Secretary-General

Noon briefing of 8 May 2008

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY MARIE OKABE
DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Thursday, May 8, 2008

MYANMAR: BAN KI-MOON URGES FOCUS ON EMERGENCY RESPONSE EFFORTS

  • Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, deeply concerned about the welfare of the people of Myanmar at this time of national tragedy, has taken note of the Government’s decision to proceed with the constitutional referendum on 10 May, while postponing it in some of the areas most affected by the cyclone.

  • Due to the scope of the disaster facing Myanmar today, however, the Secretary-General believes that it may be prudent to focus instead on mobilizing all available resources and capacity for the emergency response efforts.

AGENCIES STEP UP RELIEF EFFORTS IN MYANMAR, AS WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME SENDS IN FIRST SHIPMENT FROM ABROAD BY AIR

  • The World Food Programme has been able to deliver seven tons of high-energy biscuits by air into Myanmar today, via a Thai Airways commercial cargo flight. More than half of the shipment has already been dispatched to Labutta, one of the worst affected areas in the Irrawaddy delta, while the remainder will be distributed in Yangon tomorrow.

  • Meanwhile, a flight chartered by WFP and carrying humanitarian supplies donated by the Italian Government, also arrived in Yangon today.

  • [Another flight with 20 tons of high-energy-biscuits and medical kits is expected to arrive in Yangon shortly.]

  • WFP has also dispatched nearly 35 tons of rice from existing in-country stocks to affected areas, bringing the total amount of food distributed so far to 156 tons.

  • UNICEF, for its part, is sending in family health kits with medicine for 155,000 people, as well as water purification tablets, oral rehydration salts, tarpaulins, mosquito nets, jerry cans and cooking and cleaning supplies. Additional staff and supplies are on the way.

  • Meanwhile, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), while not a relief agency, is the only UN programme located in the Ayeyarwaddy (Irrawaddy) Delta, and it has sent rotating teams of national staff to four affected townships to make disaster assessments, deliver small relief items and provide support to the population UNDP serves.

  • Asked whether there would be a discussion in the Security Council of Myanmar, the Spokeswoman noted that Council members were discussing whether to have a briefing on that subject.

  • Asked about the Secretary-General’s contacts with Senior General Than Shwe, Okabe noted that the Secretary-General was trying to reach him by phone.

  • She noted, in response to a question about assistance to Myanmar by other countries, including China and India, that Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes had made clear that we are working with all parties to provide assistance. That is standard practice, she added.

INTENSE DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS ON BOLIVIA WELCOMED

  • The Secretary-General is closely following political developments in Bolivia. He welcomes the intense diplomatic work carried out by the Organization of American States (OAS), as well as by countries of the Group of Friends of Bolivia (Argentina, Brazil and Colombia) and other members of the international community.

  • The Secretary-General welcomes the call for dialogue made by the OAS in its resolution of 3 May and urges all political and social actors to seek a consensus on the pressing issues affecting the Bolivian people.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. REMAINS
UNSURPASSED ADVOCATE OF UNITED NATIONS VALUES

  • The Secretary-General is in Atlanta today. He is currently at the Governor’s Mansion with Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue. He should be addressing the press there in a few minutes, and we’ll have the transcript of that encounter later this afternoon.

  • This morning he joined Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin in viewing the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Collection at the Robert W. Woodruff Library. He viewed documents underlining the deep relationship between the civil rights leader and the UN – including correspondence between Dr. King and former UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Ralph Bunche.

  • The Secretary-General said Dr. King remains an unsurpassed advocate of all the UN stands for: peace, economic and social justice, and human rights. He said we can be inspired by him as we pursue our overriding mission today to build a better world in the 21st century.

  • Since global health is one of the Secretary-General’s key priorities for 2008 and beyond, he will visit this afternoon the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which works with the World Health Organization on many issues. He will also meet President Jimmy Carter at the Carter Center tonight, in advance of his meeting there tomorrow on global health.

SECURITY COUNCIL IS BRIEFED ON DEVELOPMENTS IN LEBANON

  • The Security Council today heard in an open meeting from Terje Roed-Larsen, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Implementation of Resolution 1559, about the latest developments in Lebanon and the Secretary-General’s recent report on it.

  • Roed-Larsen said that Lebanon has continued to experience a severe political crisis, centered particularly on the failure to elect a President.

  • He noted recent incidents of unrest, including the blocking yesterday of roads leading to Beirut’s international airport by Hezbollah and scuffles between supporters of the Government and the opposition. So far, two people were reported killed from the clashes and 10 injured. Today, Roed-Larsen said, a very tense calm has returned to the capital, but several roads remain closed.

  • Roed-Larsen stressed that the full disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias is in the best interest of regional stability. He reiterated the Secretary-General’s deep concern that a Presidential election still has not taken place.

  • The Council then went into consultations on Lebanon.

ATTACK ON FOOD CONVOY IN SOMALIA IS CONDEMNED

LEVEL OF SECURITY SATISFACTORY IN CHAD AMID INFLUX OF REFUGEES

  • While road banditry remains a serious concern in southern Chad, the UN Mission in Chad and the Central African Republic (MINURCAT) says that it is satisfied that a good level of security is prevailing there amid an influx of refugees from the neighboring Central African Republic.

  • The refugees are arriving from the border town of Gore where local officials on Monday welcomed a UN delegation led by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative Victor Angelo.

  • The delegation also included WFP, UNICEF and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) which estimates the total number of refugees in Chad at some 296,000. Of that, some 53,000 are Central Africans while the rest are Sudanese.

AFGHANISTAN, IRAN AND PAKISTAN AGREE TO COOPERATE
TO STEM FLOW OF DRUGS FROM AFGHANISTAN

  • The UN Office on Drugs and Crime says that a meeting involving officials from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan has concluded with an agreement on ways to strengthen border cooperation among those three countries in order to stem the flow of drugs from Afghanistan.

  • The meeting is part of the Triangular Initiative brokered by the Office on Drugs and Crime to improve trans-border cooperation to fight drugs and crime.

  • The Office’s Executive Director, Antonio Maria Costa, was in Tehran, where he met with senior officials. He stressed the need to ensure that ways to facilitate trade are not exploited by smugglers of drugs and weapons.

GLOBAL CARBON MARKET DOUBLES LAST YEAR TO $64 BILLION

  • The global carbon market more than doubled last year – to $64 billion. That’s according to a new report from the World Bank, which says that some segments even tripled in value.

  • However, the report found a levelling off of clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in developing countries.

  • The report warns of a “demand gap” sometime this year – when buyers realize that there is not enough time to fulfil their Kyoto Protocol commitments with new projects, but demand from a post-2012 market (under a still to be concluded climate change agreement) won’t have kicked in.

  • The report also warns of procedural delays in the CDM approval cycle; more than two out of three projects have not yet been processed, the World Bank says.

ALARMING DECLINE OF MIGRATORY BIRDS IS REPORTED

  • The U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) is warning about an alarming decline in the number of migratory birds along the world’s major flyways.

  • UNEP cites one study showing a 75 per cent decline in migratory shorebirds flying between East Asia and Australia over the last 25 years.

  • The exact reasons for this are complex, and they also vary regionally, as well as from species to species, but one culprit could be a loss of habitats to agricultural, urban and industrial development, UNEP says. As a result, birds have fewer places to stop and rest when they migrate.

  • Meanwhile, rising temperatures are resulting in expanding deserts, more frequent storms, and rising sea levels, which threaten tidal and wetland areas.

*The guest at the noon briefing was John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, who briefed on the humanitarian situation in Myanmar and UN assistance efforts in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.