United Nations Daily Highlights, 05-10-19

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From: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.org

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPOKESMAN'S NOON BRIEFING

BY STEPHANE

DUJARRIC

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

BLANKETS, TARPAULINS AND GROUND SHEETING NEEDED

IN QUAKE-STRICKEN PAKISTAN

Many of the tents arriving in Pakistan are not winter-friendly, making additional blankets, tarpaulins and ground sheeting necessary, according to the

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports. Also, many of the tents cant be pitched easily because of the mountainous terrain.

The

UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) has

sent supplies to Pakistan, including blankets, food, childrens clothing, educational materials and equipment for four large-capacity water treatment plants. UNICEF is also working to identify and register orphaned and separated children throughout the quake zone.

UNICEF has also been active in India, where it has supplied, among other things, tents equipped with wood-burning stoves, emergency health kits, school-in-a-box kits, and motorized water tankers.

Meanwhile, the first three flights in a new joint NATO-UNHCR airlift supported by the Turkish government took off from Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey around midday Wednesday, carrying a total of more than 25 tonnes of urgently needed relief supplies for earthquake victims in Pakistan. The French, British and Greek C-130 transport planes, carrying a cargo of tents, blankets and stoves, are the first flights in a major airlift out of the NATO base in Turkey that will ferry some 860 tonnes of aid from the UN refugee agency's regional warehouse in nearby Iskenderun.

MEHLIS REPORT MAY GO TO SECURITY COUNCIL ON FRIDAY

In response to questions about the planned handover of the report on Rafik Hariris assassination by investigator

Detlev Mehlis, the Spokesman said that Mehlis was in New York now, where he was continuing to finalize the report.

Mehlis, he said, is expected to meet the Secretary-General tomorrow, and his report could go to the Security Council as early as Friday. Mehlis will then brief the Council on the report next Tuesday, 25 October.

Asked about the publication of the report, the Spokesman said it would be expected to be published in all UN languages next Tuesday, but the Council members would receive an advance copy on Friday. He added that the Government of Lebanon, as the concerned government, was also expected to receive a copy at that time. Asked whether Syria would receive a copy then, he said it would not.

Asked about interviews by Mehlis, Dujarric said that Mehlis was not expected to speak to the press until he briefs the Security Council.

Asked whether the Secretary-General would expand the Mehlis investigation, the Spokesman said the first step was to get Mehliss report. Then, he said, the Secretary-General has the ability under the current Security Council resolution to extend the Mehlis teams mandate, as it is currently structured, until 15 December. But any expansion of the Mehlis teams tasks would require a new Security Council resolution, he added.

Asked whether the United Nations was nervous about becoming a Middle East investigating agency, the Spokesman said that the United Nations would study any request for expanding the teams mandate, but noted, We would not want to be given a task larger than we can chew. If the United Nations is given a task, he said, it should be able to handle it effectively.

Asked how the Secretary-General would respond to Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Sinioras request for an extension of the Mehlis investigation, the Spokesman said the answer would be given once the Secretary-General has seen the Mehlis report.

Asked about the Secretary-Generals comments earlier this week that he does not want the report to be politicized, the Spokesman said the Secretary-General, in response to a question about any politicization of the report, had said the report would be a technical investigation of the Hariri killing. The UNs responsibility, Dujarric said, is to make sure that this investigative report goes to the Council, but the United Nations also appeals for calm as the report is issued.

Asked whether the Secretary-General would add or remove anything from Mehliss report, the Spokesman emphasized that the Secretary-General would forward Mehliss report to the Council. Mehlis, he added, is an experienced investigator.

The Spokesman declined to provide details of the report, but said it would be the major report on the investigation.

He said he was not aware whether any UN officials were preparing for the possibility that the eventual trials could be held outside Lebanon.

Asked why the Director of the

UN Information Centre in Beirut, Nejib Friji, was relocated temporarily, the Spokesman said that Friji had been removed on the advice of UN security experts, given the highly energized situation in Beirut.

U.N. MISSION IN SUDAN REPORTS ON ATTACKS, ROADBLOCKS

The UN

Mission in Sudan reports a number of humanitarian concerns in southern Sudan and in Darfur in its weekly briefing in Khartoum.

It says that attacks on civilians in southern Sudan by elements of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) remain a major concern of humanitarian agencies. Humanitarian access to affected areas remains limited, preventing agencies from forming a clear picture of the numbers of affected populations and delivering much-needed assistance to them.

Also in the south, humanitarian agencies are deeply troubled by the continued extortion and even forced conscription of returnees by local militias. Negotiations to bring such practices to an immediate end are ongoing.

And humanitarian access to populations in need is increasingly difficult throughout the three states of Darfur. Armed clashes and banditry in West Darfur have practically isolated the humanitarian community with all roads out of town restricted. In West Darfur alone, assistance to 170,000 people is temporarily restricted.

In North Darfur, three separate and serious clashes have been reported within the last six days involving the government troops, Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebels and militia.

Throughout Darfur, villagers report continuous harassment by nomads and militia through looting, banditry and the forced payment of protection taxes.

SECURITY COUNCIL FOCUSES ON ERITREA AND ETHIOPIA

The

Security Council held consultations on Eritrea/Ethiopia this morning and heard a briefing by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations

Jean-Marie Guehenno.

The other item on the Security Council consultations agenda is a briefing by Warren Sach, the UN Controller, on the status of the oil-for-food accounts.

The Secretary-General, in a

letter to the Council earlier this week, informed the Council that he had asked for consultations to be conducted by the Secretariat with the relevant Iraqi authorities on the termination of the oil-for-food program's ongoing operations. Sach met with the relevant authorities this month and the letter includes proposed arrangements that were discussed.

SECURITY COUNCIL COMMENTS ON IRAQ AND HAITI

Yesterday the Security Council passed a resolution extending the mandate of the experts group on Cote dIvoire.

They also issued a presidential statement on Haiti in which the Security Council called for a transparent, inclusive, free and fair election in Haiti. The Council heard briefings on Haiti by Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and the Secretary Generals Special Representative there, Juan Gabriel Valdes.

After the meeting Special Representative Valdes outlined progress made towards the elections in Haiti, but said international funding was lacking. He said he hoped a donors conference in Brussels, starting tomorrow, would create an emergency fund for Haiti.

The Security Council also issued a press statement on Iraq welcomed the referendum in Iraq, calling it a milestone in the political process there.

UNITED NATIONS IS PREPARING FOR HURRICANE WILMA IN CARIBBEAN

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is in close contact with the UN Resident Coordinators' offices in Cuba and Honduras, following the upgrading of Hurricane Wilma to a highly dangerous Category 5 storm.

OCHA is especially concerned about potential damage in the wake of the recent severe flooding and landslides that hit Central America and Mexico earlier this month.

HUMAN RIGHTS PROBLEMS CONTINUE IN AFGHANISTAN

In a

report issued today, the

High Commissioner for Human Rights

Louise Arbour on human rights in Afghanistan says that, despite some successes in disarmament, a great deal remains to be done.

The security situation continues to pose a great challenge to protecting human rights in Afghanistan, with security threats that include the continued power of factional commanders. Meanwhile, the human rights of women and children, although improved, remain a matter of great concern.

REFUGEE AGENCY CONCERNED WITH ASYLUM SEEKERS IN DESERT

The UN

High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says it has received disturbing reports that registered asylum seekers have been relocated to desert sites close to the borders in southern and eastern Morocco, but that a special team sent on 11 October has still not been permitted to travel outside the capital Rabat.

That team is still awaiting government permission to gain access to people of concern to the agency who are reportedly being held in various parts of the country, according to UNHCR.

Although no firm figures are available, the agency has evidence that dozens of sub-Saharan Africans holding UNHCR documentation have been picked up by Moroccan authorities in a crackdown on irregular migration.

BIRD FLU COULD HEAD TO EASTERN AFRICA

The UN

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says it is concerned with the possibility of bird flu reaching eastern Africa.

The agency

said migratory birds flying out of Southeast Asia could bring the disease to humans in areas ill prepared to handle the problem.

A FAO report said Middle East and northern African countries should be able to build up a defense, but the agency is more concerned about east Africa, where veterinary and medical services might not be able to launch control and vaccination campaigns.

U.N. CONFERENCE PASSES ANTI-DOPING CONVENTION

The General Conference of the UN

Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization today unanimously

adopted an International Convention Against Doping in Sport.

The agency said the convention, adopted by all 120 nations voting in Paris, is the first legal instrument aimed at making anti-doping regulations universal and binding.

The convention will come into effect after 30 states ratify it. UNESCO is urging full ratification before the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin.

REPORT ON LEBANON RESOLUTION TO GO TO COUNCIL NEXT WEEK

The report by Terje Roed-Larsen will not go to the Security Council until later next week.

The Spokesman noted that the report by Special Envoy

Terje Roed-Larsen would not go to the Security Council until later next week. Asked why the report had been delayed, he said that Roed-Larsen was still putting the finishing touches on it, and added that it would be best to avoid having congestion in the number of UN reports covering the same region of the world.

LIST OF PAID-UP MEMBER STATES CLIMBS TO 127

A check from Antigua and Barbuda arrived yesterday, bringing the Honour Roll of fully paid up Member States to 127.

Antigua and Barbuda paid $53,385.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO DISCUSS CULTURE OF PEACE AND INTL DIALOGUE

Tomorrow the

General Assembly will meet in plenary for a joint debate reviewing progress in implementing the International Decade for a Culture of Peace (2001-2010) and the

Global Agenda for Dialogue among Civilizations. The Assembly will be considering draft resolutions on these two agenda items.

On the Peacebuilding Commission, by the end of the day the two Co-Chairs, the Ambassadors of Denmark and Tanzania, are expected to send a letter to all delegations along with a paper setting out various options for the Commission, which we will make available. The next meeting is scheduled for Friday morning.

Most of the Main Committees are continuing their work today.

Tomorrow morning the Second and Third Committees will hold a joint panel discussion on the World Development Report 2006: Equity and Development, by the World Bank. Panelists will include one of the lead authors, Francisco Ferreira, and senior officials from the International Labour Organization and the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

U.N. NOT ACTIVELY PARTICIPATING IN HUSSEIN TRIAL: Asked whether the United Nations had offered assistance for the Iraqi Special Court trying Saddam Hussein, the Spokesman said that the Court is an Iraqi process. The Secretary-General, he said, had always thought that it would be right for Saddam Hussein to be tried by Iraqis in Iraq. However, some aspects of the Courts statute, including the death penalty, precluded the United Nations from cooperating with it.

ANNAN AND U.S. SECRETARY DISCUSS MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA: Asked about the Secretary-Generals meeting at his residence Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Spokesman said the Secretary-General and Rice had discussed, among other subjects, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, Ethiopia and Sudan.

U.N. AND STAFF WORKING ON WHISTLE BLOWER PROTECTION: Asked why the United Nations does not have a revised whistle-blower policy yet, 18 months after one was first promised, the Spokesman said that the establishment of such a policy had taken a long time because, for the policy to succeed, it needed to be accepted by staff, requiring a staff consultation process. Also, he said, the United Nations had worked with organizations, including the Washington-based Government Accountability Project and groups recommended by Transparency International, to craft a strong policy. The United Nations hopes to have the revised whistle-blower policy finished before the end of this year.

*** The guest at the noon briefing was Jean-Marie Guehenno, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations.

Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

United Nations, S-378

New York, NY 10017

Tel. 212-963-7162 - press/media only

Fax. 212-963-7055

All other inquiries to be addressed to (212) 963-4475 or by e-mail to: inquiries@un.org

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