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UN DAILY NEWS from the
UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE
16 May, 2008 =========================================================================
UN HUMANITARIAN CHIEF TO ARRIVE IN MYANMAR ON SUNDAY
The top United Nations relief official plans to talk directly with the authorities in Myanmar in an effort to accelerate the relief effort for victims of Cyclone Nargis which may have left more than 100,000 people dead and severely affected up to 2.5 million others.
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes will fly into Myanmar on Sunday. UN aid officials say there has been some slow progress in getting relief supplies and humanitarian workers into the most affected areas across the Irrawaddy delta in the south of Myanmar, and that the Government has shown some signs of flexibility, but more is needed.
Around 300,000 people are estimated to have received rudimentary aid through the UN and other aid agencies, representing about 20 per cent of people who have been affected. An emergency team from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is also in the country, working together with the UN. At the same time, heavy rains continue to batter people who have been made homeless, complicating relief efforts.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the impact of the cyclone extended well inland, destroying rice fields and food stores. Spokesperson Diderik De Vleeschauwer said that families have also lost their rice seeds for the upcoming planting season.
“Time is running out,” he said. “If rice seed is not received within the next 40 to 50 days planting will not happen in time for harvesting this year.” As a result, he said that Myanmar could turn from a rice exporter to a rice importing country. He added that the Government estimated that $243 million would be needed to restore agricultural output.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that about 1 million children have been affected by the cyclone, with many sleeping in the streets, or in schools and monasteries, often without bedding, and frequently without protection from the rain. “The destruction of homes, schools, water and sanitation systems is an unrelenting threat to the child survivors,” said UNICEF spokesperson Shantha Bloemen.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that about 50 per cent of rural township health centres and about 20 per cent of hospitals in the Irrawaddy delta area have been damaged by the cyclone. Many have lost their roofs, although some are still functioning. WHO has deployed seven health surveillance teams in the region using local staff. Spokesperson Fadela Chaib said there had been no major outbreak of disease so far, and that press reports of cholera cases were inaccurate.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has dispatched 1,200 tons of rice, high-energy biscuits and cereals to the areas worst affected by the cyclone – enough to feed around 200,000 people.
Meanwhile, the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has deployed 100 satellite terminals to Myanmar to help restore vital communication links in the country. The terminals are easily transported by road and air, and are designed to be used by Government officials, aid workers and victims to help coordinate relief efforts.
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TOP UN ENVOY IN SUDAN WELCOMES DEAL TO END DEADLY CLASHES IN DISPUTED TOWN
The top United Nations official in Sudan today welcomed the agreement to end the deadly fighting between Government forces and the former southern rebels in the disputed Abyei area, which has forced thousands of civilians to flee this week.
Ashraf Qazi, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Sudan, issued a statement expressing deep concern about the security situation in Abyei, an oil-rich area that is still contested by the Government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), with whom they signed a peace accord in 2005 to end the long-running north-south civil war.
The town of Abyei is now largely deserted as a result of the shooting and most staff with the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) have been evacuated from the area. But a meeting of the area joint military committee – under the chairmanship of UNMIS – yesterday reached agreement on an end to the clashes.
Mr. Qazi urged both sides to respect all provisions of the agreement, including an immediate ceasefire and the removal of other armed groups from Abyei. He also called for civilians and civilian installations to be fully protected.
“The latest development in Abyei, whose complex problems represent one of the most difficult challenges facing the successful implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) in Sudan, underscores the importance of fully implementing the Abyei protocol,” he said.
An impasse over the boundaries of Abyei – which lies near the boundary between north and south Sudan – has been one of the main stumbling blocks hindering the full implementation of the CPA, which ended more than two decades of conflict, and is separate to the ongoing fighting in the western region of Darfur.
Mr. Qazi added that as a first step the Government and the SPLA need to establish an interim administration to ensure the delivery of basic services to the people of Abyei and to serve as a mechanism for resolving differences and preventing the emergence of conflicts.
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UN CONTRIBUTES $7 MILLION FOR VICTIMS OF DEADLY CHINESE QUAKE – BAN KI-MOON
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced today that up to $7 million will be released from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support United Nations relief efforts in the aftermath of Monday’s massive earthquake in China that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban said that the grant will be used by UN agencies, funds and programmes to assist with urgent relief efforts.
“The United Nations stands ready to provide further support, as required, to the Government of China in its efforts to respond to the humanitarian needs caused by the disaster,” he added.
According to media reports, some 22,000 people have lost their lives in the devastating tremors, reaching about 7.9 on the Richter scale, whose epicentre was in Sichuan province, which has a total population of some 90 million.
According to Elizabeth Byrs of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), this is the worst earthquake to strike the country since quake in 1976 around the city of Tangshan, which killed 240,000 people.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, she said that over 100,000 people have been injured by the 12 May earthquake, and although 13,400 people have been rescued, more than 12,000 others remain trapped under the rubble.
Furthermore, nearly one million houses were either destroyed or sustained heavy damage.
Some of the hardest-hit areas are in mountainous regions, which are extremely difficult for rescue crews to access, Ms. Byrs noted.
China has welcomed global assistance, having identified tents and body bags, along with medicine, ready-to-eat meals, blankets, clothes, flashlights, among other supplies, as the most urgently-needed supplies.
She also said that the country’s Ministry of Environmental Protection has confirmed that the destruction of two facilities in the quake has resulted in sulphuric acid and liquid ammonia leaks. OCHA and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) have offered their assistance to curb potential environmental damage.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it will purchase 1.6 million packages of ready-to-eat noodles – enough to feed 118,000 people for one week – for survivors.
“This is a symbol of our solidarity with the people of China,” said the agency’s Executive Director Josette Sheeran. “We stand ready to help in any way.”
For its part, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that it was responding to a request from the Chinese Government for specific supplies, such as tents, blankets and school kits, which will arrive within the next 48 hours.
UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman voiced concern in a statement yesterday over schoolchildren who “were prominent victims of the quake, which struck during school hours and resulted in the collapse of a number of school buildings.”
The agency’s China bureau estimated that 12 million school-age children lived in Sichuan province, with 2 million of them in the worst-affected area.
Meanwhile, the UN agency tasked with minimizing the threat posed by natural disasters stressed today that collapsed buildings are the leading killer in earthquakes, as Monday’s earthquake as well as the 2005 quake in Pakistan and others have shown.
“We know how to make buildings more resistant to earthquakes, but this knowledge is still not yet well disseminated among decision-makers who enforce building codes for houses, schools and hospitals” said Salvano Briceño, Director of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).
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BURUNDI: SECRETARY-GENERAL WELCOMES ARRIVAL OF REBEL GROUP FOR PEACE TALKS
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed today’s arrival in Burundi’s capital of a delegation from the Palipehutu-FNL, the rebel group involved in deadly fighting with Government forces in recent weeks, for a resumption of peace talks.
In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban strongly urged the delegation from the Palipehutu-FNL “to engage in good faith” in the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism and Political Directorate, the latest phase of the Burundi peace process, which is being held in Bujumbura.
“The Secretary-General remains deeply concerned by the ongoing fighting and the suffering it has inflicted on the population,” the statement noted. “He calls on the Government and the Palipehutu-FNL to immediately cease military action and to take measures to build confidence in, and support, the peace process.”
Dozens of people have died over the past month in clashes in and around Bujumbura, despite a ceasefire in 2006 between the Government and the Palipehutu-FNL, the last major rebel hold-outs after the end of the brutal civil war between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority.
Mr. Ban thanked the leaders of the Regional Peace Initiative for Burundi and the South African Facilitation for their efforts to promote dialogue in the small African country.
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UN REFUGEE AGENCY PROVIDES AID TO MORE THAN 40,000 SOMALIS WHO FLED CAPITAL
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has provided aid to more than 40,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somalia who live in precarious conditions in dozens of makeshift settlements west of the capital, Mogadishu.
UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told reporters today that the agency completed the distribution of aid this week to IDPs living along a 30-kilometre stretch of road between Mogadishu and the town of Afgooye.
In total, as many as 300,000 former residents of the capital live in a tangle of some 200 crowded and rudimentary settlements, and this week’s distribution targeted the most vulnerable people within that group.
Ms. Pagonis said it took UNHCR two days to transport the aid 30 kilometres because of the numerous checkpoints set up along the road by both soldiers and militiamen who demand money in return for safe passage.
As part of the aid, which arrived as the annual rainy season began, each family received one plastic sheet, one kitchen set, three blankets and six sleeping mats.
A second round of aid distribution will soon begin for another 40,000 IDPs in Afgooye and on the immediate outskirts of Mogadishu, while a separate but similar programme aims to provide relief to an estimated 12,000 people who fled recently to the seaside town of Marka.
Somalia, which has not had a functioning national government since 1991, has been beset by increasingly brutal fighting this year between Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Institution (TFI) forces and Islamist insurgents, particularly in Mogadishu.
Yesterday the Security Council adopted a resolution deploring the violence and deteriorating humanitarian situation and asking Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to press ahead with contingency plans to deploy a possible UN peacekeeping force to replace the under-resourced African Union force known as AMISOM.
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UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT FORUM ENDS WITH CALL FOR MORE INVESTMENT IN RESEARCH
The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) wrapped up its annual session today by emphasizing the need for ramping up investment in research and development in innovative and sustainable agricultural technologies and infrastructure in poor countries.
The Commission, concluding two weeks of discussions in New York, examined the obstacles and barriers that have prevented sustainable development in the areas of agriculture, land use, rural development, drought, desertification and Africa. Countries will now follow-up on these issues with policy recommendations at next year’s meeting.
The session also provided a foundation for international discussions on the global food crises that will take place in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) – of which the CSD is a subsidiary body – next Tuesday in New York, and at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome in early June.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in an address earlier this week, said that “after a quarter century of relative neglect, agriculture is back on the international agenda, sadly with a vengeance. The onset of the current food crisis has highlighted the fragility of our success in feeding the world's growing population with the technologies of the first green revolution and subsequent agricultural improvements.”
The Secretary-General stressed that agriculture needs invigorating. “We need to work together to develop a new generation of technologies and farming methods which make possible a second green revolution, one which permits sustainable yield improvements with minimal environmental damage and contributes to sustainable development goals.”
Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang said: “We do need to address the runaway food prices as an emergency. We need to take quick, targeted action to deliver emergency food aid to the people in need.” But he added that crisis management was not enough. “We need to make sure it does not happen again.”
Many countries expressed concern that a number of factors had contributed to the present situation, including climate change, unfair trade policies, poor land management, biofuel production, and a lack of roads and access to markets in rural agricultural areas.
Almost 60 ministers attended the CSD, along with 680 representatives from 126 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Representatives from civil society, including women, farmers, science, business, children and youth, local authorities, workers and trade unions, indigenous peoples and nongovernmental organizations participated far more extensively than in the past.
Participants also elected Gerda Verburg, the Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality in the Netherlands, as the next chair of the CSD – the first time that the subsidiary body of ECOSOC will be led by a woman.
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UN UNDETERRED IN FACING CHALLENGES, SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS FUTURE LEADERS
The United Nations must not be deterred by the threat of terrorism and the challenge of limited resources from trying to meet its responsibilities, such as curbing climate change, promoting peace and encouraging economic development around the world, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told students.
Addressing the Model UN Conference in New York yesterday, Mr. Ban said the world body often needs greater support – financial and political – to achieve its tasks, such as in the strife-torn Darfur region of Sudan, where the hybrid UN-African Union peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) has been deployed to try to quell the fighting and humanitarian suffering.
He added that last December’s terror attack in Algiers, Algeria, which claimed the lives of 17 staff members, illustrated that the UN is now under threat.
“But we are not deterred by these tough conditions,” the Secretary-General stated. “If anything, we are more determined than ever to press forward with our mission to promote peace, development and human rights.”
He appealed for enhanced resources, government backing from Member States and global support.
Mr. Ban also encouraged participants at the Model UN Conference to aim high and to blaze trails on a global scale.
“You have a higher sense of purpose that draws you to think beyond the borders of your own countries,” he told the students. “I want to encourage you continue on this path, and to dream big.”
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NEPAL'S RECENT ELECTIONS ONLY ONE MILESTONE IN PEACE PROCESS - BAN KI-MOON
Despite last month’s landmark Constituent Assembly elections in Nepal, the South Asian nation still has a long way to go in completing the peace process, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a new report made public today.
Characterizing the polls as historic, Mr. Ban said that “the desire and commitment of the people of Nepal for peace and change was the driving force behind this success.”
But he warned that “the election is only a milestone in the peace process,” noting that “the real work of addressing the nation’s deeper socio-economic difficulties and drafting a constitution that reflects the will of the entire nation only begins now.”
The Secretary-General wrote that he is encouraged by the commitment and cooperation that the Maoists, who performed well at the elections, and called on the other political parties to remain focused on Nepal’s long-term interests.
“Short-term differences should not distract them from governing by consensus and from cooperating in the vital task of constitution-making,” he said.
Although Mr. Ban noted that he does not anticipate the extension of the mandate of the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), he said the UN is prepared to offer continued support for the conclusion of the peace process and for the country’s lasting development.
Additionally, he wrote that both his Special Representative and Resident Coordinator will provide whatever the new government, once formed, may request.
“These are critical times for long-term stability in Nepal, and the United Nations will remain by the side of the people and leaders of Nepal in the historic tasks of political and social transformation on which they have embarked.”
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GROWING VIOLENCE IN EASTERN CHAD ALARMS UN REFUGEE AGENCY
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is voicing deep concern about the escalating violence inside eastern Chad, where two gendarmes guarding a refugee camp were shot dead earlier this week and an increasing number of vehicles have been hijacked by bandits.
UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told journalists today in Geneva that the agency is also alarmed that last weekend’s attack by Darfur rebels on the outskirts of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, could further destabilize the already fragile security situation in the region.
Eastern Chad is home to about 250,000 refugees from neighbouring Darfur, with the majority living in 12 formal camps, as well as 180,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) because of the ongoing troubles within Chad.
Ms. Pagonis said that two gendarmes providing security for the Touloum camp were shot and killed by three armed men on Wednesday, while another two gendarmes were severely injured. The attackers, local Chadians, have since been arrested.
A day earlier, also near Touloum, three gunmen hijacked a vehicle belonging to an aid partner of UNHCR and then drove to Am Nabak refugee camp, where they hijacked a vehicle belonging to a local non-governmental organization (NGO). After gendarmes gave chase, the hijackers abandoned the vehicles and escaped.
The hijacking of vehicles, particularly involving NGOs and aid agencies, and other security incidents – such as armed robberies of NGO compounds – have become increasingly common in eastern Chad, and earlier this month the country director of Save the Children was killed by bandits.
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VETERAN FINNISH DIPLOMAT NAMED WINNER OF PRESTIGIOUS UNESCO PEACE PRIZE
The former Finnish president and current United Nations envoy Martti Ahtisaari was named today as the winner of the annual peace prize of the Organization’s cultural agency. The former Finnish president and current United Nations envoy Martti Ahtisaari was named today as the winner of the annual peace prize of the Organization’s cultural agency.
Mr. Ahtisaari, who also founded the non-governmental organization (NGO) Crisis Management Initiative, was chosen for “his lifetime contribution to world peace,” said the head of the international jury that awards the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Expressing his great pleasure at this recognition, the agency’s Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura said that Mr. Ahtisaari’s career in promoting dialogue and world peace mirrors UNESCO’s ideals.
This year’s winner, who served as the President of Finland from 1994 to 2000, has carried out many peace missions for the UN in such places as Jenin and the Horn of Africa and currently serves as the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Future Status Process for Kosovo.
In the framework of the Crisis Management Initiative, he organized a week-long meeting between Iraq Muslim Sunni and Shiite groups to kick-start dialogue between the communities. Additionally, he facilitated the peace process between Indonesia and Aceh separatists, which led to the signing of a peace treaty, bringing an end to the province’s conflict.
The Prize was established in 1989 by UNESCO’s General Conference to honour living people or institutions which have contributed significantly to the promotion, research or safeguarding of peace while complying with the Charter of the United Nations and UNESCO’s constitution. It was named for the first president of Côte d’Ivoire, the late Mr. Houphouët-Boigny.
Previous winners include South Africa’s Nelson Mandela and Frederik W. De Klerk; Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat; King Juan Carlos of Spain and former United States President Jimmy Carter; and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.
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FOCUS IN MYANMAR ON SAVING LIVES, NOT POLITICS, BAN KI-MOON TELLS ASSEMBLY
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the United Nations is concerned with saving lives, not with politics, as he tries to ramp up aid efforts following Cyclone Nargis which struck Myanmar and has severely affected up to 2.5 million people.
Addressing members of the General Assembly, Mr. Ban said, “I want to emphasize that this is not the time for politics. Our concern right now is to save lives – to help the Government of Myanmar and its people.”
He said that he had asked UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes to deliver a third letter to Myanmar’s leadership with the aim of discussing how the world body can assist the Government’s immediate and longer-term relief effort. He added that unless more aid gets into the country quickly, “we face the risk of an outbreak of infectious diseases that could dramatically worsen today’s crisis.”
Mr. Ban. said he hoped that the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) next week, and a further high-level pledging conference that he has proposed for 24 or 25 May, would help mobilize resources in response to the crisis in Myanmar, as was the case in response to the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. Turning to the China earthquake, the Secretary-General described it as a “humanitarian catastrophe, no less serious than Cyclone Nargis.” He commended the Beijing authorities for their fast and effective action and expressed his sincere condolences to the victims and their families. Mr. Ban added that, while fully confident in the Chinese Government’s capacity to manage the crisis, the UN has offered resources from its Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and is dispatching experts from rescue and relief operations.
The Secretary-General also said that the current global food crisis “demands urgent, coordinated action by the international community,” and noted the work carried out earlier this week by the international task force on the food crisis which he chairs. He said the task force is working hard to bring together a comprehensive plan in time for the summit on world food security in Rome, scheduled for early June. He called the summit one of the most important events planned for 2008.
Mr. Ban also signalled that he was personally increasing his engagement for a successful agreement on climate change at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is set to take place in Copenhagen in December. The Secretary-General committed himself to raising global awareness on the importance of an effective climate change agreement that all nations can embrace. He also said he would lead by example by reducing the climate footprint at the UN.
Mr. Ban’s office earlier announced that he would be unable to attend Harvard University near Boston in the United States to give a speech next week because of commitments related to the current major humanitarian disasters.
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UN TRIBUNAL POSTPONES TRIAL OF SERBIAN SECURITY FIGURE DUE TO ILL HEALTH
The United Nations tribunal set up to deal with the worst crimes committed during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s today adjourned the trial of a former high-level official with the Serbian secret service after ruling that he is not fit to stand trial on health grounds.
Today’s decision overturns that of the trial chamber last month that ruled that Jovica Stanišić could stand trial.
But the appeals chamber found that Mr. Stanišić has the right to be present in the court, deeming a video-conference link from the detention unit to be insufficient.
The proceedings will be postponed for three months, at which time the defendant’s health condition will be reassessed to determine whether the trial should resume.
Mr. Stanišić is accused of directing, organizing, equipping, training, arming and financing secret units of the Serbian State Security which murdered, persecuted and deported Croats, Bosnian Muslims and other non-Serb civilians from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia between 1991 and 1995.
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