HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY FARHAN HAQ, ACTING DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON
WEDNESDAY, 1 DECEMBER 2010 The
Secretary-General has
taken note of the preliminary findings by the
international observer missions that the second round of
the Ivorian presidential election on 28 November was
conducted in an overall satisfactory and credible
manner. The Secretary-General also recalls that his
Special Representative has found the elections to have
been conducted in a democratic climate, despite some
regrettable incidents, some of which were violent, in
different parts of the country. The
Secretary-General urges the Independent Electoral
Commission to announce the provisional results of the
second round of the presidential election without delay,
today, 1 December 2010. He calls upon all stakeholders
to allow the Independent Electoral Commission to
complete its work without interference in order to
ensure the integrity of the results of the election. The
Secretary-General emphasizes that any disruption in the
electoral process would not be in the interest of the
people of Côte d’Ivoire or the future stability of the
country. The Special
Representative of the Secretary-General will continue,
in the context of his certification mandate, all his
efforts to safeguard the electoral process so that the
will of the Ivorian people as expressed in the election
will be respected. The United Nations will continue
provide its full support to the completion of the
electoral operations and to the Ivorian peace process as
a whole. The
Secretary-General is flying back from Kazakhstan today,
after he participated this morning in the first Summit
of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) in more than a decade. He
told the leaders gathered for the summit that the
events in Kyrgyzstan this year showed what the United
Nations and the OSCE can do together, as they joined
forces with other regional groups to provide timely and
coherent support to the people of Kyrgyzstan at a
critical moment. In
Afghanistan, the Secretary-General said, we face
another test. We will need to collaborate closely to
ensure that the transition process is sustainable and
irreversible. This will mean making a long-term
commitment to capacity- and institution-building.
Asked about the
Secretary-General’s bilateral meetings today, the
Spokesperson confirmed that he had met, among other
people, with the Foreign Minister of the Republic of
Korea and the US Secretary of State. The
Secretary-General’s Special Representative for
Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, has strongly
welcomed today’s announcement by Afghanistan's
Independent Election Commission (IEC) of the completion
of the final certification of the results of the 18
September Wolesi Jirga elections. He said he
looked forward to the prompt inauguration of the Wolesi
Jirga as an important further step in Afghanistan’s
strengthening of its democratic governance. The UN
peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (MONUSCO)
has launched Operation “Rudia Umbrella” ahead of the
end-of-year holiday season, which it says has in the
past been a period of increased activities by illegal
armed groups. The latest
military effort will see a preventive deployment of
peacekeepers across some sensitive areas, an increased
number of patrols and a stronger deterrent posture
against groups such as the Lord's Resistance Army. The Mission,
meanwhile, says that an earlier UN effort, Operation
Protective Shield, concluded successfully on Tuesday in
South Kivu. A small number of Democratic Forces for the
Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) elements surrendered to the
peacekeepers and some weapons were recovered, the
Mission says. Three decades
into the AIDS crisis, the world must step up its efforts
to achieve the “three zeroes” – zero new HIV infections,
zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths, the
Secretary-General
says in his message for World AIDS Day. While AIDS has
caused untold suffering and death in the past 30 years,
the global community has united through the years to
take action and save lives. These efforts are making a
real difference around the world, he stresses. Our common goal,
the Secretary-General says, is clear: universal access
to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. We must
also work to make the AIDS response sustainable. For his part,
Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of the Joint UN
Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS),
notes that the number of new HIV infections and
deaths have dropped by nearly 20 per cent. But our
successes have not come without sacrifice, he points
out, with some 30 million people having lost their lives
to AIDS and some 10 million waiting for treatment. U.S. TAKES OVER
SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY FOR DECEMBER:
The United States has replaced the United
Kingdom as the
Security Council President for the month of December.
Ambassador Susan Rice of the United States will brief
journalists Thursday on the Council’s programme of work for
the coming month. U.N. MISSION
TRYING TO MAINTAIN ORDER IN HAITI:
Asked about incidents in Haiti, the
Spokesperson said that the
UN Mission there was trying to maintain order but added
that there have been some disruptions following the
elections. He noted the Secretary-General’s
recent statement calling for calm. JOINT
U.N.-AFRICAN UNION MISSION LOOKING INTO DEADLY INCIDENT AT
DARFUR DEMONSTRATION: At least
one person was killed and several wounded today in Zalingei,
West Darfur, when gunfire broke out during a demonstration.
The incident took place at Zalingei University on the final
leg of a four-day visit to Darfur by the Doha peace
negotiation team. The joint
UN-African Union peacekeeping mission (UNAMID)
is trying to obtain further information.
*** The guest at the noon briefing today
was Mike Smith, Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism
Committee Executive Directorate (CTED).
U.N. MISSION LAUNCHES OPERATION
AGAINST REBEL GROUPS
Office of the Spokesperson for the
Secretary-General
United Nations, SA-1B15
New York, NY 10017
Tel. 212-963-7162
Fax. 212-963-7055
