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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BRIEFING
BY MARIE OKABE
DEPUTY
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON
UN
HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Thursday, January 29, 2009
BAN KI-MOON
ANNOUNCES $613 MILLION APPEAL FOR GAZA
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced in Davos
an appeal for $613 million to cover the immediate recovery needs of the
people of
Gaza for the next six to nine months. A formal appeal will be launched
next week, on 2 February, in Geneva.
In a joint
press conference with Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes, the
Secretary-General said, “Help is urgently needed,” including food, clean water,
shelter, medicine and the restoration of basic services. He told reporters,
“When I saw the people in Gaza, the destruction and severity of the challenges
were beyond description.” He urged the international community to contribute
generously to the appeal.
He was asked about the violence reported over the past few
days in Gaza, and replied, “The incident which took place two days ago clearly
shows us that this ceasefire is very fragile. Therefore this ceasefire must be
translated into a durable and sustainable one, which can be respected by all the
parties concerned.” Later today, the Secretary-General also participated in a
plenary session of the World Economic Forum on Gaza, where he stressed the need
for a durable ceasefire and for a viable peace process.
In a separate event, he marked the tenth anniversary of the
UN Global Compact. He said that, ten years on, it stands as the world’s largest
corporate sustainability initiative, with more than 6,000 business participants
in more than 130 countries. The Global Compact has become a byword for corporate
responsibility, he noted.
At another private session in Davos, he pushed for a
Climate Change communication initiative that will explain, educate and ask for
global engagement, leading to success at the December summit in Copenhagen.
While in Davos, the Secretary-General also met, last night
and today, with a number of leaders. He discussed climate change and the Middle
East peace process with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He discussed
Haiti with former U.S. President Bill Clinton. And, in a bilateral meeting with
Mexican President Felipe Calderon, he talked about climate change, food
security, the
Millennium Development Goals and Haiti.
Asked about the flash appeal for
Gaza, the Spokeswoman noted that John Holmes would formally launch the appeal in
Geneva on 2 February.
Asked whether the United Nations would only investigate the attacks on UN
facilities in Gaza, Okabe said that the Secretary-General, in his press
conference today, had reiterated that he would set up an investigation that
would look into the attacks on the UN compounds in Gaza.
HALF OF ALL
INJURED GAZANS MAY SUFFER LIFE-LONG IMPAIRMENT
On Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA)
estimates that as many as half of the 5,000 men, women and children injured
over the past three weeks may suffer life-long impairment. Such disabilities
were brought on unnecessarily because rehabilitation workers were unable to
respond immediately, according to OCHA.
At the same time, OCHA reports that the water situation in
parts of Gaza has improved, with 70 percent of the water system functioning in
certain areas. But this does not mean that everyone is getting water. Also, the
sewage network in some parts remains damaged. For its part, the UN Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) recently provided
more than 150,000 liters of fuel to municipalities so that they can cover all
their solid waste management needs until mid-March.
UNRWA also provided 75,000 liters of fuel this week to the
water utility so that they can operate their water and waste water assets on an
emergency basis.
Also on Gaza, the UN Mine Action Service is
working to verify that main roads are clear of unexploded ordnance so that
essential goods can be transported. It has also worked with UNICEF to ensure
that school buildings are clear.
Meanwhile, OCHA reports that the number of people receiving
UN food aid in Gaza has now increased to 1.3 million.
SRI LANKA:
HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF WORRIED BY SITUATION OF CIVIILANS IN CONFLICT ZONE
High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay today
said that she is deeply concerned by reports of the rapidly deteriorating
conditions facing a quarter of a million civilians trapped in northern Sri
Lanka’s conflict zone. She also expressed concern over alleged human rights
abuses and the significant number of civilian casualties, as well as the huge
level of displacement.
Pillay is also worried by the highly restricted access to
the Vanni region for aid agencies and impartial outside observers, including
journalists and human rights monitors.
Pillay added that it seems there may have been very grave
breaches of human rights by both sides in the conflict. She also stressed that
it is the Government's duty to provide safety to all Sri Lanka's citizens,
whatever their ethnic origin or political views.
Meanwhile, Gordon Weiss, a spokesman for the UN
Humanitarian Coordinator in Sri Lanka, reports that UN international staff
members today accompanied a convoy of hundreds of wounded civilians away from
the front lines in Sri Lanka.
He said that a quarter of a million people continue to be
stuck in a pocket of land which is a third the size of London, where they are
near the recent fighting. UN staff, he said, witnessed the injury and deaths of
dozens of people over the weekend at close quarters, while the hospitals in the
area are being overwhelmed by the numbers of wounded.
SOMALIA: INTL.
COMMUNITY WORKING TO ENSURE THAT VOTE IS TRANSPARENT & FAIR
Somalia’s presidential election will take place tomorrow in
Djibouti. Several candidates, including prominent members of both the
Transitional Federal Government and the opposition Alliance for the
Re-Liberation of Somalia, will vie for the post. That is according to Ahmedou
Ould-Abdallah, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN
Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS).
He said that the Somali leadership and the international community are working
to ensure that the vote is transparent and fair.
Once sworn in some 24 hours after the election, the new
Somali President will head to Addis Ababa for the African Union Summit, after
which he will appoint a new Prime Minister and cabinet.
Yesterday, some 150 new members of the Transitional Federal
Parliament were sworn in at a ceremony in Djibouti, where reconciliation talks
are ongoing between the government and the opposition.
Asked where the Government would
be located, the Spokeswoman said that we had been informed that all members of
Parliament and the new cabinet members are expected back in Mogadishu next week.
ARMYWORMS
WREAKING HAVOC IN LIBERIA
Caterpillars destroying crops across northern and central
Liberia have now been conclusively
identified as armyworms, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO). FAO says the infestation has also spread into villages in neighbouring
Guinea.
The agency warns that the situation may be about to get
much worse. Many of the armyworms have bored into the ground – where pesticides
can’t reach them – and formed cocoons. In the next week or two, they will
emerge as moths. “Each moth can fly up to one thousand kilometers and lay one
thousand eggs,” says Winfred Hammond, an entomologist who is FAO’s permanent
representative in Liberia.
FAO is leading a team of experts that is doing all it can
to help. One step under consideration is setting pheromone traps that use the
mating scent of female moths to lure male moths to their doom.
MYANMAR: MORE
FUNDS NEEDED FOR POST-CYCLONE AGRICULTURAL AID
Earlier this week, the UN in Myanmar
organized a meeting and field visit for international donors helping with
post-Cyclone Nargis relief efforts.
Areas hardest-hit by the storm still need substantial
support if people are to resume their livelihoods, according to the UN’s
Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator there. The cyclone killed large amounts
of livestock and destroyed boats, fishing nets, and farm tools.
While crops in Myanmar as a whole are expected to be
satisfactory, rice production in the delta is down 50 per cent, according to the
assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food
Programme.
Assistance for the agriculture sector, which makes up
roughly one-eighth of the UN Revised Appeal for nearly 480 million dollars, is
only 28 per cent funded.
BAN KI-MOON TO
HEAD TO U.A.E., PAKISTAN AND INDIA
Following his attendance at the African Union Summit in
Addis Ababa, the Secretary-General will travel to Abu Dhabi on an official
visit to the United Arab Emirates.
Thereafter, he will travel to Islamabad on an official
trip to Pakistan.
The Secretary-General will then travel to New Delhi, India,
to attend the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2009.
During the course of his visit, he will meet with senior
government officials in the various countries concerned.
OTHER
ANNOUNCEMENTS
DARFUR MEDIATOR CALLS FOR CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES:
The African Union-United Nations Joint Chief Mediator for Darfur Djibril Bassole
has issued a
press statement, in which he calls on the parties to cease hostile military
actions to minimize the suffering of the people of Darfur and to create a
conducive environment for a political dialogue to resolve the conflict
peacefully.
SECURITY COUNCIL DEBATES INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW:
The
Security Council today is holding a private debate on respect for
international humanitarian law. UN Legal Counsel Patricia O’Brien opened the
discussion of the Security Council’s effectiveness at ensuring respect for
international humanitarian law. Senior officials from the Office of the High
Commissioner for Refugees, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,
and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also contributed to
the discussion.
SERBIAN FOREIGN MINISTER
MEETS PEACEKEEPING CHIEF: Asked who would
meet with visiting Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic while he is at UN
Headquarters, the Spokeswoman noted that the Secretary-General is in Europe, so
he was unable to meet the Foreign Minister. The Foreign Minister, she said, is
meeting today with Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le
Roy.
*** The guest at the noon briefing today was Daly
Belgasmi, the World Food Programme’s Regional Director for the Middle East,
Central Asia and Eastern Europe. He briefed on the humanitarian situation in
Gaza.
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