Secretary-General

Noon briefing of 27 November 2007

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY MICHELE MONTAS
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

BAN KI-MOON, IN ANNAPOLIS, PLEDGES FULL U.N. SUPPORT
FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS

  • Attending the international meeting on the Middle East in Annapolis today, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was to deliver remarks pledging the UN’s full support for the renewed efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

  • He is to say that we must abandon piecemeal approaches and address all aspects of the conflict. Final status negotiations must begin in earnest and address all the issues. He will also urge support to help the Palestinian Authority to rebuild, reform and perform, and stress the need for the situation on the ground to improve, rapidly and visibly.

  • In Washington, D.C. on Monday, the Secretary-General met with the other principal members of the Quartet, which brings together the United Nations, United States, Russia and the European Union.

  • The Quartet, in a statement issued afterward, expressed strong support for the Annapolis Conference. It welcomed the commitment of the Israeli and Palestinians leaders to launch bilateral negotiations toward the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza and the realization of Israeli-Palestinian peace.

  • Regarding bilateral meetings, this morning the Secretary-General met with the head of the League of Arab States, Amre Moussa. Earlier on Monday, the Secretary-General conducted separate bilateral meetings with High Representative for European Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana; Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert; and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

  • In all the various meetings, the participants discussed the preparations for the Annapolis meeting, and exchanged views on how to ensure that an effective follow-up process will be launched.

AT 3 P.M., SECURITY COUNCIL TO MEET ON SUDAN

  • The Security Council was scheduled to take up Sudan this afternoon, beginning with an open meeting at 3 p.m.

  • During that meeting, Jan Eliasson, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Darfur, was expected to brief on the Darfur peace process, and Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno was to update Council members on the deployment of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur.

  • Following the open meeting, the Council was scheduled to hold consultations on Sudan and other matters.

SECURITY COUNCIL DELEGATION ARRIVES IN TIMOR-LESTE

  • A seven-member Security Council delegation arrived in Timor-Leste today, as part of a four-day visit to underscore the international community’s long-term commitment to bring stabilization and development, and the need for continued support to bilateral and international partners aiding Timorese efforts towards self-reliance.

  • The delegation today met with various Government officials including the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Vice Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, President of the National Parliament, and the President of the Court of Appeals. They also met with senior officials of the U.N. Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste.

  • In the meetings, they exchanged views on how to help Timor-Leste develop its capacity in the areas of security and democracy.

  • The delegation is also scheduled to meet with representatives from the National Police and civil society, among others, and will also travel to the eastern and western districts to visit ongoing development projects.

U.N. ENVOY DISCUSSES SUDAN'S COMPREHENSIVE PEACE AGREEMENT
IN KHARTOUM AND JUBA

  • The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan, Ashraf Qazi, met today with Vice-President Ali Osman Taha.

  • Discussions focused on the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and the ongoing efforts of the National Congress Party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the parties to the CPA, in order to resolve pending issues and revive their partnership.

  • Qazi then left today to Juba in southern Sudan for a two-day visit during which he is expected to meet with First-Vice President and President of the Government of Southern Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, and other senior officials. He will also meet with SPLM Secretary-General Pagan Amoum.

  • He will discuss with the Government of Southern Sudan and SPLM leadership the way forward in resolving pending matters between the parties in order to ensure an early end to the current situation and to preserve the integrity of the CPA.

  • The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has announced the creation of over 7,000 jobs across Sudan through the Recovery and Rehabilitation Programme. The Programme is training thousands of Sudanese men and women and helping Sudan in its effort to reach the first Millennium Development Goal to halve extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.

  • The programme runs projects in Abyei Area and nine other states: River Nile, Red Sea, Blue Nile, South Kordofan, Upper Nile, Warrap, Central Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria, and Northern Bahr al Ghazal.

  • Jobs have been created in construction, in the agricultural sector, and through micro-credit loan schemes, as part of the largest recovery initiative across Sudan.

REBELS SURRENDER TO U.N. PEACEKEEPERS IN DR CONGO

  • The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo reports that Micho Bizaboso, a top commander in dissident General Laurent Nkunda’s ranks, and 14 rebels surrendered last night to UN Peacekeepers.

  • The 15 heavily-armed men had earlier attempted, in defiance of UN peacekeepers, to take over a telephone tower on the hill near the town of Sake, in the North Kivu province.

  • After several hours of negotiations, outnumbered, they agreed to be disarmed and taken into custody. They are expected to be transferred later today to a brassage center in order to be trained and absorbed into the Government Army.

MILLIONS STILL IN DIRE NEED OF ASSISTANCE
FOLLOWING BANGLADESH CYCLONE

  • Nearly two weeks after Cyclone Sidr struck Bangladesh, an estimated 2.6 million people are still in need of immediate life-saving assistance, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

  • The World Food Programme is now distributing high-energy biscuits to almost a million people; it has also started distributing rice.

  • Meanwhile, UNICEF is providing blended food for children for three months. So far, OCHA has received contributions and confirmed pledges of roughly $123 million for cyclone relief.

  • To date, the U.N.’s Central Emergency Response Fund has disbursed nearly $15 million dollars for emergency activities.

  • Also today, UNESCO announced that it is sending a mission to the country next week. It will focus on the Sundarbans mangrove forest, both in terms of safeguarding the site and helping the people who live there.

U.N. HUMANITARIAN CHIEF TO DISCUSS OGADEN VISIT
WITH ETHIOPIAN OFFICIALS

  • Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, today visited Ethiopia’s Ogaden region. There, he met with officials in Jijiga, the regional capital, to discuss the ways the U.N. and its partners can help the more than 640,000 people who require urgent humanitarian assistance.

  • He also travelled to Kabridehar, where the U.N. recently established a field presence.

  • Tomorrow, Mr. Holmes plans to meet with senior government officials in Addis Ababa. He says that, after today’s visit to Ogaden, he plans to bring up the issues of access and freedom of commercial activity during those meetings.

  • Later this week, Mr. Holmes heads to Sudan, including Darfur, and then on to Kenya.

U.N. RWANDA TRIBUNAL UPHOLDS GENOCIDE CONVICTION

  • The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has confirmed the convictions of Aloys Simba for genocide and crimes against humanity. The Chamber also confirmed his sentence of 25 years in prison for these crimes.

  • Simba, a former Rwandan Army lieutenant-colonel and Member of Parliament, was convicted two years ago for his part in the killing of ethnic Tutsis at a school in Kaduha Parish, in southern Rwanda, in April 1994. He was arrested in Senegal in November 2001.

  • Simba remains in the Tribunal’s Detention Facility in Arusha pending his transfer to a third country to serve his sentence. He will be given credit for time served since his arrest.

GREATER PROTECTION NEEDED FOR AFRICAN CHILD
VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING

  • Executive Director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime Antonio Maria Costa is urging governments of West and Central Africa to do more to prevent children from falling victim to human trafficking.

  • Addressing a meeting on this topic in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, Costa warned that the threat posed by trafficking goes far beyond the suffering of the affected children; it also threatens the region’s hopes for a peaceful and prosperous future.

  • He stressed that drug treatment for former child soldiers is a key part of post-conflict rehabilitation. He also urged more attention be given to the plight of girls.

  • He appealed to businesses and consumers to make sure that they’re not supporting human trafficking or slave labour.

U.N. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CHIEF URGES
ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGIES THAT IMPROVE ENVIRONMENT

  • Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang addressed the Conference on the Positive Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on the Environment and Climate Change.

  • He said such technologies can help cut greenhouse gas emissions by modernizing mass transit. He added that they can also help to provide information on climate change and disaster management; monitor and assess air pollution; and manage water demand in agriculture through irrigation technologies.

U.N. POPULATION FUND FOCUSES ON UNDERREPORTED STORIES
OF GENDER VIOLENCE

  • As part of a 16-day campaign against gender violence, the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) is shining a light on five underreported stories.

  • They are: the thousands of deaths each year in the Russian Federation that result from domestic violence; the prenatal sex selection in India that’s resulted in a gender imbalance, driving a greater demand for trafficked young women, who are forced into sexual slavery; the practice of female self-immolation in Central Asian republics; how gender-based violence is causing a rising proportion of women to become infected with HIV; and the practice of “compensation marriages”, where girls are forced into arranged marriages to settle an inter-ethnic or family dispute.

REPORT ON INVESTIGATION INTO HARIRI KILLING EXPECTED SOON

  • In response to a question, the Spokeswoman said that the Secretary-General was likely to receive later today the latest report by Serge Brammertz, the head of the UN International Independent Investigation Commission tasked with investigating the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
  • The report was expected to be sent to the Security Council tomorrow, she added.

**The guest at noon was Claes Johansson of the U.N. Development Programme, who briefed on the latest Human Development Report on "Fighting Climate Change: Human Solidarity in a Divided World”.