HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY MICHELE MONTAS
SPOKESPERSON FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
UN HEADQUARTERS,
Monday, November
2, 2009
BAN KI-MOON
VISITS KABUL AND SAYS U.N. WILL NOT BE DETERRED
The Secretary-General made a previously unannounced
visit to Kabul today, following the attack on a Kabul guesthouse last week
in which five UN staff members were killed and others were injured. He met
with UN staff, Special Representative Kai Eide, heads of UN agencies and
security officials.
Speaking to reporters, he asserted his appreciation for the work of UN
staff in Afghanistan. He added, “My main goal this time was to insist that
everything be done to ensure the security of all staff, Afghan and
internationals. We have suffered a grievous attack but our work will
continue.” The Secretary-General said, despite speculation whether the
United Nations would pull out of Afghanistan or Pakistan, that “we will not
be deterred.”
He also met today with Dr Abdullah Abdullah and
President Hamid Karzai to assure them and the Afghan people of the
continuing support of the United Nations towards the development of the
country and the humanitarian assistance that the UN provides to millions of
Afghans everyday. And he noted that President Karzai assured him once more
that security for the UN Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA)
will be strengthened.
He also issued a
statement from Kabul responding to today’s
decision by Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission to forego a
run-off vote and to declare Hamid Karzai as the winner of the 2009
presidential elections. He said that Afghanistan now faces significant
challenges and the new President must move swiftly to form a Government that
is able to command the support of both the Afghan people and the
international community.
Prior to arriving in
Afghanistan, the Secretary-General had met with in Dubai with some of the
staff members who were injured in last week’s attack in Kabul. The
Secretary-General had a warm and frank discussion with more than a dozen
staff who have suffered from trauma after the attack.
Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security Gregory Starr accompanied
the Secretary-General to Dubai and is staying on in the region to examine
safety and security issues in a more concrete way.
Asked whether the Secretary-General would also
travel to Pakistan, the Spokeswoman said that he was unable to do that at
this time, since he had to travel to London to meet his previous
commitments.
Montas said that the Secretary-General had
intended to send a senior official to Afghanistan to express solidarity with
staff in the wake of last week’s attack, and he decided to be the one to go.
After the attack a month ago on the World Food Programme (WFP) office in
Pakistan, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran had similarly traveled to
Pakistan.
Asked about the cancellation of the second round
of elections in Afghanistan, the Spokeswoman said that was a decision for
the Afghan electoral bodies to make. The United Nations made it clear that
it would accept whatever decision was arrived at by Afghanistan’s electoral
authorities.
Montas noted that the Secretary-General made
clear today that he believes that a credible government needs to be put in
place in Afghanistan. The eyes of the world are on Afghanistan, she said.
SECRETARY-GENERAL TO HIGHLIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE ON U.K. TRIP
The Secretary-General is expected to arrive in London
early Tuesday morning for a breakfast meeting with Prime Minister Gordon
Brown. He will address a Summit of Religious and Secular Leaders on Climate
Change.
Tonight, Janos Pasztor, Director of the
Secretary-General's climate change support team, will deliver a message on
his behalf to a dinner on the eve of that summit.
PAKISTAN: U.N. PLACES SECURITY
RESTRICTIONS IN NORTHWEST
Following a decision by the Secretary-General, the
presence of international staff in northwestern Pakistan has been reduced to
those staff who are vital for emergency, humanitarian relief or security
operations, among other essential operations. All other international UN
Staff who were involved in the running of program activities will be
relocated out of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
Security measures will be enhanced for staff that will
continue their work in those areas.
The United Nations is committed to providing
development and humanitarian assistance to the people of Pakistan. It will
continue to work in the areas where help is required.
SENIOR U.N.
OFFICIAL ARRIVES IN BAGHDAD FOR PRELIMINARY CONSULTATIONS ON IRAQI SECURITY AND
SOVEREIGNTY
Assistant Secretary-General
for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco has arrived in Baghdad and
started preliminary consultations related to
Iraq's security and sovereignty. He met with
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the ministers for defense and
national security. Upon completion of his mission, Fernandez-Taranco will
report to the Secretary-General.
The Secretary-General sent Fernandez-Taranco to Iraq
for preliminary consultations in response to a request from the Government
of Iraq.
GAZA:
TRUCKLOADS OF GOODS ENTER FROM ISRAEL
The Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle
East Peace Process (UNSCO)
reports that nearly eighty truckloads of goods entered Gaza from Israel on
Sunday, through the Kerem Shalom crossing. The majority of those truckloads
contained fruit, cooking oil, dairy products, flour, frozen meat, tea and
coffee.
More than 100,000 kilograms of cooking gas also made it
into Gaza through Kerem Shalom. But the Karni conveyor belt and the Nahal Oz
fuel pipelines remained closed.
Asked whether humanitarian goods can reach Gaza
by sea, the Spokeswoman said they could not under present conditions.
She added, in reply to a question on statements
by the US Government on Israeli settlements, that the views of the
Secretary-General regarding settlement activity have not changed.
AUSTRIA ASSUMES
PRESIDENCY OF SECURITY COUNCIL
Austria has assumed the rotating Presidency of the
Security Council for this month, and Austrian Ambassador Thomas
Mayr-Harting is holding bilateral talks with other Council members today
about its work during November.
On Tuesday, the Security Council is expected to hold
consultations on its programme of work for the coming month. Ambassador
Mayr-Harting will brief reporters on that subject at 12:30 pm Tuesday.
SPAIN HOSTS
LAST FIVE DAYS OF CLIMATE CHANGE NEGOTIATIONS BEFORE COPENHAGEN
The last five-day negotiating session before the United
Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December
started today in Barcelona, Spain.
Yvo de Boer, the Executive Secretary of the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said that he was
convinced that it was possible to further narrow down options and come up
with working texts for a comprehensive, fair and effective international
climate change deal, during this session.
The Barcelona talks need to make clear progress and put
in place a solid foundation for success at Copenhagen, he added.
Parties are expected in Barcelona to make progress on
adaptation, technology cooperation, action to reduce emissions from
deforestation in developing countries and enhanced capacity building.
Noting that workable middle ground options had emerged
on these items, de Boer said these could now be taken forward. But he also
said that the targets of industrialized countries presently on the table
were not ambitious enough, and that more clarity was needed on the issue of
financing.
OUTGOING HEAD
OF U.N.’S NUCLEAR WATCHDOG GIVES LAST ADDRESS TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY
This morning, Mohamed ElBaradei delivered his last
speech to the General Assembly as Director General of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
He said that, from the time he started as Director
General in 1998, the Agency has moved from being a relatively unknown
technical organization to becoming a major player at the centre of issues
critical to international peace and security.
The Agency, he said, has gained universal respect for
its independence and objectivity in nuclear verification, safety and
security.
Regarding Iran, ElBaradei urged Tehran to be as
forthcoming as possible in responding soon to his recent proposal, based on
the initiative of the U.S., Russia and France. He added that trust and
confidence-building are an incremental process, which requires focusing on
the big picture and a willingness to take risks for peace.
U.N. MISSION IN
D.R. CONGO SUSPENDS SUPPORT TO GOVERNMENT MILITARY UNITS IMPLICATED IN KILLINGS
IN THE EAST
In response to questions about recent killings in
the eastern Congo, the Spokeswoman said that Under-Secretary-General for
Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy has called for a joint investigation by
the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC)
and the Congolese army into the killing of 62 civilians between May and
September 2009 near Goma, in the east of the country.
While in the North Kivu province on Sunday, Le
Roy said that these civilians – many of them women and children – were
clearly the target of attacks by certain elements of the Congolese Armed
Forces, Montas noted.
He added that until the results of the joint
investigation were known, MONUC would immediately suspend its logistical
support to the units believed to be implicated in these killings. It will be
up to the Congolese Armed Forces to take necessary measures once the
investigation is closed.
The Spokeswoman confirmed that MONUC has
immediately suspended all support to the 213 brigade of the Congolese Armed
Forces, due to compelling evidence that elements in this brigade were
responsible for the targeted killing of these 62 civilians, including a
significant number of women and children, in the region of Lukweti, North
Kivu, between May and September 2009. MONUC and the Armed Forces have agreed
on the immediate launch of a joint investigation to determine further facts,
she added.
SUDAN-DARFUR:
A.U.-U.N. MISSION HELPS DEFUSE ETHNIC TENSIONS
The African Union–United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID)
has participated in a reconciliation ceremony in Shangil Tobaya, in North
Darfur, aimed at ending a spate of ethnic clashes that have claimed the
lives of some two dozen people in the area.
Ethnic tensions had increased, with fears of potential reprisal attacks,
after it emerged that a member of the Tengur tribe was killed by Zaghawas
during their fight with the Birgid tribe.
On Sunday, a senior member of the SLA/Minawi-faction from El Fasher and a
mediation committee of local leaders, or Umdahs, visited the village where
the killing occurred, to urge the affected tribes to exercise restraint. A
peace agreement was signed by the two tribes, with the objective of
preventing further ethnic clashes in the area.
U.N. EMBARKS ON
LARGEST DISTRIBUTION OF VOTER REGISTRATION MATERIALS IN SUDAN
The UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS)
and the UN Development Programme (UNDP)
have embarked on the largest ever delivery of voter registration material in
Sudan, in preparation for the nationwide voter registration exercise that
started Sunday.
At the request of Sudan’s
National Elections Commission (NEC), the two UN entities will be delivering
registration kits, forms, pieces of tarpaulin, and training books for
registration staff. Also being delivered are 26 generators, office
furniture and communications equipment.
UNDP is taking care of
transportation of materials to Sudan’s 25 state capitals. UNMIS air assets
are being used for the delivery of materials to 43 inaccessible and remote
locations in Southern Sudan and Southern Kordofan state.
In Darfur, UNAMID will
deliver voter registration materials to ten isolated areas in Northern and
Western Darfur
SIERRA LEONE:
EIGHT SPECIAL COURT CONVICTS ARRIVE IN RWANDA TO SERVE TERMS
Eight persons convicted by the
Special Court for Sierra Leone for serious crimes committed during the
country’s civil war have been transferred from the Court’s detention
facility in Freetown to Rwanda, where they will begin serving their
sentences.
At present, no facility in Sierra Leone meets the required international
standards for holding these convicts.
The prisoners were transferred over the weekend, accompanied by officials
from the Special Court’s Security and Detention sections.
They included three former leaders of Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United
Front (RUF), whose sentences were recently upheld on appeal: Former RUF
Interim Leader Issa Hassan Sesay, Senior RUF Commander Morris Kallon, and
former RUF Security Chief Augustine Gbao.
The prisoners will be incarcerated at Rwanda’s Mpanga Prison, under an
agreement signed between the Special Court and the Rwandan Government last
March. The prisoners have been sentenced to sentences ranging from 15 to 52
years, with credit given for time served while in detention at the Special
Court.
U.N. MISSION
SUCCESSFULLY FOILS JAILBREAK IN LIBERIA
The UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL)
reports that it has successfully foiled an attempted jail break in
Monrovia’s Central Prison.
The attempted escape started on Sunday after one inmate reportedly managed
to grab a set of keys from a corrections officer and locked the officer
inside a cell. Fifty inmates then managed to escape from the cell into the
main prison yard. But they were intercepted at the main prison gate by the
UN Mission’s Jordanian Formed Police Unit (FPU), and some officers of the
Liberian National Police (LNP).
Several warning shots were fired in the air to prevent the inmates from
escaping. In the process, some of the inmates, ten Jordanian police and one
corrections officer sustained minor injuries. None of the inmates escaped.
NEPAL: BAN KI-MOON
URGES PARTIES TO ADDRESS ROOT CAUSES OF CONFLICT
In a report to the Security Council, the
Secretary-General expresses serious concerns that core commitments in
Nepal’s peace process have yet to be implemented. He stresses that
persistent mistrust among the parties, daily politics and internal party
issues are currently compromising their capacities for flexible negotiation.
The Secretary-General urges the parties to devote
greater energy, through the Constituent Assembly process and other fora, to
addressing issues that have been identified as long-term underlying causes
of the conflict, including the restructuring of the State.
UNICEF AND
W.H.O. LAUNCH PLAN TO SAVE FIVE MILLION CHILDREN FROM PNEUMONIA
More than five million children could be saved over six
years if a comprehensive plan to tackle pneumonia is adopted worldwide,
according to UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO).
That comprehensive plan is being jointly
launched by the two agencies at the Global Pneumonia Summit, being held
today here in New York. According to UNICEF and WHO, pneumonia kills more
than 4,000 children every day.
PRIVATE SECTOR
CHIEFS MEET ON USING STOCK EXCHANGES TO PROMOTE A MORE STABLE WORLD ECONOMY
More than 60 top executives of institutional investors
and stock exchanges around the world are meeting at UN Headquarters today.
They are here to explore ways in which stock exchanges can promote
sustainable business practices and long-term approaches to investment.
In a
video message to the gathering, the Secretary-General said that managing
and integrating environmental, social and governance issues are critical in
creating a world economy that is more stable, inclusive and sustainable. In
that regard, stock exchanges and other financial bodies and institutions
have a key role to play, he added.
The meeting is co-hosted by the UN-backed Principles
for Responsible Investment, the Global Compact and the UN Conference on
Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
MORE FOOD
STORAGE FACILITIES NEEDED TO REDUCE POST-HARVEST LOSSES
Improved technology and training can help drastically
reduce post-harvest losses, according to the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO).
The FAO says that a significant amount – as high as 50
percent of what is produced-- is lost after harvest in developing countries,
thereby aggravating hunger. It calls for greater efforts to reduce food
losses in the entire food chain -- at the very least, by increasing
investments in cold and dry storage infrastructure and in first-stage
processing equipment.
OTHER
ANNOUNCEMENTS
FIVE MORE COUNTRIES JOIN EFFORTS TO STOP DEFORESTATION:
Five new countries have
joined the UN-REDD Programme, which supports countries to develop capacity
to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Argentina,
Cambodia, Ecuador, Nepal and Sri Lanka are the first to officially request to
participate in the UN-REDD Programme, in addition to the initial nine member
countries, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
UNDP HEAD TO VISIT CHILE: The UN Development
Programme (UNDP)
Administrator, Helen Clark, will begin an official visit to Chile on Tuesday.
There she will meet with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and other senior
Government officials to discuss her development priorities, climate change, and
the Millennium Development Goals. She will also meet individually with each of
the UN Resident Representatives and Resident Coordinators in Latin America, who
are in Santiago for their annual meeting.
TWO SECURITY OFFICERS AT UNHQ
SUSPENDED OVER PUBLICITY STUNT: In
response to a question concerning an unauthorised publicity stunt at UN
Headquarters two weeks ago, the Spokeswoman said that two security officers had
been suspended temporarily pending an investigation by the Department of Safety
and Security (DSS) into that matter.
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