Noon briefing of 13 April 2004

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

ANNAN ON IRAQ: "IT IS IN OUR COLLECTIVE INTEREST TO DO
EVERYTHING WE CAN TO BRING DOWN THE VIOLENCE"

• Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke to reporters upon returning to work at UN Headquarters this morning, and he said that the deteriorating situation and violence in Iraq have made the work of the UN team on the ground in that country difficult.
  
• For the foreseeable future, he said, he cannot say that he will send in a large UN team, and he stressed that protection is absolutely crucial for the return and effectiveness of UN staff.
  
• Despite the deterioration, he said that governments are also aware that “it is in our collective interest to do everything we can to bring the violence down in Iraq.” He hoped that the situation could calm down before the transition planned for June 30.
  
• He added that his Special Adviser, Lakhdar Brahimi, has tried during his stay in Iraq to talk to as many of the Iraqi constituencies as possible.
  
• On the oil-for-food inquiry, the Secretary-General said he hoped to be able to announce the panel members in the course of this week.

• Despite the restrictions that have been imposed on movements as a result of the deteriorating security environment, the UN team in Iraq , led by the Secretary-General's Special Adviser Lakhdar Brahimi, has been able to conduct serious consultations with a wide range of Iraqi constituencies, including members of the Governing Council, political parties, trade unions, professional associations, civil society organizations, tribal leaders, academics, women's groups and others.
  
• Today, the 10th day of his visit to Iraq, Brahimi and his team met with the Iraqi Cabinet of Ministers to review with them his observations on the political process and the country's transition to sovereignty.
  
• He later met representatives of the Council of Iraqi Tribes as well as Dr. Adel Abdel Mahdi, a senior official of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), and the representatives of the National Democratic Coalition.
  
• Later in the afternoon he met with Dr. Ibrahim Jaafari, the Chairman of the Dawa Party.
  
• Finally, a short while ago, he met with Dr. Mahmoud Othman, a leading Kurdish member of the Governing Council, and a group of 21 people representing all walks of life in Iraq, from professionals, doctors, women and journalists to non-governmental organizations, university professors and tribal leaders.

• The Secretary-General was also asked about Cyprus , and he noted that one of the parties has suggested that the referendum be postponed, although that has not been taken up by the other parties.
  
• He said that, if the Greek and Turkish Cypriots, with the support of the Governments of Turkey and Greece, were to ask for a postponement, that is something we would have to reflect on, but there has been no such request.
  
• Asked when the Secretary-General's report on Cyprus to the Security Council was to be issued, the Spokesman later said it was expected in the coming days. She added that the Council was scheduled to discuss the issue on Wednesday April 28 th .

• Jean Marie Guehenno, the Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, today briefed the Security Council on Kosovo . He particularly focused on the violence which occurred there last month, and its implications.
  
• Guehenno said the violence was a huge set-back to the stabilization and normalization of Kosovo's security and political environment – and indicates that Kosovo still has a long way to go on the path to multi-ethnicity.
  
• He added that what's needed now is for Kosovo's leaders and its people to take concrete action to address the causes of the ethnically-motivated violence.

• After receiving a request from the Government of Sudan to send a mission to the Darfur region , the Secretary-General has asked Jan Egeland, the UN Emergency relief Coordinator to lead a high-level UN team there.
  
• The mission will visit all three Darfur regions early next week to assess the humanitarian situation including protection issues, possible gaps in humanitarian assistance and ways to increase relief and funding. Representatives of several UN humanitarian agencies and the Government of Sudan will also participate.
  
• Meanwhile, the human rights mission was on the border areas of Chad/Sudan interviewing refugees. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is still working on getting authorization to go to Darfur.

• The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that most of the 3,300 Sri Lankans who were forced to flee their villages over the past weekend due to factional fighting within Tamil Tiger ranks, have now returned to their homes in eastern Sri Lanka, as the fighting has eased. The swift returns were also prompted by a belief that bad luck will befall those who are not in their homes on Sri Lankan New Year, which is celebrated today.
  
• In the Balkans, UNHCR reports that close to 1,500 refugees and internally displaced persons returned to their pre-war homes in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the month of February. However, despite the progress in returns since the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, the agency notes that some 100,000 and over 300,000 internally displaced people in the region still require a durable solution to their plight.
  
• UNHCR also reports that High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers is in Tehran at the start of a mission to Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, to find solutions for some 3 million displaced Afghans.

• The Secretary-General today welcomed a cricket test match between the teams from India and Pakistan, in which the players from the two teams wore the symbolic red ribbon to raise awareness about HIV. The two teams were accompanied by an HIV-positive person for the coin toss before the match, which was played in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi.
  
• In his message , the Secretary-General warned that, by the time the match finishes, nearly 4,000 people will have been infected with HIV in South Asia. AIDS, he said, “is a common enemy that both India and Pakistan have to fight together.”
  
• In an effort to raise awareness of AIDS, as former international soccer star George Weah, a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF , began a visit to Sierra Leone. Weah, who grew up in Liberia, plans to organize a series of events to educate the youth in Sierra Leone about AIDS and prevention programs to deal with the disease.

The 12th session of the Commission of Sustainable Development opens Wednesday, here at UN Headquarters, with a meeting on Small Island Developing States. The main part of the Commission's session begins on Monday, and ends 30 April.

SECURITY COUNCIL TO HEAR HUMANITARIAN BRIEFING ON NORTHERN UGANDA : UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland is scheduled to provide a humanitarian briefing on the situation un northern Uganda under "other matters" in Security Council consultations Wednesday.

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