HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY MARIE OKABE
DEPUTY
SPOKESPERSON FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
U.N. HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Tuesday,
February 13, 2007
BAN KI-MOON
STRONGLY WELCOMES ACCORD
ON DENUCLEARIZATION OF KOREAN PENINSULA
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon strongly
welcomes the accord
reached at the six-party talks in Beijing on initial actions to implement the
2005 Joint Statement on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The
Secretary-General is encouraged that this constructive effort by the
international community can eventually result in strengthening the global
non-proliferation regime, as well as in contributing to durable peace, security
and prosperity in the region. This agreement represents the first practical
stage towards a non-nuclear Peninsula.
The
Secretary-General also welcomes the commitment by all participants to move
expeditiously towards the next stage of this process. In this regard, the
establishment in the immediate future of five working groups should allow the
participants to address the wide ranges of issues relating to the region in a
comprehensive way.
The
Secretary-General urges the participants to make every effort to sustain the
current positive momentum and ensure that this accord is implemented as agreed.
BAN KI-MOON AFFIRMS READINESS TO SUPPORT
GUINEA TO END CRISIS
The Secretary-General
reiterates his
grave concern over the worsening political and security situation in Guinea
and deplores the continued loss of lives and the wanton destruction of
property.
The Secretary-General regrets the failure to implement
the agreement reached on 27 January, which has triggered the resumption of the
crisis and threatens to plunge the country into generalized instability. He
calls on the Government and the labor leaders to resume dialogue and
implement, in good faith, the agreement reached last month.
The Secretary-General, once again, strongly urges the
Government and the security forces to exercise maximum restraint and to
scrupulously uphold the rule of law and respect for human rights. The
Secretary-General also urges the labor leaders to refrain from inciting
violence and the destruction of property.
The Secretary-General reaffirms the readiness of the
United Nations to work closely with all segments of the society, and with
Guinea’s other partners, to help end the current crisis and restore
sustainable stability and development.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has condemned the looting
of three food warehouses in Guinea over the weekend. Nearly 450 tons of food,
which had been set aside for school children and the poorest communities, were
stolen. Other items, such as cooking pots, plates and spoons, were also
looted. In addition, WFP’s office in the town of Kankan was attacked by a
stone-throwing mob, forcing the evacuation of international staff into Mali.
Asked what the
United Nations is doing in Guinea, the Spokeswoman said that the
Secretary-General had reaffirmed the United Nations’ readiness to work closely
with all Guinea’s partners to end the crisis. Meanwhile, she said, WFP and
others continue their humanitarian work in the country.
Asked about the
Secretary-General’s concern that the situation in Guinea could destabilize other
countries, the Spokeswoman said that the United Nations was ready to work with
not just the parties in Guinea but the partners in the region to resolve the
problem.
Asked about the
status of the United Nations in Guinea, Okabe said that WFP, among others, was
continuing with its work. She described the situation in the country as grave.
She noted that, in
matters concerning UN staff security, no comment would be made until any needed
evacuations had been carried out.
SECRETARY-GENERAL CONDEMNS TERRORIST ATTACK IN LEBANON
The Secretary-General
condemns the
callous terrorist attack on innocent civilians that took place this morning in
Lebanon. He extends his sincere condolences to the families of the victims
and to the Government and people of Lebanon.
This crime comes the day before the second anniversary of
the attack that took the life of former Premier Rafik Hariri and twenty-two
others, which itself preceded a string of assassinations and terrorist actions
in Lebanon.
The United Nations strongly rejects attempts to secure
political objectives through violence and the killing of innocent civilians.
The Secretary-General stresses that there must be an end to impunity and
appeals to all Lebanese to maintain national unity in the face of such
attempts to undermine the country's stability.
Geir Pedersen, the Secretary-General’s Special
Coordinator for Lebanon, today also condemned the attacks in that country,
reiterating the Secretary-General’s position that these actions do not have
any place in a tolerant and democratic culture such as Lebanon's.
Lebanon has suffered far too many criminal attempts to
undermine its stability and security, Pedersen said. At times such as these it
is of paramount importance that the Lebanese maintain the national unity that
has served them so well at times in the past, he added.
SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES IRAQIS
TO RESIST ATTEMPTS TO FOMENT SECTARIAN VIOLENCE
The Secretary-General
condemns in the
strongest terms the continuing violence in Iraq, which was accentuated
yesterday by the death of more than 100 people throughout the country,
including in the coordinated bombing of a crowded market in Baghdad. These
brutal crimes came on the anniversary of the heinous bombing of the Holy
Shrine in Samarra, which was also aimed at escalating sectarian violence.
The Secretary-General calls on the Iraqi authorities and the Iraqi people to
resist attempts to foment sectarian violence.
Asked about the
Secretary-General’s response to the U.S. troop presence on Iraq, the
Spokeswoman said that the Secretary-General had not commented on it, but noted
that he stands ready to do whatever can be done to help the people of Iraq.
DARFUR ENVOYS FOR AFRICAN UNION AND
UNITED NATIONS MEET
WITH SUDANESE FOREIGN MINISTER
Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim, the Special Envoys
for Darfur for the United Nations and African Union respectively, have been
holding a series of meetings in Khartoum with Sudanese Government officials
and signatories of the Declaration of Commitment to the Darfur Peace
Agreement.
The two envoys met yesterday with Foreign Minister Lam
Akol and Nafie Ali Nafie, Assistant to the President.
They met today other Government officials including Minni
Minawi, Senior Assistant to the President and Chairman of the SLM/A faction
signatory to the DPA, and Majzoub al Khalifa, Presidential Advisor.
Eliasson and Salim are scheduled to leave tomorrow to
Darfur where they will hold meetings mainly with non-signatories of the DPA on
14 and 15 February. They are scheduled to a joint press conference on
Thursday.
Meanwhile, acting Special Representative for Sudan
Tayé-Brook Zerihoun, who represented the United Nations in the AU Peace and
Security Council meeting on the relations between Chad and Sudan, held
yesterday in Addis Ababa, presented an update on recent political, security
and humanitarian developments in Chad and the Central African Republic,
particularly in the borders areas between Sudan, Chad, and the Central African
Republic, according to the UN Mission in Sudan.
Zerihoun also briefed on activities by the United Nations
to both contribute to the search for a negotiated settlement of the conflicts
in the region, and to respond to the grave humanitarian situation in the
border areas between the three countries.
Zerihoun said that the United Nations concluded a second
assessment mission to Chad and the Central African Republic. The
Secretary-General has initiated the necessary steps to deploy an advance
mission to Chad and the Central African Republic. The advance mission would
prepare for the possible multi-dimensional presence foreshadowed in the 16
January 2007 Presidential Statement by the United Nations Security Council.
The final report of the assessment mission, including detailed proposals on
the size, scope and mandate of a possible multi-dimensional presence will be
submitted to the Security Council in the coming days.
Asked about a peace deal in
the Central African Republic and its effects on the deployment of a force in
the border region, the Spokeswoman noted that Zerihoun had provided an update
to the African Union Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on
the situations in the Central African Republic as well as Chad in the latest
bulletin put out by the UN Mission in Sudan.
She added that the report to
the Security Council of a recent UN assessment mission to those two countries
would soon come out, and was to be discussed in the coming days.
SECURITY COUNCIL HOLDS OPEN DEBATE ON
THE MIDDLE EAST
The Security Council this morning began an
open debate
on the Middle East, which Alvaro de Soto, the UN Special Coordinator for the
Middle East Peace Process, began by noting the important step taken last week
with the agreement by the Palestinians to form a national unity government.
De Soto said that a newly active Quartet, a more closely
involved Arab world, a Palestinian national unity government and the beginning
of potential dialogue between the parties have the potential to help restore
calm and re-energize efforts to achieve a two-state solution.
He noted next week’s trilateral meeting, bringing
together the Palestinian Authority President, the Israeli Prime Minister and
the U.S. Secretary of State. Excessive expectations should not be placed on
one such meeting, he said, but we hope that it will be the beginning of a
genuine dialogue.
WATER PURIFICATION KITS ARE DELIVERED TO
FLOOD VICTIMS IN SOMALIA
UNICEF says that efforts continue to respond to the needs
of people affected by an outbreak of acute watery diarrhea in central Somalia
as a consequence of recent flooding in that area.
Just last week, UNICEF airlifted into central and
southern Somalia over 5,000 bars of soap, 50 thousand sachets of oral
rehydration salts and 200 intravenous rehydration kits in addition to water
purification tablets for some 47,000 households.
So far, 444 people have been admitted to a hospital in
Jowhar for the treatment of acute watery diarrhea, and 235 of these are
reported to be children under age five.
HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF SETS OFF TO CENTRAL
AMERICA
High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour today
begins a three-day visit to Bolivia. She is expected to sign an agreement
to establish a UN human rights office in that country. Yesterday, in Panama,
she signed an agreement to establish a similar office for Central America.
In addition to meeting with representatives of the
Bolivian Government and civil society, she plans to visit an Aymara indigenous
community outside of La Paz.
POLICE RAID IN HAITI SLUMS NETS SCORES
OF WEAPONS AND SUSPECTED CRIMINALS
The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti
reports that a police operation launched Friday in two neighborhoods of
Port-au-Prince was completed yesterday with the seizure of a number of
weapons, including assault rifles, bipods for automatic weaponry, more than
five thousands rounds of ammunition, sabers, daggers, knives, telescopes and
portable radio communications equipment.
The Mission says that 31 presumed gang members were
arrested over the weekend in the Martissant part of the Haitian capital while
seven others were rounded up in the Boston neighborhood of Cite-Soleil.
UN Police continue to patrol Cite-Soleil
and Martissant.
U.N. REFUGEE
AGENCY SEEKS $62 MILLION FOR DR CONGO
The UN refugee agency, or UNHCR,
announced today
that it is seeking $62 million to help hundreds of thousands of people
displaced within the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as Congolese
refugees in neighboring countries.
The agency also
reports that, the
number of Iraqis wanting to register with UNHCR in Syria and Jordan has
dramatically increased over the past few days.
Meanwhile, UNHCR
notes that the
organized return of internally displaced people in southeastern Sudan back to
their home villages is gathering momentum.
In addition, UNHCR expressed its concerns over the
dramatic increase in people-smuggling from Somalia.
SECRETARY-GENERAL APPEALS TO DONORS FOR
LIBERIA’S RECOVERY
In a
message to the Liberia Partners’ Forum, which is meeting in Washington
today, the Secretary-General said that the Liberian Government’s interim
Poverty Reduction Strategy outlines priority areas needing urgent assistance.
He described these projects as ranging from the
reintegration of the country’s war-affected population and reform of the
security sector, to the rehabilitation of Liberia’s legal, judicial and
correctional systems. The Secretary-General also appealed to all of Liberia’s
partners to contribute generously towards these programmes.
That message was delivered to the gathering by Alan Doss,
the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Liberia.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
A NEGOTIATED SETTLEMENT ONLY SOLUTION TO IRAN DISPUTE:
Asked what the United Nations can do to help deal
with Iran, the Spokeswoman noted that there has been no change in the
Secretary-General’s position in favour of a negotiated settlement. She added, in
response to a further question, that the Security Council continues to be seized
of the matter.
Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General
United Nations, S-378
New York, NY 10017
Tel. 212-963-7162
Fax. 212-963-7055
