HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY FARHAN HAQ
ASSOCIATE
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON
U.N.
HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Monday, April
9, 2007
BAN KI-MOON CONGRATULATES TIMOR-LESTE ON PEACEFUL
ELECTIONS
The Secretary-General
congratulates the
many Timorese who showed their commitment to democracy and peace by
participating in today’s vote -- the country’s first Presidential elections
since independence in 2002.
The Secretary-General
commends the national authorities, particularly the Technical Secretariat for
Electoral Administration and the National Electoral Commission, for organizing
the polling -- the first time the people of Timor-Leste have had the
opportunity to administer their own elections at the national level. He also
expresses his appreciation for the work done by the United Nations Integrated
Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) in support of the Timorese efforts.
The Secretary-General is
heartened that the election was conducted in a general atmosphere of order and
calm, and that the initial indications show high voter turn-out. He hopes
that calm will prevail while the counting proceeds and when results are
announced.
The Secretary-General
considers the 2007 electoral process to be an important step on the path to
peace and stability in Timor-Leste, and hopes that the subsequent steps in the
process -- including the legislative elections -- take place in an equally
peaceful atmosphere.
The Secretary-General
calls on the international community to continue providing assistance as
Timor-Leste works to complete this year’s electoral process and to address
challenges related to the security sector, the rule of law, governance and
development.
The Secretary-General
delivered a video
message to the Timorese people prior to these first national elections
since independence, telling them that they had reached a new milestone in
their work to consolidate democracy. He said, “I hope the elections will be
free, fair, transparent and credible. I hope they will be unmarred by violence
and intimidation. And I hope they will lead to results accepted by all.”
BAN KI-MOON RECALLS DEEP PERSONAL IMPACT OF
RWANDAN GENOCIDE
Thirteen years ago, more
than 800,000 innocent Rwandans were killed in an orchestrated criminal
campaign now widely considered genocide under international law. And the
Secretary-General recalled in a message released today that the experience has
had a profound and personal impact on him when he visited Rwanda last year and
he carries it with him every day that he has been serving as
Secretary-General. Two messages, he said, should be paramount as we remember
the Rwandan genocide: “First, never forget” -- and “Second, never stop working
to prevent another genocide.”
The Secretary-General said
the UN has learnt profound lessons from that tragedy and has appointed a
Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide and established an Advisory
Committee on Genocide Prevention. But more remains to be done, and the
Secretary-General has declared his intention to strengthen the existing UN
mechanisms. He also appealed for the creation of a global partnership against
genocide.
Asked why the exhibition on Rwanda was
postponed, the Spokesman said that the normal process that the United Nations
has to review exhibitions was not followed in this instance. The United
Nations will now follow the regular process to take into account all
positions, as it does with any exhibition.
The exhibition has been postponed until the
regular review process is completed.
Asked whether a dispute over Armenians in Turkey was
responsible for the delay, the Spokesman said that was not the sole issue. As
for Turkey, the United Nations has not expressed a position on incidents that
took place long before the United Nations was established.
Asked if the UN had determined that the Darfur
crisis amounted to genocide, the Spokesman said that a UN commission, had
collected information on the crisis and passed it on to the International
Criminal Court, which is now criminally investigating the matter
Asked about cooperation by Member States with
the ICC, he noted that the ICC took up Darfur following a referral from the
Security Council, which requires of all Member States that they submit all
relevant documents and information in their possession to the ICC.
AFGHANISTAN: U.N. MISSION CONDEMNS KILLING OF
JOURNALIST
Tom Koenigs, the
Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, yesterday
condemned the murder of Afghan journalist Ajmal Naqshbandi, who had been
abducted by Taliban extremists on March 5. He called on the authorities to
bring those responsible to justice.
Koenigs said, “The
perpetrators of this crime have shown absolute indifference to the value of
human life,” and added that the rights of journalists to go about their work,
free from interference or harm, should be recognized and respected by all.
On Saturday, a serious
attack took place on a convoy of civilian demining and security personnel, in
which seven Afghan deminers were killed and another two wounded. The UN
Mission in Afghanistan strongly condemned this attack on individuals who are
actively working to improve the lives and safety of the Afghan community.
Meanwhile, also on
Afghanistan, UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP), and the Office of the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have responded to recent flooding in
the country by providing food, shelter, and other vital assistance for
hard-hit families.
For its part, WFP has
pre-positioned 350,000 tons of food in five locations around Afghanistan for
rapid deployment to the most vulnerable families.
LIMITED DISARMAMENT PROGRESS DISAPPOINTING &
UNACCEPTABLE
The Secretary-General this
morning addressed
the UN Disarmament Commission at UN Headquarters.
He said the limited
progress in addressing the dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction, as
well as the excessive accumulation of conventional weapons, was disappointing
and unacceptable.
He added that revitalizing
the international disarmament agenda was a personal priority of his. That is
why he had proposed a new Office for Disarmament Affairs, led by a High
Representative, which would better mobilize the political will necessary to
overcome the current stalemate and re-energize action on both disarmament and
non-proliferation.
BAN KI-MOON CONCERNED BY IMPACTS OF CLIMATE
CHANGE
The Secretary-General, in
a statement on
Friday, welcomed the release that day of the findings of Working Group II of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and he expressed his concern
that the impacts of climate change are increasingly noticeable, and likely to
become more so in the future as extreme weather events intensify.
The Secretary-General
hopes that the Parties to the Convention on Climate Change will avail
themselves of the opportunity to make progress towards a comprehensive
framework to replace the existing regime at the United Nations Climate Change
Conference in Bali in December this year.
U.N. TEAMS RESPOND TO NATURAL DISASTERS IN
SOLOMON ISLANDS & MADAGASCAR
Regarding the Solomon
Islands, a UN disaster assessment and coordination team is now
working in both the capital, Honiara, and in Gizo.
Some 5,500 people remain
displaced in the worst affected areas, according to the country’s Government.
Sanitation is a problem in the spontaneous camps that have been erected near
the centre of Gizo, while water supply remains a concern in some remote
villages, since the earthquake damaged pipes and valves.
The loss of the entire
communication system in some remote areas is also hindering completion of a
comprehensive damage assessment.
Turning to Madagascar, the
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has dispatched a
five-member disaster assessment and coordination team there.
The team will help
coordinate international assistance and urgent needs assessments in the wake
of the recent series of cyclones that have struck the island nation.
POLIO IMMUNIZATION ROUND WRAPS UP IN SOUTHERN
SUDAN
Organized returns of
internally displaced persons continue from South Darfur to parts of southern
Sudan, reports the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
OCHA also reports that UN
agencies and NGOs, working in support of the Government of Southern Sudan,
have completed a first round of National Immunization Days against polio. An
estimated 500,000 children under five were targeted by the campaign across
Southern Sudan.
The Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights on Friday
released two reports, documenting incidents of widespread sexual violence
during attacks by Sudanese Government forces and allied militia in Darfur last
December and the disappearance last September of at least 19 men allegedly at
the hands of the former insurgent forces headed by Minni Minnawi. High
Commissioner Louise Arbour called for prompt and impartial investigations into
the reported human rights violations.
The report on the December
incidents says that at least 15 cases of sexual assault, including rape, had
occurred, and that, based on testimony gathered, it appears that rape during
the December 2006 attacks was used as a weapon of war to cause humiliation and
instill fear into the local population.
Asked for an update on negotiations for the
deployment of a hybrid UN/African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, Haq said
that, following an agreement to proceed with the UN heavy support package to
the AU mission that was reached at a recent Saudi-sponsored mini-summit on
Darfur, there would be a technical-level tripartite meeting between the UN,
the AU and the Government of Sudan this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. That
meeting is expected to clear up all outstanding technical issues related to
the heavy support package, he said.
Then, on 16-17 April, Haq said, the AU
Chairman, Alpha Oumar Konaré, will be in New York for high-level consultations
with the Secretary-General on moving forward the deployment of the hybrid
force.
The Spokesman added that the agreement reached
in Riyadh covered, among others, the number of troops expected to deploy in
the third and final phase of deployment.
SOMALIA: U.N. WELCOMES RELEASE OF PIRATED FOOD
AID SHIP
The World Food Programme
is welcoming
the release of a vessel it had contracted for food deliveries to Somalia,
along with its 12-person crew, some 40 days after it was seized by pirates.
The MV Rozen was hijacked
near Puntland, in northeastern Somalia, on February 25th, and released in the
same area last Thursday.
WFP thanked elders in
Puntland for mediating the release, but urged regional authorities, as well as
Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government, to curb piracy in Somali waters. It
says the hijacking has caused delays in food aid shipments to Somalia and made
shippers reluctant to carry cargoes there.
WORLD COURT’S BALKANS DECISION SPEAKS FOR ITSELF
Asked why the International Court of Justice
had not subpoenaed Serbian military archives, which may have been germane to a
case brought before the Court by Bosnia and Herzegovina against Serbia in
relation to the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre, the Spokesman noted that the
Court President has commented on that decision, saying that the Court’s
decision speaks for itself.
Asked if the UN would seek to reverse the
Court's ruling that Serbia did not commit genocide in Bosnia but did nothing
to prevent it, the Spokesman said that the UN respects the principle of
judicial independence and would not second-guess the appropriateness of the
Court's procedures.
Haq also noted that another UN body, the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, had ruled that the
Srebrenica massacre amounted to genocide and is vigorously prosecuting persons
suspected of involvement in that crime.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
U.N. AGENCIES RESPOND TO
SICKNESS IN ETHIOPIA: The Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is
concerned about an outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea in Ethiopia. OCHA says
the swift spread of the disease is due to inadequate availability of safe
drinking water and sanitation facilities, as well as poor hygiene awareness.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF have deployed health consultants
to provide technical assistance, conduct rapid assessments and make improvements
to water supply systems.
BAN KI-MOON TO ADDRESS
DEMOCRACY FUND BOARD: The
Secretary-General’s Advisory Board for the UN Democracy Fund will hold its
fourth meeting tomorrow, to review progress on the work of the Fund after the
inaugural year of activities and decide on priorities and policies for the
future. The Secretary-General will address the Board, which meets in a closed
session at UN Headquarters tomorrow.
UP TO SECURITY COUNCIL TO DECIDE ON WHETHER ITS
RESOLUTIONS HAVE BEEN VIOLATED: Asked
about reports that the United States allowed a North Korean arms sale to
Ethiopia, the Spokesman said it was up to the Security Council and its sanctions
committees to decide whether there had been any violation of Security Council
resolutions.
BAN KI-MOON CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT VERIFICATION OF
SYRIA-LEBANON ALLEGATIONS: Asked about
recent comments by the Secretary-General on allegations of Syrian weapons
smuggling into Lebanon, the Spokesman noted that the Secretary-General had
called for independent verification of the allegations.
U.N. MONITORING SAUDI EFFORTS ON LEBANON:
Asked if the UN still intended to dispatch its Legal Counsel to negotiations in
Saudi Arabia on the proposed establishment of a tribunal of an international
character for Lebanon, the Spokesman said that the UN was monitoring the Saudi
mediation efforts and would wait to see how the process develops in the days to
come.
IRAN SHOULD ENGAGE IN DIALOGUE & COMPLY WITH
RESOLUTIONS: Asked if the
Secretary-General had any comment on Iran's declaration that it was now capable
of producing nuclear fuel at an industrial scale, the Spokesman said that Ban Ki-moon
told reporters earlier today, "I sincerely hope that even at this time when the
Iranian Government is undergoing Security Council sanctions that they should
engage in dialogue with the intention of communicating. It is very important for
any member country to fully comply with Security Council resolutions. I urge the
Iranian Government to do so."
STATEMENTS ON JOURNALIST ABDUCTIONS DONE ON CASE
BY CASE BASIS: Asked if the UN had any
policy on putting out statements in the cases of abduction of news
professionals, the Spokesman said that this was done on a case by case basis and
security was among the considerations.
Office of the Spokesman for the
Secretary-General
United Nations, S-378
New York, NY 10017
Tel. 212-963-7162
Fax. 212-963-7055
