HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPOKESMAN'S NOON BRIEFING
BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
UN HEADQUARTERS,
NEW YORK
Thursday, March 2, 2006
SECRETARY-GENERAL WELCOMES NATIONAL DIALOGUE IN LEBANON
Secretary-General Kofi Annan
welcomes the national dialogue that began today in Lebanon and hopes that
it will contribute to political stability in the country by addressing
critical issues of national concern.
The Secretary-General
congratulates the Speaker of Parliament for this crucial and timely initiative
and wishes it every success.
. ANNAN
ENCOURAGES IVORIAN LEADERS TO CONTINUE DIALOGUE
The Secretary-General
welcomes the meeting between the main Ivorian leaders which was convened
by Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny
in Yamoussoukro, in Côte d’Ivoire, on 28 February.
It constitutes a
significant step towards sustained dialogue and building trust among these
leaders, which is indispensable to the return of peace and reconciliation in
Côte d’Ivoire. The meeting enabled the parties to address a number of key
issues with a view to moving the peace process forward.
The Secretary-General
encourages the Ivorian leaders to continue this constructive dialogue. He
assures the Ivorian parties of the United Nations’ support for the
implementation of the recommendations of the Yamoussoukro meeting.
Also on Cote d'Ivoire,
out as a document is the Secretary-General’s
letter to the president of the Security Council giving the names of five
persons to be appointed to the panel of experts on Côte d’Ivoire. The group is charged with
monitoring, in collaboration with the UN mission in that country, the arms
embargo the council imposed in 2004 on Cote d'Ivoire and report to the
Security Council's Sanctions Committee on the country. Their mandate is for six months.
SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES AGREEMENT ON HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
On entering the building
this morning, the Secretary-General
spoke to reporters this morning about the Human Rights Council, and he
asserted, “The stakes are very high.”
He warned that, if we
are not careful and we make the wrong moves that unravel the agreement on the
Council, we could be placed in a situation where we are left with a Human
Rights Commission that we all claim is discredited. He urged Member States, as
they try to come to agreement on this issue, to make sure that “the better
must not be the enemy of the good.”
U.N. ATOMIC
ENERGY AGENCY WELCOMES EU-IRAN TALKS
The
Director- General of
the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed
ElBaradei today
welcomed the high-level meeting between Foreign Ministers of the EU3, the
High Representative of the European Union and the secretary of Iran’s Supreme
National Security Council, which is scheduled to take place tomorrow in
Vienna.
In a
statement, ElBaradei urged all parties to use this opportunity to create the
necessary conditions to return to negotiations. He called on Iran to
demonstrate full transparency toward the IAEA to resolve important outstanding
issues related to its nuclear programme, and to take all the necessary
confidence-building measures.
He said that
a durable solution can be found only through full transparency on the part of
Iran and negotiations with all concerned parties.
U.N.’S ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY WELCOMES
INDIAN ACCORD
Asked whether the
Secretary-General welcomed the deal between the United States and India, the
Spokesman responded that the Secretary-General has not commented, but noted
that IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei had issued a
statement welcoming that agreement.
U.N. ENVOY TO IRAQ CONCERNED OVER
SECTARIAN VIOLENCE
In a
statement we have upstairs, Ashraf Qazi, the Secretary-General’s Special
Representative for Iraq, expressed his deep concern over the increased
sectarian violence in that country. He said that hundreds of people are
estimated to have lost their lives since the attack on the Shrine of the Two
Imams last week.
Despite the constructive
response by Iraq’s government, Qazi said, the situation threatens to further
deteriorate. Accordingly, he calls upon the leaders of Iraq to intensify their
efforts to adopt measures to stop the violence and promote national accord,
and also appeals to the Iraqi people to act with restraint.
In another
press release, issued jointly with UNICEF, Qazi said, “This brutal
violence that takes innocent lives, especially those of children, is totally
unacceptable”.
SECURITY
COUNCIL AGREES OF MARCH WORK PROGRAMME
The
Security Council held its first consultations this month, to discuss its
programme of work for March.
The new Council
President, Ambassador Cesar Mayoral of Argentina, just spoke to the press
about what the Council will be doing in the coming month.
U.N.-SUPPORTED
OPERATION AGAINST MILITIAS CONTINUE IN D.R. CONGO
The
UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo says it’s received no
reports of any civilian casualties in an operation aimed at removing militia
members from the town of Tchei, some 60 kilometres south-east of the town of
Bunia, in the Ituri district.
Meanwhile, UN
peacekeepers are continuing their support of national army soldiers involved
in the operation.
The UN Mission estimates
that there are between 700 to 1,000 militia members in the area.
Asked about reports that
some DRC troops serving alongside UN troops in the eastern Congo had mutinied,
the Spokesman confirmed that there had been an incident in which DRC troops
vented their frustration at their commanding officers. These officers, he
said, then took refuge at a base of the UN Mission. UN troops were able to
defuse the situation, he said.
TWO
BOMBS HIT U.N. FOOD OFFICE IN NEPAL
Two bombs were thrown at
a
World Food Programme (WFP) office in eastern Nepal this morning. No
casualties were reported, and no major damage to the office building is known
to have taken place.
The United Nations
strongly condemns the attack, which violates international humanitarian law.
UN offices in the town
of Damak, where the bombs exploded, will remain closed pending an
investigation of the attack.
In addition to WFP, the
UN refugee agency has a presence in Damak, where it attends to the needs of
more than 105,000 Bhutanese refugees.
U.N.
HUMANITARIAN CHIEFS URGE HELP FOR GREAT LAKES
The heads of three UN
humanitarian agencies today
urged the international community to help end the suffering of millions of
refugees, displaced persons and returnees in the Great Lakes region of Africa.
After a six-day trip to
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Rwanda the
executive-directors of the
UN Children’s Fund, the
World Food Programme and the
UN Refugee Agency said political progress has been made in the area but it
must be matched with a new commitment to help the people who they described as
forgotten by the rest of the world.
They said all three
agencies need substantial additional funding for their work in the area.
U.N. TO OPEN
OFFICE TO ASSIST INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM
The Secretary-General
has decided to
establish a small Secretariat in
Geneva to assist in the
convening of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The Secretary-General was
asked by the
World Summit on the Information Society, held in Tunis in November, to
convene such a Forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue.
Nitin Desai, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for the Summit, held
open consultations on 16 and 17 February 2006 in Geneva aimed at reaching a
common understanding on how the Forum should function. Those discussions
produced a consensus that the IGF should have a strong development
orientation. It was also felt that the Forum should be open and inclusive,
and allow for the participation of all interested stakeholders with proven
expertise and experience in Internet-related matters.
The Secretariat will be
headed by Mr.
Markus Kummer, who has been the Executive Coordinator of the Secretariat
of the Working Group on Internet Governance, which was established by the
Secretary-General at the request of the first phase of the Summit, in Geneva in 2003. The first
meeting of the Forum is expected to take place later this year in Athens.
On a separate issue, the
Secretary-General has also decided to ask Mr. Desai to consult informally on
how to start a process aimed at enhancing cooperation on international public
policy issues related to the Internet. The Summit had requested the
Secretary-General to start such a process.
ABDUCTED
U.N. STAFFER IN SOMALIA IS RELEASED
We have received
confirmation that an international staff member of the
UN Children’s Fund, who was abducted yesterday in Somalia, has been
released.
The staff member was
abducted yesterday on the outskirts of Afmadow, 110 kilometers northwest of
Kismayo in the Lower Juba region. He was released a few hours ago and is
reported to be in good health.
We are grateful for the
help given by the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia in securing his
release.
U.N.
IRAQ MONITORS SUBMIT REPORT TO SECURITY COUNCIL
The latest report by the
UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq (UNMOVIC)
has gone to the Security Council and is out as a
document.
The report details the
Commission’s work over the past three months, including a meeting by its
College of Commissioners that convened in
New York last month.
The Commission has also
begun an internal review of its substantive records to identify any issues if
those records are eventually to be transferred to the United Nations archives.
UNITED
NATIONS CONDEMNS ATTACK ON NEWSPAPER AND TV IN KENYA
Klaus Toepfer, the head
of the
UN Office at Nairobi, today expressed “alarm and concern” over a raid on
the offices of the Standard newspaper in Nairobi and its sister television
station, KTN.
Several editions of the
paper were burnt, the offices of KTN vandalized, and the station was
temporarily silenced.
Toepfer said the UN
calls upon the Kenyan government to clarify the circumstances surrounding
today’s events at the Standard Group, and to take the appropriate action
against those responsible, including legal action if necessary.
The Director-General of
the
UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, Koïchiro Matsuura
also condemned the attacks. He said, "It is our duty to draw the attention of
the authorities in the country to the importance of press freedom in
maintaining a credible democracy and upholding the rule of law.”
U.N.
SECURITY WILL EXAMINE ALL ALLEGATIONS OF ANTI-SEMITISM
The Spokesman, in
response to a question about whether the United Nations is opening an
investigation into allegations of anti-Semitism by UN Security personnel,
confirmed that the Department of Safety and Security has opened an
investigation with the Office of Human Resources Management to make sure that
all allegations of this type are fully examined.
The Spokesman added that
a staff member who had been the victim of anti-Semitic actions had not been
fully satisfied by the initial response by management. The United Nations,
Dujarric emphasized, intends to have an atmosphere where anti-Semitism,
Islamophobia and xenophobia are not tolerated.
OTHER
ANNOUNCEMENTS
UNITED NATIONS TO HELP
DISCUSSIONS IN CYPRUS: Asked about ideas
concerning low-level mediation in Cyprus, the Spokesman said that the
Secretary-General was happy to note that both communities have agreed to
bi-communal communications on a number of issues, and that the United Nations
would try to help those efforts. He said that the discussions would concern
issues aimed at helping everyday life in both communities, and would be of a
technical nature.
DEPUTY-SECRETARY-GENERAL’S FUNCTIONS FILLED IN-HOUSE:
Asked whether the Secretary-General would appoint an Indian diplomat, Vijay
Nambiar, to replace Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette, or for any other
senior appointment, the Spokesman said he had nothing to announce. He noted that
Fréchette’s functions were to be filled upon her departure by existing resources
within the Executive Office of the Secretary-General.
SECURITY COUNCIL ARRANGEMENTS UP TO MEMBERS:
Asked about an arrangement whereby a Brazilian diplomat sits with Argentina’s
Security Council delegation, the Spokesman said that Member States were free to
make whatever arrangements they want, and noted that it was not the first time
this has happened.
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