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UN DAILY NEWS from the
UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE
9 June, 2008 =========================================================================
GLOBAL LEADERS GATHER AT UN FORUM TO TACKLE TUBERCULOSIS THREAT
On the eve of a high-level meeting on AIDS, government leaders, health and business officials, heads of United Nations agencies and activists have gathered in New York to confront tuberculosis, the leading cause of death for people living with HIV.
Addressing the first HIV/TB Global Leaders’ Forum, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that TB is one of the top 10 leading causes of death globally, causing more than 4,000 deaths every day. “This is shocking: no one should die of TB, a preventable and curable disease, in this prosperous and technology-rich 21st century,” he said.
TB accounts for an estimated quarter of a million deaths each year among those living with HIV and is the number one cause of death among people living with HIV in Africa.
Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced that some 3 million people are now receiving life-saving anti-retroviral treatment. However, TB, especially drug-resistant forms of the disease, threatens to hinder this progress.
“There is not nearly enough investment in TB control, or in research into preventing, diagnosing and treating TB in people living with HIV,” Mr. Ban said. “This offers us very few options for treating drug resistance, and little chance of eliminating TB deaths.”
The Forum is being convened by the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB, Jorge Sampaio, who stressed that new tools are needed to tackle the disease. “The diagnostics, the drugs and vaccines available now for TB are old. Nothing new has been produced in the past 37 years,” he told reporters before the meeting.
Partnership is the key, Dr. Sampaio stressed, cautioning that “if in fact there is to be no real progress on HIV/TB, we will be in very difficult circumstances in the future.”
According to UNAIDS, HIV and TB are so closely connected that they are often referred to as co-epidemics or dual epidemics that drive and reinforce one another.
Since HIV weakens the immune system, people living with the virus are up to 50 times more likely to develop TB than those who are HIV negative. Without proper treatment with anti-TB drugs, the majority of people living with HIV die within two to three months of becoming sick with TB.
That is something Winstone Zulu, an HIV and TB activist from Zambia, knows all too well. Mr. Zulu and his four brothers were all HIV positive. In 1990, two of his brothers contracted TB and because they did not have TB drugs in his country, both of them died within a week of each other.
In 1996, his oldest brother died as well from TB, again because there were no TB drugs in the country, as did his fourth brother in 2003. Mr. Zulu, who also had TB in 1996, is alive today because he was able to access TB drugs treatment.
“TB treatment for people living with HIV often means the difference between life and death,” he told journalists. “Because I accessed TB treatment I am still alive.”
Mr. Zulu emphasized that what today’s Forum should focus on is that “while we’re looking for a cure for AIDS, we cannot afford to allow people with HIV and tuberculosis to continue dying.”
The meeting takes place one day before the General Assembly high-level meeting to review the progress achieved to realize the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS.
“The timing of the two meetings was intentional because we recognise the link between the two challenges,” Assembly President Srgjan Kerim told the Forum.
“We cannot separate the fight against HIV/AIDS from the fight against TB. Success in one will yield success in the other; conversely the continued spread of TB among people living with AIDS undermines efforts to contain the HIV/AIDS pandemic,” he said.
Today’s Forum, which is co-sponsored by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the Stop TB Partnership, is expected to produce a Call for Action to drastically cut the number of deaths associated with HIV/TB.
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SOMALI PARTIES REACH PEACE DEAL AFTER UN-LED TALKS
Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia today signed a peace deal ending their conflict and calling on the United Nations to deploy an international stabilization force to the troubled Horn of Africa country.
The leaders of delegations from the two sides signed an agreement in neighbouring Djibouti in the presence of representatives of the international community, including the Secretary-General’s Special Representative Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, according to the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS).
The deal follows 10 days of UN-facilitated talks in Djibouti aimed at ending the political strife that has bedevilled Somalia for nearly two decades. The country has not had a functioning national government since 1991 and deadly fighting in recent months – particularly in and around the capital, Mogadishu – has displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Under the pact, the Government and the opposition have agreed to end “all acts of armed confrontation” within 30 days. The initial period of cessation of hostilities is 90 days, and can be renewed.
The UN is asked to authorize and deploy “an international stabilization force from countries that are friends of Somalia, excluding neighbouring States,” within 120 days.
The TFG “will act in accordance” with Ethiopia’s decision to remove its own troops from Somalia after the deployment of a sufficient number of UN forces.
The opposition, meanwhile, “shall, through a solemn public statement, cease and condemn all acts of armed violence in Somalia and dissociate itself from any armed groups or individuals that do not adhere to the terms of this agreement.”
Both sides are required to take all necessary steps to ensure unhindered humanitarian access and assistance to affected populations and to refrain from any statements or actions inconsistent with the agreement.
A high-level committee chaired by the UN is to be set up later this month to follow up on outstanding issues relating to political cooperation and concerns over justice and reconciliation, while a separate joint security committee will also be established.
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PRIVATE INVESTMENT KEY IN TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE, SAYS ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT
With trillions of dollars needed to combat climate change in coming decades, private investments are essential, General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim said today.
Despite the efforts of the UN and other international and regional institutions, the world body approximates that nearly 90 per cent of the funds needed to address global warming will derive from the private sector, Mr. Kerim said at an Assembly event with the theme “Global Private Investments and Climate Change.”
Additionally, in 2030, some $200 billion will be needed to return emissions to current levels, while a recent report pointed out that without stepped-up action, poorer nations’ GDP would plummet over 10 per cent, he said.
Today’s event follows up on an Assembly debate on climate change held in February, and the President told participants in his opening address that he chose to convene the meeting given the need to “deepen our collective understanding on how the private sector relates to climate issues” and Member States call for a surge in financing to address the issue.
“Financial institutions shape our economies in many and varied ways,” he said. “Investment decisions taken today will inevitably affect the world’s emission profile in the future.”
The goal of the event, which also featured an interactive panel discussion, is two-fold, the President said, hoping to ascertain how decisions taken by private investors affect climate change and how global warming influences their financial choices.
“We don’t want climate change to be reduced to an environmental issue,” he told reporters after speaking at the event. “It is rather an issue of sustainable development and sustainable development must be based on economic growth.”
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SOME AFRICAN CULTURAL TRADITIONS INFLUENCE SPREAD OF AIDS – UN REPORT
Cultural factors in Africa, including gender inequalities, wife inheritance and some sexual practices, need to change and be better understood if the fight against HIV/AIDS is to be more effective, according to a new United Nations report.
The report, issued today by the UN Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa (CHGA), calls for serious “discussion and action” on cultural issues which many societies find uncomfortable and challenging, but which determine the spread of HIV and undermine the effectiveness of national responses to the epidemic.
As an example, the report cites the fact that married women are at a high risk of contracting HIV when cultural norms condone male promiscuity or patriarchal control of the married couple's sexual activities. In many African cultures, the report says, widows have very limited legal rights to claim their family property.
After the report was presented to him today in New York, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon backed its call for action.
“We must learn better to grasp how cultural norms and attitudes increase the risk of infection. It is why we must enforce laws to eliminate violence against women and girls and take action to improve the lives of AIDS orphans,” he said.
Today’s report also argues that while some cultural norms and practices can fuel HIV transmission, others can have a positive impact. “For example”, it says, “male circumcision, which has been practiced for centuries in some cultures and communities, has been found to decrease the risk of HIV transmission in men.
Challenging another assumption, the report finds that although polygamy has been thought to be one of the major factors promoting the spread of HIV in Africa, the evidence supporting this notion was inconsistent. In Ghana, for instance, the prevalence of HIV infection was lowest in the north, where 44 percent of marriages are polygamous.
In a related development, the UN-backed Global Fund to Fight AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria today announced that its programmes have helped 1.75 million people living with HIV receive lifesaving antiretroviral treatment – up by 59 per cent since last year.
“We are halfway to 2015, which is the year the United Nations has set to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” said Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “So far, we are far behind the targets in reducing the mortality from AIDS, TB and malaria, but the results coming in over the past years give hope that we can still catch up and reach the targets if we continue to scale up investments,” he added.
In addition, the Global Fund reported that it has funded treatment for more than 3.9 million people who have contracted tuberculosis, which causes up to one third of AIDS deaths worldwide each year.
The Fund has also delivered 59 million insecticide-treated bed nets to families at risk of malaria.
The results were released to coincide with the General Assembly’s High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, which is starting in New York tomorrow.
In further remarks today, Mr. Ban said that the global community had risen to the occasion in response to the AIDS pandemic in African countries.
“We have seen an international movement towards universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support,” he said.
Meanwhile, Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, told reporters in New York that there have been some real results in the campaign against HIV/AIDS:
“Three million people are on anti-retroviral therapy, including 2 million in Africa…in 2001 there were less than 200,000 people on anti-retroviral therapy and most of them were living in Brazil because that was the only big country in the developing world that was offering this free to its citizens,” he said.
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SUDAN: BAN WELCOMES AGREEMENT TO RESOLVE DISPUTE OVER ABYEI
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed an agreement to resolve a dispute over the town of Abyei, which lies in an oil-rich area close to the boundary between northern and southern Sudan, and has recently been the scene of violent clashes that have displaced as many as 50,000 people.
On Sunday the National Congress Party and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement agreed on a road map to resolve the Abyei dispute, including through arbitration.
“The Secretary-General congratulates the two parties and urges them to implement this agreement in full to ensure a final resolution of this most serious challenge to Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA),” Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said in a statement.
The CPA, signed by the Government and former rebels in January 2005, ended the long-running north-south civil war, but an impasse since then over the boundaries and status of Abyei has been one of the stumbling blocks to fully implementing the peace accord, as the area is contested by both sides.
The Secretary-General said today that he “particularly welcomes the commitment of the two parties to allow the UN Mission in Sudan unrestricted access and freedom of movement in the Abyei area,” and he gave his assurances that the UN would continue to provide assistance to the tens of thousands of people who have been displaced.
The UN “also stands ready to assist their return to Abyei, once security arrangements are put in place to enable a safe and dignified return,” he said.
The town of Abyei was largely destroyed after fighting broke out last month.
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LAND DISPUTES COMPLICATE REFUGEE RETURN TO EASTERN DR CONGO, UN SAYS
The United Nations refugee agency is helping to promote dialogue to ward off disputes over land in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) province of South Kivu, one of the largest issues facing refugees returning to the region.
Land is at the root of many quarrels between Congolese returnees and those who never left the DRC, as well as between refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) today.
To ease the reintegration process for those returning to South Kivu – a province which borders Rwanda and Uganda and has seen relative stability – UNHCR, together with its partners, has been working to encourage mediation.
“There is now a real window of opportunity to help uprooted Congolese return and rebuild their lives,” Nasir Fernandes, the head of the agency’s office in Uvira, said.
The main thrust of UNHCR’s efforts is to use a combination of communication, collaboration and reintegration activities to facilitate renewing relationships between returnees and those who stayed in South Kivu.
In a project called Search for Common Ground backed by the agency, 75 actors have been trained in conflict analysis to listen to communities’ concerns and set up a dialogue to allow audience members to take part and find constructive means to end conflicts.
This initiative has reached over 400,000 people in the past 18 months in the main areas of return in South Kivu and parts of neighbouring Katanga province.
UNCHR and its partners are also assisting in boosting local conflict resolution avenues, such as traditional mediation committees, which are often the only means available for addressing land disputes in the absence of effective government institutions.
In one instance, Lucie, a refugee returning to South Kivu from Tanzania last year, found a house being built on property owned by her late husband by his niece Amina, who argued that the land had been sold to her father in Lucie’s absence.
Police intervention failed to resolve the dispute, and Lucie asked UNHCR-supported Arche D’Alliance, which referred her to a mediation committee. When Amina still refused to budge, the project was called in and produced a drama based on the two women’s disagreement, which ultimately led to an agreement: Lucie will stay in the house with her children while Amina will be allowed to build a new house nearby.
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FRESH UN-LED TALKS BETWEEN GREECE, FYR OF MACEDONIA SET FOR LATER THIS WEEK
The envoy spearheading United Nations attempts to resolve the dispute between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia over the latter’s name is this week renewing efforts to broker a solution between the two European neighbours.
Matthew Nimetz, the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy on the talks between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, will be meeting with representatives of the two countries in New York, a UN spokesperson told journalists today.
A formal meeting – which will involve Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis of Greece and Ambassador Nikola Dimitrov for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – is scheduled to be held at UN Headquarters on Thursday.
Mr. Nimetz has frequently held talks with both Athens and Skopje in recent months to try to reach a deal, but he told journalists in March that there has been no progress on the issue, despite an acknowledgement by both sides that a solution was in their best interests.
He had proposed several compromise names but the two countries remained far apart on what they considered a satisfactory name for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The Interim Accord of 13 September 1995, which was brokered by the UN, details the difference between Athens and Skopje on the issue. It also obliges the two sides to continue negotiations under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General in a bid to reach agreement.
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BAN MOURNS DEATH OF BOUGAINVILLE LEADER
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced his sadness at the death of Joseph Kabui, the first president of the Autonomous Bougainville Government in Papua New Guinea.
“President Kabui was known as a skilled mediator and peacemaker who had a genuine interest in the future of his people,” Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said in a statement. “He played a crucial role in bringing peace to Bougainville, following the years of conflict, achieving autonomy for the province in 2005.”
Mr. Ban offered his condolences to the family of Mr. Kabui and the people of Bougainville.
“The late President Kabui enjoyed a long-standing relationship with the United Nations, through the peace negotiations and the years of the UN Observer Mission to Bougainville and the Political Office that followed.”
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ON LAST LEG OF AFRICAN TRIP, SECURITY COUNCIL DISCUSSES IVORIAN POLLS
The Security Council mission touring Africa met today with officials in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where they discussed the ongoing peace process in the West African nation and the presidential election slated for later this year.
The delegation, led by Ambassador Michel Kafando of Burkina Faso, was briefed by Choi Yong Jin, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, and other senior officials of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country (UNOCI).
Council members met with a cross-section of Ivorian civil society, with opposition figure Alassane Ouattara, with the Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission and with military officials, including the UN Force Commander and the Chief of Staff of the Ivorian Army.
They also held meetings with the team in charge of the logistical preparations for the planned November presidential election and with the Special Representative of the Facilitator of the Ivorian peace process. A meeting with President Laurent Gbagbo is also planned.
The Council mission arrived in Côte d’Ivoire from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where it met on Saturday with President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa.
They discussed the reform of the security and judicial sectors, the disarmament and national reconciliation processes, and the implementation of the Goma Agreement between the Government and various armed groups, UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters.
“They also touched on continued UN-DRC cooperation, sexual violence and issues related to war crimes investigations by the International Criminal Court,” she added.
On Sunday, the delegation visited a UN-run camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the north-eastern town of Goma and held discussions with the people living there, as well as with UN humanitarian staff working in the camp.
They also met with the Mixed Commission on the follow-up mechanism to the Goma Agreement and with representatives of female victims of sexual violence.
The Council team will return to New York tomorrow, having visited Djibouti, Sudan, Chad, DRC and Côte d’Ivoire on their 10-day trip.
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HEAD OF UN PREVENTIVE DIPLOMACY CENTRE IN CENTRAL ASIA BEGINS WORK
The senior United Nations official tasked with the world body’s preventive diplomacy efforts in Central Asia took up his duties today in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan.
Miroslav Jenca, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and the Head of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy in Central Asia (UNRCCA), expects to have consultations with authorities across the region in the coming weeks, a UN spokesperson told reporters.
UNRCCA was established by the UN last year to help the countries of the region – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – respond more proactively to cross-border challenges and threats, such as terrorism, drug trafficking, organized crime and environmental degradation, before they become costlier and more difficult to control.
It is also expected to work closely with the existing UN programmes and agencies operating in Central Asia, as well as with regional groups such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Mr. Jenca, a Slovak diplomat, recently served as head of mission for the OSCE centre in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He has also served in an array of other diplomatic posts for his country.
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UN TRIBUNAL TURNS DOWN REQUEST TO TRANSFER FORMER BUSINESSMAN’S CASE TO RWANDA
The United Nations war crimes tribunal set up to deal with the 1994 Rwandan genocide has announced that it has turned down a request to transfer to the small Great Lakes nation the case of a former businessman alleged to have supervised the massacre of some 2,000 Tutsi civilians taking shelter in a church.
Gaspard Kanyarukiga, who was arrested in South Africa in July 2004, has plead not guilty to charges of genocide, complicity in genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The Tribunal’s trial chamber found that while Rwanda has made strides towards improving its judicial system, including having the proper laws criminalizing Mr. Kanyarukiga’s alleged crimes and the abolition of the death penalty, it was not satisfied that he would receive a fair trial if his case is transferred.
Firstly, it expressed concern that the defendant would not be able to sufficiently call witnesses living outside Rwanda. It also said the defence would have difficulty accessing witnesses residing within the country because they may be too frightened to testify. Lastly, the chamber said there is a chance that Mr. Kanyarukiga could face solitary confinement if sentenced to life imprisonment.
According to the indictment presented to the Arusha-based ICTR, in 1994 he transported police and members of the notorious Interahamwe militia to Nyange church in western Rwanda, where about 2,000 Tutsi civilians had taken refuge.
The police and militia poured fuel through the church’s roof, set it on fire and then used guns and grenades to kill the Tutsis. The defendant is alleged to have supervised these events and then ordered the corpses to be removed and the church destroyed.
The indictment further alleges that the businessman held several meetings with local political and religious leaders where they discussed how to kill Tutsis.
At least 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were murdered during the genocide.
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TARGETING JOURNALISTS ‘UNFORGIVABLE,’ UN SAYS AFTER DEATH OF BBC AFGHAN REPORTER
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has expressed its sadness at the killing of an Afghan reporter working for the BBC in the country’s southern Helmand province, stressing it is “unforgivable” that journalists should be targeted for simply doing their jobs.
Abdul Samad Rohani was the Pashto service reporter for the BBC World Service in Helmand. He was reportedly abducted on Saturday and his body was found the next day in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah.
“Afghan journalists risk their lives everyday to highlight the concerns and needs of ordinary Afghan people and it is unforgivable that such selfless individuals are being targeted for no other reason than doing their job,” UNAMA’s Nazifullah Salarzai told reporters in Kabul today.
“We urge the Afghan authorities to leave no stone unturned in search of those responsible for this callous murder,” he added.
Mr. Rohani was one of two BBC journalists killed over the weekend. Nasteh Dahir, who worked for the BBC and the Associated Press, was gunned down in Kismayo, Somalia, on Saturday.
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UN OFFICIAL SPEAKS OUT AGAINST KILLING OF SOMALI JOURNALIST
The top United Nations humanitarian official for Somalia has expressed his shock and disappointment at the latest killing of a journalist in the strife-torn nation, the deadliest place in Africa for the media to work.
Nasteh Dahir Farah was fatally shot on 7 June by unknown gunmen in Kismayo. He had been working for the BBC and the Associated Press, and was also the vice chairman of the National Union of Somali Journalists.
In a statement issued today, Mark Bowden, the UN Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator for Somalia, noted that “members of civil society in Somalia – in particular the media – have been singled out for attack and assassination.”
Mr. Farah’s death brings to nine the number of journalists killed in Somalia in 2007-2008. He is the second reporter to be killed in Kismayo this year.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Somalia is now the second-most dangerous country to be a journalist, behind only Iraq.
“It’s a tribute to the dedication and courage of journalists such as Mr. Farah, that despite the fact that members of the media are frequently targeted, harassed, arrested and killed in Somalia, he continued his work,” said Mr. Bowden. “Sadly, his dedication cost him his life.”
Security in various parts of Somalia, which has not had a functioning national government since 1991, remains precarious, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Incidents of carjacking targeting humanitarian aid organizations are on the rise along the Afgooye-Mogadishu road, hindering efforts to deliver aid to 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have fled from violence in Mogadishu. Some 22 humanitarian vehicles have been hijacked in Somalia so far in 2008.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) has managed to secure six ships to transport 40,000 metric tonnes of food aid from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Mogadishu. The Dutch naval mission to escort vessels along the pirate-infested Somali coastline ends on 22 June, and WFP is urgently seeking other navies to provide escorts.
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