HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
U.N. HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Thursday, October 5, 2006
COTE D’IVOIRE: ANNAN DEPLORES POLITICAL LEADER’S INFLAMMATORY
REMARKS
The Secretary-General deplores the
inflammatory remarks made on 2 October by the President of the Front Populaire
Ivoirien, Mr. Affi Nguessan, which contained threats against citizens of other
members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) living in
Côte d’Ivoire.
The Secretary-General calls on all
Ivorian political leaders and their followers to exercise the utmost restraint
at this critical juncture, and stresses that those instigating or committing
violent acts will be held personally responsible by the international
community. He also emphasizes the responsibility of the Ivorian Defence and
Security Forces to protect the civilian population, including ECOWAS citizens
as well as other foreigners residing in Côte d’Ivoire.
The Secretary-General urges the
Ivorian leaders to pursue dialogue and work with ECOWAS, the African Union and
the United Nations to break the current impasse and agree on new transitional
arrangements that should lead to elections.
DARFUR AT A CRITICAL STAGE, ANNAN SAYS
This morning, the Security Council
held consultations on
Sudan.
Also, the Secretary-General’s latest
report on
Darfur, covering the month of August, is available today.
In it, he covers several issues
concerning Darfur, ranging from the intensified violence and violations of
human rights law to the worsening humanitarian situation.
He says that Darfur is at a critical
stage and unless security improves, the world is facing the prospect of having
to drastically cut back on an acutely needed humanitarian operation.
He also urges the Government of Sudan
to embrace the spirit of recent UN and African Union decisions and give
consent to the transition to a UN operation in Darfur.
Meanwhile, from the field, the UN
Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) says it has
received reports that in Muhajariya, South Darfur, about 10,000 people have
established a temporary camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) near an
African Union camp, as a result of recent fighting in the area.
It has also received reports that
armed men abducted three people from the IDP camp at Kalma, and that two
people were killed and one person injured during the abduction.
In North Darfur, the Mission has
received reports that government troops attacked the village of Malagat,
northeast of Kuttum.
In West Darfur, the Mission says it
has gotten reports that a government vehicle travelling from Zalengie to
Geneina was attacked by four armed men on horseback on the outskirts of
Geneina, and one passenger was wounded in the attack.
Asked about the Secretary-General’s meeting today
with the Sudanese Ambassador to the United Nations, the Spokesman said that
during the meeting, the Secretary-General received a letter from Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir, responding to a letter sent jointly by the
Secretary-General and the African Union’s Alpha Oumar Konaré concerning UN
support for the African Union Mission in Darfur.
Dujarric said that the letter is being studied, but
he characterised it as a positive one, which expresses support for the UN
effort to aid the AU Mission.
Asked about a letter being sent by the Sudanese
Government to potential troop contributing countries that purportedly
discourages support for the UN Mission in Sudan, the Spokesman said that the
United Nations continues its planning work for a transition from the AU
Mission to a UN Mission in Darfur.
He noted that, in accordance with Security Council
resolution 1706, any deployment would have to be done with the consent of the
Sudanese Government, which has not been forthcoming. Dujarric said that the
Secretary-General is continuing his efforts to secure that consent.
Asked what more the Secretary-General could do, the
Spokesman said, “We have not reached a dead end.” He said that the situation
is at a critical stage. The Secretary-General, he said, would continue his
contacts with the Sudanese Government to try to alter its position on UN
deployment and to assert that there is no military solution.
At the same time, Dujarric encouraged Member
States, including those of the League of Arab States and the African Union, to
encourage the Government of Sudan to change its stance, and he added that the
rebel groups that have not yet signed the peace agreement should be encouraged
to do so as well.
Meanwhile, he said, the UN’s work on a peacekeeping
transition continues, and the United Nations is proceeding, with Sudanese
consent, to work on a $22 million package of assistance to the AU Mission.
Asked whether Member States were living up to their
promise to uphold a “responsibility to protect”, the Spokesman said that
Member States must live up to their commitments.
Asked about a UN effort to
inform the world about Sudan, the Spokesman said that the Secretary-General
and other UN officials have raised the alarm worldwide on numerous occasions.
NEW FUND TO SUPPORT JUBA PEACE TALKS
Tomorrow the Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) will
launch the $4.8
million proposal for the Juba Initiative Fund.
The Fund, along with financing from
the Governments of South Sudan and Uganda, will facilitate the basic
necessities of the Juba Peace Talks and support the start-up of the Cessation
of Hostilities Monitoring Team.
UN bodies, including OCHA and UNICEF,
have staff members providing technical support to the mediation team.
THE GAMBIA: U.N. ENVOY TO BRIEF ANNAN
The Special Envoy of the
Secretary-General to The Gambia, former Nigerian President General Abdusalami
Abubakar, is in New York today after a visit to The Gambia where he was the UN
official observer at the recent presidential election and provided moral and
political guidance to the process.
Gnrl. Abubakar is expected to brief
the Secretary-General on his trip tomorrow.
LEBANON: U.N. MISSION CONTRIBUTES TO LOCAL ECONOMY
There is a
press release
available today describing the effect that the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
has on that country’s economy.
Over the last three years, UNIFIL
spent approximately 60 percent of its budget on procuring from local
companies. In the past year alone, approximately 40 million dollars went back
into the Lebanese economy.
FINANCIAL REQUESTS CHANNELED TO ANTI-DISEASE FUND
The Global Fund To Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria today
announced that the independently constituted Technical Review Panel has
recommended 85 requests for funding, worth a total of $949 million over two
years, to the Board of the Global Fund for its consideration. The recommended
proposals represent 43 percent of all eligible requests for funding received
by the Global Fund for its sixth round of funding.
The Board is expected to approve the
recommended proposals at its upcoming meeting in Guatemala City, from 31
October – 3 November.
TREATY PUTS IVORY SALES ON HOLD
The UN Environment Programme
says that the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has decided not to allow exports of elephant
ivory from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to go ahead for the time being.
The sales were agreed in principle in
2002 – but they were made conditional on the ability of the Monitoring of
Illegal Killing of Elephants system to establish up-to-date and comprehensive
baseline data on elephant poaching and population levels.
Today’s meeting of the CITES Standing
Committee determined that this condition has not yet been satisfied and the
sales may not go forward.
OPIUM SURGE COULD LEAD TO MORE HEROIN-RELATED DEATHS
The world’s health authorities should
prepare
for a significant increase in the number of deaths from heroin overdoses
following a dramatic surge in opium production in Afghanistan this year,
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, has warned.
In a letter sent to nearly 90 Health
Ministers this week, he said past experience showed that a sharp rise in the
supply of heroin tended to lead to an increase in the purity of the
end-product rather than lower street prices.
HEALTH AGENCY CHALLENGES COUNTRIES TO IMPROVE AIR QUALITY
The World Health Organization (WHO) is
today
challenging governments around the world to improve air quality in their
cities in order to protect people's health. The call comes as WHO unveils its
new Air Quality Guidelines, which for the first time, address all regions of
the world and provide uniform targets for air quality.
Those targets are far tougher than the
national standards currently applied in many parts of the world, and in some
cities, would mean reducing current pollution levels by more than three-fold.
WHO says that reducing levels of one particular type of pollutant, known as
PM10, could reduce deaths in polluted cities by as much as 15% every year.
U.N. AGENCIES MARK WORLD TEACHERS’ DAY
The head of the UN Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Koïchiro Matsuura,
marked World Teachers’ Day today with a message, which said that there
could be no viable long-term solution to our education challenges and teacher
shortages without investment in training and measures to promote respect for
the teaching profession.
That message was also signed by Juan
Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Organization, Ann
Veneman, Executive Director of UNICEF, and Kemal Dervis, Adminstrator of the
UN Development Programme.
FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT TO BRIEF ON PAKISTAN EARTHQUAKE
Former US President George Herbert
Walker Bush, the UN’s Special Envoy for the South Asia Earthquake, will brief
the press in New York tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. He will be marking the one year
anniversary of the South Asia earthquake and will be joined by Hina Rabbani
Khar, Pakistan’s State Minister for Economic Affairs and Statistics.
In related news, UNICEF today
launched an
exhibition of children’s photos in the UNICEF house in New York. The pictures
were taken by 160 children from the quake-hit region, and document their lives
following last year’s disaster.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
U.N. MAKES ROUTINE THREAT
ASSESSMENTS: Asked about a security threat
to the United Nations in Geneva, the Spokesman said that the United Nations
makes threat assessments on a daily basis and makes arrangements accordingly. He
declined further comment, but noted, when pressed, that there had been no
evacuation of staff in Geneva.
ANNAN STILL ENCOURAGING TALKS BETWEEN GABON &
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Asked about the
Secretary-General’s concerns that the President of Gabon did not show up for a
meeting that would have included the President of Equatorial Guinea, the
Spokesman noted that the meeting involving those leaders had not been officially
announced. The Secretary-General, he added, will continue to work to encourage
the parties to resolve that dispute through talks.
ANNAN’S SUCCESSOR MUST BE
OFFICIALLY NAMED BEFORE TRANSITION CAN BE DISCUSSED:
Asked about the transition from the Secretary-General to his successor, the
Spokesman said that first, the Security Council and the General Assembly need to
decide on who that successor will be. The Secretary-General, he said, is pleased
that the selection process is moving quickly and will work to ensure a smooth
and effective transition.
NEW TOOLKIT TO FIGHT HUMAN
TRAFFICKING LAUNCHED: The UN Office on Drugs and
Crime today
launched a toolkit to help Governments, policy-makers, law enforcement
agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) tackle human trafficking more
effectively. It contains practical tools for police and other law enforcement
officers such as a checklist to help identify trafficking victims as well
guidance on interviewing victims and victim protection.
NEXT LECTURE IN ANNAN’S SERIES TO BE
HELD NEXT WEEK: The next lecture in the
Secretary-General’s Lecture Series will be held on Wednesday, 11 October, from
1:30 to 2:45 p.m., in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium. Stephen
Schlesinger, Director of the New School University’s World Policy Institute,
will speak on the topic: “Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations”.
Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General
United Nations, S-378
New York, NY 10017
Tel. 212-963-7162
Fax. 212-963-7055
