UN Radio Annan Hopes Saddam’s Capture Offers Peace

UN Radio: Annan Hopes Saddam’s Capture Offers Peace

Annan hopes Saddam's capture give fresh impetus to search for peace

There's been reaction at the United Nations to Saturday's capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by US forces. Secretary-General Kofi Annan consider the arrest " an important event." In a statement through a UN spokesman, the Secretary-General said Saddam Hussein's capture "offers an opportunity to give fresh impetus to the search for peace and stability in Iraq, on the basis of an inclusive and fully transparent process."

US Ambassador hopes Saddam's capture will accelerate political process

And United States representative to the United Nations Ambassador John Negraponte welcomed the arrest of the former Iraqi president. He told reporters outside the UN Security Council it's a very important development on the ground on Iraq.

"We certainly hope that his capture will contribute to the promotion of stability and the acceleration of the political process and also hopefully, to the halting of attacks on Iraqi people"

The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet on Tuesday to hear a report from the Secretary-General on the situation in Iraq..

Afghans meet in loya jirga to debate consitution

In Afghanistan delegates attending the loya jirga or grand council, are finalizing a new constitution called for as part of the UN-sponsored effort to stabilize the country. The draft constitution put before the loya jirga does not provide for a prime minister in a highly centralized government. But it would allow the president to appoint top officials in the provinces. Spokesman for the UN Mission in Afghanistan Manoel de Almeida e Silva says the discussions would be difficult.

" We trust, we hope that they will with a lot of debate having many difficult moments, which they certainly will have, will find the consensus to adopt a constitution with a text that...they can implement and that will move Afghanistan forward."

The council must also decide vital issues such as the role of its women.

Anti-poverty goals cannot be met without true global development partnership: Annan

The goal of halving poverty by the year 2015 cannot be met without forging a truly global partnership for development. That according to Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In a message to a high-level conference on South-South Cooperation in Morocco, the Secretary-General said the partnership should be one in which the North takes greater steps to assist the South on aid, trade and debt relief. At the same time, he said deeper South-South cooperation is also vital. And he said the Morocco conference is a heartening sign that the countries of the South are doing more to intensify that cooperation.

UNMIL postpones disarmament programme

The UN disarmament programme in Liberia has been postponed until the middle of January. The UN mission in Liberia said the registration of former government soldiers will continue until Wednesday and would resume on January 20. A statement by the mission said the action was taken to allow for the creation of more capacity and the upgrading of living conditions at the site where more than 8-thousand former combatants have disarmed. The UN began its disarmament programme just over a week ago. But it was marred by rioting due to what UN officials say was a "misunderstanding by the commanders of ex-soldiers of how the programme should work.".

UN proposes new observer mission for Bougainville

The United Nations is proposing a new observer mission to Bougainville. Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Danilo Turk says a UN Observer Mission in Bougainville should be set up to replace the current UN Political Office there. Mr. Turk says the new mission will carry out a number of functions including chairing the peace process consultative committee and reporting on the security and destruction of contained weapons. Monitoring the constitutional process leading to the adoption of the Bougainville consitution; verifying and certifying substantial compliance by the parties with weapons disposal plan thereby making it conducive to holding elections. The plan also calls for reducing the staff of the current UN political office by half.

© Scoop Media