HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPOKESMAN'S NOON BRIEFING
BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
ASSOCIATE
SPOKESMAN FOR THE
SECRETARY-GENERAL
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Tuesday,
October 12, 2004
Secretary-General
Kofi Annan is concerned at the deteriorating security situation in Côte
d’Ivoire, in particular the attacks against the
Sector East offices and staff of the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI
) in Forces Nouvelles-controlled areas.
In a statement,
the Secretary-General strongly appealed to all Ivorian parties to desist
from any action that
could aggravate the situation in the country.
He expects the Ivorian authorities and political
forces to demonstrate restraint from violence and fulfill
without delay their responsibilities with regard to the full and
unconditional implementation of the peace process.
[In a
press release, the UN mission reported violent demonstrations on Monday
in Bouaké, which targeted the business district, the Headquarters of UN
peacekeepers in Sector East, as well as the UN military observers office. It
also said that faced with an increasingly threatening crowd, the UN
peacekeepers, under order to show the utmost restraint, fired warning shots
in the air. At no time did any UN military personnel aim at civilians.]
The Secretary-General
today warmly congratulated the men and women of Afghanistan
on their impressive participation in last Saturday’s elections.
In a message
read out on Afghan television and radio by his Special Representative,
Jean Arnault, the Secretary-General said that the long walks the Afghan
people made to the polling stations were a heart-warming demonstration that
democracy is firmly taking root in their country.
He also congratulated
the national security forces and the 120,000 Afghans who served as polling
staff. He noted allegations of irregularities and said, “Rest assured that
they will be fully clarified.”
The Secretary-General
concluded by congratulating the Afghan people for “their patience,
resilience and civic maturity.”
The impressive
participation in the Afghan
elections augurs well for the Afghan journey towards democracy, Assistant
Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Hédi Annabi told the Security
Council today.
In an open briefing,
Annabi said that the elections were in most ways a well-run operation, with
a high turnout and no major security incidents. The only serious problem was
the improper use of indelible ink by some polling officials, a problem which
he said was identified and resolved within the first hours of polling.
He noted that
presidential candidates were to submit their detailed complaints about the
elections by this evening, with a three-member panel to investigate them
fully. Annabi said that the process of counting ballots is expected to
continue for some two to three weeks.
The Security Council
then held consultations, followed by a meeting in which it adopted a
Presidential Statement welcoming the Afghan elections as historic and
congratulating the millions of voters.
The Council urged the
Government of Afghanistan to continue to confront the remaining challenges,
including security, the timely preparations of parliamentary elections next
April, reconstruction, disarmament and the fight against narcotics.
Asked for details
about the investigation into the election complaints, the Spokesman said
that the candidates had until 6:00 p.m. today, Afghan time, to submit their
complaints. That deadline has now passed, and the panel’s work will now
begin.
A UN helicopter
flying over Badakhshan, Afghanistan,
was forced to land this morning because of engine problems. The three crew
members and five passengers were forced to land near the village of Patukh,
near the Afghanistan-China border.
The eight people are
reported to be fine, and not injured, but they cannot be rescued tonight,
given the weather conditions and the rugged terrain. They have been provided
with warm clothes, food and shelter material, by an air drop, so that they
can be taken care of until they are picked up, likely on Wednesday.
ANNAN
TROUBLED AS MILITARY ACTION CONTINUES IN GAZA STRIP
The Secretary-General
is deeply troubled by the continuing military action and violence in the
northern Gaza
Strip, with the high toll of death and injuries among the civilian
population, according to a statement
issued today. He grieves for the many children who have been killed or
wounded in these operations.
The Secretary-General
is also very disturbed by the destruction of civilian property,
infrastructure and agricultural land in the northern Gaza Strip in such
operations and calls on the Government of Israel to do the utmost to avoid
any harm to Palestinian civilians.
The Secretary-General
once again reiterates his deep conviction that there exists no military
solution to the conflict, and calls again on both parties to cease all forms
of violence and to renew their search for a peaceful settlement of the
conflict. He also urges the leadership on both sides to pay far greater heed
to their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect
civilians in armed conflicts.
A child sitting in a
UN-flagged school in the Gaza
Strip was
hit in the stomach by gunfire from an Israeli position today, the UN
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)
reported.
The child, an
11-year-old girl, was immediately taken to the
hospital, where her condition is currently reported as stable.
The Relief and Works
Agency says this is the fourth such incident in less than two years. It has
repeatedly called on the Israeli authorities to stop firing at schools.
Asked about the
Israeli allegations that a rocket had been stowed away in a UN vehicle, the
Spokesman took note of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s media
comments that a stretcher had been mistakenly identified as a Qassam rocket.
He said that a UN team, which is in the region to investigate the
allegations, will report back to the Secretary-General once it has returned
to New York.
This
morning, the Secretary-General toured a peacekeeping training center in
Langfang, China. The compound was completed last year for the purpose of
training civilian police for UN peacekeeping missions.
He
told the 90 Chinese officers undergoing training there, who are preparing to
be sent to Haiti, “There is great need for your talent, your help and your
contribution, and I am sure you will do well in Haiti.”
The
Secretary-General then visited the Eco-Village at Liuminying, featuring
environmentally friendly farming, animal husbandry and biogas production. He
told the
villagers and environmental experts there that they were helping China to
achieve a vision of a “balanced, well-rounded society.”
From
there, he returned to Beijing, where he was joined by his wife, Nane, for a
visit to an AIDS voluntary counseling and confidential testing center. They
met privately first with an AIDS patient who was in counseling, and then
with seven other infected individuals. On exiting, the Secretary-General told
the press that he had met with “courageous people who are not only living
with the condition but are also determined to share their experience with
others.” He added that it would be helpful “if we could encourage people
we know to come and get tested.”
Nane
Annan added that “it is so important to reach out to all levels of society
to raise awareness about AIDS because that is the way we can stop it at the
early stage.”
In
a separate program in the morning, Nane Annan visited a UNICEF-supported
water, sanitation and hygiene project at Majuan Primary School, 40 miles
northeast of Beijing. She talked to the children about the hygiene messages
they are learning in school and taking home.
Later
in the day, she was joined by well-known Chinese actress Jiang Wenli at a
community-based HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment centre in Guan
County, 35 miles south of Beijing. They met a group of farmers living with
HIV/AIDS who are receiving free anti-retroviral treatment.
“By
reaching out and caring for others and breaking the silence that surrounds
the epidemic,” Nane Annan said to the center directors and supporters,
“you are helping people to cope with the disease and helping to prevent
its spread.”
After
six days of stand-off at the border, the Congolese government has agreed to
allow some 1,300 Congolese refugees to return from Burundi.
According to the
UN
High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), the border was opened early Monday afternoon, and a
first group of 200 refugees were taken into the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) under the protection of
the UN Mission in the
Congo to a transit centre near the city of Uvira. The rest are due to
return to the DRC today after verification by the UN Mission and Congolese
authorities.
The returning
refugees are part of some 20,000 who arrived in Burundi after they fled
fighting in the eastern DRC in June.
According
to a UNHCR spokesperson, the refugees have been repeatedly advised that the
situation in their home region of South Kivu remains volatile, and that
return at this stage could be difficult. Given their determination to return
home, UNHCR is putting in place an emergency program to assist them and
opening an office in Uvira.
The International
Atomic Energy Agency continues to be concerned about the widespread and
apparently systematic dismantlement that has taken place at Iraqi
nuclear sites that the Agency had previously monitored.
In a letter
to the Security Council, IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei says that
“imagery shows in many instances the dismantlement of entire buildings
that housed high precision equipment.”
He adds that the
disappearance of high-quality dual-use equipment may be significant in terms
of nuclear proliferation, and he asks any State that has information about
the location of such items to provide it to the IAEA.
Asked how the United
Nations would deal with the missing materials, the Spokesman said the issue
had been a concern for both the IAEA and the UN Monitoring, Verification and
Inspections Commission (UNMOVIC). He
noted that some missing material was reported to be found as far away as the
Netherlands.
He added that the
important thing was for Member States to provide information to the IAEA and
UNMOVIC so that the materials can be found.
A
new report released today by the UN Economic
Commission for Africa finds that African governance is improving but
significant challenges remain. The report, “Striving
for Good Governance in Africa,” is an overview of the state of
governance in 28 countries covering 72 percent of Africa’s population.
It
says that while African political governance is improving in some areas such
as tax evasion and corruption, there’s still a long way to go. It also
proposes a ten-point action plan for reversing Africa’s governance
deficits.
The Secretary-General
is saddened to
learn of the sudden passing of Major-General Lalit Mohan Tewari of India,
who served with distinction as the Force Commander of the UN
Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Earlier during his career, Tewari served as the Chief Military Observer of the Observer Group in Costa
Rica within the UN Observer Group in Central America (ONUCA) in
1990-1991.
Tewari’s
long career of honorable service is a credit to both his country and to the
United Nations. The Secretary-General offers his deepest condolences to the
Government of India, the Indian Armed Forces and General Tewari’s family
and friends in this most difficult time.
NEW CHIEF
NAMED FOR U.N. MISSION
IN MIDDLE EAST
The Secretary-General announced today the
appointment of Brigadier-General Clive Lilley of New Zealand, as Chief of Staff
of the UN Truce Supervision Organization, known as UNTSO.
Lilley succeeds
Major-General Carl Dodd of Ireland who gave up his post at the end of
September.
NEW WEB SITE LAUNCHED
AS PART OF CAMPAIGN TO END FISTULA: A
new web site was
launched today for the global Campaign to End Fistula. Fistula
is a childbirth injury that affects at least 2 million women in developing
countries; it is also preventable, and can be treated through surgery that costs
under $300. The Campaign was launched by the UN
Population Fund (UNFPA) in 2003, and its long-term goal is to make fistula
as rare in developing areas as it is in industrialized countries today.
TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF
CAIRO CONFERENCE TO BE MARKED: On Thursday, there
will be a commemorative meeting in the General Assembly Hall
to mark the 10th anniversary of the Cairo Conference
on Population and Development. Speakers will include ministers of planning and
other senior officials from around the world.
U.N. DAILY NEWS
PRODUCT AVAILABLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY FORMAT: The
Department of Public Information today launched its new version of the Daily
Highlights, which will now be called UN
Daily News. The revamped digest can be seen online in printer-friendly PDF format
on the UN News Centre. UN Daily News
is available
in
Chinese, French, Spanish and Russian. Work is being competed on the Arabic
version.
*
The guest at today’s briefing was Wolfgang Petritsch, President-designate of
the Nairobi Summit on a Mine Free World, which will take place this November
29-December 3.
Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General
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