BY MARTIN NESIRKY

SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON

 UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
 

 

Friday, March
12, 2010

 

SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON CONDEMNS PAKISTAN BOMB ATTACKS

• 
  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
  
  condemns the series of attacks in Pakistan which has occurred in
  recent days.  These include the suicide bombing today in Lahore which
  killed and injured scores of people as well as the attack on the office
  of the humanitarian non-governmental organization, World Vision
  International. 
   

• He reiterates that no cause can justify such
  inhuman and indiscriminate acts of violence.  He extends his condolences
  to the families of the victims and to the Government of Pakistan, and
  wishes those injured a full recovery.

 

BAN KI-MOON
PLANS VISIT TO HAITI ON SUNDAY

• The
  
  Secretary-General plans to travel to
  
  Haiti this Sunday on a one-day visit to assess conditions on the
  ground.
   

• This will be the Secretary-General’s second visit
  to Haiti since the tragic earthquake of 12 January.
   

• While in Port-au-Prince, the Secretary-General will
  meet with Haitian President Preval and Prime Minister Bellerive, as well
  as with the leadership of the
  
  UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and the UN Country
  Team.
   

• The Secretary-General will also visit a camp for
  internally displaced persons and engage directly with Haitians still
  suffering the debilitating consequences of the earthquake.
   

 REVISED FLASH APPEAL FOR
HAITI ONLY HALF-FUNDED

• Two months on since to
  
  Haiti was struck by the earthquake, the
  
  UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says
  the
  
  Revised Humanitarian Appeal is only 49 per cent funded.
   

• On the ground, humanitarian work continues, with
  more than 4.3 million people having received food assistance, 1.2
  million people receiving daily water distributions, and more than
  300,000 children and adults have been vaccinated.
   

• More than 56 percent of 1.3 million people in need
  of shelter have been provided with emergency shelter materials, and
  preparation work is starting on two sites identified by the government
  for the relocation of displaced persons from other high-risk settlement
  sites – the first site for relocation will have its official
  inauguration tomorrow, the 13th of March.
   

• Asked whether UN
  personnel in Haiti would seek a new headquarters building, the
  Spokesperson noted that the first priority of the
  
  UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) is
  to help the Haitian people.
   

• At present, he said, the
  headquarters for MINUSTAH is at the logistics base near the airport. The
  
  
  Secretary-General can assess the
  situation for UN personnel when he meets with the officials on the
  ground this Sunday.

 

SECURITY
COUNCIL EXTENDS MANDATE OF MINURCAT; BRIEFED ON RESOLUTION 1701

• The
  
  Security Council this morning adopted a resolution extending the
  mandate of the
  
  UN Mission in Chad and the Central African Republic (MINURCAT) by
  two months, until 15 May.
   

• The Council then went into consultations to hear a
  briefing from Michael Williams, the
  
  UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon. He presented the
  
  Secretary-General’s latest
  
  report on the implementation of resolution 1701, which notes that
  the continued respect of the cessation of hostilities by Israel and
  Lebanon has provided for the most stable period in the relationship
  between the two countries for decades. Yet the situation remains
  fragile, which is further compounded by the use of increasingly strident
  and bellicose rhetoric warning of renewed conflict.
   

• Wolfgang Weisbrod Weber, Director of the Asia and
  the Middle East Division of the
  
  Department of Peacekeeping Operations, also briefed on the work of
  the
  
  UN Interim Force in Lebanon.
   

• Asked whether the United
  Nations is worried about the situation of people displaced by fighting
  if MINURCAT leaves, the Spokesperson noted that today’s Security Council
  two-month extension was a technical one. The United Nations, he said,
  will continue discussions on future of MINURCAT beyond 15 May.
   

• Nesirky said that the UN's preference remains
  for MINURCAT to stay, with the appropriate level of troops to carry out
  its mandate.
   

• He noted that Under-Secretary-General for
  
  Peacekeeping Operations,
  
  Alain Le Roy, had recently visited the region to talk with
  authorities about extending MINURCAT, and his report on that visit would
  go to the Security Council.

 

NEW CHIEF
INVESTIGATOR APPOINTED TO SPECIAL TRIBUNAL FOR LEBANON

• The Office of the Prosecutor of the
  
  Special Tribunal for Lebanon announced the appointment of Michael
  Taylor, a British national, as its Chief of Investigations.
   

• Taylor has extensive experience in criminal
  investigations, including with the London Metropolitan Police Service,
  where he served primarily within the Criminal Investigation Department
  and Specialist Operations.

 

CONCERN
GROWS OVER WORSENING SITUATION FOR CIVILIANS IN SOMALIA

• The
  
  Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
  is extremely worried about the worsening situation for the civilian
  population in Somalia, following the latest indiscriminate fighting in
  Mogadishu and elsewhere in the country. UNHCR
  
  estimates that, since the beginning of the year, more than 100,000
  Somali civilians have been forced to flee their homes across the
  country.
   

• UNHCR is especially concerned about the safety and
  well-being of some 8,300 people who, without any means to get out of
  Mogadishu, remain displaced within the capital. As the fighting rages
  on, aid agencies lack access and cannot assist these extremely
  vulnerable internally displaced people.
   

• Meanwhile, during the past week, insurgents
  disrupted food aid deliveries, intended for five kitchens under the
  
  World Food Programme-supported wet feeding programme in Mogadishu.
  They seized two trucks on 6 March, but released them the following day
  after elders intervened.

 

U.N.
POLITICAL AFFAIRS CHIEF ENDS VISIT TO NEPAL

• The Under-Secretary-General for
  
  Political Affairs,
  
  B. Lynn Pascoe, today ended his three-day visit in
  
  Nepal During his visit, he urged Nepal’s political leadership to
  move forward in the peace process by taking action to reintegrate former
  combatants and complete the new constitution on time.
   

• Before his departure, Pascoe told reporters that
  Nepal's leaders understand exactly what has to be done and now is the
  time to move it forward. He described his visit as “extremely good.”
   

• He said that the two biggest issues Nepal now faces
  are the question of integration and rehabilitation, and drafting of the
  constitution. Pascoe added that there is a clear responsibility of the
  political parties, the political leaders and the Government in Nepal to
  come to conclusions and decisions of their own.
   

• He also reiterated the UN’s commitment continue
  working in any way possible to provide assistance where needed in this
  process, through the
  
  UN Mission in Nepal and the country team.

 

 THE WEEK AHEAD AT THE
UNITED NATIONS

 

Saturday, 13 March
 

The Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,
Francis Deng, will undertake a mission to West Africa from 13 to 26 March
2010. Specifically, he will be in Guinea on 13-14 March; in Liberia on 18-19
March; in Nigeria on 22-23 March; and in Ghana on 25-26 March.  The purpose
of his mission is to discuss his mandate and exchange views on national and
sub-regional mechanisms that could contribute to the prevention of genocide,
with government officials, UN colleagues and ECOWAS officials.

 

Sunday, 14 March
 

The Secretary-General will visit Haiti. The
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Response
Coordinator, John Holmes, will accompany him.

 

Monday, 15 March
 

In Geneva, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the
World Health Organization (WHO) will hold a joint press conference to launch
the latest WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme Report on Water Supply and
Sanitation titled: "Progress on Sanitation and Drinking-Water: 2010 Update."
The report provides the most recent data on sanitation and drinking-water,
along with an assessment as to the implications these data have on reaching
the water and sanitation Millennium Development Goal target.

 

In Geneva, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation
of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Professor
Vitit Muntarbhorn, will hold a press briefing, as will the UN Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea
Quintana. 

 

Tuesday, 16 March
 

The Secretary-General will hold a press conference at
12:15 p.m. in the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium at UN Headquarters, ahead of
his travel to Moscow to attend the Quartet meeting and subsequent visit to
the Middle East.

 

At 10:00 a.m. at UN Headquarters, the Secretary-General
will brief Member States about his report laying the groundwork for the
Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (20-22 September). The report,
entitled “Keeping the Promise,” will serve as a basis for Government
deliberations on an action-oriented outcome document for the Summit.

 

The Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social
Affairs, Sha Zukang, will travel to Grenada where he will participate in the
Caribbean Regional Meeting on the Mauritius Strategy of Implementation plus
5. Among other issues, the three-day meeting is expected to address the
vulnerabilities that characterize Caribbean small island developing States,
in particular the increasing frequency of natural disasters, the global
financial and economic crisis, and the recent food and fuel crises.

 

Wednesday, 17 March
 

The President of the UN Economic and Social Council
(ECOSOC), Hamidon Ali, will be the guest at the Spokesperson’s Noon
Briefing. He will outline his plan of ECOSOC for 2010, including its annual
meeting with the Bretton Woods Institutions, the World Trade Organisation
and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development on 18-19 March
2010 and the agenda for its High-level (Ministerial) Segment of its annual
substantive session.
 

The Security Council will hold a briefing on Cote
d’Ivoire, at which the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Cote
d’Ivoire, Choi Young-Jin, will brief.

 

The UN Development Programme
and the Government of Morocco – in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign
and European Affairs of the Republic of France – will host a High Level
Conference, titled Capacity is Development, in Morocco, from 17-19
March. More than 70 governmental officials from 40 countries will discuss
how to enhance their institutions’ capacities to become more resilient, to
deliver services more effectively and to improve peoples’ lives. 

 

Thursday, 18 March
 

The Security Council will hold a meeting on the UN
Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

 

Friday, 19 March
 

The Security Council will hold an open debate on the
impact of illicit arms trafficking on peace and security in the Central
African region.

 

The renowned development thinker, Professor Frances
Stewart, will deliver the Mahbub al Haq lecture, before an audience
including UNDP Administrator Helen Clark. In her lecture, she will ask how
the human development approach first laid down by al Haq 20 years ago can be
used to help meet the major challenges facing development endeavours today.
The lecture will take place in Delegates Dining
Room (Room 6) at UN Headquarters between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.