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Subject: UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL REVIEWING PLIGHT OF CIVILIANS IN WAR

UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL REVIEWING PLIGHT OF CIVILIANS IN WAR
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USIA
16 September 1999 

UN Security Council Reviewing Plight of Civilians in War 
(Holbrooke: UN should underscore importance of aid to civilians) (840)
By Judy Aita and Will Kramer
Washington File Staff Writers

United Nations -- The UN Security Council must respond to situations
in which civilians have been targeted and underscore the importance of
humanitarian assistance to them, U.S. Ambassador to the UN,Richard
Holbrooke said September 16.

Speaking at a special meeting of the Security Council on the
protection of civilians in armed conflict, Holbrooke said that the
United States believes that the Council should reaffirm four
principles: All states must comply strictly with international
humanitarian law, the international community needs to assist and
protect civilians; all warring parties must ensure the safety of
civilians and guarantee safe access for aid workers; and individuals
who commit grave offenses of international humanitarian and human
rights law should be brought to justice.

"The United States also supports using sanctions as a possible method
to deter and contain those who commit violations of international
humanitarian and human rights law, as well as those parties to
conflicts which continually defy Security Council resolutions," the
ambassador also said.

The United States also supports arms embargoes for certain situations
and measures that would strengthen the United Nations ability to plan
and deploy peacekeepers and civilian police more rapidly than is now
the case, Holbrooke said.

At the request of the Security Council, the Secretary General
submitted a report on ways to strengthen protection for civilians in
armed conflict. The report was born out of frequent Security Council
requests for information from the Under Secretary General for
humanitarian affairs about the impact of conflict on civilians.

"We have observed, in each of the five continents, that belligerents
are increasingly taking care to avoid direct confrontation with each
other. Instead, their favored strategy to gain ground is the exercise
of terror against defenseless civilians. Their actions, regardless of
any reason that may motivate their struggle, demonstrate a shocking
disregard for human life and human values," Annan told the Security
Council.

Martin Barber, policy chief in the Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs, pointed out during a press conference before the
Council meeting that "since February, the issue of the protection of
civilians in armed conflict has been almost uninterrupted front page
news. We've seen the terrible mutilation of civilians, including
children in Sierra Leone...the massive displacement of populations in
Angola...the events in Kosovo, and now East Timor and the terrible
things that are happening in that territory."

The Secretary General's Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed
Conflict provides 40 recommendations that could improve the legal and
physical protection for civilians in conflicts.

"None of these recommendations constitute the magic solution. We don't
have a magic solution," said Barber. "What we do have (are)
recommendations which can be helpful in preventing conflict,
mitigating its impact on civilians or reducing the likelihood of
renewed violence."

The recommendations pay particular attention to strengthening the UN's
planning and deployment capacities; the design, targeting, and
enforcement of sanctions; and the use of monitors to assess the need
for sanctions or regional or international forces to compel groups to
disarm and/or allow humanitarian aid to civilians.

In its "Observations" section, the report challenges the primacy of
state political rights over people stating that "the plight of
civilians is no longer something which can be neglected or made
secondary because it complicates political negotiations or interests."

The report is likely to raise debate about how, where and when the
international community should intervene in local conflicts to protect
civilians. Yet Barber pointed out that its final recommendation did
provide guidelines to help the Security Council decide whether to take
enforcement action to prevent violations of humanitarian law.

The Secretary General's most immediate objective is for the report to
further UN interest in taking concrete steps to protect civilians
during war. "After the Security Council discussion, we hope that we'll
assemble working groups around it and start setting timetables for
further study and elaboration of the report," Barber said.

The Secretary General said that "those who founded the United Nations
believed that despite a bloodied history, humanity was ultimately
redeemable. Yet we see that civilians are still forced from their
homes, driven to borders which are open one minute and closed the
next, forced into hiding, separated from their families, made to act
as human shields, stripped of their identities and callously killed."

"The plight of civilians is no longer something which can be neglected
or made secondary because it complicates political negotiations or
interests. It is fundamental to the central mandate of the
organization," Annan said.

"Failure to address these issues will erode respect for the Council's
resolutions and so diminish the authority of the United Nations as a
whole," Annan said. "More important, it will take away the one thing
that sustains the many millions who have lost all in conflict: The
hope that something called the international community is willing to
uphold the basic dignity of humankind."



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