Secretary-General

Noon briefing of 16 April 2009

.HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY FARHAN HAQ

ASSOCIATE SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON

U.N. HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Thursday, April 16, 2009

U.N. HUMANITARIAN OFFICE REPORTS RESUMED FIGHTING IN SRI LANKA

  • Following the end of the temporary ceasefire in northern Sri Lanka, fighting in the vicinity of the No Fire Zone is reportedly intense, and small arms fire, mortar fire and aerial attacks have resumed.

  • According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 64,000 people have crossed from conflict areas. Some 63,000 of them are accommodated in various camps, while 800 displaced persons are in hospitals in various districts.

  • The International Red Cross was able to evacuate 988 people from the No Fire Zone during the cease fire period.

  • A ship with approximately 1,030 tons of humanitarian supplies is being loaded for departure to the No Fire Zone and is expected to leave in three days.

  • In the camps in the Vanni region, shelter construction, site clearing, educational support, health care, water supply and sanitation assistance are continuing. But water and sanitation services remain inadequate.

  • OCHA says that the continued use of schools and other education establishments as sites for internally displaced persons continues to put a strain on the education services in the district, which is affecting both displaced students and host students.

  • Asked whether Chef de Cabinet Vijay Nambiar was currently in Sri Lanka, the Spokesperson said that he was. In that regard, he noted that the Secretary-General is doing his utmost to alleviate the situation in Sri Lanka and high-level contacts were continuing to be pursued on that matter.

  • Haq said that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) did not appear to have responded constructively in allowing civilians to leave. This is truly disappointing, he said. Civilians must be allowed to leave the area of violence. They must not be used as targets of political or military designs.

WATCHDOG CONFIRMS INSPECTORS HAVE LEFT NUCLEAR SITE

  • The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports that its inspectors departed the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) today.

  • The Agency’s inspectors at the Yongbyon nuclear facilities removed all IAEA seals and switched off surveillance cameras yesterday. That happened after the DPRK informed the inspectors on 14 April that it had decided to cease all cooperation with the IAEA, requested removal of containment and surveillance equipment and required the inspectors to leave the DPRK at the earliest possible time.

SECURITY COUNCIL SUPPORTS SECRETARY-GENERAL’S RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IRAQ-KUWAIT CONFIDENCE BUILDING

  • The Security Council this morning, in its closed consultations, received a briefing by Gennady Tarasov, the Secretary-General’s High Level Coordinator dealing with missing Kuwaiti and third country persons and property in Iraq. He presented the Secretary-General’s recent report, which suggests that a confidence and cooperation-building period, lasting until July 2010, should be introduced to further encourage Iraq and Kuwait to achieve visible and significant progress and to strengthen the patterns of their practical cooperation.

  • The Council President, Ambassador Claude Heller of Mexico, read a press statement concerning the briefing afterward. He said that Council members supported the Secretary-General’s proposal for a confidence and cooperation building period, and they agreed to finance the High Level Coordinator’s activities for a further six months.

  • The Council also received a briefing today on the Development Fund for Iraq and the UN escrow account, from the Controller, Jun Yamazaki.

  • Asked about a complaint from Serbia regarding the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the Spokesperson noted that the Security Council discussed that Mission under other matters in today’s consultations.

LEBANON TRIBUNAL SEEKS SUBMISSION OF REASONS FOR CONTINUED DETENTION OF SUSPECTS

  • On Wednesday, the Pre-Trial Judge for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon ordered the Prosecutor to file, by 27 April 2009, reasoned submissions stating whether or not he requests the continuation of the detention of the persons held in Lebanon in relation to case concerning the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

  • In setting this time limit, the Pre-Trial Judge took into consideration the fundamental guarantee of a fair trial, on the one hand, and the specificities of the case concerned, on the other. In this regard, he stated that it is a fundamental right, enshrined in all human rights instruments that any individual arrested or detained be brought promptly before a judge to rule on his or her detention status. The Pre-Trial Judge noted, however, that the Hariri case raised difficult issues of terrorism, and that the judicial record relating to it was particularly complex and voluminous.

TIMOR-LESTE ENVOY: NO DEMOCRACY WITHOUT RULE OF LAW

  • Nearing the seventh anniversary of the restoration of independence of Timor-Leste, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Atul Khare, today stressed that the rule of law may exist in the absence of democracy, but democracy without the rule of law cannot exist.

  • The Special Representative also said that establishing a culture of democracy and a truly democratic system takes many years and can only be achieved if the rule of law is one of the guiding principles that lead the process.

  • Highlighting that Timor-Leste has witnessed important developments and reforms on its way towards firmly establishing rule of law and democracy, he said an independent and efficient judiciary is a key element of the rule of law.

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL APPEALS FOR STRONGER RESOLVE TO ACHIEVE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

  • The Deputy Secretary-General is currently in Montreal, Canada, where, this morning, she addressed the annual Summit on the Millennium Development Goals.

  • Noting that time is running out to reach the Goals, she stressed that, in the limited years we have left, we can’t afford to speculate on what works. We have identified a set of tried and true low cost interventions that are effective. And we need to put them into place, she said.

  • The Deputy Secretary-General emphasized that the Goals represent the minimum we must do. After all, she said, if the tables were turned, and one of us lived in a shantytown, we wouldn’t say that the Goals should be scaled back, or that one Goal is less essential than the others, or that less should be done.

  • Later today in Montreal, the Deputy Secretary-General is slated to give a public lecture at McGill University on "Renewing the International Partnership for Development".

D.R. CONGO: JOINT U.N.-CONGOLESE ARMY COORDINATION CENTERS OPEN IN NORTHEAST

  • The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) says it has set up two joint coordination centers with the Congolese army to support the Government in its attempt to restore safety and security in the northeast. The parties have already appointed their respective commanders at the centers and will soon name military officers to execute joint operation plans on the ground.

  • One of the new coordination centers is located in Sake, while the town of Kiwanja will host the other. Both towns are in the restive North Kivu province, where Rwandan rebels from the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) continue to attack civilians, Congolese army troops and UN peacekeepers.

  • The Mission also reports that the UN Refugee Agency has repatriated some 6,800 Rwandan nationals back to their country since January. Voluntary repatriation also continues for former Rwandan rebels and their dependents.

PIRATES’ PROLONGED DETENTION OF HUMANITARIAN VESSEL HAS SOMALI CIVILIANS AT GREATER RISK OF HUNGER

  • The World Food Programme (WFP) is concerned that people in Somalia will go hungry if the Sea Horse vessel is not quickly released or replaced by another vessel. The Sea Horse -- hijacked by pirates on 14 April-- was due to load more than 7,000 metric tons of food for Somalia.

  • After the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama last week en route to Mombassa, WFP also stresses that the Kenyan port is essential to its operations in Somalia and elsewhere in eastern and central Africa. More than 500,000 metric tons of WFP food arrived in Mombasa in 2008.

  • If food assistance cannot arrive through Mombasa for Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, southern Sudan and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, millions of people will go hungry and the already high malnutrition rates will rise, according to WFP.

LACK OF COMMON NUCLEAR STRATEGY HAMPERS PROGRESS IN CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT

  • The head of the UN Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, today addressed a conference in Rome entitled “Overcoming Nuclear Dangers.”

  • In his remarks, Ordzhonikidze acknowledged that, while nuclear-weapon States and their allies focus on non-proliferation, non-nuclear-weapon States, particularly those in the developing world, advocate nuclear disarmament first. As a result, he said, there is no common global strategy to address issues concerning nuclear weapons. And that is one of the primary causes for the continuing stalemate in the Conference on Disarmament, he added.

  • Ordzhonikidze noted prospects for renewed United States-Russian negotiations. But he added that, while the United States and the Russian Federation have a vital role to play in providing leadership, shared goals can only be realized fully through multilateral efforts. Bilateral initiatives must support and feed into the multilateral mechanisms to make the disarmament process sustainable and lasting, he said.

COOPERATION AMONG NATIONS ON SECURITY AND CRIME PREVENTION MORE CRUCIAL THAN EVER

  • The growing threat of organized crime is at the heart of the 18th session of the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice – which opened today in Vienna.

  • In his opening remarks, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Antonio Maria Costa, warned that crime had gone global and posed a security threat to cities, nations and entire regions. He called on countries to change the way they fight crime and corruption to respond to the unprecedented rise in organized crime.

  • Costa asked for greater cooperation to fight organized crime, adding that the political will of states was more powerful than the greed and firepower of criminal groups.

  • The 18th session of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice runs through 24 April.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

FIJI’S FUTURE ROLE IN U.N PEACEKEEPING UNDER REVIEW: In response to a question, the Spokesperson said that the United Nations continued to review any future contributions by Fiji to UN peacekeeping on a case-by-case basis. He noted that the Secretary-General has had a number of contacts on this issue, including a discussion with the Prime Minister of New Zealand when they met last week in Thailand.

DARFUR MISSION APPROVES PROJECTS TO ASSIST DISPLACED CIVILIANS: The African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) office in Zalingei, West Darfur today approved 19 Quick Impact Projects (QIPs) on rehabilitation, construction and the provision of educational materials for schools around the camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs). The projects would largely target basic schools in IDP Camps. The proposals are estimated to cost more than $432,000.

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