HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY FRED ECKHARD
SPOKESMAN FOR THE
SECRETARY-GENERAL
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Thursday,
September 9, 2004
ANNAN HORRIFIED BY
CAR
BOMB
BLAST
OUTSIDE AUSTRALIAN
EMBASSY IN JAKARTA
In a
statement issued through the Spokesman,
Secretary-General Kofi Annan
said he is horrified at the car
bomb explosion today near the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, reportedly
killing at least eight people and injuring more than a hundred others.
He extends his heartfelt condolences to the Government of Indonesia and the
families of the victims of this apparent terrorist act.
The
Secretary-General reiterates his condemnation of all terrorist acts.
SECURITY
COUNCIL TO DISCUSS SUDAN AT 3 P.M. TODAY
The
Security Council has scheduled closed consultations on
Sudan at 3:00 p.m. today.|
A draft
resolution on Sudan is expected
to be introduced.
Asked about
the declaration by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell that what is happening
in Darfur constitutes genocide, the Spokesman noted that the text of what
Powell said quoted Article Eight of the
Genocide Convention in its entirety. He believed it was the first time
that Article Eight had been invoked. The Spokesman noted that the
Secretary-General noted that the United States would be introducing today a
draft resolution on Sudan in the Security Council.
The
Spokesman said we would now have to see the next step. The matter was being
brought to a competent UN organ, the Security Council, and we would now need
to see what action the Council takes.
Asked about
other competent organs, he said that the United States could also go to the
International Court of Justice, if they want a legal opinion, or to the
Secretary-General.
For now, he added, they have indicated that they are going to the Security
Council. He said that one option for a contracting party to the Genocide
Convention could be to ask for a legal opinion regarding genocide, adding that
such a request could come from the Security Council.
Asked
whether the national authorities in Sudan could try people for genocide, the
Spokesman said that under the Convention, they could also do so.
U.N. ENVOY RETURNED TO
SUDAN FOLLOWING TALKS ON DONOR CONFERENCE
The
Secretary-General’s Special Representative for
Sudan,
Jan Pronk, is back
in Khartoum after his visit to
Oslo earlier this week, where he had a series of meetings with the Norwegian
Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of International Development.
Pronk
discussed with the Norwegian officials the preparations for the upcoming
Donor's Conference on Sudan, to be held on
September
27 and 28 in Oslo.
Meanwhile,
the African Union (AU) mediators’ revised version of the draft protocol on
security issues did not meet the agreement of the parties to the peace talks
in Abuja, Nigeria. The talks are currently deadlocked.
The mediators
called today for a plenary meeting in order to put on record the views of the
parties on the revised version of the draft protocol and on the way to move
forward with the peace talks. The mediation plans to adjourn the current round
of talks after listening to the parties and to report on the status of the
current round of negotiations to the AU presidency.
On the
humanitarian front, the first convoy of trucks carrying food aid for the
World Food Programme across the Sahara desert arrived at a refugee camp in
eastern Chad on Thursday, ending a 2,800-kilometre journey from Libya's
Mediterranean coast and opening up a new route to feed tens of thousands of
Sudanese refugees.
ANNAN: COOPERATION NEEDED
TO FIGHT TERRORISM
The
Secretary-General wrapped up his working visit to
Mexico City
yesterday afternoon by thanking the members of Mexico’s Federal Electoral
Institute for the support they provided last July in training Iraq’s new
electoral commissioners.
The Secretary-General was asked, at a press encounter yesterday, about the
possibility that nations would take unilateral action against terrorist
groups, and said that he believed in countries working together to pool their
efforts and share information about terrorism. “We need to come up with ways
and means of fighting terrorism effectively, but we also have to make sure
that these approaches do not undermine the rule of law and basic civil rights
of all people,” he said.
After that press encounter, the Secretary-General met with the President of
the Mexican Senate and members of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Commission.
Also in the afternoon, he met with the UN country team and greeted some 100
United Nations staff members working in Mexico City.
U.N. STAFF IN IRAQ
OPERATING AT OUTER LIMIT OF ACCEPTABLE RISK
Out on the
racks is the
Secretary-General's report
to the
Security Council on the work of the
UN Assistance Mission for Iraq.
In it, the
Secretary-General stresses that the people of
Iraq must be continually reassured and convinced that the process is
unequivocally moving towards the goal of making them the masters of their own
political future.
The
assistance given to the Iraqi electoral process is a key component of the UN’s
current work in Iraq.
He tells
Council members that the greatest challenge facing electoral process in Iraq
is the insecure environment. This environment, he observes, could make it
more difficult to create the necessary conditions to hold elections in January
of 2005.
As for the
security of UN staff, which remains the overriding guiding principle of the UN
mission, the Secretary-General says the international staff currently on
Baghdad is operating at the outer limit of prudent and acceptable risk.
He also
notes that discussions are currently underway with a number of member states
to provide both close personal protection details for the UN and a larger
guard unit.
A conducive
security environment is clearly linked to the performance of the UN’s mission
in Iraq. He concludes by saying that unless and until there is a significant
improvement in the overall security situation, the UN mission will have to
continue to work both inside and outside Iraq, as circumstances permit, with a
restricted presence on the ground in Iraq.
Asked about
efforts to recruit aid to protect UN personnel in Iraq, the Spokesman said
there had been an exhaustive search to obtain security units for close
protection and the safety of the UN Headquarters in Baghdad. As of now, he
said, the United Nations still does not have any firm commitment from any
Member State.
U.N.
ENVOY CONDEMNS KILLING OF PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS
The UN Envoy
for the Middle East,
Terje Roed-Larsen, has condemned the killing of Palestinian civilians and
the wounding of many more that has been taking place in the Gaza Strip for the
last two days.
Larsen is
particularly disturbed to hear that two children are among those killed.
The UN envoy
calls on the Government of Israel to abide by its obligation under
international humanitarian law to avoid the use of disproportionate force in
densely populated areas and to protect the civilian population.
ANNAN FLAGS NEED TO MOVE FORWARD
ETHIOPIA, ERITREA PEACE PROCESS
The
Secretary-General's report
on Ethiopia and
Eritrea was posted on
the
Security Council website today.
In it, the
Secretary-General says that while the situation between Eritrea and Ethiopia
remains far from ideal, there have been some positive developments in areas
relating to the UN’s operations.
He says he
remains concerned about the overall status of the peace process or, more
specifically, the absence of prospects for breaking the continuing stalemate
regarding the demarcation
of the border between the two countries.
It is time
that the more cooperative spirit demonstrated by the two parties towards the
UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea in recent weeks be applied to the
broader political process, in order to move it forward, he says.
U.N. MISSION IN
AFGHANISTAN CONDEMNS ATTACK ON NGO OFFICE
The UN
Mission in
Afghanistan today condemned an attack that took place on Tuesday at the
Faizabad office of a non-governmental organization
(NGO), Focus, in which
some ten NGO personnel were injured during a violent demonstration.
The Mission
is reviewing the situation on the ground, but said that, based on preliminary
discussions, it seems clear that the provincial authorities failed to provide
security to the international organizations, and to the population in general.
The UN
Mission also expressed great concern at comments made by the Afghan Planning
Minister, which contained an indictment of the work of NGOs in Afghanistan.
Mission spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva underscored today that
justification of violence in general, and against NGOs in particular, is
unacceptable, and he urged the Afghan Government to condemn clearly attacks
against NGO personnel.
FUNDING NEEDED TO HELP
COUNTRIES GET RID OF
OBSOLETE PESTICIDES
The
UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
warns that unless it receives more funding by the end of the year, it
won’t be able to help poor countries get rid of
obsolete pesticides.
Obsolete
pesticides, which contain toxic chemicals, are left over from pest control
campaigns – stockpiles have accumulated because some products have been banned
for health or environmental reasons, but were never removed and disposed of.
FAO says the problem is a continuing and worsening threat to people and the
environment in
Eastern Europe,
Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
For example:
the clean-up of one tonne of obsolete pesticide waste costs around $3,500 – it
is estimated that the Ukraine has around 19,500 tonnes of ageing chemicals
from obsolete pesticides, which would bring the total cost to more than $68
million.
STALLED PEACE TALKS
BLOCKING AID FOR CHILDREN IN SRI LANKA
UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, says the stalled peace talks between the
Government of
Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are a major impediment
to assisting children affected by the country’s two-decade long war.
That is one of the findings of a UNICEF report released today, which reviews
progress made in the first half of this year under the “Action Plan for
Children Affected by War.”
The Action Plan is
the only formal
agreement by both sides to address the urgent needs of children affected by
war.
The report also found that other barriers to assisting children there include
the Tamil Tigers’ failure to end the recruitment of children, and the
destabilizing effect of continued inter-factional violence in the East.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
PEACE
CORRIDORS SET UP BY U.N. MISSION IN COTE D’IVOIRE:
The
UN Mission in Cote d’Ivoire has set up Peace Corridors which will primarily
be used to facilitate contacts between people living on both sides of the line
dividing areas under the control of the government and Forces Nouvelles. This
project will get underway next week, which has been designated as National
Reconciliation Week.
GOVERNANCE
SEMINAR TO BE HELD AT U.N. HEADQUARTERS ON FRIDAY:
The
UN Office of Internal Oversight Services will hold a symposium entitled:
“Governance, Leadership and Accountability” in conference room 2 tomorrow
afternoon. This symposium, which commemorate the 10th Anniversary of
OIOS' establishment by the
General Assembly in 1994, is open for all UN staff, delegates and accredited
correspondents.
HIRING FREEZE TO AFFECT DOCUMENT DISTRIBUTION AT GENERAL ASSEMBLY:
Asked whether the
Department of Public Information would provide staff to scan and copy documents
that are to be distributed at this year’s
General Assembly, the
Spokesman said that the United Nations had already asked for runners to be in
place to bring distributed texts as soon as possible. He noted that the hiring
freeze for support staff made it more difficult to provide staff for such tasks,
and that this year’s Assembly also had 98 heads of state and government
inscribed to speak so far, an unusually high number. But he promised that the
United Nations would do its best.
PANEL
DEALING WITH ISSUE OF NEW THREATS TO COLLECTIVE SECUERITY:
Asked how far could the United Nations go in justifying pre-emptive
strikes, the Spokesman said that the
Secretary-General has set up a
High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, which will deal, among
other things, with finding a way to reconcile new threats with the provisions
for collective security of the UN Charter. The Secretary-General’s basic
principle is to preserve the rule of law, and for nations to work together in
dealing with threats.
Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General
United Nations, S-378
New York, NY 10017
Tel. 212-963-7162 -
press/media only
Fax. 212-963-7055
All other inquiries to be addressed to (212)
963-4475 or by e-mail to: inquiries@un.org
