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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING


BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

U.N. HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Thursday, October 12, 2006  


SECURITY COUNCIL DISCUSSING DRAFT RESOLUTIONS ON GEORGIA,
NORTH KOREA


PEACEBUILDING COMMISSION MEETING ON SIERRA LEONE

  • The
    Peacebuilding Commission
    is meeting today on Sierra Leone at UN Headquarters.
     

  • Today’s meeting, and the one scheduled
    for Friday on Burundi, are expected to kick-start the process by establishing
    them as eligible under the Peacebuilding Fund, which
    Carolyn
    McAskie
    , the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support,
    briefed the press on yesterday at UN Headquarters.


MORE THAN $200 MILLION PLEDGED SO FAR FOR EMERGENCY FUND

  • The Advisory Group of the
    UN Central Emergency
    Response Fund
    met in Geneva today to take stock of the Fund’s work and
    make recommendations for 2007.
     

  • Thus far, 52 Member States, a Japanese
    prefecture and a private organization have pledged more than $273 million to
    the Fund’s grant facility since its inauguration last March. Of those pledges,
    nearly $267 million is “in the bank.”
     

  • Since its inception, the Fund has
    given $174 million to over 250 projects in 26 countries experiencing
    humanitarian crises.
     

  • Among its achievements over the past
    seven months, the Fund allowed the World
    Food Programme
    to get food to the needy in

    Timor-Leste
    following last April’s violence. It also helped to make the
    use of helicopters possible in

    Darfur
    , so that humanitarians could gain access to isolated
    internally displaced
    persons
    .
     

  • Speaking at a press conference today
    in Geneva, Jan Egeland,
    the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said that the Fund was
    “living proof that the United Nations can reform, is reforming and is getting
    better.”


OCHA: CLOSURES CONTINUE IN OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

  • In a

    report
    available today, the UN Office
    for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
    (OCHA) says that no
    significant improvement in

    Palestinian
    movement has been observed in recent months.
     

  • Closures continue to carve up the West
    Bank, leading to the isolation of communities, in particular the cities of
    Nablus and Jerusalem as well as the Jordan Valley, OCHA reports.
     

  • It says that as of 20 September, the
    West Bank closure system comprised 528 checkpoints and physical obstacles,
    representing an increase of almost 2% since June.
     

  • The closure system is a primary cause
    of the humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the report
    adds. It notes that the Israeli Government says that the purpose of these
    obstacles is to protect Israeli citizens from Palestinian militant attacks.


ATMOSPHERE OF FEAR GROWING IN DARFUR I.D.P. CAMPS

  • The
    UN Office for the Coordination of
    Humanitarian Affairs
    has released today its “Sudan
    Humanitarian Overview
    ” for the month of September, and its findings
    include that in general, the atmosphere of fear and insecurity in the camps
    for internally displaced people is growing.
     

  • The
    UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS)
    says
    it has received reports that two cars belonging to an NGO were shot at by
    armed men on camels in Goussa Shark, near the town of Nyala in

    South Darfur
    , on Wednesday. UNMIS also received reports that sporadic
    shooting was heard in El Fasher, North Darfur, following an altercation
    between two soldiers.


DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL TO SPEAK
ON USE OF FORCE

  • The
    Deputy Secretary-General, Mark
    Malloch Brown, is in Washington today where he has been invited to speak at
    the Brookings Institution.
     

  • He will be addressing an international
    conference on “The Use of Force and Legitimacy in the Evolving International
    System.”


OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

U.N. ENVOY FOR HORN OF AFRICA TO
STUDY FOOD SITUATION IN ERITREA:
The
Secretary-General’s Special Humanitarian Envoy for the Horn of Africa,
Kjell Magne
Bondevik
, arrives tomorrow in Asmara, Eritrea, for an official mission that
will last until 18 October. The purpose of Bondevik’s visit is to look at the
food security situation in Eritrea in the wake of the rainy season.

REMAINS EXHUMED IN CYPRUS:
The Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus met formally this morning in Nicosia
to discuss the progress made to date on the exhumation, identification and
return of missing persons’ remains. Since the end of August, some fifty remains
of missing individuals have been exhumed and approximately twenty-four have
undergone anthropological analysis at the Committee’s laboratory in the UN
Protected Area in Nicosia.

ANNAN TO ATTEND GENERAL ASSEMBLY
EVENT FOR NEW SECRETARY-GENERAL:
Asked whether the
Secretary-General will be present
at the Friday event in the General Assembly
on the appointment of a new Secretary-General, the Spokesman said that he would
be there.


*** The guest at noon today was Legwaila Joseph
Legwaila, Special Adviser on Africa, who discussed the New Partnership for
Africa's Development.

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