Europe

Ruud Lubbers

UN refugee chief calls on Europe to develop comprehensive strategy on asylum

31 January 2005
European Union (EU) countries can improve the management of refugee problems by focusing on reinforcing protection in the regions of origin, building greater capacity in transit countries and improving the quality of the EU’s own asylum systems, according to the head of the United Nations refugee agency.

With UN help, three Balkan states pledge to solve refugee problem by 2006

31 January 2005
Three Balkan countries agreed today to bring a genuine and successful close to the refugee chapter in southeastern Europe by the end of 2006, through either voluntary return or local integration in a process that the United Nations refugee agency will actively assist.

UN tribunal sentences former Yugoslav general to eight years for war crimes

31 January 2005
The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia today sentenced retired Lt. Gen. Pavle Strugar to eight years in jail in connection with the bombardment of historic and religious sites in the Old Town of Dubrovnik in Croatia in 1991.

UN agency grants Armenia new loan to boost its impoverished rural economy

28 January 2005
With output in Armenia still only about 65 per cent of its level in 1990 when it gained independence from the former Soviet Union, the United Nations is granting a new $15.3 million loan to help boost the economy of rural areas, which cover about 80 per cent of the impoverished Caucasus country.
UN military observers in Georgia

Security Council extends UN mission in Georgia for a further six months

28 January 2005
The Security Council today unanimously extended the mandate of the United Nations observers in Georgia for a further six months, until 31 July, and called for a settlement of the decade-old conflict between the Government and Abkhaz separatists that fully respected the territorial integrity of Georgia.

UN and European Union tighten cooperation in war on drugs, crime and terror

25 January 2005
Senior officials from the United Nations crime fighting agency and the European Union (EU) have taken further steps to deepen their cooperation in the global war against drugs, organized crime and terrorism.
Heidi Tagliavini briefs reporters

Security Council renews call for political solution to Georgian-Abkhaz conflict

25 January 2005
Fresh from a briefing by the top United Nations envoy for Georgia, the Security Council today renewed its call to that country's Government and Abkhaz separatists to reach a lasting political solution within the nation's recognized borders to the decade-old conflict that uprooted nearly 300,000 refugees.

No improvement in rate of Romanian babies abandoned at birth, UN report finds

24 January 2005
Underscoring the importance of new child rights legislation that entered into force this month in Romania, a United Nations-backed report has found that babies are just as likely to be abandoned in the country’s maternity and paediatric hospitals as they were three decades ago.

General Assembly extends judges' terms at UN war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia

20 January 2005
In a bid to help the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia meet its target of trying all defendants by 2008, the General Assembly today extended the tenure of seven short-term judges and appointed two new temporary judges as well.

UN's Georgia mission vital for maintaining peace, Annan says in seeking extension

20 January 2005
With dialogue in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict frozen for much of last year, the United Nations mission there remains vital in preventing a flare-up of the hostilities between Government and separatist forces which uprooted nearly 300,000 refugees over a decade ago, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in his latest report.