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• DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL United Nations 20 Oct 2000
• Fighting in northeast Afghanistan forces thousands to flee to Pakistan: UNHCR, UN News, 20 October 2000 -- Amid reports of intense fighting between the Taliban and the opposition Northern Alliance in northeast Afghanistan, thousands of people from the area continued to stream into Pakistan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today.
• General Assembly Demands End To Violence In Occupied Palestinian Territory; Urges Action To Implement Sharm El-Sheikh Accord, UN Press Release, 20 October 2000 -- As it continued its resumed tenth emergency special session on illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, the General Assembly tonight condemned the violence that had taken place since 28 September at Al-Haram Al-Sharif and other holy places in Jerusalem, as well as in other areas of the occupied Palestinian territory.
• Calm And Quiet Needed To Create Best Atmostphere For Resumption of Middle East Peace Talks, Secretary-General States, UN Press Release, 20 October 2000 -- The text of the statement by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the resumed tenth emergency special session of the General Assembly.
• State Department Noon Briefing - Middle East Unrest, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Spokesman, 20 October 2000 -- Q: All right. Well, then let's move to the Middle East. What's new there?
• Annan tells General Assembly it can make "real difference" on Middle East, UN News, 20 October 2000 -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the General Assembly today that it "can make a real difference" in response to the recent crisis in the Middle East.
• Security Council briefed by Secretary-General on Sharm El-Sheikh agreements, UN News, 20 October 2000 -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan today briefed the Security Council on his recent trip to the Middle East and stressed the need for both parties to faithfully implement the agreement they reached at the Sharm El-Sheikh summit in Egypt.
• UN body votes to send human rights experts to occupied Palestinian territories, UN News, 20 October 2000 -- The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has adopted a resolution condemning "grave and massive violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people by Israel," and establishing a "human rights inquiry commission" to gather information with the aim of preventing similar occurrences in the future.
• Israel - Human Rights, Voice of America, 20 October 2000 -- Israel says it will not cooperate with a United Nations investigation into its alleged human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories.
• Mideast / Violence, Voice of America, 20 October 2000 -- Continuing violence between Israelis and Palestinians has soured the atmosphere for the resumption of serious peace negotiations.
• Israel-Palestinians, Voice of America, 20 October 2000 -- Casualty figures continued to rise Friday from some of deadliest clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. At least nine Palestinians were reported killed. In light of the continuing violence, Prime Minister Ehud Barak says, Israel may seek a "time-out" from the peace process.
• State Dept. Official on Middle East Peace Obstacles, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Spokesman, 20 October 2000 -- U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Edward Walker said ignorance of Islam on the part of Israelis and Americans and ignorance of Judaism by Arabs lie at the heart of the Middle East conflict.
• UN-Mideast, Voice of America, 20 October 2000 -- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed today (Friday) for calming words as the U-N General Assembly began a second emergency session on the violence in the Middle East.
• UN-Mideast, Voice of America, 20 October 2000 -- The United Nations General Assembly tonight (Friday) approved a strongly-worded resolution condemning what it calls "excessive force" used by Israel against Palestinian civilians.
• Austrian Official: Montenegro 'Moving In Direction of Independence.', RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 204, Part II, 20 October 2000 -- Albert Rohan, who is general-secretary at the Austrian Foreign Ministry, told Vienna's "Die Presse" of 20 October that Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic recently left him with the impression that Podgorica is "moving along in the direction of independence, albeit with a certain degree of caution."
• Sharing Power With War Criminals, RFE/RL Balkan Report, Vol. 4, No. 78, 20 October 2000 -- The Serbian power-sharing agreement signed by supporters of the new Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and the remnants of Milosevic's regime raises major moral questions as well as reasonable doubt about the future of democracy in Serbia (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 17 October 2000).
• Yugoslavia / Kosovo and Montenegro, Voice of America, 20 October 2000 -- As Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica works to form his new government, the rest of the Yugoslav federation - which includes Montenegro and the Serbian province of Kosovo now under the administration of the United Nations - are working to understand just what the fall of Slobodan Milosevic will mean.
• Bosnian Serb Students Protest For Segregated Schools, RFE/RL Newsline Vol. 4, No. 204, Part II, 20 October 2000 -- For the third day in a row, some 1,000 ethnic Serbian high school students staged violent protests in Brcko on 19 October to demand separate schools from those of Muslims and Croats (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 October 2000).
• Chechnya's Duma Deputy Accuses Russian Military of Human Rights Violations, RFE/RL Newsline Vol. 4, No. 204, Part I, 20 October 2000 -- Echoing numerous western journalists' findings, Aslanbek Aslakhanov told fellow State Duma deputies on 19 October that the Russian military in Chechnya engages in the arbitrary detention, beating and torture of Chechen civilians, 10,000 of whom he claimed have vanished without trace, Interfax reported.
• Chechnya Constitutes One Barrier To Military Reform, Iiss Concludes, RFE/RL Newsline Vol. 4, No. 204, Part I, 20 October 2000 -- In "The Military Balance 2000-2001," the International Institute for Security Studies concludes that although military reform under President Putin is likely to be more "coordinated, strategically focused and economically viable" than under his predecessor, the regime's ability to tackle costly military reforms is challenged by the continuing war in Chechnya, which "is draining economic and military reforms and losing public support."
• UN mission announces composition of expanded National Council in East Timor, UN News, 20 October 2000 -- The head of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) today announced the composition of a new National Consultative Council, intended as a precursor to a future East Timorese Parliament.
• East Timor--first foreign minister, Voice of America, 20 October 2000 -- East Timorese independence leader and Nobel Peace Laureate Jose Ramos-Horta has been sworn in as East Timor's first foreign minister.
• Samoa Delegate Warns of Troubles in Indonesia's Irian Jaya, Congressional Register, 18 October 2000 -- Although many of our colleagues are familiar with Indonesia's atrocious and despicable record of human rights violations in East Timor and West Timor--the world has neglected to address the parallel tragedy that is being played out as we speak in West Papua.
• Brazil-Colombia, Voice of America, 20 October 2000 -- A leading Brazilian newspaper has published a military report warning that drug traffickers linked to leftist Colombian guerrillas are operating inside Brazilian territory in the Amazon rain forest.
• All sides of conflict in DR of Congo guilty of human rights violations: UN report, UN News, 20 October 2000 -- There are widespread human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including torture, detention of political prisoners and the lack of freedom of expression, according to a United Nations report released today in New York.
• UNHCR / Angola Refugees, Voice of America, 20 October 2000 -- The United Nations refugee agency, U-N-H-C-R, has begun repatriating several hundred Angolan refugees to Cabinda province from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Congo

News Reports

• Ebola / Uganda, Voice of America, 20 October 2000 -- This raises the possibility that members of the rebel group, Lord's Resistance Army, based in southern Sudan, may have introduced the disease during their cross-border attacks on northern Uganda.