HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY MARIE OKABE
DEPUTY SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Monday, July 24, 2006
ANNAN
TO TRAVEL TO ROME TO ATTEND LEBANON MEETING
Secretary-General Kofi Annan,
in comments to reporters
today, said that he would leave for Rome this afternoon, to attend the
international meeting on Lebanon that would take place there starting on
Wednesday.
He said that he hoped that a package
would emerge from the discussions in Rome that would allow us to take concrete
measures to resolve the Lebanon crisis. Among the steps that would be
discussed, he added, were a cessation of hostilities, ideas about an
international force and the release of the abducted soldiers.
The Secretary-General added, in
response to a question, that what is important is to arrive at a set of
measures that can be implemented simultaneously, rather than sequentially.
Asked about the status of the team to
the Middle East, headed by Vijay Nambiar, the Spokeswoman said that the future
of the team has not been decided. She noted that one member of the team, Terje
Roed-Larsen, would travel to Rome in his capacity as the Special Envoy for the
Implementation of Resolution 1559.
Asked whether Syria and Iran would be
represented at the Rome meeting, the Spokeswoman said that would be up to the
organizers of the meeting. She noted that the nations participating in the
Contact Group for Lebanon would be there.
Asked whether the Secretary-General
risked undermining the UN’s credibility by highlighting the issue of the
Shebaa Farms, the Spokeswoman said that the Secretary-General had answered
that question today, in the context of finding
long-term
solutions to the main issues in the region.
UNITED
NATIONS LAUNCHES HUMANITARIAN APPEAL FOR LEBANON
Jan Egeland, the UN's Emergency
Relief Coordinator, was in Lebanon today for the
launch of the UN humanitarian
flash appeal for Lebanon, and he will travel to Israel later today.
Speaking to the press in Cyprus over
the weekend, Egeland said it is wrong, according to international law, to have
disproportionate attack against civilian populations, as is now happening in
Lebanon. But it is also wrong and condemnable, he added, to use civilian areas
to
Egeland has been on mission in Lebanon
over the weekend. On his first day in Beirut, he visited the area of Haret
Hreik in the southern Beirut suburbs, where heavy damage has been incurred
during the past 12 days of shelling by the IDF, as well as a school in Beirut
where hundreds of displaced people from south Lebanon and southern suburbs of
Beirut have taken refuge. He also visited a park that has been transformed
into a makeshift shelter for the displaced and the Beirut hospital, where he
met with Lebanon’s Minister of Health.
On Sunday, Egeland also met with
Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Fuad Saniora, the country’s Higher Relief Council,
and the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri.
Egeland said the United Nations
is calling for a cessation of hostilities. “If it continues like this there
will be more and more civilian casualties,” he said. He also said the United
Nations was setting up major relief activities but needed
access to the different areas.
Also on Sunday, Egeland met with local
and international NGOs and civil society organizations, who shared their
experiences of what they had seen during the past 12 days of conflict. He
concluded the day with meetings with the ambassadors of the five permanent
Security Council members and other major donor states.
HEAVY
EXCHANGES OF FIRE CONTINUE ALONG BLUE LINE
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
reports that heavy exchanges of fire continued along the length of the Blue
Line in the last 24 hours, with somewhat reduced intensity in the eastern
sector.
It says that Hezbollah fired rockets
from various locations, and the Israeli Defense Force continued its shelling
and aerial bombardment. The IDF also maintained its presence on the ground
inside Lebanese territory, in the area of Marun Al Ras in the central sector,
and somewhat advanced north of the village in the direction of Bint Jubayl.
One unarmed UN military observer, a
member of the Observer Group-Lebanon, was seriously wounded by small arms fire
in the patrol base in the Marun Al Ras area yesterday afternoon. According to
preliminary reports, the fire originated from the Hezbollah side during an
exchange with the IDF. He was evacuated by the UN to Israel, and his condition
is now reported as stable.
LEBANON:
U.N. MISSION’S WORK HAMPERED BY CURRENT CRISIS
The Secretary-General’s latest
report on
the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is available today.
In it, he says that the hostilities
between Hezbollah and Israel since 12 July have radically changed the context
in which UNIFIL is operating. In the current environment, he says,
circumstances conducive to UN peacekeeping do not exist.
He noted that a situation now exists
where the Force is restricted from carrying out even its basic activities,
such as re-supplying its positions and conducting search and rescue
operations.
At the same time, the Government of
Lebanon has asked for the Security Council to extend UNIFIL for a further
six-month period after its mandate expires at the end of July. The
Secretary-General, however, recommends that the Council extend the mandate for
one month, to provide the time for the Council to consider all possible
options for future arrangements in South Lebanon.
TWO
MILLION CHILDREN DIED IN WARS OVER PAST 10 YEARS
The Security Council is holding an
open debate on
children and
armed conflict. Among those briefing this morning were: the
Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict,
Radhika Coomaraswamy; Associate Administrator of the UN Development Programme
Ad Melkert; and UNICEF Executive Director Ann
Veneman.
The
meeting is taking place one year after the signing of a landmark Security
Council resolution to protect children in conflict. That resolution created a
monitoring and reporting mechanism for six types of violations of children’s
rights. In her comments to the Council this morning, Coomaaraswamy said that
now that the mechanism was in place, we must ensure that concrete measures are
taken against violators.
Meanwhile, Melkert said we need to put
in place strong policies that make young people active agents for peace. For
example, youth could be trained as election observers or peace monitors, he
said. For her part, Veneman drew attention to the fact that, over the past 10
years, some 2 million children have died as a result of war.
ANNAN RE-APPOINTS
SERGE BRAMMERTZ
AS HEAD OF HARIRI INVESTIGATION
The Secretary-General, after
consultation with the State Parties to the Rome Statute and approval by the
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has re-appointed until
December 31, 2006 Serge Brammertz as the Commissioner of
the International Independent
Investigation Commission looking into the assassination of former
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
He is grateful that the International
Criminal Court has agreed to extend Brammertz’s leave of absence until that
date.
The Secretary-General looks forward to
further progress in the Commission’s investigation under Brammertz’s continued
leadership.
HIGH-LEVEL
KOSOVO STATUS TALKS HELD IN VIENNA
On
Kosovo, high-level
status talks between Pristina and Belgrade
took place in Vienna today – under the auspices of UN Special Envoy Martti
Ahtisaari. The two sides were represented by both their Presidents and Prime
Ministers.
Although eight rounds of technical
talks have already been held, this was the first time that delegations at this
level presented to each other their visions of the political future of Kosovo
in the presence of the international community. The meeting was also the first
formal one between top Serbian and Kosovar leaders since 1999.
A press conference by Ahtisaari and
his deputy, Albert Rohan, was held in Vienna.
SUDAN:
HUMANITARIAN ACCESS SUFFERS AS SECURITY REMAINS VOLATILE
The
UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS)
says that the security situation in
Darfur remains volatile, so much so that the UN’s access to beneficiaries
is less than 80%, a figure well below the rates achieved in 2004.
UNMIS is concerned that the requisite
conditions for humanitarian operations inside camps for internally displaced
people are being affected.
Meanwhile, the Secretary-General’s
Special Representative for Sudan,
Jan Pronk, is currently
in South Darfur as part of a regular visit to the three Darfur states.
He is checking on UN activities in the
region and holding meetings with local authorities on the security situation
and on the implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement.
Asked whether there were any new
initiatives to convince the Sudanese Government to agree to a UN force, the
Spokeswoman noted that, while he was in Brussels last week, the
Secretary-General had met with the Sudanese delegation there, among others, to
discuss the issue. The transition from an African Union force to a UN force,
she said, is very much at the top of the UN’s agenda.
ANNAN
AND PHARMACEUTICAL HEADS WORK ON INCREASING
GLOBAL ACCESS TO H.I.V. PREVENTION, TREATMENT, CARE
The Secretary-General is meeting this
afternoon with the heads of nine of the world's leading generic and research
based pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies working on HIV/AIDS.
It is the first time that
research-based, generic and diagnostic pharmaceutical companies working on
HIV/AIDS will be coming together in a single meeting. It is also the first
time in five years that the Secretary-General will be meeting with
pharmaceutical companies to find ways of scaling up HIV prevention, treatment,
care and support to all those who need it by 2010, in line with international
commitments.
Among the goals of the meeting are to
review the industry’s progress in recent years in contributing to the global
response to AIDS and to discuss how the UN and companies can do more together
to expand access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support services
in low- and middle-income countries.
U.N.
“VIGILANT BUT NOT OVERLY ANXIOUS”
ABOUT UPCOMING ELECTIONS IN D.R. CONGO
In the UN’s continued effort to ensure
a peaceful run of the 30 July elections in the
Democratic Republic of the
Congo, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in that country,
William Lacy Swing, left the capital Kinshasa this morning for the troubled
eastern province of Ituri.
Swing, who is traveling to Ituri for
the 46th time in connection with the UN’s preparations for the elections, has
repeatedly noted Ituri’s key role as a barometer for the stability of the
country and its readiness to hold the elections.
Speaking to the press this weekend,
Swing said that the United Nations was vigilant but
not overly anxious about the security situation, and he welcomed the fact that
militias in the east had not disrupted the election process.
Asked about reports that UN vehicles
had been stoned in a southern DRC mining town, Okabe noted that there have
been incidents of violence, yet she reiterated Swing’s point about the need to
be vigilant without being over-anxious.
Asked what the United Nations is doing
concerning such incidents, the Spokeswoman said that the UN Mission is working
with all parties on the ground to ensure the smoothest possible election.
OTHER
ANNOUNCEMENTS
U.N LEGAL OFFICE PUBLISHES BOOK ON
MIGRATION TREATIES: Available today is a new
publication by the UN Office of Legal Affairs on migration-related treaties.
Titled “Focus 2006: Crossing Borders”, this book is being released ahead of the
General Assembly summit to promote signature and ratification at this year’s
Treaty Event, which will take place during the General Debate from 13 to 15
September at Headquarters and will coincide with the High-Level Dialogue on
International Migration and Development planned for 14 and 15 September. The
book is available online at: untreaty.un.org.
U.S. GOVERNMENT HANDLES ITS OWN
APPOINTMENTS: Asked whether U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton should be re-confirmed, the
Spokeswoman declined comment, noting that the issue would be addressed by the US
Government.
*** Deputy
Emergency Relief Coordinator Margareta Wahlstrom was the guest at the noon
briefing. She briefed on the UN humanitarian flash appeal for Lebanon, which was
launched today.
