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Coping with the Humanitarian Impact of Sanctions: An OCHA Perspective

With regard to UN efforts to minimise the humanitarian impact of sanctions, this paper reviews the need for new institutional arrangements in the elaboration and implementation of sanctions regimes. For this purpose, the following issues are examined:

- OCHA as intermediary between humanitarian organisations and sanctions authorities
- Institutional arrangements to process information on humanitarian impact of sanctions
- Measures to facilitate the provision of humanitarian relief under sanctions regimes
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:

To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit http://unocha.org/.

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Forced Migration Review No. 3

Forced Migration Review provides a forum for the regular exchange of practical experience, information and ideas between researchers, refugees and internally displaced people, and those who work with them. It is published three times a year in English, Spanish and Arabic by Refugee Studies Center/ University of Oxford in association with the Global IDP Project/ Norwegian Refugee Council.

Contents:

What can we do to support children who have been through war?, by Anika Mikus Kos and Sanja Derviskadic-Jovanovic
Environmental programmes with refugees:
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Banning Anti-Personnel Mines: The Ottawa Treaty

Report
ICRC
The Ottawa treaty is part of the international response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the global proliferation of anti-personnel mines. Millions of these deadly weapons are already contaminating more than 70 countries, creating one of the most serious man-made problems of our time. Their longterm impact upon individuals, communities, and entire societies is startling. Recognizing the seriousness of the problem, countries from all regions of the world voluntarily came together in 1997 and negotiated the Ottawa treaty, an international agreement comprehensively banning the
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Partnership with NGOs

WFP, like most United Nations agencies, has a primary mandate to work with governments. However, since its inception, provision for working with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has been included in the "Basic Documents of the Programme." There has been a major increase in partnerships with NGOs in recent years-in part as a consequence of the rise in emergency situations-necessitating that WFP find flexible partners with logistics and funding capacity. WFP has also adopted a policy of enhancing partnership, based on the recognition
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Serbia + 1 other
Kosovo: Walker expects monitors in place by January

Walker told a press conference in Prishtina on 30 November that he expects all 2,000 unarmed OSCE "verifiers" to have arrived in Kosova by 1 January. He added that "bringing in 2,000 people from 54 countries is not an easy function. We will be up and operational in a very robust fashion within the next few weeks." Walker also noted that a political settlement must be in place before the monitors can begin one of their most important tasks, namely organizing elections for offices to be determined in the political settlement. U.S. envoy Chris
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty:

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First quake casualties flown out of Indonesian island

JAKARTA, Dec 1 (AFP) - The first 14 victims of the severe earthquake that killed six people and destroyed scores of houses in Indonesia's remote Mangole island have been flown out to hospital, the Antara state news agency said Tuesday.

Antara said nine seriously injured casualties, workers of the Barito Pacific Timber company, arrived in the city of Manado late Monday on a commercial flight from Mangole and were rushed straight to the Bethseda hospital.

Another five were flown to the island of Ambon.

The head of Barito Pacific's Manado office,

Agence France-Presse:

©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.

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Tajikistan unprepared for winter

ITAR-TASS reported on 29 November that there is a critical shortage in Tajikistan of supplies necessary for the winter. Compared with 1997, Tajikistan's coal supplies are down by half and domestic heating oil by 21 percent. Industries purchased less than half the oil they did in 1997, when there were also shortages. The government cannot afford to purchase additional supplies. Consumer goods are also reported to be in short supply, but 98 percent of those goods are dealt with by the private sector. Also, the government has already rationed electricity supplies to homes and industries. BP
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty:

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Quake rocks Chinese province hit by double temblor last month

BEIJING, Dec 1 (AFP) - An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter Scale hit the city of Xuanwei in southwestern Yunnan province Tuesday but damage was minimal, the State Seismological Bureau said.

The temblor struck the city of 1.2 million at 15:37 local time (0737 GMT) and caused a strong shock, officials in the Yunnan state capital of Kunming said.

"So far, we have no reports of deaths, injuries or building collapses in the city," a spokesman for the province's civil affairs office said.

The epicentre of the quake was 26.4 degrees

Agence France-Presse:

©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.

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Death toll from Indonesian earthquake jumps to 25

The death toll from a powerful earthquake that rocked remote islands in eastern Indonesia has jumped to 25 as search teams find more dead and injured.

Another 89 people were injured, 23 seriously, and hundreds of buildings destroyed when the quake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale hit Mangole island just before midnight on Sunday.

Most of the deaths were on the westen part of Mangole, a timber producing island of 38,000 people near the quake's epicentre and 2,010 miles northeast of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

Mosques, churches and a timber factory

Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

© ABC

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Sierra Leone rebel threatens to kidnap Catholic bishop

FREETOWN, Dec 1 (AFP) - A top member of Sierra Leone's ousted junta who helped kidnap a Roman Catholic Priest last month has threatened to abduct a bishop unless rebel demands are met, the bishop has told journalists.

Solomon Musa, who was chief secretary of state for the junta, has refused to release Father Mario Guerra until authorities provide him with satellite telephone, medical supplies and radio contact with his detained wife and children in Freetown.

Speaking in Freetown late Monday, Bishop Giorgio Biguzzi said he told Musa that the church had no money to offer

Agence France-Presse:

©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.

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Iraq delivers new food distribution plan to UN

BAGHDAD, Dec 1 (AFP) - Iraq has handed its new food distribution plan to the United Nations, despite complaining that the "oil-for-food" accord fails to meet its humanitarian needs, a UN spokesman said here Tuesday.

George Somerwill, spokesman for the UN humanitarian programme, said Iraq delivered the new plan on Saturday at the United Nations.

An additional 1,500 pages of annexes on food, medicine and other supplies were handed over to the offices of the UN humanitarian coordinator in Baghdad, Hans von Sponeck.

Somerwill told AFP that the annexes were

Agence France-Presse:

©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.

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Southern Africa: SADC free trade agreement possible

Report
IRIN
JOHANNESBURG, 1 December (IRIN) - Despite political and economic obstacles, South Africa's Trade Minister Alec Erwin said on Tuesday he was confident the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) would be able to establish the framework for a free trade zone next year.
In remarks to an international trade conference in Cape Town, Erwin also said Southern Africa would also have to consider the creation of a currency union if the SADC region truly wanted to develop its full economic potential.

SADC members are South Africa, Namibia,

IRIN:

A selection of IRIN reports are posted on ReliefWeb. Find more IRIN news and analysis at http://www.irinnews.org

Une sélection d'articles d'IRIN sont publiés sur ReliefWeb. Trouvez d'autres articles et analyses d'IRIN sur http://www.irinnews.org

This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. Refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use.

Cet article ne reflète pas nécessairement les vues des Nations Unies. Voir IRIN droits d'auteur pour les conditions d'utilisation.

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Viet Nam: Government pledges 13 million dollars for storm victims

HANOI, Dec 1 (AFP) - Emergency aid of 13 million dollars is to be distributed to typhoon-ravaged coastal regions of central Vietnam, a report said on Tuesday.

Typhoons Chip, Dawn, Elvis, which struck 700 kilometers (110 miles) of central coastline between November 11 and 26, claimed 267 lives, with a further 16 missing, the Vietnam News said.

The death toll from Typhoon Dawn, which hit the coast in late November, was 211, with 73 injured and 12 missing, mostly fisherman caught at sea.

The typhoon, the deadliest and most destructive since 1964, left two million people homeless.

Agence France-Presse:

©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.

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Romania denies military contact with Iraq

Spokesman for both the Foreign and Defense Ministries on 30 November denied any knowledge that Iraqi officials visited Bucharest in May in a bid to purchase ballistic-missile guidance systems from the Romanian Aerofina company. In a statement released to the press, Aerofina said a CNN report on 29 November was "erroneous." According to that report, the negotiations lasted a week before ending in failure and were monitored by the intelligence services of the U.S., Romania, and Israel. Romanian Ambassador to the U.S. Mircea Geoana has confirmed the
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty:

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A month after Mitch, Honduras death toll still a guessing game

TEGUCIGALPA, Nov 30 (AFP) - One month after Hurricane Mitch roared through Honduras, officials are struggling to come up with precisely how many thousands of people are dead or missing.

"We don't know exactly how many died" in the floods and landslides triggered by Mitch's torrential rains in the last week of October, presidential spokesman Frederico Duarte conceded Monday.

The preliminary figure for dead and missing stands at 14,000, but it could change.

Amid press reports that it had inflated the death toll, the government announced that it would release more specific

Agence France-Presse:

©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.

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Angola + 11 others
AIDS: IRIN special report on AIDS in Africa

Report
IRIN
UNITED NATIONS
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network
for Central and Eastern Africa
Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org

In sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalence of AIDS is greater than anywhere else in the world.

According to the latest statistics released by UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, and the WHO, ahead of 1 December - World AIDS Day - some two million people across Africa have died of the disease so far this year. Seven out of 10 people

IRIN:

A selection of IRIN reports are posted on ReliefWeb. Find more IRIN news and analysis at http://www.irinnews.org

Une sélection d'articles d'IRIN sont publiés sur ReliefWeb. Trouvez d'autres articles et analyses d'IRIN sur http://www.irinnews.org

This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. Refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use.

Cet article ne reflète pas nécessairement les vues des Nations Unies. Voir IRIN droits d'auteur pour les conditions d'utilisation.

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Botswana + 3 others
Southern Africa: IRIN reports - Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe

Report
IRIN
JOHANNESBURG, 1 December (IRIN) - South African President Nelson Mandela pledged on Tuesday that Pretoria would work closely with neighbouring countries and the UN in the fight against AIDS.
In a speech marking World AIDS Day, Mandela disclosed new government figures showing that 1,500 people a day were being diagnosed with the disease in South Africa where the number of those infected currently tops three million.

In remarks delivered at Mtubatuba, in KwaZulu/Natal province, the area worst-affected by AIDS in South

IRIN:

A selection of IRIN reports are posted on ReliefWeb. Find more IRIN news and analysis at http://www.irinnews.org

Une sélection d'articles d'IRIN sont publiés sur ReliefWeb. Trouvez d'autres articles et analyses d'IRIN sur http://www.irinnews.org

This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. Refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use.

Cet article ne reflète pas nécessairement les vues des Nations Unies. Voir IRIN droits d'auteur pour les conditions d'utilisation.

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Ugandan defence minister belittles agreement on DRC conflict

KAMPALA, Dec 1 (AFP) - Ugandan Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi has said that "no new ground" was broken on the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during the weekend Franco-African summit in Paris.
"I don't have the details of the discussions in Paris yet. But the impression I had is that there was no new ground broken," he told AFP in an interview late Monday.

Seven African nations embroiled in the DRC war agreed to a truce and to a ceasefire accord in a surprise breakthrough on Saturday secured by UN chief Kofi Annan on the sidelines of the summit.

Agence France-Presse:

©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.

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Georgia on track for admission to Council of Europe

The Political Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has drafted a proposal recommending Georgia's acceptance as a full member of that body, Reuters and ITAR-TASS reported on 30 November. The proposal characterizes Georgia as a pluralistic, democratic state but sets conditions for full membership, including ratifying the European Human Rights Convention and the framework convention on national minorities, and taking measures to safeguard the freedom of the press and improve the work of local authorities. Georgian press reports had suggested
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty:

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Building trust to rebuild Rwanda, World Bank supports community reintegration and development

Report
World Bank
News Release No. 99/2003/AFR
To obtain project documents please contact the World Bank's Infoshop at tel: 202-458-5454, fax: 202-522-1500, email: pic@worldbank.org

WASHINGTON, December 1, 1998 - The World Bank has approved a US$5 million equivalent credit to Rwanda for a Community Reintegration and Development Project which will promote government decentralization and community participation in development.

After coming to power in July 1994, and particularly since the massive return of refugees in 1996/97, Rwanda's