United Nations Daily Highlights, 07-03-27

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

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY FARHAN HAQ

ASSOCIATE SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON

U.N.

HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

SRI LANKA: SECRETARY-GENERAL APPEALS FOR AN END TO ATTACKS

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is disturbed by the extensive and escalating violations of the cease-fire in Sri Lanka, which now includes an air attack this week by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

He deeply regrets that air raids, military confrontations on the ground, and suicide bombings have become a daily occurrence, prompting massive displacement and suffering for civilians.

The Secretary-General appeals to the parties to the conflict to break this vicious cycle of attack and retaliation, which only leads to more bloodshed and victims. He urges them to return to the negotiating table as soon as possible, without preconditions.

BAN KI-MOON EXPRESSES HOPE FOR ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE PROCESS

The Secretary-General has arrived in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, where tomorrow he will address the summit of the League of Arab States. He will also discuss his key concerns about Darfur and the

Israeli-Palestinian peace process, among other topics, with the gathered Arab leaders.

This evening, prior to the start of the Summit, he will meet with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

Earlier today, he met with the UN country team in Jerusalem before stopping over in Jordan, where he met the King of Jordan, who is also traveling to the summit in Riyadh, and the two discussed the Secretary-Generals recent meetings during his Middle East tour, particularly concerning the new momentum for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Speaking to the press before departing Israel yesterday, the Secretary-General said that, despite the obstacles ahead, he believes that solid grounds exist for hoping we can advance the peace process in the coming period. I believe we can and must make progress in the coming weeks and months, he said.

Asked if the Secretary-General met the Saudi leaders together with President Assad, the Spokesman said that those were two separate meetings.

Asked if the comment by the Secretary-General referred to the new Middle East peace initiative proposed by Secretary of State Rice, the Spokesman said that Ban Ki-moon's comment did not directly refer to Rice's plan. The Secretary-General, Haq added, was talking more generally about his feelings about progress on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

That comment, Haq said further, also reflects Ban Ki-moon's hopes for progress in light of the recent attitude expressed by both Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian President Abbas and in light of peace efforts by others, including Secretary of State Rice. He noted that while in Riyadh, the Secretary-General would continue to push for progress on this issue and to assess the position of Arab leaders gathered at the League of Arab States summit.

Asked if the Secretary-General would be meeting with Sudanese President Bashir, the Spokesman said that Ban Ki-moon is expected to meet the Sudanese leader tomorrow. Asked if the Secretary-General had made any comments about the resettlement of Israeli citizens in a West Bank area previously vacated by Israel, the Spokesman said that Ban Ki-moon had made no specific comment about that settlement but has repeatedly called for a halt to settlement activities and to activity in general that could complicate any final resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Asked if correspondents should expect another surprise destination during the Secretary-General's tour of the region, Haq said that Ban Ki-moon would be going at week's end to Lebanon from Saudi Arabia and is expected back in New York during the weekend.

Asked if the United Nations had taken a stand on the case of a French-Israeli reporter who, despite being part of the Secretary-General's traveling press corps, was initially denied an entry visa for Saudi Arabia, the Spokesman said that the UN has indeed spoken with the relevant authorities to stress that all reporters traveling with the Secretary-General, including the French-Israeli journalist, should be granted all the necessary visas.

Asked to confirm reports that the Secretary-General has sent written invitations to the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to attend the next Middle East Quartet meeting, Haq said that the United Nations was not yet in a position to announce any of the arrangements for that meeting. He noted, however, that Quartet Principals did announce their intention in their latest communiqué to hold their next meeting somewhere in the region.

DARFUR: U.N. ENVOY MEETS WITH ARAB TRIBES, CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS

The Secretary-Generals Special Envoy for

Darfur, Jan Eliasson, and African Union Special Envoy Salim Ahmed Salim held today in Khartoum separate meetings with representatives of Darfurs Arab tribes and leaders of civil society groups.

Discussions during the two meetings focused on the joint efforts of the two envoys to re-energize the Darfur peace process. The two envoys heard from their interlocutors their views on how to move forward with the political process and reach a sustainable settlement of the Darfur problem.

Eliasson and Salim will hold a joint press conference this evening in Khartoum.

Also, the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) today reports that to date, nearly 9,000 internally displaced persons have returned to Southern Sudan and the transitional areas since January, under the Joint Plan for Returns that brings together the United Nations, the Sudanese Government and the Government of Southern Sudan.

LEBANON: SECURITY COUNCIL EXTENDS BRAMMERTZ COMMISSION MANDATE

The Security Council this morning unanimously voted to extend the mandate of the

International Independent Investigation Commission, headed by Serge Brammertz, by another year, until 15 June 2008.

Council members then went into consultations to hear from Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hédi Annabi about the recent developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

DRC: SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES LEADERS TO SHOW TRANSPARENCY AND TOLERANCE

The situation is calm and life has resumed its normal pace in Kinshasa, reports the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC). UN peacekeepers, meanwhile, are patrolling the city, and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is working with local authorities to assess the number of civilian casualties of last weeks fighting between Government forces and the security detail of Senator Jean-Pierre Bemba.

The Secretary-Generals latest report on the DRC urges Congolese leaders to respect the principles of transparency, inclusiveness and tolerance of dissent. He also notes that assisting the Government in facing the challenge of disarming groups operating in the eastern part of the country remains a key priority for the UN Mission.

Asked for the whereabouts of Senator Bemba, Haq later confirmed that Bemba remains at the Embassy of South Africa in Kinshasa, where he took refuge a few days ago.

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS COOPERATION BETWEEN U.N. AND EUROPEAN COMMISSION INVALUABLE

The United Nations is today hosting a workshop on UN cooperation with the European Commission.

In her remarks to the workshop participants, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said that cooperation between the two institutions is invaluable in carrying out the UNs reform agenda. She said that there is an old saying that encapsulates that idea: A problem shared is a problem halved!

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL ADOPTS TWO RESOLUTIONS BY CONSENSUS

The Human Rights Council today adopted by consensus two resolutions one on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the other on the human rights special procedures, namely the special rapporteurs, independent experts and other mandate holders reporting to the Council.

The resolution on the Occupied Palestinian Territories calls for the implementation of the decisions taken at the Councils special sessions on that topic, in particular to dispatch the fact-finding missions mandated by the Council.

Earlier in the day, the Council held a series of discussions with various human rights mandate holders, including those dealing with

counter-terrorism, torture,

freedom of religion and expression, arbitrary detention, extrajudicial executions, and racism, among others.

HAITI: U.N. MISSION REPORTS MORE THAN 400 GANG ARRESTS

The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) reports that more than 400 gang members have been arrested since the beginning of the year, as a result of operations undertaken by the Haitian National Police (HNP) and backed up by the United Nations police and military.

The local population has played a vital role in many of these arrests by providing information on the whereabouts of gang members to the Haitian and United Nations police via confidential hot-lines.

The Haitian police and UN peacekeepers continue these operations throughout the country in order to apprehend gang leaders and members who remain at large, and to confiscate illegally possessed weapons and ammunition.

EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR ARRIVES IN CHAD

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes arrived in the town of Abéché in eastern Chad this morning, on the second leg of his two-week, three-country mission to Africa.

Upon arrival, the Emergency Relief Coordinator met with the senior Government representative of the Ouaddaï region in which Abéché is located; the Governor, with whom he discussed issues related to the protection of internally displaced persons (IDPs); and other vulnerable groups and priorities for the humanitarian response. Holmes said he was looking forward to traveling to IDP settlements the next day, in order to assess for himself the situation on the ground.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC GHOST TOWN REMAINS NEARLY EMPTY

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reports that UN and NGO representatives have completed a visit to the town of Birao in the far north-eastern part of the Central African Republic and found the town in ruins and almost empty some three weeks after it was attacked by an armed group.

The joint team also found that while some of the town's residents were slowly returning and attempting to resume normal life, but many others remained too afraid to return.

The UNHCR-led team also visited the border town of Am Dafok to assess the situation following a rebel attack earlier this month, which caused some 14,000 to flee the fighting. Some 700 houses and vital stocks of food were destroyed during that attack, UNHCR said.

Asked to confirm the Refugee Agency's contention that the situation in northeastern Central African Republic could be a spillover of the crisis in the neighbouring Darfur region of Sudan, the Spokesman said that there is an active rebellion in that part of the Central African Republic with the attendant spillover of violence.

To illustrate this point, the Spokesman later added that Birao was attacked on 3-4 March by rebels who also raided the town last October before they were ousted by government troops. He noted that at least 2,000 of those who had fled Birao have sought refuge in the neighbouring Sudanese state of South Darfur.

DJIBOUTI: FUNDING SHORTAGE MAY FORCE CUTOFF OF FOOD AID

The World Food Programme (WFP) says it may soon have to stop delivering food to 53,000 people in Djibouti, due to a critical shortage of funds.

The WFP says child malnutrition rates are at emergency levels in the Horn of Africa country, which has suffered a series of droughts during the past five years.

The agency says it needs $1 million immediately to avoid halting distributions in May, and $6 million in order to continue operations through the end of the year.

WHO: GUINEA WORM DISEASE MAY BE ERADICATED BY 2009

The World Health Organization (WHO)

reports that guinea worm disease could be wiped out worldwide in just two years, if progress continues at its present rate.

Earlier this month, 12 more countries were declared guinea worm-free. There are still some 25,000 cases of the tropical disease in nine countries, and it remains endemic in some villages in sub-Saharan Africa.

If current efforts are successful, guinea worm would become only the second disease -- after smallpox -- to be completely eradicated.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

U.N. AGENCY CALLS FOR BETTER PLANNING FOR WEATHER DISASTERS: The UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) is

urging the international community to invest more in disaster risk reduction to reduce the impacts of extreme weather events. Citing the current situation in Madagascar, which has been hit by more than six cyclones since December, the Director of the UN/ISDR secretariat, Sálvano Briceño, said that the increased severity and frequency of extreme weather makes people more vulnerable to disasters.

U.N. PROMISES TO WORK CLOSELY WITH ANY NEW GOVERNMENT IN CÔTE D'IVOIRE: Asked to comment on press reports indicating that Côte d'Ivoire rebel chief Guillaume Soro has accepted the post of Prime Minister to President Gbagbo as part of the recently-sealed Ouagadougou Peace Agreement, the Spokesman said that the UN had yet to see an official announcement to that effect by the Facilitator of the peace talks, President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, or by any of the parties to the Ouagadougou Agreement. "The United Nations," Haq stressed, "will work closely with whoever is appointed Prime Minister and with the new Government to support the implementation of the Ouagadougou Agreement."

U.N. POLICY PROTECTS WHISTLEBLOWERS AGAINST RETALIATION: Asked if the Secretary-General's Bulletin on the UN Whistleblower policy would protect would-be whistleblowers from reprisals, Haq answered that the policy described in that Bulletin does in fact protect whistleblowers against punitive retaliation. He added that the Ethics Office would hear out the complaints of whistleblowers who believe that their rights are being violated.

Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

United Nations, S-378

New York, NY 10017

Tel. 212-963-7162

Fax. 212-963-7055

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