From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Jul 22 2009 - 13:19:31 EDT
Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs briefed Council members on
recent developments concerning Eritrea and Djibouti
Jul 22nd, 2009 • <http://www.EastAFRO.com/Post/category/news> News
21 July 2009
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/unlogo_blue_sml_en.jpg
Spokesperson’s Noon Briefing
_____
Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESPERSON FOR THE
SECRETARY-GENERAL
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by
Farhan Haq, Associate Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Good afternoon.
**Responsibility to Protect
The Secretary-General this morning presented his report on the
Responsibility to Protect to the General Assembly, saying that it is high
time to turn the promise of the responsibility to protect into practice. He
said that we have an opportunity to ready ourselves for the moment when our
collective capacity and will are again tested by the sort of horrors that
took place in Rwanda.
The Secretary-General said that the strategy outlined in his report rests on
three pillars: State responsibility; international assistance and
capacity-building; and timely and decisive response. The report, he said,
seeks to situate the responsibility to protect squarely under the UN’s roof
and within the UN Charter, where it belongs. The report asserts that
prevention, for practical and moral reasons, should be job number one. It
involves engaging Member States in a discussion about how to sharpen UN
capacities for early warning and assessment, and encouraging each of the
UN’s principal organs to play its distinct and appropriate role in
developing and implementing the responsibility to protect.
The Secretary-General called on Member States to let the General Assembly do
what it does best: to provide the venue for a continuing search for common
ground on a multilateral strategy that works.
And we have his remarks upstairs.
**
Security Council
The Security Council this morning is holding consultations on peace and
security in Africa. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn
Pascoe briefed Council members on recent developments concerning Eritrea and
Djibouti.
**Secretary-General’s Statement on Chad- Sudan
Yesterday, we issued the following statement attributable to the
Spokesperson for the Secretary-General concerning Darfur and bombings along
the Chad-Sudan border.
The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the increasing violence in West
Darfur and along the Chad-Sudan border.
The Secretary-General is disturbed by reports that bombs dropped by Chadian
aircraft have struck locations in the vicinity of Umm Dukhum in West Darfur
on 16 July. These events put the lives of Sudanese civilians at risk and
could increase the tensions between the two countries. The
Secretary-General condemns the incident and takes note that the Government
of Sudan has rightly responded through diplomatic means. He urges both
Governments to show restraint and make greater efforts to improve their
relations.
The Secretary-General is also gravely concerned by the reports of bombings
by the Government of Sudan on rebel positions in the Jebel Moon area of West
Darfur, which took place on 18 July. He calls on the Sudanese Government
and all parties to the conflict to cease military actions, comply with
Security Council resolutions in this regard and to commit to a cessation of
hostilities.
The Secretary-General reiterates that the only solution to the conflict in
Darfur is through an inclusive, political settlement.
That statement is available online and upstairs.
**Abyei
Also on Sudan, the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) reports that Ashraf Qazi, the
Secretary-General’s Special Representative for that country, is on his way
to Abyei on the eve of the ruling of the Hague-based Permanent Court of
Arbitration on Abyei.
The Mission says that the Special Representative believes that action has
been taken to ensure that the Abyei road map area will be cleared of armed
elements, other than the Joint Integrated Unit and the Joint Police
Integrated Unit. Qazi welcomes the latest developments as reassuring.
There are fact sheets on Abyei for those who are interested.
** Somalia
We may have a statement later today concerning Somalia and the attacks we
reported on for you yesterday.
Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says that as the number of Somali
civilians driven out of their homes by the conflict in Mogadishu rises,
growing insecurity is making it increasingly difficult for aid workers to
gain access and provide assistance to the latest victims of the Somali civil
war.
UNHCR estimates that some 223,000 people have fled Mogadishu since the
beginning of May, and about 20,000 have fled in the last two weeks alone.
The agency says that, for example, this week’s scheduled distribution of
4,000 UNHCR aid kits in Mogadishu and outlying areas had to be postponed due
to security concerns. In addition, due to the latest incidents in Baidoa
and Wajid, UNHCR’s assistance in the adjacent region has virtually ground to
a halt.
UNHCR says that it is deeply concerned about the plight of the large number
of internally displaced people who have found refuge south-west of the
capital, in a congested strip of land with little or no basic facilities.
There is a lack of adequate shelter, sanitation facilities and clean
drinking water, adds the agency.
And there is more in the UNHCR briefing notes upstairs.
** Lebanon
Michael Williams, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, has held a series
of meetings over the past two days with senior Lebanese officials to discuss
the recent incidents in which, he said, there have been clear violations of
resolution 1701 (2006). He met yesterday with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora
and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, and earlier today with Assembly
Speaker Nabih Berri.
After meeting Hariri, Williams said: “Any resolution from time to time faces
many tests and challenges. There have been some testing incidents in recent
days.” He called on all parties to renew their commitment and to exercise
the utmost restraint. He added, after meeting Prime Minister Siniora, that
we need to address the issues and not see any escalation, which would be bad
for resolution 1701 (2006)and for Lebanon.
And we have his remarks upstairs.
** Iraq
On Iraq, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, L. Craig Johnstone,
is in Iraq today as part of a five-day mission to review UNHCR’s operations
for returnees, refugees and internally displaced people and to hold a series
of meetings with Iraqi officials.
In his meetings, Johnstone acknowledged the improvement in security inside
Iraq and described the situation as much healthier compared to his last
visit two years ago. He also urged the Iraqi Government to engage more with
Iraqi refugees outside of Iraq and to include them in national
reconciliation efforts.
The Deputy High Commissioner also commended the Iraqi Government for
implementing a compensation package for returnees and internally displaced
families. He stressed, however, that much more needs to be done, and he
added that there will not be a solution to the Iraqi situation as a whole
until the plight of displaced people and refugees has been resolved.
And we have more details in today’s briefing notes from UNHCR.
** Cambodia
On Cambodia, the latest report by the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on
Human Trafficking shows that the financial crisis in Cambodia has led to
signs of an increase in women entering the sex trade, driven primarily by
declining working conditions.
The report shows that during the crisis, women have entered the sex trade,
coming from situations where there have been declining working conditions,
such as in the garment sector, where they have experienced long working
hours and low pay. And it also shows that debt bondage to sex establishment
owners has increased, with an increasing proportion of cash going towards
remittances to families.
**Humanitarian Appeals
Humanitarian appeals have received the best funding of all time by mid-2009,
but $4.8 billion are still required to respond to the world’s most severe
crises. That’s according to the United Nation’s Mid-Year Review of
Humanitarian Appeals, released today in Geneva.
Forty-nine per cent of the funds needed have been received. Funding
required for global crises has escalated sharply from $7.8 billion in the
original 2009 appeal launched in November 2008 to an unprecedented $9.5
billion, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA).
For example, funding requirements to meet humanitarian needs have risen by
$187 million in Kenya, by $341 million in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
and by $103 million in Iraq. Requirements for humanitarian operations in
Pakistan soared from $55 million to $542 million, OCHA adds.
John Holmes, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian
Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that, if just a fraction of
the hundreds of billions of dollars recently committed by Governments to
private financial institutions were allocated to humanitarian action, the
humanitarian appeals could already be fully funded.
And we have more information on this upstairs, including notes of a briefing
by John Holmes in Geneva.
**Arab Human Development Report
The UN Development Programme (UNDP) today released the Arab Human
Development Report 2009.
According to the report, a widespread lack of human security undermines
human development in Arab countries. It adds that human security in the
region is often threatened by unjust political, social and economic
structures; by competition for power and resources among fragmented social
groups; and, in some cases, by the impacts of external military
intervention. The report was prepared by independent scholars drawn from
the region.
And we have more on it in my Office.
**Health
The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is warning that a killer
disease is destroying fish stocks around the Zambezi River Valley in Zambia.
The sickness is threatening the food security and the livelihood of the
surrounding rural populations. FAO says this particular disease is one of
the most serious aquatic diseases affecting fish.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) says that the elimination of
river blindness is now becoming feasible. More than 37 million people are
infected with river blindness. Most of them live in poor, rural African
communities.
And we have the press releases on those two topics upstairs.
**Press Conference Today
Today, at 1 p.m. today, there will be a press conference by the Chairperson
of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on the
Committee’s current session.
**Press Conferences Tomorrow
Then tomorrow, at 11 a.m., Gareth Evans, former Australian Foreign Minister
and Co-Chair of the International Commission on Intervention and State
Sovereignty; Juan Méndez, the former UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of
Genocide; human rights activist Jacqueline Murekatete; and Thelma Ekiyor
from the West Africa Civil Society Institute will all be here to brief on
the General Assembly plenary session on the Responsibility to Protect. That
session took place, as you know, today.
And the guest at the noon briefing tomorrow will be Angela Kane, the
Under-Secretary-General for Management, who will brief on the efforts to
make the UN a smoke-free environment.
**“New Horizons” Initiative
Also we want to know whether any of you would be interested in a background
briefing about the “New Horizons” initiative concerning UN peace operations.
If you are, please come upstairs to the office and let us know, and we’ll
try to see what the level of interest is so that we can arrange a background
briefing on that topic. That’s it for me. Any questions?
**Questions and Answers
Question: I just want to know on this situation in the Middle East on this
nuclear situation in the Middle East that Iran keeps on developing the
nuclear programme, saying it has a right to peaceful nuclear energy, while
<http://www.eastafro.com/Post/2009/07/22/under-secretary-general-for-politic
al-affairs-briefed-council-members-on-recent-developments-concerning-eritrea
-and-djibouti> Israel on one hand keeps on threatening Iran and thinking
that this is a threat to its sovereignty or its livelihood. So in that
event… just recently, even the United States Vice-President Mr [Joseph]
Biden said that it would not stand in between Israel if it attacks Iran.
What is the Secretary-General doing in view of these threats and these
ominous rising clouds of nuclear war, if you please?
Associate Spokesperson: As you know, the Secretary-General has repeatedly
called for a negotiated resolution to the issue of Iran’s nuclear programme.
The Security Council, as you know, has also been seized of the matter and
continues to review it. But the Secretary-General has certainly called on
all parties to work together on a negotiated solution, and he, of course,
continues to call on Iran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) and with all the relevant resolutions of the Security Council.
Question: Has he taken note of the threats coming from Israel, from various
Israeli ministers and officials, that they will attack Iran very soon?
Associate Spokesperson: Certainly he would like all parties to refrain from
rhetoric and to deal with the situation through negotiations and through
diplomatic efforts.
Question: Any reaction from the Secretary-General regarding the Israeli
projects of building settlements in East Jerusalem?
Associate Spokesperson: Yes, as far as that goes, I’ll just refer you back
to the repeated statements by the Quartet, of which the United Nations is a
member, concerning our own concerns about settlement activity. As you know,
we find all settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to be
unhelpful, and the Secretary-General has repeatedly asked for them to halt.
Question: It’s reported that the Government of Ethiopia has taken the
licence and ordered out of southern Ethiopia, Médecins Sans Frontières and
some gender rights NGOs. Does the UN know about this, and what do they have
to say about it?
Associate Spokesperson: I am not aware. You might want to check with the
groups involved. It would be up to them initially, I believe, to react.
Question: I guess my question is, when this happened in Sudan, the UN
reacted immediately. But it seems if it happens in other places, there is
no reaction.
Associate Spokesperson: We would need the information first. Like I said,
it would be up to Médecins Sans Frontières, I believe you mentioned, and
other groups to react first, and we’ll see what they’re doing.
Question: Perhaps belatedly, over the weekend, Action Contre la Faim — it’s
this French NGO — denounced the Sri Lankan Government’s ending of an inquiry
of how 17 of their workers were killed, and they called for an international
inquiry, including calling on the UN to take action. Since the UN — John
Holmes and others — had said they were closely watching that investigation,
what do they say now that it’s over, and the group concerned calls it a
whitewash?
Associate Spokesperson: We’ll check with OCHA what kind of particular
response they have on the issue concerning Contre la Faim. As far as that
goes, there has been no UN investigation into this, as you are aware. We’ll
first monitor events on the ground, and we do continue to monitor a wide
range of issues concerning how the Government of Sri Lanka has followed up
on the commitments that the Secretary-General had outlined in his letters.
As you know, the Secretary-General met with President [Mahinda] Rajapaksa
last week on the margins of the Non-Aligned Movement summit, and he brought
up again the sort of actions we had wanted taken in Sri Lanka.
Question: Just one more on that. I wanted to know, there was a report in
the Times of London saying that, in the camps in Vavuniya, up to 1,400
people have died, and the AP has also reported that the conditions are very
dire in terms of health. What’s the UN, if they’re closely monitoring, are
they monitoring both the health and the level of deaths inside these camps?
Associate Spokesperson: Well, that of course depends on the level of access
we have. We don’t have necessarily the most precise information about
things like death tolls. At the same time, we do have tremendous concerns
about the humanitarian conditions in the camps, and that was in fact one of
the topics that the Secretary-General raised with the Sri Lankan President
last week.
Question: Farhan, you were there when the Secretary-General was in Sharm
el-Sheikh at the Non-Aligned Movement meeting. Did the Secretary-General
and the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan at any point in time discuss
the Kashmir issue, or did that never came up for discussion?
Associate Spokesperson: The Secretary-General did not meet with the Indian
Prime Minister. He did meet with the Pakistani Prime Minister. It may have
come up in passing, but that wasn’t the focus of their discussion, no.
Question: The focus of the discussion was just IDPs [internally displaced
persons], or…?
Associate Spokesperson: There were a number of issues, including relations
between India and Pakistan, including support for the work of the Group of
Friends of a Democratic Pakistan, and also the work of the Bhutto
Commission.
Question: Can you confirm that the helicopter that crashed in Afghanistan,
killing the civilians on board, was doing a UN mapping mission? Is that
your understanding?
Associate Spokesperson: That’s not my understanding, but I’ll check with
UNAMA [the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan].
Question: Okay. And also, since you gave sort of a readout of the
Secretary-General’s meeting with the President of Sri Lanka, in advance of
his trip to China, is it possible to know whether he intends to raise the
issue of the unrest in western China and in Xinjiang Uighur autonomous
region?
Associate Spokesperson: He’s already made some comments about this, as you
know, in some recent press encounters. It’s too soon to predict what issues
he’ll raise, but we’ll certainly give you the readouts once those meetings
take place. Okay, have a good afternoon.
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