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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BRIEFING
BY MARIE OKABE
DEPUTY
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON
UN
HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
BAN KI-MOON IS
SET TO EMBARK ON FIVE-NATION AFRICA VISIT
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to travel
early next week to South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Rwanda and Egypt.
It will be his first official visit to South Africa and
Tanzania where he will hold discussions on national, regional and
international issues.
In South Africa, he will meet with President Kgalema
Motlanthe, as well as the Ministers for Finance and Environment. The
Secretary-General is also expected to meet with former President Nelson
Mandela.
In Tanzania, one of the pilot countries for the UN
reform program on “Delivering as One”, the Secretary-General will hold
discussions with President Jakaya Kikwete. He will address the diplomatic
and academic community in Dar es salaam. In Zanzibar he will inaugurate the
One UN Office, provided by the government of Zanzibar to house all UN
agencies.
The Secretary-General is also due to fly over the
receding ice cap of mount Kilimanjaro on his way to Arusha to visit the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, his next stop,
he will meet with President Joseph Kabila, with parliamentarians as well as
members of civil society. He will then go to Bukavu to visit Panzi Hospital,
where victims of sexual violence are cared for. In Goma, he will meet with
members of the UN peacekeeping mission, MONUC, and with local authorities.
He will also visit in Goma the Mugunga camp for people displaced by conflict
before flying to Rwanda to meet with President Paul Kagame.
The Secretary General then plans to travel to Sharm El
Sheikh, Egypt, where he will participate on 2 March in the “International
Conference in support of the Palestinian Economy, for the reconstruction of
Gaza”. The Conference is co-chaired by Egypt and Norway.
SECURITY COUNCIL TAKES UP THE MIDDLE
EAST
The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace
Process, Robert Serry,
briefed the
Security Council this morning on the Middle East. He said a number of
realities have to be squarely addressed if peace is to be advanced.
Those include: the severe humanitarian, economic and
political repercussions of the Gaza crisis; continued Palestinian divisions;
a new political situation in Israel; the inconclusive results of last year’s
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations; unmet Roadmap obligations, especially
regarding settlements; and the freeze in indirect Israeli-Syrian
negotiations.
On Gaza, Serry noted that, one month since unilateral
ceasefires were declared, a proper ceasefire regime is still not in place.
As a result, there is an ever-present danger of a return to renewed and more
devastating violence.
He added that a ceasefire regime will only be durable
if there is broader progress, including: an exchange of Palestinian
prisoners for the release of Israeli captive Gilad Shalit; continued
cooperation and action to prevent the re-supply of weapons in Gaza; the full
implementation of the Agreement on Movement and Access; and Palestinian
unity. Such steps would also pave the way for the longer term recovery and
reconstruction of Gaza.
Turning to Lebanon, Serry said that country continues
to enjoy a period of relative stability, but there are also signs of
increased political tension in the run-up to the parliamentary elections
there.
The Security Council also held closed consultations on
the Middle East.
BAN KI-NOON DISPATCHES TOP HUMANITARIAN
OFFICIAL TO SRI LANKA
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs
and Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, will travel to Colombo this
week, at the invitation of the Government of Sri Lanka.
During his three-day visit from 19 to 22 February,
Holmes will discuss and review the humanitarian situation with a wide array
of representatives from the Government, Member States, the United Nations,
the International Red Cross, and non-governmental organizations.
He will also have the opportunity to meet internally
displaced persons in the Vavuniya and its vicinity.
Mr. Holmes is set to hold a press conference to wrap up
his visit there.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund
expressed grave concerns on the growing number of children reportedly
being recruited by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The agency
is also extremely alarmed at the high number of children being injured in
the fighting in the northern area of Vanni. UNICEF reiterates its call to
the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE that civilians, especially
children, must be given every protection from the fighting.
DARFUR:
Under-Secretary-General for Field Support
IS IN SUDAN to ensure mission deployment
The Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, Susanna
Malcorra, is currently in Khartoum for a regular tripartite meeting with the
Government of Sudan and the African Union, as part our efforts to ensure the
continued deployment of troops and equipment for the AU/UN Hybrid Operation
in Darfur (UNAMID).
This is the fourth such regular meeting to ensure that
every effort is made by all parties to speed up the deployment of troops and
equipment.
Meanwhile, senior officials of the United Nations have
gained assurances from the Deputy Governor of South Darfur for continued
access to Muhajariya and surrounding localities. The UN’s humanitarian chief
in Sudan, Ameerah Haq, led the discussions that resulted in commitments to
see aid programmes reach some 100,000 people.
Discussions also broached the need for independent
humanitarian assessments of population movements, and of requirements for
other relief, including early recovery assistance.
HUTU REBEL GROUP TERRORIZING
CIVILIANS IN DR CONGO
The embattled ethnic Hutu rebel group Forces
Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR) is
terrorizing civilians through systematic looting, abduction, rape and
murder. That’s according to the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (MONUC).
The Mission condemns these “cowardly terror tactics”,
through which the FDLR is attempting to undermine a joint DRC/Rwanda
military operation to flush it out of the Congo.
A UN-backed disarmament and voluntary repatriation
programme remains available to FDLR fighters, but most of them have so far
shunned this opportunity.
The FDLR’s assault on civilians also seeks to frustrate
an eventual restoration of Congolese state authority in northeastern DRC. In
response, the Mission has maintained civilian-protection teams at
peacekeepers’ bases, and round-the-clock patrols continue.
The Mission and Congolese authorities are also
collaborating in monitoring the situation and are preparing to beef up their
engagement in other areas.
In
a briefing to the Security Council yesterday, John Holmes, the Emergency
Relief Coordinator and Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs,
said that the security situation in the eastern and northern provinces of
the DRC has added another half million people to the internally displaced
population. Holmes, who recently conducted an assessment mission to the DRC,
says that despite the overall difficult and unpredictable security
situation, UN agencies are working as rapidly as possible to address the
major humanitarian crisis there.
UNAIDS WELCOMES
BURUNDI’S REJECTION OF LAW TO CRIMINALIZE HOMOSEXUALITY
UNAIDS today
welcomed the Burundian Senate’s rejection of a draft law that sought to
criminalize homosexuality in Burundi.
Michel Sidibé, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, said
that, by rejecting the amendment, Senators in Burundi protected the human
rights of their people and set a standard for other lawmakers around the
world.
According to UNAIDS, criminalizing adult sexual
behavior and violating the human rights of people living with HIV are
hampering HIV responses across the world.
AMAZONIA REGION FACES GROWING
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
A report on the environmental outlook for the Amazon region, prepared in
part by the U.N. Environment Programme and released today, finds growing
environmental degradation in the planet’s most extensive forest zone. The
Amazonian ecosystem is being rapidly transformed by changes in land use, the
exploitation of natural resources, and expanding urbanization.
Deforestation has resulted in a 17 percent reduction in
vegetation cover, and there has also been an increasing loss of biodiversity
and localized climate change impacts. Because of the burning of forests,
Amazonia is progressively becoming a significant contributor to greenhouse
gas emissions, the report notes.
While efforts are underway on the national level to
deal with environmental challenges, more needs to be done at the regional
level, including water management, harmonizing environmental policies, and
tracking of biodiversity, the report says.
ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT ON THE ASSESSMENT
OF BEIJING OLYMPICS RELEASED
UNEP today also released an
assessment of the Beijing Olympics. It found that the Games met, if not
exceeded, many environmental pledges – from reducing air pollution to
investing US$17 billion in public transport, renewable energies, and other
environmental projects.
The report adds, however, that more could have been
done to engage with non-governmental organizations and to cut the Olympic
and Paralympic Games’ carbon footprint.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
PROPOSALS AGREED UPON AT GENEVA DISCUSSIONS:
The co-Presidents of the fourth round of
Geneva discussions -- Johan Verbeke,
the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the UN Observer
Mission in Georgia, as well as representatives of the European Union and the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) -- wrapped up
their two-day meeting. They noted that participants in the talks had agreed by
consensus on proposals for joint incident prevention and response
mechanisms. The co-Presidents added that those agreed proposals were an
important step in helping to bring stability and security.
UNITED NATIONS IS AWARE OF REPORTS ON THE
ABDUCTEES OF ENVOY: Asked about reports
that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed to have abducted Special Envoy
for Niger Robert Fowler and his colleagues, the Spokeswoman said that the United
Nations is aware of the reports but has no further comments.
SECRETARY-GENERAL SUPPORTS ALL
EFFORTS FOR PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF DISPUTES:
Asked about a dispute between the United Arab Emirates and Iran over islands,
the Spokeswoman said that the Secretary-General supports all efforts at peaceful
resolution of disputes.
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