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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING


BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

U.N. HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Thursday, November 2, 2006  

ANNAN ARRIVES
IN URUGUAY FOR IBERO-AMERICAN SUMMIT

  • Secretary-General Kofi Annan has arrived in Montevideo,
    Uruguay, where he is to attend the Ibero-American Summit.
     

  • He is scheduled to speak as the summit opens tomorrow,
    and he is also expected to meet with Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez, among
    other leaders, on the margins of the summit.

 LEGAL IMMUNITY LIFTED FOR INDICTED U.N.
PROCUREMENT OFFICIAL

  • The following statement was released last night after the
    indictment of Sanjaya Bahel by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of
    New York:
     

  • Sanjaya Bahel, a UN staff member, has been the subject of
    an internal fact-finding investigation into allegations of misconduct related
    to his procurement functions, conducted by the Procurement Task Force, which
    reports to the Organization's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS). 
    He was formally charged with misconduct by the Organization on 31 August 2006
    and has been suspended without pay since that time.
     

  • The United Nations provided its final report to the
    competent authorities of the United States and India. The United States
    Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York commenced its own
    investigation into the activities of Mr. Bahel. The United Nations has been
    cooperating fully with the Office of the United States Attorney during the
    course of its investigation.
     

  • Today (Wednesday), the Secretary-General received a
    request from the U.S. authorities to waive Mr. Bahel's immunity from legal
    process. The Secretary-General confirms that he has waived Mr. Bahel's
    immunity. 
     

  • Asked about Bahel’s status, the
    Spokesman said that he understood from the US Attorney’s office that Bahel was
    arrested on Wednesday. He had returned to New York a few days ago.
     

  • Responding to comments that
    OIOS had cleared Bahel in an earlier investigation, the Spokesman emphasized
    that no one would dispute, as the US Attorney’s office said, that “the
    indictment is based on the exhaustive work done by the Special Procurement
    Task Force”, which reports to OIOS.
     

  • The United Nations, Dujarric
    said, had concluded its investigation into Bahel in August and since then
    worked closely with the U.S. Attorney, an effort that led to his arrest.
     

  • Although there had been
    problems in the past, he conceded, in following up on earlier OIOS audits, in
    this case, following an examination into procurement practices in UN
    peacekeeping operations into the field, eight UN staff had been placed on
    leave. Then, he said, the Task Force was formed. Following its investigation,
    Bahel was suspended without pay, and the information in his case was
    transferred to the U.S. Attorney.
     

  • The chronology of events was
    that leads are being followed up, and the UN’s procedures have been tightened
    in the past couple of years, he said. This, the Spokesman stressed, is one of
    the lessons learned from the Volcker investigation, which clearly highlighted
    the need for better follow-up mechanisms to audit reports. The result,
    Dujarric said, is that people who commit misconduct at the United Nations will
    have to face charges.
     

  • Asked about the status of other
    investigations, the Spokesman said that six cases have now been completed,
    including Bahel’s case. Of those, two staff members have been fully exonerated
    of any alleged irregularities and are now back at work. Another two are also
    back at work but have been asked to respond to allegations of mismanagement. A
    final decision on action to take on another staff member is now pending.
     

  • He noted that the
    Secretary-General and other senior officials have underscored the significant
    effort that has gone into reorganising the procurement service to manage it in
    the best possible way.

SECURITY
COUNCIL SETS ITS AGENDA FOR NOVEMBER

  • The Security Council
    held consultations this morning in which it approved its programme of work for
    November.
     

  • During its consultations, the Security Council also
    received an update from Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations
    Jean-Marie Guéhenno about the elections in the Democratic Republic of the
    Congo.
     

  • Yesterday afternoon, after consultations, the Security
    Council
    adopted
    a resolution endorsing the decisions by the African Union’s Peace
    and Security Council to renew the mandates of the President and Prime Minister
    of Cote d’Ivoire for a new and final transition period not exceeding 12
    months. The resolution also details the Prime Minister’s mandate in
    implementing the road map drawn up by the International Working Group for Cote
    d’Ivoire.

 D.R. CONGO: VOTE COUNTING CONTINUES WITH
NO MAJOR INCIDENTS

  • The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC)
    reports that polling stations were re-opened today in the town of Bumba in
    Equator Province and in the Ituri district town of Fataki, where voting was
    suspended last Sunday after a Congolese soldier had shot to death two
    electoral workers. The security situation all across the vast country remains
    calm, the Mission says.
     

  • Meanwhile, vote counting continues without any major
    incidents. The Mission says that reports from various parts of the country
    note that compared to the July general elections, there is a significant
    improvement in the organization of the ballot-counting operation.
     

  • The Mission adds that the Independent Electoral
    Commission had dismissed as a fraud a document posted on the Internet
    purporting to present the results of the run-off presidential election. The
    Commission warns against further efforts to disrupt the process and stresses
    that provisional results will be public on 12th November and the final results
    on 19 November.
     

  • Asked whether the European
    Force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had communicated any intention
    to stay in that country beyond 30 November, the Spokesman said that he was not
    aware of any such communication. He said that the UN Mission in the country
    had been working well with the European Force, which was a valuable addition
    to the UN forces.

 SOMALIA: ISLAMISTS’ GROWING INFLUENCE
THREATENS
TRANSITIONAL FEDERAL INSTITUTIONS

  • The UN Political Office for Somalia says that the Special
    Representative of the Secretary-General for that country, Francois Lonseny
    Fall, will be in New York next week to brief the Security Council.
     

  • Meanwhile, the Secretary-General’s latest
    report on
    Somalia is out on the racks today. In it, he says that the expansion of the
    influence of the Islamic Courts poses a serious threat to the transitional
    federal institutions and raises security concerns for the self-declared
    autonomous Somaliland and Puntland regions.
     

  • The Secretary-General’s report, which covers the period
    from 20 June until 23 October, also addresses the preparations by the African
    Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development for their proposed
    peace support operation in Somalia and describes in detail the UN’s activities
    in the areas of humanitarian assistance, rule of law, public health and water
    and environmental sanitation.

 GRAVE ABUSES OF CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
CONTINUE IN BURUNDI

  • Available today is the Secretary-General’s
    report on
    children and armed conflict in Burundi. In it, the Secretary-General says that
    despite the substantial progress achieved in addressing the grave abuses of
    children’s rights, violations are still occurring with considerable level of
    impunity.
     

  • The report explicitly identifies the parties to the
    conflict responsible for serious violations, including the Hutu rebellion and
    the Government’s intelligence and police apparatus. 
     

  • The report also contains a series of recommendations with
    a view to securing strengthened action for the protection of war-affected
    children in Burundi and preventing any action which could affect their rights
    after the signing of the September Agreement between the Government and the
    last active rebel group.

 LEBANON: U.N. SPEARHEADS OIL SPILL
CLEAN-UP OPERATION

  • Regarding the
    Lebanon oil spill
    , currently, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP),
    together with the International Maritime Organization, continues to coordinate
    the international response
     

  • Clean-up operations of beaches and underwater areas are
    ongoing, with the shoreline being the next target area. The majority of
    floating oil has now been recovered.
     

  • Recommendations for the long-term treatment of the oily
    waste will be included in UNEP's broader environmental impact assessment
    report, which is due out in a few weeks.
     

  • As winter approaches, a continuing need exists for
    personal protective equipment and shoreline clean-up equipment.

 SELECTION
PROCESS FOR FOOD AGENCY CHIEF CLARIFIED

  • Regarding
    questions posed yesterday on the appointment of the new head of the World Food
    Programme (WFP), the Spokesman later clarified that the Secretary-General and
    the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) would
    interview the candidates and jointly make a decision on the individual they
    would wish to appoint to the post. 
     

  • They would then
    jointly inform the WFP Executive Board. The Board would conduct its own
    consultations and then revert back to the Secretary-General and the head of
    FAO before an announcement was made.

INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM ENDS FIRST-EVER
MEETING

  • The Internet
    Governance Forum
    concluded its inaugural session this morning in Athens.
     

  • Attended by representatives from more than 90 countries,
    information technology firms, NGOs and the Internet community, the Forum
    allowed interested parties that do not normally sit around the same table to
    discuss topics ranging from cyber-crime and freedom of expression to the
    digital exclusion of the developing world.

ANNAN CONCERNED
BY VIOLENCE IN GAZA

  • Asked about the
    Secretary-General’s reaction to additional deaths reported in Gaza, the
    Spokesman said that the Secretary-General continues to be concerned at the
    level of violence, and has called for the violence to cease and for all sides
    to protect civilians and respect international humanitarian and human rights
    law.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

CAPITAL MASTER PLAN BRIEFING
TO COME
: Asked about a briefing on the
Capital Master Plan, the Spokesman said that Under-Secretary-General Christopher
Burnham was still at work at the United Nations, and either he or someone from
his office may brief later. He noted that among the aims of the Plan is to
provide better working facilities for the media.

ONLY ONE SENIOR U.N. OFFICIAL
RECEIVING HOUSING SUBSIDY
: Asked about
information from the United States that eight UN officials had been receiving
housing subsidies, the Spokesman clarified that, although the US Mission had
received such information from the United Nations earlier this year, the United
Nations, upon further checking, had determined that only one senior UN official
at headquarters had received a housing subsidy.

WATER SCARCITY MUST BE ADDRESSED IN AFGHANISTAN:
Addressing drought and water scarcity should be a national priority for
Afghanistan, according to a two-day
workshop that concluded in Kabul yesterday.  The discussion could not have been
more timely, with over 2 million people currently facing the consequences of
this year’s drought, a recurrent phenomenon in Afghanistan.

NEW CHILDREN’S HEALTH CAMPAIGN UNDERWAY IN GHANA:
UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the World Bank are all
supporting a new
health campaign for children in Ghana. During the week-long campaign, millions
of children will be immunized against measles and polio and be given Vitamin A
supplements. In addition, children in northern Ghana will be de-wormed, and all
children under two will be given insecticide-treated bed nets free of charge.

MORE EFFORT NEEDED TO REVERSE SPREAD OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS:
The Secretary-General has sent a
message to the
Seminar on Strengthening Global Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, being held
today in Bali, Indonesia. In that message, he says that the recent nuclear test
by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as well as the continuing concerns
over Iran’s nuclear programme, have underscored the urgent need for the
international community to re-energize its efforts to contain and reverse the
spread of nuclear weapons.

U.N. AGENCY COORDINATES REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH STUDY:
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the first study of global
reproductive health will be

published
later this week. Coordinated by the WHO, the evaluation shows a
picture of declining financial support, increased political interference and an
overall reluctance to tackle threats to sexual and reproductive health.

  Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General
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