REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which provided information about the Secretary-General's activities and recent statements, Geneva activities, the situation in Uzbekistan, the World Health Assembly and other issues. Spokespersons for the High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children's Fund, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, the International Organization for Migration, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the World Food Programme.

Secretary-General's Activities and Recent Statements

Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Kofi Annan would, together with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konaré, chair a high-level donors' meeting in support of the African Union mission in Sudan which was deployed in Darfur. This meeting would be held in Addis Ababa on 26 May.

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General's Special Advisor, Lakhdar Brahimi, and Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, together with the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, visited Darfur over the weekend. Among those they met with were African Union officials, and UN personnel operating in Darfur. Discussions focused on the humanitarian and security situation in Darfur.

Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Secretary-General had issued a number of statements over the past few days. In a statement on Uzbekistan, the Secretary-General said he had been following events in Uzbekistan with great concern. He deplored the outbreak of violence in the city of Andijan and was saddened by the news of the loss of life, including civilians.

On Côte d'Ivoire, the Secretary-General welcomed the agreement on the time frame and modalities for the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as a plan for the restructuring of the armed forces.

Concerning Guinea-Bissau, the Secretary-General expressed his deep concern to hear of statements which appeared designed to disrupt the ongoing transitional process in Guinea-Bissau.

With regards to the message of the Secretary-General to mark World Telecommunication Day, 17 May, Mr. Annan underlined that the challenge ahead was to bridge the information gap and to harness the great power of new technology to promote development. Poorer countries must receive help in building up their infrastructure and developing their human resources, he added.

The Secretary-General also delivered the commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, in which he told the students there that he was far from complacent about the United Nations today. The United Nations, he said, was a work in progress, and it must move with the times. That was why he had put before the Member States the blueprint of the "In Larger Freedom" report, so that the world body could be overhauled to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Copies of all the statements by the Secretary-General were available in the press room.

Geneva Activities

Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said that available in the press room was the statement by Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, at the opening of the fifty-eighth World Health Assembly at the Palais des Nations yesterday.

The Committee against Torture would be concluding its session at the end of this week. Most of its meetings this week would be held in private during which the Committee would discuss its draft observations and recommendations on the reports which it had considered during the session. The Committee would meet in public on Friday, 20 May to conclude its session and release its conclusions on the reports of Canada, Switzerland, Finland, Albania, Uganda and Bahrain.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child was today starting its thirty-ninth session at the Palais Wilson. It would be considering the reports of Saint Lucia, the Philippines, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nepal, Ecuador, Norway, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Yemen during the session.

In conclusion, Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier reminded journalists that the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, would be attending at 11:30 a.m. this morning the inauguration ceremony at the Palais des Nations during which the environmental organization Green Cross International and Green Cross Japan would present to UNOG 20 solar powered street lamps. The ceremony would be held at door 30. A note to correspondents was available and journalists were welcome to attend the ceremony.

Uzbekistan

Jennifer Pagonis of the High Commissioner for Refugees said following the violent events in Andijan in Uzbekistan on Friday, UNHCR was urging both the Uzbek and Kyrgyz Governments to leave the border open to all civilians at every crossing point. A UNHCR team had arrived on the Kyrgyz side of the border this weekend, and another emergency team to support staff on the ground was on its way to the region. Aid supplies had been sent to the border area. In Jalal-Abad, some 50 kilometres north of Andijan, some 550 Uzbeks arrived on Saturday from Andijan. They had been registered as asylum seekers.

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children's Fund said UNICEF called on all the concerned parties in Uzbekistan to respect all children, especially in the east of Uzbekistan. Today, a joint team from UNICEF, UNHCR and WHO had left for Andijan. There was little information available at this moment, including no information on children who might have been wounded or killed in the violence. All schools in Andijan remained closed. In Kyrgyzstan, things were a bit more clear. UNICEF had provided the refugees with hygiene kits and domestic kits.

José Luis Díaz, Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the Office was following with deep concern the situation in Uzbekistan. The High Commissioner echoed the Secretary-General's call on all parties concerned to show restraint in the use of force and to cooperate with the UN emergency team deployed in the region. Among other human rights standards, the High Commissioner urged the authorities to adhere strictly to the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.

Mr. Díaz said that as journalists might know, Uzbekistan was being considered by the Commission on Human Rights under its confidential 1503 procedure. Under this procedure the Commission examined complaints of human rights violations from groups and individuals in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan continued to be under scrutiny under that procedure of the Commission.

Quite coincidentally, Mr. Díaz said, there was a group of Uzbek human rights defenders in the Office today getting briefings on the UN human rights programme. This had no relation to events taking place now. However, if journalists were interested, he could try to put the human rights defenders in touch with them.

Asked when the Committee against Torture would be putting out its concluding observations on Friday, Mr. Díaz said usually the Committee was quite expeditious in giving out its conclusions, but he had to check when exactly.

Mr. Díaz said that at the last briefing, a journalist had asked if the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had been requested by any country to delay the publication of its conclusions. The Secretariat of that Committee had said the panel had not been asked to delay the publication of the conclusions.

World Health Assembly

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said that the fifty-eighth World Health Assembly had opened yesterday at the Palais des Nations. Today, there would be a press conference from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Room III on the launch of the Health Metrics Network. There was a press release with details about the network at the back of the room. Today in Room XVIII, the WHA would be discussing the revision of the International Health Regulations.

Other

Jean Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said that in Zambia, a first group of 237 Angolan refugees left Lusaka International airport on 16 May on board two IOM chartered flight bound for Huambo, in Angola's Central Province. On 10 May, IOM and UNHCR resumed the voluntary repatriation by road of Angolan refugees from Zambia to Angola's eastern province of Moxico. Since June 2003, more than 77,000 Angolans have returned home with IOM assistance.

Mr. Chauzy said in Moldova, IOM was hosting the Third Annual Conference on "International Perspectives on Law Enforcement Cooperation in Combating Trafficking in Human Beings". And in Pakistan, IOM had completed a two-week training for the Federal Investigation Agency's newly established Anti-trafficking Unit.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that she had spoken at the last briefing about the emergency appeal for the Togolese refugees in Benin which had been launched last weekend. The appeal was for $ 5.9 million.

Ms. Byrs said that a flash appeal for Niger would be launched this week. Since 2004, Niger had been affected by locusts and a drought. The appeal would be launched either Wednesday or Thursday. Out of the 12 million inhabitants of Niger, 3.6 million had been directly affected by the resulting food crisis, including 800,000 children under five. Out of these children, 150,000 showed signs of severe mal-nutrition.

Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme said WFP was warning that its world-wide operations for food aid for 2.2 million refugees were increasingly unfunded despite their dramatic situation. WFP needed around
$ 350 million this year to feed these refugees around the world. Some 7 per cent of these refugees were in Africa. This month, WFP had had to start cutting rations in Sierra Leone, after having had to do so in Guinea and Liberia. The pattern was always the same. When WFP had to cut rations, this resulted in health deterioration, inadequate nutrition and often an increase of domestic violence and crime. Today, John Powel, the Deputy Executive Director of WFP, would be meeting with UNHCR officials in Geneva to discuss this problem.

Jennifer Pagonis of the High Commissioner for Refugees said that in Colombia, UNHCR was very concerned about reports of violence and intimidation against young internally displaced persons in Colombia's cities. Organizations working with displaced persons in the country continued to report selective murders, extortion, sexual violence, loan-sharking and forced recruitment into armed groups or prostitutions rings. There are more than 1.5 million registered internally displaced persons in Colombia.

Ms. Pagonis said the flow of refugees from Togo into neighbouring Benin and Ghana was continuing to diminish, with the combined total of refugees in both countries nearly reaching 31,000.

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