HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
U.N. HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Friday, October 6, 2006
SUDANESE PRESIDENT RESPONDS POSITIVELY TO
U.N. SUPPORT
FOR AFRICAN UNION IN SUDAN
Secretary-General
Kofi Annan
has
received a letter from President Omer Hassan Ahmed Al-Bashir of Sudan,
giving a positive response to the
initiative of the United Nations and the African Union regarding United
Nations support to the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS).
This assistance
package is detailed in a joint
letter
addressed to President Bashir by the Secretary-General and the Chairperson of
the African Union Commission on 22 September 2006, and is aimed at enhancing
AMIS’s capacity to carry out its mandated tasks under the Darfur Peace
Agreement.
The
Secretary-General welcomes President Bashir’s acceptance of this initiative.
He very much hopes that the proposed support package can be implemented
expeditiously, in consultation with the African Union and with the full
cooperation of the Government of Sudan.
The
Secretary-General also welcomes the expressed readiness of the Government of
Sudan to pursue its dialogue with the United Nations in the interest of an
early and lasting resolution of the
Darfur crisis.
Asked to explain the meaning
of the letter from the President of Sudan to the Secretary-General, Dujarric
said that the letter was a positive nod by the Sudanese leader to the support
package, which the United Nations recently adopted to assist the African Union
peacekeeping mission in Darfur.
The package, the Spokesman
added, totaled $22 million and involved some 100 UN personnel as well as
equipment to support the AU force in Darfur. "It is a key development in our
work to support the African Union mission," Dujarric noted.
CONVOY
CARRYING U.N. RELIEF ITEMS IS ATTACKED IN DARFUR
The UN
Mission in Sudan says it has received reports that a convoy of eight
commercial trucks carrying UN relief items was attacked two days ago by four
armed men on two camels near Abu Humeira, in
North Darfur. One truck driver was killed.
The Mission has also received reports
of a total of 41 cases of gender-based violence in five camps in West Darfur.
Meanwhile, in South Darfur’s Seisabane camp for
internally displaced
people (IDPs), the number of IDPs has risen from 1,840 to 3,400 people –
and when interviewed, the IDPs expressed no desire to go back to their area of
origins.
SECURITY
COUNCIL BRIEFED ON GEORGIA,
EXTENDS MANDATE OF U.N. MISSION IN SUDAN
The
Security Council began the day with a
meeting for troop contributing countries to the
UN Observer Mission
in Georgia, which was
followed by consultations on the same subject. The Secretary-General’s
Special Representative in Georgia Jean Arnault introduced the latest
report.
Also on the consultations agenda today
was the letter from Japan to the Security Council regarding the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea and a draft statement – which the Council later
adopted – as well as other matters.
A meeting was scheduled following
consultations on Sudan in which Council members
adopted a resolution on the extension of the mandate of the
UN Mission in Sudan which expires Sunday.
CAMPAIGN
FOR PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS LAUNCHED IN D.R. CONGO
The
UN Mission in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (MONUC)
reports that the
official launching of the campaign for the provincial elections took place
this morning in Kinshasa in the presence of William Lacy Swing, the UN Special
Representative in that country, and other members of the international
community.
At that event, the President of the
Congolese High Authority on Media paid tribute to the international community
for its continued support of the democratic transition in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). And
Special Representative Swing, for his part, thanked the High Authority on
Media AM for its efforts to keep hate messages out of the media.
Swing appealed to all Congolese
parties to respect the Acte d’engagement they freely signed a month
earlier, and by which the parties agreed to refrain from resorting to insults,
violence or hate messages in the electoral campaign.
Asked if the
Secretary-General
had any comments on the crash of a European Union unmanned drone in the DRC,
which caused the death of one person, the Spokesman said that he extends its
deepest condolences to the family bereaved by this tragic accident.
Asked if the use of unmanned
drones meant that security in the DRC was less stable than reported by the
United Nations, Dujarric said that the drones were normal surveillance tools
in a very effective campaign by both European Union troops and MONUC to keep
the calm in Kinshasa.
He noted that other efforts in
this regard include the ongoing campaign for a weapon-free Kinshasa initiated
by MONUC. "The EU presence has been key in supporting the work of MONUC,"
Dujarric added, especially during the violence that occurred between the
security forces of President Joseph Kabila and Vice-President Jean-Pierre
Bemba.
PROGRESS
AND CALM REPORTED ALONG CAMEROON-NIGERIA BORDER
Available today is a
letter
from the
Secretary-General to the President of the
Security Council on progress in the
work of the
Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission on the implementation of the agreement
on transfer of authority in the Bakassi Peninsula.
In his letter, the Secretary-General
says that the UN observer team, which is tasked with oversight of the
demarcation exercise, has reported that the situation remains calm along the
border between the two countries, and that some 462 kilometers have been
demarcated so far.
The Secretary-General also notes that
the Commission will not be able to fully complete its mandate by the end of
2007, and he appeals for voluntary financial contributions to its work.
HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL DEFERS CONSIDERATION OF DRAFT
RESOLUTIONS
The
Human Rights Council
is adjourning its second session in Geneva today.
Earlier today the Council decided to
defer consideration of its draft resolutions until a resumed session, which
will take place on 27 November, right before the opening of the Council’s
third session.
That decision was taken to allow
enough time for due and balanced consideration of the high number of proposals
that were tabled – nearly 50 resolutions in all.
U.N. REFUGEE AGENCY RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT DRAMATIC
RISE IN
SOMALI REFUGEES IN KENYA
The
Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is
concerned that the
number of Somali refugees fleeing to Kenya has risen dramatically in the last
two days, pushing to more than 30,000 the total number of new arrivals this
year. If the arrival rate of more than 1,000 people a day continues, it will
severely strain UNHCR’s limited capacity in northern Kenya.
On eastern Chad, where UNHCR is
assisting refugees from Sudan, the agency
says the security
situation there remains extremely volatile as unidentified armed groups
continue to operate in the region and frequently target humanitarian workers.
Regarding the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNHCR
reports that,
over the last 10 days, it has been handing out aid packages to more than 6,300
internally displaced people who have returned to their homes in a remote area
in Katanga province. Those packages contain kitchen sets, mosquito nets,
blankets, plastic sheets, jerry cans, cloth for clothing, and tools to help
the returnees build basic shelters.
ANNAN
TO LAUNCH PEACE-BUILDING FUND NEXT WEEK
The
Secretary-General is
scheduled to launch the newly created Peacebuilding Fund next week. The Fund
is designed to support critical peace-building challenges in countries
emerging from conflict. Donors have already pledged some $122 million but the
target is $250 million.
Carolyn McAskie, the Assistant
Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support, will be the guest at the noon
briefing on Wednesday to speak about this event.
She will also brief the press at UN
Headquarters on the first country-specific meetings of the
Peacebuilding Commission
on Sierra Leone and Burundi which will take place on Thursday and Friday,
respectively.
TRANSITION
ISSUES TO BE DEALT WITH NEW SECRETARY-GENERAL
Asked if, as part
of the transition process at the United Nations, all Under-Secretaries-General
will resign from their current positions, the Spokesman said that the
transition would be dealt with by the new Secretary-General upon taking office
on 1 January.
He said that the
contracts some Under-Secretaries-General would normally expire in February
2007 and that it is standard UN procedure that the Secretary-General appoint
senior officials based on merit. Such appointments, Dujarric added, should
also take into consideration proper geographic distribution so as to properly
reflect the nature of the United Nations.
U.N.
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE FORMS ARE AN INTERNAL CONTROL MECHANISM
Asked why
financial disclosure forms submitted to the UN Ethics Office by senior UN
officials are not made public, as is customary in the United States, the
Spokesman said that the United Nations is an intergovernmental institution,
and not a national government.
He said that the
forms are an internal control mechanism filled by some 1,000 senior officials
under the understanding that the forms would kept confidential by the Ethics
Office in accordance with privacy requirement for international civil
servants.
He recalled that
senior UN officials, including the Special Advisor for the Ethics Office Tunku
Aziz and the Under Secretary-General for Management Christopher Burnham have
addressed this issue extensively over time. Dujarric added that the
Secretary-General
has duly filled and submitted the form to the Ethic
Office and has gone above and beyond what has been required of him by the
General Assembly.
THE
WEEK AHEAD AT THE UNITED NATIONS
Monday, October 9
In the Security Council, there will be a
private meeting concerning the recommendation for the appointment of the new
Secretary-General. Following that, a private debate on Afghanistan is scheduled.
The guests at the noon briefing will be
Jose Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs,
and Rachel Mayanja, Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women.
They will brief on the Secretary-General’s report on violence against women.
There will be a panel discussion held in
Conference Room 2 from 1:15 to 2:30 p.m. on “The role of specific sectors in
addressing, preventing and eliminating violence against women.”
The World Health Organization will today
begin a two-day meeting in Geneva on drug-resistant tuberculosis.
A five-day meeting of the 110 Parties to
the UN Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure on Certain Hazardous
Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (known as the Rotterdam
Convention) will start today in Geneva.
Tuesday, October
10
The guest at the
noon briefing will be Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian
Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. He will brief on disaster reduction.
The World Health
Organization will be observing World Mental Health Day today.
Wednesday,
October 11
Today is the
International Day for Disaster Reduction.
The
Secretary-General will launch the Peacebuilding Fund in the ECOSOC Chamber from
10:00 to 11:30 a.m. Carolyn McAskie, Assistant Secretary-General for
Peacebuilding Support, will come to noon briefing to brief on the event.
The next lecture in the
Secretary-General’s Lecture Series will be held from 1:30 to 2:45 p.m. in the
Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium. Stephen Schlesinger, Director of the New
School University’s World Policy Institute, will speak on the topic: “Act of
Creation: The Founding of the United Nations”.
At 11:00 the Permanent Mission of
Hungary will hold a press conference to announce the commemorative events in New
York marking the 50th anniversary of the freedom fight and revolution
in Hungary.
At 4:30 p.m., New
York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof will deliver the 10th Rafael Salas
Lecture on "The Greatest Challenge in the 21st Century: Gender Equality in
Development," in the ECOSOC Chamber.
Thursday,
October 12.
At 9:30, Ann
Veneman, Executive Director of UNICEF, will hold a press conference to launch
the Secretary-General’s study on violence against children. She will be joined
by Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, the Independent Expert who led the study, and others.
In connection with
the violence against children study, a roundtable discussion will be held
between youth participants from around the world and senior representatives of
governments, UN agencies, NGOs and the private sector. That event will take
place at Labouisse Hall in the UNICEF House, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Then at 1:00 p.m.,
there will be a launch of child-friendly materials on violence against children,
at the Danny Kaye Centre in the UNICEF House.
At 11:00, the UN
University (UNU) will hold a press conference on the two-day UNU roundtable
starting today at Headquarters, entitled, “Re-Imagining Women’s Security: A
Comparative Study of South Africa, Northern Ireland and Lebanon”.
The guest at the
noon briefing will be Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, Special Adviser on Africa, who
will brief on recent progress in implementing the New Partnership for Africa’s
Development (NEPAD) and in reducing conflict on the continent.
At 2:00, the
Permanent Mission of Slovenia will sponsor a press conference to launch “Human
Rights Learning – A Peoples Report”, with, among others, Justice Richard
Goldstone, former Chief Prosecutor for both the UN War Crimes Tribunals for the
former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
The Peace-building
Commission will hold a country-specific meeting on Sierra Leone today.
Friday, October
13
The Peace-building
Commission will hold a country-specific meeting on Burundi today.
Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General
United Nations, S-378
New York, NY 10017
Tel. 212-963-7162
Fax. 212-963-7055
