in early 2003 in the process towards transferring further responsibilities from the United Nations to local authorities, Kosovo still has some way to go in establishing representative and functioning institutions, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in an April report on the activities of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). He called for all local leaders to work together to consolidate provisional institutions by focusing on substance and practical results instead of holding institutional developments hostage to political or ethnic differences. "Forming separate, mono-ethnic administrative institutions will not lead to the multi-ethnic Kosovo towards which we all strive", Mr. Annan said. "Working within the established structures requires willingness on the part of minority communities and receptivity on the part of majority community." Despite these challenges, he states that "the transfer must proceed, so that the provisional institutions become accountable to the people of Kosovo for the delivery of those services and administration for which they are responsible." The Secretary-General also noted progress on the ground, including the preparing of projects and sensitizing of communities, to ensure that returns take place in as safe, secure and sustainable an environment as possible. "However, acts of intimidation, threats and violence directed against minorities still occur and are intended to discourage minority participation in public life." |
| Home | In This Issue | Archive | Français | Contact Us | Subscribe | Links |