ARCHIVES
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY MARIE OKABE
ASSOCIATE SPOKESWOMAN FOR THE
SECRETARY-GENERAL
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Wednesday, July
7, 2004
Secretary-General
Kofi Annan briefed the Security Council
this morning via satellite link from Nairobi, in closed consultations, on
what he saw and discussions he held regarding Sudan
on his trip to Africa.
Jan Egeland,
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, who was with the
Secretary-General on his visit to Sudan and Chad, also briefed Council
members on the 90-day humanitarian action plan and the constraints and
challenges for relief operations in Darfur.
Egeland spoke to the
press following the Council consultations, and said that aid workers faced
“a logistical nightmare” in Darfur, but had been granted access to do
their work. He added that security is insufficient there, and noted reports
of abuse against the civilian population. He also highlighted funding
problems, with only 40 percent of what has been sought having been received
so far.
Humanitarian agencies,
meanwhile,
report that in North Darfur,
there have been outbreaks of fighting between the Sudanese Government and
militia groups. In addition, some agencies report that travelling members of
their staff have been searched and looted by military officials on several
occasions.
Agencies also point
out that the depletion of firewood around camps is increasing the risk of
insecurity among women, who are forced to move further away from
concentration areas to collect wood for cooking.
Also in North Darfur,
agencies have started to provide the necessary assistance to the displaced
people who were relocated from El Meshtel camp to Abu Shouk
camp by the Sudanese
Government prior to the visit of the Secretary General. Agencies report that
in the Abu Shouk camp, the health situation has stabilized.
The Secretary-General
departed Ethiopia today for Kenya, from where he spoke to the Security
Council by videoconference. Upon arriving
in Kenya, he told
reporters that he looks forward to having discussions with his own team in
Nairobi and with President Mwai Kabaki and the Kenyan Government. He said,
“I am sure we will have time to discuss issues of common interest and some
of the crises affecting our continent.”
[He
met with the UN staff in Nairobi, and described to them a difficult year for
the United Nations during which the organization’s effectiveness was
questioned over the war in Iraq
and colleagues were killed in Baghdad last August.
He
referred to the staff responses to the integrity
survey as well, but said that, despite all, he remained optimistic,
adding, “And so should you”. On AIDS, in response to a statement by a
staff member, he declared, “AIDS is the real weapon of mass
destruction.”
Before
leaving the UN complex, the Secretary-General stopped at the newly-named
“Sergio Vieira de Mello Library” and was shown a plaque commemorating
the life and work of the Brazilian Special Representative in Iraq killed in
the bombing incident of last August.]
On Tuesday night in
Addis Ababa, the Secretary-General convened a mini-summit on Cote
d’Ivoire that brought together the heads of government of nine states
in the region, who voiced their concern at the stalemate in that country.
The
participants at last night’s meeting agreed in a communiqué to convene a
high-level meeting of all Ivorian parties, including the President and Prime
Minister, in Accra, Ghana, on July 29.
Speaking to reporters
afterward, the Secretary-General said
that until that date, preparations would be made so that “the Accra
meeting will be concrete, constructive and we should be able to leave Accra
with sure and real achievements.”
UNITED NATIONS CONFIRMS MEMO
CONCERNING RUUD LUBBERS
INVESTIGATION
Asked
to confirm a report in The New York Times today, which claims that the
Secretary-General sent at an internal memo, in the wake of letters allegedly
sent out by UNHCR
head Rudd Lubbers, the Spokeswoman confirmed the internal memo's existence.
"This
internal memo from the Secretary-General's office to the Office for Internal
Oversight Services (OIOS) was issued the day after, it was in response to
Mr. Lubbers’ note to the staff, and it simply states a matter of guidance
for how the OIOS inspectors should go about their work," the
Spokeswoman said.
The
Spokeswoman said the memo would not be released, as it is an internal memo.
Regarding
the OIOS investigation into one woman's allegations concerning Lubbers, the
Spokeswoman said she had no further updates, noting that this would remain
the case until the investigation process is complete.
Asked
if the Secretary-General had asked Lubbers to resign during a meeting
between the two, the Spokeswoman confirmed the two had met on Tuesday
evening in Addis Ababa. The Spokeswoman said she was
unable to describe the contents of the meeting, which she said was a
one-on-one session.
The Secretary-General
has transmitted to the Security Council a
letter from the head of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, which reports on the transfer of roughly 1.8 tons
of low enriched uranium from Iraq
to the United States.
In the letter,
IAEA Executive Director Mohamed ElBaradei says that the U.S. Government had informed
his agency of its
intention to transfer some nuclear material out of Iraq, because of security
concerns. The United States last week informed the agency that it had
performed the transfer on June 23.
Representatives
of the Middle
East diplomatic quartet – U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David
Satterfield, UN Special Coordinator Terje Roed-Larsen, European Union
Special Representative Marc Otte and Ambassador Alexander Kalugin of Russia
– met in Ramallah today with Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei and other senior
Palestinian Authority officials.
In
a statement released after the meeting, the envoys reaffirmed the needs for
concrete steps on the ground by the Palestinian Authority in order to revive
the Road Map
and seize the opportunity represented by Israel’s Gaza withdrawal
initiative. They also expressed their strong support for the Egyptian role
in working with the parties and urged the Palestinian Authority to do its
part by moving decisively to fulfil its security commitments.
These envoys also
discussed with the Prime Minister the humanitarian situation and development
needs in the West Bank and Gaza.
HUNDREDS
OF REFUGEES RETURNING TO DR CONGO
The Office of the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
says that hundreds of Congolese refugees have begun returning to the Democratic
Republic of the Congo
to assess the situation in their home villages. Over 300 have returned since
1 July, with another 500 saying that they are ready to go home.
However,
because infrastructure has been severely damaged in the country’s east,
and the military tends to harass and steal from the local population, UNHCR
is not recommending the return of all refugees. At the same time, small
numbers of Congolese continue to flee into Burundi due to tension in the
DRC's south Kivu region.
U.N. CONFERENCE ON FIGHTING SPAM BEGINS IN GENEVA
The
International
Telecommunication Union
today began
a meeting on fighting unsolicited e-mail known as SPAM. The Geneva meeting is part of preparations for
the second phase of the World
Summit on the Information Society.
The
Summit has identified SPAM as a potential threat to the full use of digital
services and described it as "a significant and growing problem for
users, networks and the Internet as a whole.” Discussion will center on
five key areas, including technical solutions and international cooperation.
SECURITY COUNCIL TO
DISCUSS CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: At 3:00 this
afternoon, the Security Council will
hold consultations on the Central African Republic.
CEREAL PRODUCTION
DECLINES IN SOUTHERN AFRICA: Overall cereal
production in southern Africa declined this season, with maize production
decreasing by 9 percent compared to last year, the Food
and Agriculture Organization says. The Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs has expressed concern about the shortfall in cereal output
in Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
INT'L CRIMINAL COURT ASSIGNS FIRST TWO
CASES TO PRE-TRIAL CHAMBERS: Today in The Hague, the International
Criminal Court decided to assign its first two cases, in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo and in Uganda, to pre-trial chambers.
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