Monday,
August 25, 2008

BAN KI-MOON
CONGRATULATES CHINA FOR 'SPECTACULAR' OLYMPIAD

• Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
  
  congratulates the Government and people of China on their
  unprecedented effort and success in hosting the historic Olympic Games
  in Beijing. 
   

• China can be proud of hosting a spectacular
  Olympiad, which brought together athletes and people from all over the
  world in celebration of the Olympic spirit, cooperation and goodwill.
   

• The 2008 Summer Games provided an important
  opportunity for the promotion of international peace and harmony through
  deepened dialogue and mutual understanding within the international
  community.

 UNITED NATIONS GRAVELY CONCERNED
ABOUT REPORTED DARFUR CAMP CLASH

• The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Ameerah
  Haq, says the United Nations is gravely
  
  concerned about the reports it received this morning of Sudanese
  police vehicles surrounding Kalma camp housing internally displaced
  persons in South Darfur. Subsequent reports of the attacks that followed
  within Kalma have resulted in injuries and deaths of civilians. 
   

• Such actions severely threaten the safety and
  security of civilians who have a right to protection under International
  Humanitarian Law.
   

• The United Nations urges restraint and calls for
  the immediate establishment of a humanitarian corridor so that the
  injured may be evacuated.
   

• Kalma is home to 80.000 internally displaced
  persons, most of whom are women and children.
   

• The African Union-United Nation mission in Darfur
  (UNMID) has sent police and military patrols to the camp location to
  confirm the incident and lend any assistance needed. UNAMID leadership
  is extremely concerned by this serious incident which circumstances will
  be investigated. It is closely monitoring the situation and call on all
  parties to exercise restraint.
   

• Meanwhile, UNAMID reported banditry by Janjaweed
  militias at two other IDP camps in West Darfur and inter-tribal clashes
  in a village in South Darfur.

 AFGHANISTAN: UN ENVOY CALLS FOR
PROBE INTO REPORTS OF CIVILIAN CASUALTIES IN MILITARY OPERATIONS

• The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for
  Afghanistan, Kai Eide, has
  
  issued a statement on reports of civilian casualties in western
  Afghanistan.
   

• Dated Saturday, the Special Representative says he
  learned of conflicting reports that large numbers of civilians may have
  been killed during military operations in the Shindand district of Herat
  province.
   

• “It is vital that this incident is investigated
  thoroughly and quickly to establish the facts of what has happened
  before we jump to any conclusions,” he says. “The United Nations has
  always made clear that civilian casualties are unacceptable, that they
  undermine the trust and confidence of the Afghan people."
   

• He said he instructed his office in Herat to offer
  every assistance to the provincial authorities as well as to establish
  and verify the facts. “Any civilian casualty, is one civilian casualty
  too many. And every effort that can be made - must be made - to ensure
  the safety and welfare of the civilian population where military
  operations are conducted,” he said.

 U.N. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE SADDENED
BY INDISCRIMINATE KILLING OF CIVILIANS IN SOMALIA

• The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for
  Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah,
  
  says he is saddened by the indiscriminate killing of innocent
  civilians and the resulting displacement of residents of the town of
  Kismayo. He believes that control of the port of Kismayo and the
  revenues it generates are the main reasons behind the brutal fighting.
  
   

• Ould-Abdallah also said he was deeply saddened by
  the large number of casualties in the August 16 and 17 gun battles in
  Afgooye and Mogadishu. The fighting displaced some 2,000 people.
   

• The Special Representative called on all parties to
  the conflict in Somalia to respect international human rights and
  humanitarian law, and to stand by their commitments under the Djibouti
  agreement.

UN SPECIAL
ADVISOR HEADS TO INDONESIA FOLLOWING MYANMAR VISIT

• The
  Secretary-General’s Special Adviser, Ibrahim Gambari, has completed his
  visit to Myanmar, as we reported over the weekend.
   

• Today in Bangkok, Mr. Gambari met with the Prime
  Minister of Thailand for one hour where they held extensive and
  constructive exchanges of views on the current situation in Myanmar as
  well as the way forward in support to the Secretary-General's Good
  Offices. In the afternoon, Gambari also met with the Thai Foreign
  Minister.
   

• He is currently en route to Indonesia, where is he
  scheduled to meet the President and Foreign Minister.
   

• Asked if Mr. Gambari did
  not meet with Aung San Suu Kyii because the government did not allow it
  or because she rebuffed the UN envoy, Okabe said that it was Mr.
  Gambari’s intention to meet her, as he did on all his previous visits,
  and the Government made arrangements for such a meeting. To his regret,
  the meeting did not take place. 
   

•  “We are not going
  to speculate as to why she was not able to attend the meeting, but Mr.
  Gambari did meet her party twice,” she said adding that Mr. Gambari
  impressed on both the Government and the National League for Democracy
  the need for early resumption of dialogue and made specific suggestions
  to that end. 
   

• Okabe said, in response
  to another question, that Gambari planned to brief the Secretary-General
  on the outcome of his mission after its completion.
   

• Asked if the trip could
  be considered a failure, Okabe replied that Mr. Gambari has had
  extensive and open discussions with Government other interlocutors,
  which in itself is necessary in order to deepen and broaden the process,
  as expected by the Secretary-General.
   

• She added, “We have been
  saying all along that the Secretary-General’s Good Offices is a process,
  not an event. One should not make judgment on the process based on each
  individual visit. The Secretary-General himself has made clear upon
  returning from his own visit that he expects his good offices to deepen
  and broaden through the continued engagement of his Special Adviser.”
   

• Asked if the outcome of
  this visit made it even likelier that the Secretary-General would travel
  to Myanmar, the Spokeswoman said that the Secretary-General had made it
  clear in the past that he would return to Myanmar if and once the
  conditions are right for such a trip.

 UNITED NATIONS CALLS ON NEPAL TO
FREE CHILDREN FROM ASSOCIATION WITH MAOIST FORCES

• Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Secretary-General’s
  Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, has
  
  called on the Nepalese Authorities and Maoist army to immediately
  free all children previously associated with the Maoist forces.
   

• Last year, the Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) and UNICEF
  identified more than 2,900 children under the age of 18 in the ranks of
  the Maoist Army.
   

• Ms. Coomaraswamy said those children are still in
  the Maoist cantonments and must be released immediately in accordance
  with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

SOUTH ASIAN
NATIONS MEET IN BANGLADESH TO DISCUSS CLIMATE CHANGE

• All this week in Bangladesh, more than 300 experts
  and policy makers are meeting to discuss ways South Asian countries can
  incorporate adaptation to climate change into their national development
  agendas. 
   

• The event is organized by the World Meteorological
  Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the Economic
  and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, among others.
   

• A predominantly agricultural region, South Asia has
  large populations that depend on semi-subsistence agriculture, which is
  susceptible to changes in temperature and precipitation.

 NEW SENIOR OFFICIALS ARE SWORN IN AT
UN HEADQUARTERS

• Five senior officials were sworn in this morning
  during a special ceremony in the Secretary General’s office.
   

• Patricia O’Brien, the new Legal Counsel and Head of
  the Office of Legal Affairs; Alain Le Roy, Under Secretary General for
  the Department of Peacekeeping Operations; Warren Sach, now in charge of
  Central Support at the Department of Management; Jane Holl Lute,
  Assistant Secretary General for Peacebuilding support; and the new
  Controller Jun Yamazaki took their oaths of office this morning.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
 

SECRETARY-GENERAL TO MEET WITH SECURITY COUNCIL TOMORROW:
Asked for a reaction from the Secretary-General on announcement by the
Georgian President that he will continue to seek to integrate South Ossetia
and Abkhazia into Georgia, Okabe said that while no meetings or
consultations were scheduled on this matter today, the Secretary-General and
the Security Council members would be gathering tomorrow for their monthly
luncheon during which a wide range of issues are usually discussed.

BAN KI-MOON
CLOSELY FOLLOWING INDIA-PAKISTAN ISSUE:
Asked if the Secretary-General has been in touch with the leadership of both
India and Pakistan over the crisis in Kashmir, the Spokeswoman said that Ban
Ki-moon was following the situation closely.

SOME 30,000
AFFECTED BY SOUTHERN CHAD FLOODS: An estimated 30,000 people have been
affected by floods in southern Chad, where 10,000 people having lost their
homes.  That’s according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs.  OCHA says it is working with the Government to bring life-saving
assistance to those in need as soon as possible. So far, the World Health
Organization has delivered an initial stock of emergency medical supplies. 
UNICEF is helping with mosquito nets, as well as water kits and high-protein
biscuits.  And the Food and Agriculture Organization is working to assess
the damage to agricultural production.

U.N. PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS IN WEST
AFRICA MEET TO REVIEW REGIONAL AND NATIONAL CHALLENGES: Today, in
Guinea-Bissau, the heads of UN peacekeeping missions in West Africa are
meeting to review regional and national challenges to the implementation of
their mandates.

They will also discuss the latest developments in the
sub-region since their last meeting and will take up recommendations of last
week’s Monrovia meeting of UN Force Commanders in West Africa. Participating
missions include the Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), the Mission in Cote
d’Ivoire (UNOCI), the Office for the Consolidation of Peace in Guinea Bissau
(UNOGBIS) and the UN Office in West Africa (UNOWA). A guest speaker at the
meeting will be the President of the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS), Mohamed Ibn Chambas.

THE EMMY GOES TO THE INTERNATIONAL
TELECOMMUNICATIONS UNION: Our congratulations goes to the International
Telecommunications Union has won an Emmy Award. The prize honours the ITU
and two other international standards organizations for their work on
producing an advanced video coding standard.  That technology enables
high-quality video to reach everything from mobile telephones to High
Definition televisions. The prize was awarded Saturday in Hollywood.