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5 February 1999

The General Assembly resumed this morning its tenth emergency special session on "Illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory", convened following a request contained in a letter by the Permanent Representative of Jordan on behalf of the Arab Group. This request was supported by a letter from the Permanent Representative of South Africa in his capacity as Chairman of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Countries. Before resuming the emergency special session, the President expressed the deepest sympathy of the members of the Assembly to the Government and the people of Colombia for the tragic loss of life and extensive material damage which have resulted from the recent earthquake and expressed the hope that the international community will show its solidarity and generously provide assistance to Colombia.

He also informed the Assembly that 42 Member States were in arrears in the payment of their financial contributions to the United Nations under the terms of Article 19 of the Charter.

There are 25 speakers inscribed so far to address the Assembly under this item and a draft resolution before the Assembly is contained in document A/ES-10/L.5. The draft was introduced by the representative of United Arab Emirates on behalf of 20 sponsors. The Assembly will not meet this afternoon, but will resume the debate of this item of Monday at 3:30 p.m.

On Monday, the Open-ended Working Group on the Question of Equitable Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council and Other Matters Related to the Security Council will begin meeting under the chairmanship of the President of the General Assembly.

Also, the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group on Financing for Development, established under the terms of resolution 52/179 of 18 December 1997, will begin its second meeting which will continue until Wednesday under the chairmanship of the Permanent Representatives of Austria and India to the United Nations.

And finally, the Contributions Committee will hold a special session from 8 to 12 February under the terms of resolution 53/56 A (Scale of assessments for the apportionment of expenses of the United Nations) to consider representations from Member States regarding the application of Article 19 of the Charter. Its meetings will be closed.

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