Secretary-General

Noon briefing of 2 January 2008

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY MICHELE MONTAS
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS FOR URGENT ACTION TO HALT ESCALATING VIOLENCE IN KENYA

  • The Secretary-General is increasingly troubled by the escalating tensions and violence in Kenya in the aftermath of last week’s elections. He is shocked by reports that dozens of civilians were burned to death in a church in Eldoret, and that three hundred people have now been reported killed in this deplorable outburst of violence.

  • The Secretary-General reminds the Government, as well as the political and religious leaders of Kenya, of their legal and moral responsibility to protect the innocent lives of people, regardless of their racial, religious or ethnic origin, and he strongly urges them to do everything within their capacity to prevent any further violence. He urges all efforts be made to avoid provocations and violence during planned demonstrations on Thursday.

  • The Secretary-General is also concerned with the deteriorating humanitarian situation, as large numbers of people have been displaced by the violence. He calls on all concerned to allow safe access for relief workers helping those affected by recent events. The United Nations will continue to work closely with the Kenyan Red Cross and other partners to help get assistance to those in need.

  • The Secretary-General is in the process of contacting the leadership in Kenya, the African Union and other concerned parties on how to address the crisis. A solution is urgently needed, through a spirit of dialogue and by making full use of constitutional and legal rules and mechanisms.

  • Asked if the UN had monitored the elections in Kenya, the Spokesperson said it had not. Asked if the Kenyan elections were free and fair, she said the UN was engaged in post-election diplomatic efforts in Kenya but could not comment on a process it had not observed.

  • Asked how the UN would be involved in any possible recount, she said electoral assistance would have to be requested by the Government.

U.N. PREPARES HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE TO CRISIS IN KENYA

  • On the ground, the UN’s Disaster Management Team in Kenya is meeting today with the Kenya Red Cross Society to get the latest information on humanitarian needs and figure out how it can best help alleviate the current crisis.

  • According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), humanitarian access has become a major problem. The Nairobi-Nakuru road, for example, is currently being blocked by vigilante groups.

  • In addition, the UN Office at Nairobi, headed by Anna Tibaijuka, reports that transport corridors from the Port of Mombasa through Kenya have been restricted, causing supply chain disruption to the UN’s humanitarian and peacekeeping operations in areas such as Southern Sudan, Uganda and parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

  • The UN Office at Nairobi has also highlighted disturbing reports of sexual abuse of and assault on women and children. It is concerned that slum populations in cities are critically short of food and other essential items.

  • For its part, UNICEF says it is ready to help up to 85,000 people with shelter and basic supplies. 13,000 family kits – which contain blankets, tarpaulins, cooking sets, soap and jerry cans – have already been pre-positioned locally, and a further two thousand kits are in the pipeline. The UN Refugee Agency, meanwhile, has sent a team to the Kenya-Uganda border, following reports of 600 Kenyans arriving there.

  • Among other things, the UN system in Kenya has appealed to the Kenyan Government and security forces to: establish safe corridors for public transport; ensure that ongoing humanitarian operations are not disrupted; and initiate a national reconciliation process at the earliest possible opportunity.

FIVE NEW COUNTRIES BEGIN TWO-YEAR TERMS ON SECURITY COUNCIL

  • With the beginning of a new year, five new countries are sitting on the Security Council at the start of their two-year terms as Council members. They are Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Libya and Vietnam.

  • Libya takes over the rotating Presidency of the Security Council for the month of January, and its permanent representative, Giadalla Ettalhi, is holding bilateral consultations with other Council members about the programme of work for this month. There are no meetings or consultations of the Security Council scheduled for today.

  • Tomorrow morning, the Council is expected to hold consultations on its programme of work.

BAN KI-MOON DEEPLY CONCERNED BY RESUMED HOSTILITIES IN WEST DARFUR

  • In a statement issued on Monday night, the Secretary-General expressed his deep concern at the resumption of hostilities between the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Government forces in West Darfur. He strongly condemned the attack on 29 December 2007 by the JEM on Government positions in Silea, north of El Geneina, as well as its publicly stated intention to use force to address its concerns in Darfur.

  • The Secretary-General is also deeply concerned with the Government’s decision to arrest the JEM representative to the Ceasefire Commission and five other JEM members of the Commission on 30 December in El Fasher.

  • The Secretary-General strongly urges all parties to show restraint and cease all military action in order to create a positive atmosphere for political negotiations leading to a definitive and inclusive peace agreement.

  • In other news, General Martin Luther Agwai, the Force Commander of the new Joint UN/African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), is traveling tonight to Cairo.

  • During his visit to the Egyptian capital, he will meet with top military leaders to finalize the deployment of some 1,200 additional Egyptian troops to Darfur.

  • Asked about the final number of peacekeepers on the ground in Darfur, the Spokesperson said there were currently 9,000. She later said that the UN and the African Union were working with troop contributors to accelerate the deployment of new units .She added that troop deployment was not the only issue and that critical gaps in aviation and transportation aspects of the force composition had to be filled. Support, including helicopters, also had to be provided. At this point, no helicopters had been received.

  • Regarding the General Assembly’s stated concerns about the Secretary-General’s use of a single-source contract in the UNAMID budget, the Spokesperson said that the contract was to be reviewed after six months. As soon as the six months were over, there would be an open bid.

ALGERIA SECURITY REPORT BEING PREPARED

  • Asked if the UN treated cases of local staff being killed in the field differently than international staff cases, the Spokesperson recalled that, in the recent attacks against the UN in Algeria, a number of the staff killed had been local staff. Such staff members were UN staff, Montas stressed, regardless of whether they were local or international.

  • Asked if the Secretary-General was concerned about the rise of terrorist attacks in Algeria, the Spokesperson said the Secretary-General, upon returning from Algiers, had said how deeply disturbed he was by such violence.

  • Asked about alleged letters from UN staff in Algeria asking for additional security there prior to the recent bombing, the Spokesperson said that Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security David Veness had visited Algeria and was preparing a report on what happened during the recent attack. The Secretary-General and Kemal Dervis, Administrator of the UN Development Programme, had also visited. She later added that no specific threats were relayed to UN security officials prior to the bombings and that the threat level was determined by the security officer on the ground in Algiers.

  • Asked about compensation for the families of victims in both Algeria in 2007 and in Iraq in 2003, Montas said the Secretary-General had pledged his support to the families. She later added about Algiers that a special fund was immediately set up for all those affected by the bombings to provide immediate financial support to the wounded and educational support for the children of those who had been killed. Immediate measures had also been taken including salary advance and extension of contracts for the local staff.

  • Regarding the 2003 bombings in Iraq, the discussions were ongoing with each family. A compensation mechanism had been put in place, but families felt the process was taking too long. The Spokesperson said she understood those concerns and reminded journalists that the delay was due in part to the fact that the investigations had not been led by the UN.

PAKISTANI GOVERNMENT HAS NOT REQUESTED AN INDEPENDENT INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATION INTO BHUTTO ASSASSINATION

  • Asked if the Secretary-General supported calls for an independent international investigation into the death of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, as was done for former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the Spokesperson said the UN inquiry in Lebanon was a very special case, in that the Government requested assistance and the Security Council established the Commission. In the case of Benazir Bhutto, there has been no such request from the Government.

  • Asked how the UN could expect the Government of Pakistan to request an investigation since some were saying that it itself was a suspect, the Spokesperson reminded the reporter that the UN was an inter-governmental organization and repeated that a request from the Government or an action by the Security Council would be necessary.

  • Asked about any decisions by Pakistan to postpone elections, the Spokesperson said that was an internal matter for Pakistan. She therefore had no comment.

AS NUMBER OF SEXUAL ABUSE ALLEGATIONS DROPS DRAMATICALLY, U.N. LIBERIA MISSION PROMISES ZERO TOLERANCE

  • In its latest report, the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) says that sexual exploitation and abuse allegations against its personnel declined 80 percent in the second half of 2007. There were only two such allegations between July and December last year, compared to nine during the same period in 2006.

  • UNMIL Military Police have completed their investigation into these two allegations. The Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) will review those reports, and issue its recommendations on what actions to take.

  • Despite the improvement, UNMIL is reiterating the UN zero-tolerance policy and vowing not to be complacent. It says it will exert every effort to ensure that any sexual misconduct involving UNMIL personnel is stopped altogether.

INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF SANITATION LAUNCHED

  • UNICEF has welcomed the start of 2008 as the beginning of the International Year of Sanitation.

  • The Year has been designated by the General Assembly to focus on the need for urgent action on one of the single biggest development challenges facing the world today.

  • Some 2.6 billion people, or more than 40 percent of the world’s population, have no access to improved sanitation. As a result, thousands of people die every day from preventable causes, such as diarrhoeal diseases, UNICEF notes.

2007 ONE OF THE DEADLIEST YEARS FOR U.N. STAFF MEMBERS

  • At least 42 UN staff members were killed on duty in 2007, according to the Staff Union, with the recent killing of seventeen staff members in Algiers capping off one of the deadliest years ever.

  • Deliberate attacks, from Sudan to Uganda and from Afghanistan to the Gaza Strip, claimed the lives of both civilian and military staff members. Arrests and abductions of staff members also continued.

BAN KI-MOON PAYS COURTESY CALLS ON U.N. SECRETARIAT STAFF

  • The Secretary-General is starting the New Year with a series of meetings with the Secretariat staff.

  • Today he visited the Department of Public Information Radio and TV studios in the basement, the Department of Management, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UNDP and UNICEF.

  • He will hold a town hall meeting on Friday for all UN staff.

  • Asked why the Secretary-General met with the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), the Spokesperson said it was just a routine staff meeting held at the beginning of a new year.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

U.N. CONTINUES EFFORTS TO ADDRESS SITUATION IN MYANMAR: Asked about progress in Myanmar, the Spokesperson said that the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser, Ibrahim Gambari, had reported on the situation right before the year ended. She also reminded the journalist of the meeting of “Group of Friends of the Secretary-General on Myanmar,” which had recently held its first meeting to analyze the situation and assess the road ahead. Gambari was planning to return to the region this month, and a number of people had been released in Myanmar because of international efforts, Montas added.

SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE CESSATION OF VIOLENCE IN GAZA: Asked about today’s violence in Gaza, the Spokesperson said the Secretary-General was very concerned at continued violence in Gaza and called for its immediate cessation. She added that the Secretary-General feels that Palestinian unity is needed to implement peace and believes that internal divisions need to be overcome peacefully and politically.

LATEST ROUND OF WESTERN SAHARA TALKS SET TO GET UNDERWAY: Asked about reported calls by Polisario to return to arms if upcoming talks on Western Sahara failed, the Spokesperson said that the talks are set and would take place. As for any statements by the parties, she had no comment and urged the reporter to wait until the talks took place.