HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY MARIE OKABE
DEPUTY SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
ANNAN
OUTLINES STRATEGY TO END LEBANON CRISIS INVOLVING
IMMEDIATE CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES
Secretary-General Kofi Annan
this morning
told the
participants at the International Conference on Lebanon, taking place in Rome,
that we need a cessation of hostilities because we face a grave humanitarian
crisis. He called on Hezbollah to stop its deliberate targeting of Israeli
population centres and called on Israel to end its bombardments, blockades and
ground operations.
The Secretary-General added that a key
stipulation for such a halt in fighting would be that the parties must not
take advantage of such a pause to conduct offensive operations, redeploy or
resupply. An international force has a vital role to play in this scenario.
He also emphasized the need for a
political framework so that a cessation of hostilities can be transformed into
a longer-term process of enduring peace, and for nations to commit to a strong
economic package for Lebanon.
Following the conclusion of the
meeting, the Secretary-General and other participants
spoke to the press, in
which he noted that the participants at the conference endorsed the need for
urgent action to stop the hostilities, so that we can move into the
longer-term mold and be able to deploy troops.
The Secretary-General intends to
follow up on the question of an international force in Lebanon, by having the
Department of Peacekeeping Operations convene in New York next week a meeting
of potential troop contributors for such a force, while we await the Security
Council’s decision on this matter.
Asked about involvement by Syria and
Iran, the Spokeswoman said that the Secretary-General, in an interview with
CNN last week, spoke about the need to bring in those two countries as part of
a longer-term solution. He has also reached out far
and wide in the region, she said, including his discussions with the nations
at the Rome meeting.
THREE, POSSIBLY FOUR, U.N. MILITARY OBSERVERS KILLED
AFTER DIRECT ISRAELI HIT ON U.N. POSITION
Assistant Secretary-General for
Peacekeeping Operations Jane Holl Lute this morning briefed the Security
Council in its closed consultations about the killing of at least three
unarmed UN military observers, and possibly a fourth, in a direct hit on their
position in southern Lebanon yesterday.
Holl Lute said that the four observers
were in a long-established and clearly-marked post near the town of Khiam,
which came under recurrent incidents of close firing from Israel yesterday
afternoon. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reports that, in total, 21
strikes were made within 300 meters of the patrol base.
In a
statement issued
from Rome yesterday, the Secretary-General said that this coordinated
artillery and aerial attack occurred despite personal assurances given to him
by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire.
Furthermore, General Alain Pellegrini, the UN Force Commander in south
Lebanon, had been in repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout the day
on Tuesday, stressing the need to protect that particular UN position from
attack. The Secretary-General called on the Government of Israel to conduct a
full investigation into this very disturbing incident and demanded that any
further attack on UN positions and personnel must stop.
Holl Lute, in her briefing to the
Council, welcomed Israel’s call for an investigation, which she said the
United Nations believes should be done jointly with the United Nations.
She also noted that in certain
circumstances, UNIFIL may need to prepare for a consolidation of its presence
to minimize further risk to its personnel.
Security Council members received a
draft Presidential Statement about this incident.
In response to questions about the
Secretary-General’s response to the strikes, the Spokeswoman noted that the
Secretary-General, in his press briefing today, said that he had spoken to the
Prime Minister of Israel this morning. The Secretary-General said, “He
definitely believes it is a mistake. He has undertaken to investigate, and I
have suggested we do a joint investigation. And he has expressed his deep
sorrow at what happened, and we accept that.”
The Secretary-General said that we
await the end of the investigations, and added that he was grateful to the
Prime Minister for what he has said.
Asked whether the Secretary-General
was pulling back from his statement of yesterday, and the idea that the attack
was “apparently deliberately targeted,” Okabe said he was not, and added that
we will wait for the results of the investigations.
She added, in reference to the phrase
“apparently deliberate”, that the base came under close attack despite calls
and communications made to the Israeli side. She added that the kind of attack
that took place implied that someone would have to have targeted the site.
She noted that UNIFIL had been able to
dig up the bodies of three of the military observers, and the fourth one was
still being sought. The building itself is now rubble.
Asked about the number of strikes, she
said there were 21 strikes, including artillery shells and aerial bombs, which
included 12 artillery rounds.
Asked what Israel’s motive would be to
deliberately target the UN position, the Spokeswoman declined to speculate on
Israel’s motivation, but she drew attention to the sequence of events that
took place at the Khiam post.
Asked about UNIFIL’s status, the
Spokeswoman said that was being discussed in the Security Council. The
Secretary-General had recommended a one-month extension of the force. She
added that there may be a need to prepare for the consolidation of the unarmed
military observers. The details of that consolidation are not yet decided.
Asked why the observers had not been
consolidated before, she said it was because the United Nations was given
guarantees that they would not be attacked.
She noted, in response to questions
about UNIFIL, that the mission has some 2,000 armed personnel and 50 unarmed
military observers. The patrol base at Khiam was one of four active bases in
existence for almost thirty years, and four observers had been posted there,
near the 70-mile-long Blue Line.
The observers were lent out from the
UN Truce Supervision Organization but were under UNIFIL command.
Meanwhile, the UNIFIL troops are
located in about 40 different areas. The troops serve a mandate under Security
Council Resolution 425.
The mandate of the force, she added,
would be considered by the Council, and the current mandate expires at the end
of July.
The observers at Khiam, she said in
response to a question on their activities, were military observers from four
different nations, who were part of the UN’s eyes and ears for monitoring any
violations that might take place.
Asked about contacts with Israel
during the shelling, the Spokeswoman said that Force Commander Gen. Alain
Pellegrini had made repeated contact with the Israeli authorities, while Holl
Lute and Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown had made repeated calls
to Israel’s UN Mission.
Asked whether the Secretary-General
believes that the Council should have updated UNIFIL’s mandate, the
Spokeswoman said that he is looking ahead, and had asked the Council to extend
the current mandate while he sees what he can do to contribute to an
international force that would allow the Lebanese Government to exert its
authority through to its borders.
In a further background briefing, a
senior UN official later asserted that the post at Khiam was well-marked and
well-known, and had been in place for nearly 30 years. The official showed a
photograph of the post, painted in white with clear “UN” markings on its
walls.
The official noted that Gen.
Pellegrini had communicated the precise coordinates of that post to the IDF in
more than one communication that day.
In response to a question about
Hezbollah activity in the area, the official said that no Hezbollah activity
had been reported there, with the nearest known activity by that group taking
place at least five kilometres away.
U.N. HUMANITARIAN CONVOY CARRIES RELIEF SUPPLIES TO SOUTH
LEBANON
A UN convoy of ten trucks today
carried food, medicines, sanitation and hygiene supplies, to the port city
of Tyre in southern Lebanon. The convoy has arrived in Tyre and begun to
distribute aid, following a five-and-a-half hour trip from Beirut.
This is the first UN convoy to the
south in what is hoped to become a regular dispatching of humanitarian
supplies along safe humanitarian corridors inside Lebanon to the people most
affected by the ongoing military hostilities.
The convoy includes 90 metric tonnes
of wheat flour procured locally, as well as other essential items.
Meanwhile, Under-Secretary-General for
Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland is in Israel today as part of his mission to
the Middle East. Today he visited the city of Haifa, where he witnessed
firsthand the effects of shelling by Hezbollah.
He also met the mayor of Haifa, as
well as Israel’s Defense Minister and Foreign Minister, and thanked them for
Israel’s support for humanitarian corridors.
SECURITY
COUNCIL CONSIDERS COTE D’IVOIRE AND AFGHANISTAN
Following its briefing on Lebanon, the
Security Council went into consultations on Cote
d’Ivoire – to consider the Secretary-General’s latest
report on
the UN Mission in that country – and other matters.
Briefing the Council are the
Secretary-General’s Principal Deputy Special Representative for Cote d’Ivoire,
Abou Moussa, and the High Representative for the elections in Côte d'Ivoire,
Gérard Stoudmann.
Then, at 3 p.m.,
the Council has scheduled a closed meeting on Afghanistan. The
Secretary-General’s Special Representative for that country, Tom Koenigs, will
brief.
SOMALIA:
TRANSITIONAL GOVERNMENT & ISLAMIC COURTS COMMIT TO DIALOGUE
The Special
Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall,
yesterday completed a mission to that country, in the course of which he
obtained from the Transitional Federal Government and the Supreme Council of
Islamic Courts the commitment that they will reconsider resuming the dialogue
begun in Khartoum in June.
In Baidoa, Fall
held a meeting with the Somali President and other officials and emphasized
the need to maintain unity among the Transitional Federal Institutions. In
Mogadishu, Fall met with leaders of the Executive Council of the Islamic
Courts. He also drove through Mogadishu to assess the state of the Somali
capital.
Concluding his mission, Fall
announced that a UN team would soon visit Mogadishu to start humanitarian
assistance for those in need.
HUMAN
RIGHTS ABUSES RISE IN D.R. CONGO
The UN Mission in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (MONUC)
has issued its latest report on the human rights situation in that country, in
which it notes an increase in the number of human rights abuses since the
start of the electoral campaign. The Congolese army, the Mission says, is
responsible for more than half of the reported 369 cases of abuses. The
Mission also notes, with alarm, that not a single presidential candidate to
date has addressed human rights issues on the campaign trail.
Meanwhile, the UN Development
Programme today issued a press release in which it says that the delivery to
the polling stations of the 30 million ballots and other supplies required for
Sunday’s elections will be completed this Friday. And that press release is
available upstairs.
SUDAN: INCREASED TRIBAL MILITIA FIGHTING IN SOUTH DARFUR
And the Secretary-General’s Special
Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, spoke
with the press earlier today in Khartoum.
He said that while there has been
little fighting in South Darfur between those who did and did not sign the
Darfur Peace Agreement, there has been an increase in tribal militia fighting
there.
Pronk said these clashes have gotten
more violent than in the past due to the increasing availability of weapons.
Pronk will travel to Juba, in Southern
Sudan, this coming Sunday to attend the commemoration of the death of John
Garang.
Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General
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New York, NY 10017
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