HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY MICHELE
MONTAS
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON
U.N.
HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Wednesday, June
20, 2007
BAN KI-MOON
CONDEMNS SPATE OF ATTACKS IN AFGHANISTAN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has
learned with
great concern about the recent increase in violence in Afghanistan, in
particular the massive bomb attack against an Afghan Police Academy bus in
Kabul on Sunday. More than 30 Afghans were killed in the incident and dozens
more injured. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, the
deadliest of its kind in Afghanistan’s capital city since their fall in 2001.
Over the past few days, there has been a spate of similar
attacks in other parts of the country, reportedly claiming the lives of dozens
of civilians, including 11 children.
The Secretary-General condemns these acts in the
strongest possible terms, which reflect an inexcusable disregard for the value
of human life.
The Secretary-General notes the efforts of the Afghan and
international forces to counter the threat posed by insurgent and other
anti-government elements. However, he has learned with deep sadness of reports
of the death of seven Afghan children resulting from a Coalition air strike in
Paktika province on Sunday.
The Secretary-General sends his deep condolences to the
Government of Afghanistan and to the bereaved families of all the victims of
this past weekend’s violence. The Secretary-General calls upon the Government
of Afghanistan and the international community to take the necessary measures
to address the security situation. In doing so, the protection of civilian
lives must remain the guiding principle.
SECRETARY-GENERAL MEETS WITH
CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS
IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
The Secretary-General is in Washington, D.C. today to
meet with US congressional leaders. He met this morning with Senator Norm
Coleman, Senator Bill Nelson and Senator George Voinovich. He is presently at
a luncheon meeting with Congressman Tom Lantos.
These meetings focused on UN-US relations including
funding, on UN reforms, on peacekeeping operations, on Darfur, Kosovo and
Haiti.
The Secretary-General will be back in New York tonight to
attend the Human Development awards.
SECURITY COUNCIL TAKES UP MIDDLE EAST
UN Special
Coordinator
for the Middle East Peace Process Michael Williams briefed the Security
Council in an open meeting this morning on what he described as a time of
crisis in the Middle East.
The violent seizure of de facto political authority in
Gaza by Hamas, the end of the Palestinian National Unity Government, and the
declaration of a state of emergency by President Mahmoud Abbas have created
new political realities and worrying conditions in the occupied Palestinian
territory, he said. Meanwhile, in Lebanon, renewed violence has threatened the
nation's stability.
Williams said that the brutal violence in Gaza and the
attacks on the legitimate institutions of President Abbas and the Palestinian
Authority government are totally unacceptable and should be condemned.
The Secretary-General
regrets the
failure of the National Unity Government, and condemns the violence that
brought about its demise.
Despite what has happened, Gaza and the West Bank remain
one Palestinian territory, legally administered by one Palestinian Authority
headed by President Abbas, who has appointed an emergency Government led by
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The Secretary-General telephoned President Abbas
and Prime Minister Fayyad to convey his full support to the new Government.
With the situation in Gaza now stabilizing to some
extent, concerns about food and medical shortages are mounting. Re-opening
the crossings for commercial and humanitarian imports is the UN’s most
immediate humanitarian concern, Williams said.
The Security Council open meeting was followed by
consultations, also on the Middle East.
GAZA: FOOD SHORTAGES ARE EXPECTED IN
COMING WEEKS
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA)
says crossing points into Gaza remain largely closed, and mechanisms for
commercial and humanitarian food imports have yet to be reestablished. Without
the reopening of the Karni crossing, general food shortages are expected in
the coming weeks, OCHA says.
The World Food Programme (WFP) was, however, able to
send seven
trucks through the Kerem Shalom crossing yesterday, and nine more trucks
today, carrying more than 400 metric tons of food. WFP hopes to move 10
truckloads per day through the crossing. The World Health Organization (WHO)
was also able to send in one truckload of urgently needed medical supplies.
Meanwhile, UNICEF is
sending vaccines and medical and emergency kits, as well as fuel for urgent
sanitation and water needs.
SECURITY COUNCIL EXTENDS MANDATE
OF U.N. DISENGAGEMENT FORCE IN THE GOLAN HEIGHTS
In addition to its meeting on the Middle East, the
Security Council this morning
extended
by six months the mandate of the UN Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan
Heights (UNDOF).
The Security Council also
approved a
resolution on Liberia, which asked the Secretary-General to establish a Panel
of Experts to conduct a follow up assessment mission to that country.
The Council
extended
the mandate of the Group of Experts on Cote d'Ivoire until the end of October.
SIERRA LEONE:
SPECIAL COURT HANDS OUT FIRST JUDGMENTS
The
Special Court for Sierra Leone handed out
its first judgments today.
Three
leaders of Sierra Leone’s former Armed Forces Revolutionary Council have each
been found guilty on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Alex
Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu were found guilty –
among other things-- of extermination, murder, rape, enslavement and enlisting
children into armed forces. This was the first time an international tribunal
ruled on the charge of recruitment of child soldiers.
The
sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 16.
ON ITS FINAL
STOP IN AFRICAN TRIP, SECURITY COUNCIL MISSION
MEETS WITH DRC PRESIDENT IN KINSHASA
The Security
Council’s mission to Africa is set to wrap up its final stop in that
continent before returning to New York, with Council members now holding their
last few meetings in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
When the Council mission arrived in Kinshasa yesterday,
they received briefings from the Secretary-General’s Special Representative,
William Swing, and other UN officials about the work of the UN
Mission in that
country.
The Council delegation then met with President Joseph
Kabila, with whom they discussed the post-electoral situation in the DRC,
security issues and the reform of the military. French Ambassador Jean Marc de
la Sabliere, the head of this leg of the Council trip, said that Kabila had
brought up proposals for a Great Lakes security summit.
The Council delegation has also
met with the country’s acting prime minister and other Cabinet officials, with
members of the Senate and National Assembly and with civil society and
community leaders.
U.N.
SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR IRAQ
FORCEFULLY CONDEMNS BOMBING OF AL KHILLANI MOSQUE
Ashraf Qazi, the
Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, forcefully condemned
yesterday’s bombing of the historically significant Al Khillani Mosque in the
heart of Baghdad.
Qazi described the bombing in
one of Baghdad’s busiest areas as especially repugnant because it targeted
worshippers leaving the noon prayer, resulting in the death and injury of more
than 200 innocent civilians. He warned that the increased targeting of places
of worship is aimed at pushing Iraq further into a sectarian war that
threatens to engulf the whole country.
Qazi called on all Iraqis to
reject violence and opt for unity and reconciliation, and also called on those
responsible for law enforcement in Iraq to pursue the perpetrators and bring
them to justice.
WESTERN SAHARA TALKS TO RESUME IN AUGUST
Talks carried out under UN auspices on Western Sahara
wrapped up late yesterday afternoon at Greentree Estate in Manhasset, on Long
Island.
Morocco and the Frente Polisario took part in the two-day
meeting, according to a communiqué issued by the Secretary General’s Personal
Envoy for Western Sahara, Peter van Walsum. Representatives of the
neighbouring countries, Algeria and Mauritania, were also present at the
opening and closing sessions and consulted separately.
The parties have agreed to meet again in Manhasset during
the second week of August.
Asked about the significance of the communiqué issued by
the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Western Sahara, the
Spokesperson noted that the fact that the two parties had met face-to-face and
spoken to one another was an achievement in and of itself, as was the fact
that they had decided to meet a second time.
INUIT CLIMATE
CHANGE ACTIVIST
TO RECEIVE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AWARD
Tonight,
the Secretary-General will present a lifetime achievement
award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Development to the Inuit
climate change activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier from Canada. Watt-Cloutier has
dedicated her career to protecting the rights of Arctic communities as the
world warms around them.
Human
Development Awards for 2007 will also be presented to the authors of five
reports from China, India, Guinea-Bissau and Costa-Rica alongside an
Asia-Pacific regional report on trade.
The ceremony will take place
tonight at 6 p.m.
U.N. MISSION IN SUDAN DISCUSSES WAYS TO
FURTHER ASSISTANCE TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PEACE AGREEMENT
The UN
Mission in Sudan,
in today’s briefing notes, notes that, over the weekend, the acting Special
Representative for Sudan, Taye Brook Zerihoun, met with the State Minister to
the Presidency, Idris Abdel Gadir.
Their discussion focused on a proposal to hold high-level
consultations between the UN Mission in Sudan and the Government of National
Unity to make the Mission’s assistance to the implementation of the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement more focused and effective.
Meanwhile, the UN Mission
reported that yesterday, an international NGO-hired vehicle traveling in South
Darfur was shot at by an unknown armed man.
On that same day in West
Darfur, an international NGO convoy of two vehicles with five staff members
was stopped by two unknown armed men, and the staff was robbed of personal
effects and communication equipment.
DARFUR:
HYBRID FORCE UNDER JOINT UN-AU AUTHORITY
In clarifications to remarks
at yesterday’s noon briefing, the Spokesperson said that the Hybrid force to
be deployed in Darfur is under the authority of a
Joint Special Representative who answers to both the UN Security
Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council.
The force itself, as is the case with any Peacekeeping operation, is commanded
by a Force Commander, in this case Gen. Martin L. Agwai,
himself recently appointed by the AU in close consultation with the UN.
The day-to-day functioning of the mission will be in accordance with the
Concept of Operations which has been jointly agreed upon by the UN and the AU.
SECRETARY-GENERAL NAMES DEPUTY SPECIAL
REPRESENTATIVE FOR NEPAL
The Secretary-General has
appointed
Tamrat Samuel as his Deputy Special Representative for Nepal and Deputy Head
of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN).
Samuel has previously served as
the focal point for the Secretary-General’s good offices on the question of
East Timor and as Senior Political Affairs officer responsible for the South
Asia region within the Department for Political Affairs.
LOUISE ARBOUR EXTENDS HER APPRECIATION
FOR
CONSENSUAL BASIS OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL’S WORK
The Human Rights
Council today
adopted the report of its fifth session, which concluded late Monday. It also
adopted by consensus three follow-up resolutions to the report of the
Commission of Inquiry on Lebanon, the occupied Palestinian territory, and the
situation of human rights in Darfur.
Addressing today’s organizational meeting of the
Council’s second cycle, High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour
extended her appreciation to all those who had contributed to launching
the Council on a consensual basis and expressed the hope that a spirit of
cooperation and mutual respect would remain the Council’s hallmark.
The Council will next meet on Friday to continue its
organizational meeting.
ON WORLD REFUGEE DAY, BAN KI-MOON CALLS TO SUPPORT
REFUGEES UNTIL THEY RETURN HOME
In a
message for World
Refugee Day – which is today-- the Secretary-General
said
international solidarity was crucial to meeting the urgent humanitarian needs
of refugees and others forcibly displaced.
Stressing that refugees are not exiles by choice, he called for support and
understanding to ensure that refugees are cared for and protected until they
can return home.
Also
marking this day, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres arrived
yesterday in Southern Sudan, where tens of thousands of refugees and
internally displaced people are returning home after decades of conflict. He
addressed this morning the World Refugee Day events held at the Juba way
station, and he is also scheduled to visit
UNHCR operations in the Yei and
Juba areas.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
TWO BOSNIAN PRESIDENCY MEMBERS REQUEST ANNULMENT
OF GENOCIDE RULING ON SREBRENICA: Asked
about a letter sent two days ago by two members of the Bosnian presidency asking
for an annulment of the International Criminal Court (ICC)
genocide ruling on Srebrenica, the Spokesperson later said that the
Secretary-General had received the letter.
BAN KI-MOON WAS NOT ASKED TO BE KOREAN PENINSULA
SPECIAL ENVOY: Asked about the suggestion
from a presidential candidate in the Republic of Korea that Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon could serve as a special envoy for the Korean Peninsula, the
Spokesperson said that the Secretary-General had not been asked to assume such a
role.
U.N. RECEIVED LETTER FROM THE COMMITTEE TO
PROTECT JOURNALISTS: Asked about a letter
from the Committee to Protect Journalists regarding the UN’s practice of
accrediting only journalists from states recognized by the General Assembly, the
Spokesperson said that the letter had been received, but that the
Secretary-General was traveling and was not yet aware of it.
Office of the Spokesman for the
Secretary-General
United Nations, S-378
New York, NY 10017
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