But Britain a prime advocate of sanctions and partner with the US in the low

But Britain, a prime advocate of sanctions and partner with the US in the low level continuing air war against Iraq, rejected the idea that sanctions were aimed at children.The Foreign Office minister Geoff Hoon, pointed to the more stable child mortality rate in largely autonomous northern Iraq, home to 15 per cent of the country's population.The mortality rate of children under five in the north declined by more than 20 per cent - from 90 deaths per 1,000 live births between 1989 and 1994 to 72 deaths per 1,000 live births between 1994 and 1999.Mr Hoon said "sanctions could be lifted tomorrow" if Saddam complied with his international obligations. But Unicef's director Carol Bellamy, insisted sanctions be applied in ways that avoided harming children."We are not calling for a lifting of sanctions as such, because we cannot. That is not in our jurisdiction," she said, adding: "but when they are used they need to be implemented in a way to avoid serious human impact."Iraqis would not be experiencing such deprivation "in the absence of the prolonged measures imposed by the UN Security Council," the report said.Its findings seem bound to intensify criticism that sanctions are not working - merely increasing the suffering of the ordinary civilian population, while doing nothing to hasten the downfall of President Saddam. Citing "an ongoing humanitarian emergency," a report by the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) said that in the south and centre of the country, the area controlled by Saddam Hussein, the death rate for children under five rose from 56 per 1,000 live births in the period 1984-89 to 131 per 1,000 in the past five years. The survey, prepared with the Iraqi government and the World Health Organisation, did not specifically blame trade sanctions for the crisis which has seen some 500,000 Iraqi children die since the Gulf War. CHILD MORTALITY in most of Iraq has more than doubled in the nine years since United Nations sanctions were imposed, a leading UN agency said yesterday.

Christians and Muslims blame each other for starting the violence and both say government forces are biased against them."Beside the Muslim mobs supported by gunmen... there were officers with automatic rifles passing through the streets and firing on any Christians they find there," a statement by Christian churches said.Capt Sutarno said the statement was "one-sided".. "There are indications that some civilians were firing weapons."The Kostrad troops arrived recently from Java after local forces failed to keep the peace between the two religions.The violence began in January with a fight between a minibus driver and a passenger. in the backyard of the church." Fourteen bodies were found elsewhere in the town and 257 civilians and 16 members of the security forces were injured, said Captain Sutarno, a military spokesman.

INDONESIAN troops shot dead 24 Christians sheltering in a church on the island of Ambon on Wednesday during the latest Christian-Muslim violence,priests and aid workers said. Soldiers of Kostrad, the Indonesian Strategic Command, fired on the Protestant church in Galala, said Andreas Lopulalan, the minister "I buried 21 of the victims... I think the Serbian authorities and the UN civil administration should begin to clarify now the issue of prisoners and missing persons.". But after the arrival of [the peace-keeping force] K-For, the missing Serbs and Romas and Albanians should have the status of disappeared.

Although no provision was made for the missing and imprisoned in the Military Technical Agreement signed by Nato and the Yugoslav Army at Kumanova, Macedonia, Ms Kandic believes the Serbian authorities may be willing to negotiate a post-war deal."Based on some rumours, I believe that the Serbian authorities will say the people arrested during the Nato bombing should have the status of prisoners of war. But the list of the missing is long."In addition to the 1,500 missing Kosovo Albanians, and 2,270 in Serbian jails, the Humanitarian Law Centre has complied a list of more than 250 missing Kosovo Serbs. All of them are from Djakovica and were arrested in April and May," she said "It is good news. "They have succeeded in tracking and finding some 30 to 35 Kosovo Albanians from the missing list in the prisons. The lawyers reported that conditions for the prisoners were "bad", but not as brutal as those under which Serbian forces held prisoners during the conflict.Ms Kandic organised the lawyers' visits.

Three Kosovo Albanian lawyers were able to meet with several political prisoners in Serbian jails. "I have talked to [United States'] under-secretary for human rights, Harold Koh, and Nato secretary-general, Javier Solana. I have contacted all the agencies, the ICRC and Human Rights Watch."Dr Dobruna and other human-rights activists are angry that international officials signed a peace agreement with Belgrade that failed to grant amnesty to the thousands of Kosovo Albanians imprisoned by the Serbs for political reasons - a clause which was included (but not honoured) in last October's Holbrooke-Milosevic agreement.But in the past week, there has been some progress. But they have failed to explain what exactly they are doing or how long it will take.Dr Brovina's friend and fellow doctor and human-rights activist, Vjosa Dobruna, head of Kosovo's Centre for Protection of Women and Children, has been working to persuade international officials to take up her case and those of thousands of other Kosovo Albanians transported out of the province as Serbian forces withdrew."I don't think there are any avenues I haven't pursued," Dr Dobruna said. The remains are said to be those of Kosovo Albanian prisoners from the Dubrave prison.Crowds of relatives gather outside the United Nations headquarters in Pristina almost daily to appeal for help in freeing their loved ones But it often seems that no one is listening. Officials in international agencies say that they are aware of the problem and are working on it. "Unfortunately," she said, "those on the missing lists who are not in Serbian prisons, are probably dead." A mass grave containing 97 bodies was discovered this week near Istok in western Kosovo.