Kampuchea Committee concerned about attacks along border; Kampucheans face food shortage.

The Ad Hoc Committee of the International Conference on Kampuchea has reiterated its concern over "increased tension" resulting from armed attacks occurring along the Thai-Kampuchean border in late March and early April.

In a statement on 6 April, issued jointly by the Conference President Willibald Pahr (Austria) and Committee Chairman Massamba Sarre (Senegal), the Committee said the attacks had "reportedly spilled over into Thailand and led several thousand Kampucheans to seek refuge on Thai territory".

It appealed to all parties concerned to "put an end to any military action which would further aggravate the risks of confrontation, and hinder the diplomatic efforts" aimed at a political settlement.

On 21 February, the Committee had noted the "possibility of a renewed deterioration" of the situation involving armed attacks against civilian camps along the border during the dry season. It was convinced, it said, that the question of Kampuchea "can only be solved through peaceful means" in accordance with the principles set out in the 1981 Conference Declaration.

The Ad Hoc Committee was established by the International Conference on Kampuchea, convened in New York in July 1981. Its mandate, as stated by the General Assembly, is to consult with interested Governments with a view to facilitating progress towards a comprehensive political settlement of the Kampuchean question. The matter has been before the Assembly since 1979, following the outbreak of hostilities between Democratic Kampuchea and Viet Nam in december 1978.

The 1981 Conference Declaration set out four principal components of a just and lasting settlement: withdrawal of all foreign forces from Kampuchea; restoration and preservation of its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity; the right of the Kampuchean people to determine their own destiny; and commitment by all States to non-interference and non-intervention in Kampuchea's internal affairs. Kampucheans face food shortage

Kampuchea is facing an acute food shortage this year, with at least 175,000 tons of cereals needed to meet basic minimum requirements inside the country, Sir Robert Jackson reported to a special meeting on 1 March of donors to the Programme of Humanitarian Assistance to the Kampuchean People.

Due to the condition of agricultural production generally and the "erratic monsoon", maize, fruits and vegetables, which had been a mainstay during 1981 shortages, would not be available on the same scale this year, he said. The rice harvest had suffered, and animal and mechanical power were in short supply. Shortages were most likely from July through December.

Sir Robert, the Secretary-General's Representative to co-ordinate humanitarian programmes in Kampuchea since 1980, reviewed projections and statistics at the day-long session, at which United Nations officials and representatives of Governments and international organizations exchanged views.

A number of details emerged from these discussions:

* The number of refugees in holding centres was now below 50,000, an encouraging development according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Some 27,500 persons had arrived in countries of resettlement in 1983. Some 10,000 more were at refugee processing centres waiting to go to third countries.

* UNHCR was undertaking efforts to encourage voluntary repatriation, to both Kampuchea and the Lao People's Democratic Republic, by creating basic economic conditions in villages.

* Some 81 per cent of the border population were receiving direct assistance from the United Nations Border Relief Operation (UNBRO) and from Thai authorities.

* Agricultural experts of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), after visiting six provinces in Kampuchea, said the agricultural situation this year was worse than last year. The number of acres cultivated was below average, and even part of that area was lost to flooding. Infant mortality was high, and malaria was rampant. The animal population had been reduced from 3 to 1.7 million. A lack of spare parts hampered machinery use, much of the rice harvested was lost because of the manual process used, and there were no food reserves left in the Country.

Sir robert said he had had thorough discussions in both Hanoi and Moscow regarding the "dangerous food situation" developing in Kampuchea. Viet Nam, he said, indicated it would provide, within the limits of its resources, its fair share of any food assistance that might become necessary this year for the Khmer people within Kampuchea. The Soviet Union indicated that it would respond favourably to a request for food assistance if one was made by the authorities in Phnom Penh.

Just as United Nations donor Governments expected the socialist Governments to provide their fair share of Kampuchea's essential food needs this year, so the socialist Governments hoped the donor Governments would responds, he said. In 1981, when a similar deficit had occurred, United Nations donors and the Soviet Union had each provided some 70,000 tons of cereals.

Pledges: Eleven countries, at the meeting's end, announced pledges of cash, food and supplies to UNBRO, the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UNHCR.

Specific pledges were made by: Belgium (2.5 million Belgian francs ($50,000); Finland (300,000 Finnish marks ($51,000) for medical aid, 1.7 million ($290,000) for food); France (4,000 tons food aid); the Federal Republic of Germany (1.5 million deutschemarks to UNBRO, 1 million DM to Red Cross, 550 tons rice, 300 tons other food); Italy (750 million lira ($450,000) for food); Japan (480 million yen ($2 million) to UNHCR, 240 million yen ($1 million) to UNBRO and WFP); Norway (1.5 million kroner ($195,000); Singapore ($10,000 for UNBRO); Switzerland (300,000 francs ($140,000) for malaria and nutrition); the United Kingdom (200,000 pounds to UNBRO for non-food aid); the United Sates ($1.5 million to Red Cross, $2 million to UNBRO, additional aid bringing 1984 total pledge to $4 million).

Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, in a statement at the meeting, said donor Governments' support "has unquestionably saved many hundreds of thousands of lives and ...continues to give hope for a better future to all the Khmer people".

Unfortunately, he said, a solution to the political differences "that lie at the heart of this problem continues to elude us, and therefore assistance to the victims will be required, certainly for the rest of this year". He asked for continuing generous support for the Programme, and assured States he would persist in his search for a political solution.

The Secretary-General also paid tribute to Sir Robert, who was succeeded in his post on 8 March by Tatsuro Kunugi. "Sir Robert addressed this challenge with the same consummate skill and compassion that has characterized his handling of all the many major problems placed in his hands over a long and distinguished career", he said. Asia-Pacific region in 'crucial race' between food and population

The Asia-Pacific region is engaged in a "crucial race" between fluctuating food production and slowly decreasing population growth rates, according to S.A.M.S. Kibria, Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Such a race, he warned, could have "a potentially destabilizing outcome if hunger and poverty go on worsening".

Mr. Kibria spoke on 6 February at the Third Asian Agricultural Remote Sensing Symposium in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The Executive Secretary pointed out that during the 1970s, food production in the Asia-Pacific region had barely kept ahead of population growth. That narrow margin, along with widespread poverty, unemployment and unbalanced rural-urban development, "has left us with more than 600 million malnourished people struggling to survive in this region today", he pointed out.

Mr. Kibria foresaw little prospect of improvement. Between 1980 and 2000, the region's population was projected to increase by 900 million, he said. Feeding them would be equivalent to feeding another China from the produce of farmland which had practically no room for expansion.

The major problem, according to Mr. Kibria, "is that about three fourths of Asia's farmland is rainfed and therefore vulnerable to adverse weather". In 1982, for example, widespread drought reduced the region's foodgrain production by 8 per cent.

In addition to scientific breakthroughs in rainfed agriculture, the farmers of the region "urgently need the benefits of other technological advances", he said. The application of remote sensing [the gathering of information on terrestrial and atmospheric features, especially natural resources, by above-the-ground photography and other electronic detection methods] to agriculture had shown "promising potential for helping to increase the region's food output and farming efficiency". United States team Reviews UNESCO 

A four-member review team from the United States General Accounting Office (GAO) began work on 2 April at the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

A review of UNESCO's operations was requested by the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Science and Technology of the United States House of Representatives. The UNESCO Director-General agreed to a request by the United States delegation to the organization to provide appropriate collaboration and assistance in the conduct of the review.

The GAO review is the latest in a series of similar evaluations by the United States of international organizations of which it is a member. The reviews have been conducted with the full co-operation of the secretariats of the organizations involved.

The main areas to be covered in the UNESCO review are the organization's budgetary practices, personnel procedures and decision-making processes. The target date for relese of the GAO report is November 1984. Equitable short-wave assignments planned by ITU radio conference

Preliminary steps towards allocation of short-wave broadcasting bands to countries on an equitable basis were approved at the first session of a conference sponsored by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in February. The World Administrative Radio Conference for the Planning of the HF Bands Allocated to the Broadcasting Service, meeting in Geneva (10 January-11 February), set out the technical criteria, principles and methods to enable its next session, in 1985, to plan the bands.

The planning is to be based on the equal right of all countries, large or small, to have equitable access to high frequency (HF)--short-wave--bands and to utilize them in accordance with decisions taken by the Conference. Among the principles laid down by the Conference are:

* Equitable treatment all broadcasting requirements, in order to guarantee satisfactory service by each country (a broadcasting requirement is a commitment to provide a broadcasting service at a specified time to a specified area from a particular transmitter);

* Equal treatment of national and international broadcasting requirements;

* Flexible period planning, to allow for new broadcasting requirements and modification of the old ones.

The planning of the high frequency broadcasting service, according to the Conference report, "shall be based on four seasonal plans to be prepared annually or semi-annually using broadcasting requirements submitted". A central automated system will be used in the planning, in order to ensure the most equitable allocation of bands.

The 11-step planning method will be tested by the International Frequency Registration Board during the period before the next session of the Conference. UN Staff member released

On the first leg of his recent trip to Eastern Europe, Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar was informed of the release of United Nations staff member Alicja Wesolowska from custody in Poland.

Patricio Ruedas, Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management, who had accompanied the Secretary-General, said that General Wojciech Jaruzelski, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, had informed the Secretary-General on 20 February that Ms. Wesolowska had been freed that morning by a decision of the Council of State of Poland, which had taken into account the Secretary-General's great interest in the case.

The Secretary-General had spoken to her by telephone and understood that she was in good condition physically.

Mr. Ruedas said at a press briefing on 1 March that, for the time being, Ms. Wesolowska would not be leaving Poland. In addition to having been condemned to prison, she had also been deprived of "public rights" for a period of five years from the end of imprisonment. Included among the "public rights", apparently, was the right to travel documents.

Mr. Ruedas indicated that the Secretary-General would continue to work towards having Ms. Wesolowska resume her duties with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Polish Government had made no decision on the matter and Mr. Ruedas had been informed that further consideration would be necessary. Any further discussion of the matter between the Secretary-General and the Polish Government would fall into the category of "quiet diplomacy", he said.

Alicja Wesolowska was arrested by the Polish authorities while on leave in Poland and was sentenced to seven years in prison. She had served almost 54 months of her sentence when she was released.

Mr. Ruedas stated that Ms. Wesolowska had been charged with "collecting and transmitting intelligence information on Polish citizens and on individuals from some other countries who were employed by the United Nations, as well as carrying out tasks assigned to her by said intelligence, i.e. of one of the NATO countries" (unofficial translation from Polish).

In reply to a question, Emilio de Olivares, Executive Assistant to the Secretary-General, stated that when a United Nations staff member was detained, the Organization should be given immediate access to that person. Other requirements were that the United Nations should be allowed to provide private counsel for the accused person and that a representative of the Organization should be allowed to be present at the trial. For the United Nations to accept the guilt of a staff member these conditions would have to be met, and they had not been met in this case. Therefore Ms. Wesolowska would continue to be employed by the Organization. She was currently a member of the staff of UNDP on leave without pay.

Asked about other United Nations staff members being held in detention, Mr. Olivares said that there had been five cases in Ethiopia, which the Secretary-General had personally requested be reviewed. As a result of that review, two staff members had been freed. the only other similar situations were those of some 20 staff members being held in detention in the Middle East. (As of 2 March, three United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) staff members were being detained by the Israeli authorities in Lebanon, and two more UNRWA staff were being detained by the Lebanese authorities. In the Syrian Arab Republic, three UNRWA staff, one Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations staff member and one United Nations Disengagement Observer Force staff member were being detained by the authorities. In the occupied West Bank and Gaza, four UNRWA staff members were being detained by the Israeli authorities, and six were being held in Jordan by the authorities). ICAO condemns 'armed force' in Korean airliner incident

The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), after a debate on the ICAO investigation of the destruction of Korean Air Lines flight 007 on 1 September 1983 by a Soviet military aircraft, has adopted a resolution declaring that "such use of armed force is a grave threat to the safety of international civil aviation".

It deemed the action "incompatible with the norms governing international behaviour and with the rules, standards and recommended practices enshrined in the Chicago Convention and its annexes and with elementary consideration of humanity".

The Council, in the resolution approved on 6 March in Montreal, condemned the "use of armed force" which resulted in the destruction of the airliner and the "tragic loss" of 269 lives. It also deplored the "Soviet failure to co-operate" in the search and rescue efforts of other involved States; and to co-operate in the ICAO investigation of the incident, by refusing to accept the visit of the team appointed by the ICAO Secretary-General and by refusing to provide him with relevant information.

The ICAO Council had previously decided to convene, on 24 April 1984, the extraordinary session of the ICAO Assembly of 152 Contracting States, to consider proposed amendments to the Convention of International Civil Aviation that would assure that States abstain from the use of force against civil aircraft. Three proposed amendments have been submitted: one jointly by Austria and France, one by the United States and one by the USSR. IFAD sets $1 million target for 1985-1987 operations

Two major donor groups of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have decided that Fund requires a $1 billion resource level to continue its work to fight hunger and poverty.

Countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), after intensive consultations in Rome in February, set the new funding target as a "working assumption", pending further negotiations on how much each group should contribute. The issue of "burden-sharing" will continue to be directly negotiated between them, and a new round of consultations will be held in May.

The Fund, established in 1977 to focus exclusively on the rural poor, had initial capital of $1 billion contributed by OECD and OPEC for the period 1978-80. Additional resources of $1.1 billion were pledged under a first replenishment for 1981-1983, a period subsequently extended to include 1984. Pact on seafarer training enters into force on 28 April

The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW)--adopted in 1978 at a conference convened by the International Maritime Organization (IMO)--entered into force on 28 April 1984, having been ratified by 33 countries whose combined merchant fleets represent two thirds of world gross tonnage.

The Convention has established specific minimum professional standards, applicable worldwide, for seafarers. Previously, individual Governments established such standards and ratings for officers, usually without reference to practices in other countries. To enter into force, the convention required acceptance by at least 25 countries representing 50 per cent of world gross merchant fleet tonnage. Convention on Frontier Control of Goods signed

Ten member States of the European Economic Community (EEC)--Belgium, Denmark, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands and the United Kingdom--and the Council of the European Communities signed the International Convention on Frontier control of Goods on 1 February in Geneva.

The 25-article Convention--elaborated and adopted under the auspices of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE)--seeks to facilitate the international movement of goods by reducing the requirements for completing formalities as well as the number and duration of controls, in particular by national and international co-ordination of control procedures and of their methods of application. The Convention applies to all goods being imported or exported or in transit across one or more maritime, air or inland frontiers.

Hungary and Switzerland also have signed the Convention, which was opened for signature in April 1983.