July 5, 2000

- EUROPE RENEWS LOME' CONVENTION FOR NORTH-SOUTH AID,

after many months of negotiations with ACP countries, signed last

month in Cotonou, Benin. The original signing had been scheduled to

be held in Fiji (selected because it was so remote that NGOs would

not come to protest), but the military coup in Fiji forced a new

venue & schedule. EC's recently proposed aid strategy (focused

on poverty alleviation, conflict prevention & expansion of intl.

trade) has been criticized by NGOs, including EuroStep, for being

shallow & ignoring practical priorities.

- SCIENTISTS' "DURBAN DECLARATION" CONFIRMS HIV VIRUS CAUSES AIDS,

to be published tomorrow in the scientific Nature journal, &

discussed at the 13th Annual AIDS conf. that starts this weekend

in S. Africa where millions remain confused about the viral cause

of AIDS.

- SENEGAL COURT DISMISSES TRIAL OF FORMER DICTATOR, HABRE, OF CHAD

who is believed to have killed 40,000 & tortured 200,000 Chad

citizens. As signer of the UN Convention Against Torture, Senegal

obligated itself to prosecute or extradite alleged torturers.

According to Human Rights Watch (NY), "Habre was not a distant

ruler. He instigated, directed, & approved the torture & killing

of those who opposed him or those simply belonged to the wrong

ethnic group."

- MUSLIM VS. CHRISTIAN KILLINGS DISPLACE CIVILIANS ACROSS MOLUCCA

islands in Indonesia, leading to numerous secondary risks from

displacement, one of which was the drowning of 500 Christians

fleeing Duma to enclaves on Sulawesi, when their boat (built to

hold only 200) sank this past week (10 survivors found at sea).

- KEY RECENT NATIONAL ELECTIONS IN PERU, HAITI, MEXICO END PEACEFULLY:

though this week an Organz. of American States delegation visited Peru

to pressure strongman Fujimori's to correct his unfair election

process & to engage Peruvian society in an effort toward -- as the

Inter-American Dialogue wrote last week -- "installing genuinely

autonomous electoral institutions, assuring a free & independent

press, & ending the involvement of Peru's intelligence services in

political affairs."

- PALESTINIAN PARLIAMENT MONDAY APPROVED PROPOSAL TO DECLARE STATEHOOD

by end of the year; leader Yassar Arafat announced ten days ago that

statehood might be declared 'within weeks'. Israeli leader Barak is

in Europe seeking support to block a unilateral declaration

of statehood until after further summit meetings can be arranged &

terms agreed to.

- UNICEF'S EMERGENCY WEBSITE (REVAMPED) NOW ON-LINE:

The new format makes UNICEF field

situation reports, thematic reviews, appeals, & references easily

available. Comments & information requests can be emailed to

emops@unicef.org.

- TAJIKISTAN PROMISED AID FOR HEALTH & INFRASTRUCTURE FROM ARAB DONORS

at June Coordination Group of Arab Foundations, now that Tajikistan's

civil conflict has subsided. Included among the donors are the

Islamic Bank for Devt., the Kuwait Devt Foundation. Assistance was

also pledged to re-engineer Dushanbe's urban water supply, which

because of back-flow from pressure leaks, has caused infections.

- UNHCR SEEKS $23M TO AID 1M ERITREAN DISPLACED PERSONS (IDPs)

(1/3 the Eritrean population), half of whom live in 24 camps, uprooted

by the war with Ethiopia, now ended by ceasefire. UNICEF is monitoring

nutrition in the IDP camps; as troops occupied low-lying high-

production areas, much of the current crop is lost & food shortage

anticipated.

- WESTERN GOVTs THIS WEEK PLEDGE $600M IN AID TO UKRAINE FOR NUCLEAR

power plants, including one remaining active plant in Chernobyl which

last month Ukraine announced it would close by end of this year.

- U.S. REVISED AID REGULATIONS, IN JUNE, FOR PERSONS GIVEN ASYLUM:

asylees now are eligible for USG ORR refugee aid (cash, medical

care & social services) immediately after being granted asylum.

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- RED CROSS "WORLD DISASTERS REPORT, 2000: FOCUS ON PUBLIC HEALTH"

by the International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies

(226pp; email wdrorder@ifrc.org), published last week, summarizes

statistics & global trends on the impact of disasters, including

economic damage, numbers of IDPs & refugees, & efforts to prevent

excess deaths. In 1999, it notes, more people died, 34,000, from

flood disasters than any other natural disaster. "Natural

& technological disasters between 1990 & 1999 affected on average

196M people annually, & last year alone killed 80,000 people." This

year's report observes that most excess death, by far, occurs due to

preventable health conditions such as diarrhea, acute respiratory

infection, malnutrition & malaria, and not from drowning, being

crushed or other physical injury. "In 1999 1000,000 people were

killed by natural disasters, but around 13M died of infectious

diseases." The report examines how cutbacks in spending on health

care & how recent trends in drug-resistance among pathogens

have led to a worldwide disaster of preventable deaths from common

diseases, where poverty & political isolation are the prime risk

factors. The Red Cross' now promotes community based care,

for example through training of mobile health volunteers who can

spread prevention strategies against diseases like diarrhea, acute

respiratory infections, measles & AIDS through initiatives such as

"ARCHI 2010" -- The African Red Cross/Red Crescent Health

Initiative of health volunteer networks. Another chapter

articulates the need for a new 'intl disaster-response law' (IDL),

observing that "there is (now) no definitive, broadly accepted source

of intl. law which spells out legal standards, procedures, rights &

duties pertaining to disaster response & assistance." Chapters also

examine the use of radio in emergency response (as in Kosovo), the

long-term health consequences of the Chernobyl radioactive leak of

1986, & the protracted economic & food security crisis in North

Korea, by J Owen-Davies.

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