HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY MICHELE
MONTAS
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON
U.N.
HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Monday, June
18, 2007
BAN KI-MOON
DEPLORES ROCKET ATTACK ON NORTHERN ISRAEL
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly
deplores
the rocket attack on the Northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona that was
launched from Southern Lebanon yesterday.
Noting that this attack represents the most serious
violation of the Blue Line since the end of the war in 2006, and an attempt to
destabilize the situation in Lebanon, the Secretary-General reiterates the
importance of respecting and fully implementing Security Council Resolution
1701
(2006) and urges all parties to exercise maximum restraint.
He has been assured by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
and the Lebanese Armed Forces that they will do their utmost to apprehend
those responsible for this violation and will continue their close cooperation
to prevent any further attacks.
Asked about Israel’s continuing overflights of Lebanon,
the Spokeswoman said that UNIFIL continues to record each violation.
Asked about the demarcation of the Shebaa Farms area, she
said that once that work was done, a report would be given to the Security
Council.
BAN KI-MOON
DISCUSSES MIDDLE EAST SITUATION
IN MEETING WITH ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER
The Secretary-General yesterday met for a working luncheon with Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert, with whom he discussed recent developments in Gaza,
Lebanon and the wider Middle East.
He
told reporters at a press
encounter with
the Prime Minister that the deteriorating situation in Gaza and in the region
has been a source of great concern, as was what he described as “the failure
of the national unity government in Palestine”.
The Secretary-General said that he knows that Israel has legitimate concerns
over security, but he mentioned at the same time the United Nations’
humanitarian concerns, with some 80 percent of Palestinians requiring UN
assistance. He urged all the parties concerned to exercise maximum restraint,
and to resolve all the pending issues through peaceful means and through
dialogue.
Asked why the meeting had taken place outside of UN Headquarters, the
Spokeswoman said that Olmert and the Secretary-General had been invited to a
luncheon hosted by Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman. She stressed that
reporters had been informed and had access to the event.
UN RELIEF AGENCY RESTORES SERVICES IN GAZA
TO PRE-FIGHTING LEVELS
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees
(UNRWA)
says
its operations in Gaza have returned to the levels from before the current
round of fighting. UNRWA had been forced to suspend temporarily all but its
emergency health and food programmes following the killing of two of its
workers last week.
At a meeting of UNRWA’s Advisory Commission in Jordan,
Commissioner-General Karen AbuZayd said the security situation is improving,
but threats remain to staff on the ground.
WORLD FOOD
PROGRAMME WARNS OF POTENTIAL SHORTAGES IN GAZA
As
sporadic violence continued over the weekend, on Saturday a warehouse
containing World Food Programme (WFP)
food and managed by the Ministry of Social Affairs in Nablus was looted by
armed militants and some 25 metric tons of food and equipment worth US$16,000
were stolen. The Palestinian Authority President's office has now committed
to protect WFP warehouses and help WFP to return the stolen food.
All border crossings into Gaza are closed. The commercial crossing of Karni,
Gaza's economic lifeline, has been closed since 11 June.
WFP appeals to all parties to immediately establish a humanitarian corridor
that could assure the safe passage of humanitarian assistance to the exhausted
and increasingly desperate population in Gaza. If the border crossings remain
closed, it is expected that within two weeks Gaza will face serious food
shortages.
BURUNDI:
SECRETARY-GENERAL WELCOMES CEASE-FIRE AGREEMENT
The Secretary-General
welcomes the
agreement in Dar Es-Salaam on 17 June between the President of Burundi, Mr.
Pierre Nkurunziza, and leader of the PALIPEHUTU-FNL, Mr. Agathon Rwasa,
concerning the implementation of the Comprehensive Ceasefire Agreement.
He hopes that both parties will maintain the momentum
created in Dar-es-Salaam to allow for the earliest recovery and consolidation
of peace.
The Secretary-General wishes to express his deep thanks
to Tanzania, South Africa and the African Union for their valuable
contributions to the peace process and assures the people of Burundi that the
United Nations will continue to support their efforts to bring lasting peace
to Burundi.
U.N.-LED TALKS ON WESTERN SAHARA GET
UNDERWAY
Talks carried out under UN auspices on Western Sahara
began today outside of New York, with representatives of the parties and the
neighbouring countries in attendance.
The talks are being facilitated by the
Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, Mr. Peter van Walsum.
Attending today’s opening session on behalf of the
Secretary-General was the Under-Secretary-General for Political
Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe.
In his opening remarks, Pascoe said that today marked the
beginning of a new phase in the search for a solution on Western Sahara. He
urged the parties to proceed in good faith and to establish an atmosphere of
mutual trust, and expressed the firm commitment of the United Nations to
assist in the negotiations. He stressed that the stalemate is becoming
intolerable and that the dispute over Western Sahara must be brought to a
conclusion through a mutually agreed solution that will provide for the
self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.
"The Secretary General, the Security Council, and indeed
the entire international community are deeply interested in events unfolding
here today. The time has come for a solution. We wish you the best of luck,
and reiterate our commitment to assist this process in every way possible,"
Pascoe said.
In accordance with Security Council resolution
1754,
the Secretary-General will report to the Security Council by 30 June 2007 with
regard to the status and progress of negotiations.
Asked about press coverage at the meeting, the
Spokeswoman said that the meeting is closed to media.
Asked why Pascoe, rather than van Walsum, had spoken at
the outset, Montas noted that van Walsum was leading the negotiations.
SECURITY COUNCIL MISSION HEADS TO CÔTE
D'IVOIRE
The Security Council
delegation in Africa is heading to Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire from Accra, Ghana
today on the fourth leg of its mission.
In Côte d'Ivoire, the delegation is scheduled to meet
with President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Guillaume Soro.
Yesterday in Khartoum, the co-chairs of the UN Security
Council mission to Africa, Ambassadors Dumisani Kumalo of South Africa and
Emyr Jones-Parry of the United Kingdom, said that they had come away from a
series of high-level meetings with Sudanese officials, including President
Omar al-Bashir, with the understanding that Sudan unconditionally accepts the
deployment of the African Union (AU)/UN hybrid peacekeeping force for Darfur.
Kumalo and Jones-Parry also said that Sudan has
reiterated its agreement that the United Nations oversee the command and
control structure of such a force.
At a press conference, jointly held with Sudanese Foreign
Minister Lam Akol, Jones-Parry also announced that the UN Security Council
would, upon its return to New York, begin work on a draft resolution
authorizing the effective deployment of the force.
While in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday, the Security
Council and its AU counterpart agreed to bolster their collaboration in
addressing conflict and building peace.
U.N. SUDAN MISSION REPORTS JANJAWEED
ATTACKS IN SOUTH DARFUR
The UN mission in Sudan (UNMIS)
reports that it conducted a four day mission to Gereida in South Darfur to
follow up on the impact of the Darfur Peace Agreement on the overall security
situation, livelihoods and tribal reconciliation. It said that the security
situation in Gereida has not improved and that Janjaweed attacks outside towns
were ongoing and women were still subject to rape and harassment.
Asked whether there is any reason to believe that the
current agreement will hold, the Spokeswoman said that President Bashir and
other senior Sudanese officials had provided assurances about the agreement to
the Security Council mission that visited there.
Asked when the Secretary-General had last spoken with
President Bashir, she said they had spoken to each other on Saturday morning.
In that conversation, she said, they had discussed the agreement on the hybrid
force, and President Bashir had provided further assurances that the force
would go forward.
Asked how significant it would be if the agreement held,
Montas said it would be very significant, and she emphasized that this has
been one of the Secretary-General’s priorities from the start. “We have
reached a milestone,” she said.
HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL SET TO CONCLUDE
CURRENT SESSION
The Human Rights
Council is wrapping up its fifth session in Geneva today. Delegations are
discussing a package of measures put forward by the Council’s President.
The package includes a framework for the Universal
Periodic Review mechanism, which will review on a periodic basis the
fulfilment of the human rights obligations of all Member States.
Asked about a UN response to the proposals being
considered by the Human Rights Council, the Spokeswoman said that the senior
UN official dealing with the matter was High
Commissioner for Human Rights
Louise Arbour. She added that the discussions underway at the Council were
likely to continue into the night.
U.N. ENVOY CONDEMNS OUTRAGEOUS ATTACK
ON AFGHAN POLICE TRAINERS
Chris Alexander, the Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for
Afghanistan, today
expressed his condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of all
those killed by what he said was yesterday’s “outrageous attack against
Afghanistan’s police trainers.”
Alexander condemned the attacks, and called on Afghans to speak out against
the perpetrators, saying, “These acts are repugnant in the eyes of Afghans and
in the eyes of the world.”
SECURITY COUNCIL
IS BRIEFED ON RWANDA, YUGOSLAV TRIBUNALS
The Security Council today received, in an open
meeting,
the latest update from the Presidents and Prosecutors of the two International
Tribunals on the work that they are doing to complete their work over the
coming years, with most trial activity wrapping up during 2008 and 2009.
Carla Del Ponte, the Prosecutor for the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, said
that it remains a permanent stain on that tribunal’s work that four suspects,
including Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, remain at large.
Her counterpart on the Rwanda Tribunal,
Hassan Jallow, told the Council that most of that tribunal’s fugitive suspects
are reported to be in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
SECURITY COUNCIL
PRESIDENT INVITES COMMISSION TO ASSIST IN INVESTIGATING KILLING OF LEBANESE
PARLIAMENTARIAN
Now available as an official document is a
letter
from the President of the Security Council to the Secretary-General, which
invites the International Independent Investigation Commission to extend
appropriate technical assistance to the Lebanese authorities in the effort to
investigate the murder last week of Member of Parliament Walid Eido.
Asked whether Brammertz had resigned from the International Criminal Court (ICC),
the Spokeswoman later said that he did resign from the ICC. In response to
questions about domestic judicial proceedings in Lebanon, Montas noted that
Brammertz was not in charge of detaining or releasing suspects in Lebanon;
that was a matter for the country’s own judicial system.
D.P.R.K. INVITES
U.N. ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY
TO INSPECT YONGBYON NUCLEAR FACILITY
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei has received a letter from the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea that asks for an IAEA delegation to visit
Pyongyang. That visit would be to discuss the modalities for verification and
monitoring by the IAEA of the shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear facility.
In
his letter of reply today, Dr. ElBaradei said that a team headed by IAEA
Deputy Director-General for Safeguards, Olli Heinonen, will travel to
Pyongyang shortly to discuss and agree on these modalities.
The team is scheduled to visit Pyongyang in the week that starts on 25 June.
ATTACKS ON AID WORKERS AROUND THE GLOBE ARE
“UNACCEPTABLE”
UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman is expressing
concern over deadly
attacks on aid workers in the past week in the Central African Republic,
Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the Democratic Republic of
the Congo.
She called such attacks “unacceptable”, noting that as a
result, aid that is essential to the survival of millions of civilians is
often scaled back.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
SECURITY COUNCIL DISCUSSING FUTURE OF MONITORING
COMMISSION: Asked about the fate of the UN Monitoring, Verification and
Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), the
Spokeswoman said that it was being discussed by the Security Council.
REBEL GROUP IN CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
AGREES TO LET CHILD SOLDIERS RETURN HOME: UNICEF
announced over the
weekend an agreement with the Government of Central African Republic (CAR) and
the Assembly of the Union of Democratic Forces rebel group, which will allow
those children associated with armed groups to be returned to their families
wherever possible and be able to go to school. This will allow all of the CAR’s
child soldiers to become children once more, says UNICEF.
U.N. AGENCIES RESPOND TO DIARRHOEA OUTBREAK
IN ETHIOPIA: U.N. agencies are continuing to respond to a yearlong outbreak
of Acute Watery Diarrhoea in Ethiopia that has killed nearly 900 people and
affected tens of thousands more. The World Health Organization (WHO)
has provided nearly $60,000 to health authorities in Oromiya and Somali regions
for training of medical staff and procurement of essential drugs, as well as for
monitoring and surveillance activities.
Office of the Spokesman for the
Secretary-General
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New York, NY 10017
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