UN Radio: Sergio Vieira De Mello is Buried in Geneva
Sergio Vieira De Mello is Buried in Geneva
The body of the Secretary-General's Special Representative in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was laid to rest at a
ceremony attended only by family members and the Secretary General's wife Nane Annan in Geneva today. Prior to the
burial, more than 1,000 friends and colleagues joined Vieira de Mello's family at a church service. He was one of the 23
UN staff members killed in the terrorist bomb attack on the UN Headquarters in Baghdad last week. Mr. de Mello, who also
served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, served the United Nations for more than three decades. Memorial
services for the UN staff have been held around the world. In his message to the memorial service held in Oslo Norway,
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said August 19th would be remembered as the darkest day in the lives of UN staff
members. At a service in Amman Jordan, the Administrator of the UN Development programme, Mark Maloch Brown reaffirmed
the UN's determination not to be deterred by the attack. UN Special Envoy Says Security Remains Volatile in Liberia
The Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Liberia, Jacques Klein, has called on the warring parties to stop fighting.
Mr. Klein was in Cote d'Ivoire today to discuss the possibility of opening up humanitarian corridors to the war-torn
country. He says the security situation in Liberia is deplorable:
" The belligerents are still fighting and, as I told them, you are wasting your time fighting each other because in a
month or two we will be in charge. In the meantime they are looting and raping as much as they can before the force
comes in to stem the violence."
A UN peacekeeping force is scheduled to take over from the West African troops on the 1st of October. The Office of the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Monrovia reports that the atmosphere around the capital remains stable with a
few reported incidents. Security Council Decides to Split Tribunals for Rwanda and Former Yugoslavia The Security Council today decided to have separate prosecutors for the tribunals of the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
The Council took the decision in a resolution adopted unanimously. It asked UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to
nominate a new prosecutor for the Rwanda tribunal that is prosecuting the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in
which close to one million people were killed.
The Council also urged both tribunals to complete investigations by the end of next year and all trial activities by
the end of 2008. It called on both courts to wrap up their work in 2010. Carla Del Ponte, who is based in The Hague, is
currently serving as the prosecutor for both courts. The Rwanda tribunal is based in Arusha, Tanzania.
UN Watchdog Welcomes Iran's Announcement to Allow Inspections of Nuclear Facilities
The International Atomic Energy Agency has welcomed the announcement by Iran that it would allow snap inspections of its
nuclear facilities. The foreign Minister of Iran, Dr. Kamal Kharrazi, has reportedly said his country was willing to
work with the UN nuclear watchdog to sign a protocol allowing such inspections. IAEA spokeswoman is Melisa Flemming:
"Well they have also informed us formally early this week that they planned to begin negotiations with us on adopting an
additional protocol. We welcome this as a positive step and we do hope that it would just be a matter of weeks before we
see a signature on the dotted line."
The IAEA has reported that its inspectors found traces of highly enriched, weapons grade uranium at an Iranian facility.
UN Envoy Opens Workshop on Former Child Soldiers in Afghanistan
The UN Special Representative in Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, today opened a UN Children's Fund workshop on the
demobilization and reintegration of former child soldiers. In his remarks, Mr. Brahimi spoke about the process of
demobilization, disarmament and reconstruction, known as DDR, adding that in post conflict areas there is usually a lot
of misunderstanding about DDR.