REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section, chaired the briefing which also heard from Spokespersons for the Office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the World Food Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration.

Secretary-General in Spain

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that yesterday, in Seville, Spain, the Secretary-General accepted the first Seville Node between Cultures Award, conferred by the Seville Noda Foundation to recognize an individual’s contribution to cross-cultural understanding among Christians, Jews and Muslims. In accepting the award, the Secretary-General said that there was a need to unlearn collective prejudices and to promote dialogue based on the premise that diversity is a precious gift, and not a threat. The statement of the Secretary-General was available in the Press Room.

Sixtieth Anniversary of the International Court of Justice

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that tomorrow the Secretary-General would participate in a solemn commemorative sitting of the International Court of Justice in the Great Hall of Justice of the Peace Palace in The Hague, in celebration of its sixtieth anniversary. The ceremony would take place in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and the President of the sixtieth session of the General Assembly, Jan Eliasson. A press release was available in the Press Room.

Violence in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory

The Secretary-General was extremely concerned about the continuation and intensification of violence in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israel from Gaza, a suicide bombing last week, and major Israeli reprisal operations, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said. The Secretary-General called on the Palestinian Authority to take a clear public stand against violence and to take firm measures against the perpetrators of rocket attacks and suicide bombings. The Secretary-General called on the Government of Israel to ensure that its responses were proportionate and did not endanger the civilian population. He asked both sides to act in conformity with international law, and to refrain from taking any steps which would further escalate the violence. The Secretary-General’s statement was available in the Press Room.

Matthias Burchard of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that another week of closure at the Karni-Gaza commercial crossing added to the mounting woes facing Palestinian refugees living in Gaza. That followed a weekend that saw the killing of 14 Palestinians, including a four-year old girl yesterday, protests by farmers who had yet to receive any compensation for bird flu, and widespread public demonstrations protesting the cutting of donor funding. John Ging, Director of UNRWA operations in Gaza, warned today that if Karni remained closed we would once again be counting down to a food crisis. Nearly 800,000 of the 900,000 refugees in Gaza depended on UNRWA’s food distribution of flour, oil, sugar and other basic items. Ging stated that the clock was now ticking and the entire distribution would have to be shut down for a second time in less than a month if the Karni commercial crossing to Israel did not open immediately.

Mr. Burchard noted that UNRWA had a humanitarian emergency appeal this year for the West Bank and Gaza amounting to US$ 95.5 million. Until today, they had only received firm pledges of $17.7 million, or only 19 per cent of the amount needed. That was in addition to UNRWA’s regular regional budget, which was also facing a severe budget gap of over $132 million. UNRWA needed $360 million just to barely pay their bills. In addition, they had a project budget for building additional schools and to re-house refugees who had lost their shelters and to generally maintain and rehabilitate UNRWA infrastructure. For that budget of US$ 150 million, UNRWA had only received firm pledges of 7 per cent, or US$ 10 million. All of this came at a time when the international community was looking at UNRWA as a source of stability in the Occupied Territories and in the region. UNRWA was already seeing that refugees who had not needed UNRWA services in the West Bank and Gaza were now returning to them due to the impoverishment of the population and that had put an additional burden on UNRWA’s already strained ability to provide even basic assistance. UNRWA urgently appealed to the international community to complete their review of aid programmes to the Palestinian Territories and to provide UNRWA with the needed funding which they had pledged in New York last December.

Responding to a journalist’s query about the possibility of UNRWA receiving redirected funds from the United States or the European Union, who were withholding close to $1 billion from the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Burchard said that UNRWA had heard of those plans, but had not had anything confirmed to them in writing or in direct talks. Regarding funds from Arab countries, the Arab League were included in all UNRWA appeals, but until now the Arab States had not come forward with any pledges. Arab States, he noted, had been good in the past in providing funding for projects, but not for UNRWA’s regular programmes.

Simon Pluess of the World Food Organization (WFP) said that, as a bit of complementary information, it was worth recalling that the United States was to increase its humanitarian aid to Palestine by $245 million. That was what they had heard. The money was to be channelled through the United Nations system and aid organizations. Of that, some $30 million would be issued through WFP.

Mr. Pluess reminded journalists that, complementary to the work of UNRWA in the Occupied Territories, WFP assisted some 162,000 of the most vulnerable non-refugees living in Gaza, which was about 12 per cent of the total population. They were of course trying to respond to the critical food shortage in Gaza that had been going on for some months. WFP had managed to transport some 50 containers, or the equivalent of 1,000 tons of flour, over the weekend through the Sufa military crossing. The Karni crossing border — the main commercial terminal for exports and imports from Israel — remained closed. In addition, the United States donated some 1,200 tons of wheat flour that was right now going through the Sufa military crossing. WFP hoped that the food would alleviate the situation. The level of food stocks in Gaza were still very low. The Gaza Strip was an enclave that was fully dependent on food imports via Israel. Most bakeries, however, remained closed in the Gaza Strip because of lack of flour and people had to remain mostly on their own stocks. As the situation was prolonged the food shortage became more and more critical.

Situation in Nepal

José Luis Díaz of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that the OHCHR office in Nepal had been monitoring the demonstrations that have been taking place over the past week in that country. Many of the demonstrations had been peaceful, but others had been violent. OHCHR monitoring teams had observed members of the police and the security forces use gross and excessive force against demonstrators and other members of the public not involved in demonstrations. OHCHR monitoring staff had witnessed severe beatings with lathis, or the long batons that the security forces used, often causing serious head injuries, including many instances of police charging into peaceful demonstrations. The Kathmandu office had also observed a pattern of severe beatings of individuals by police after the demonstrators had been brought under control and when they posed no physical or other threat. OHCHR had already expressed its grave concern at the shooting Saturday by a soldier from the top of a building into a crowd of demonstrators who were throwing stones at police. As a result of that shooting, one person was killed and at least one other was injured. A more detailed note would be sent on this issue a little bit later, in which OHCHR would reiterate that international standards required that law enforcement officials, in carrying out their duty, should, as far as possible, employ non-violent means before resorting to the use of force and firearms.

17th Session of International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights

José Luis Díaz of OHCHR said that tomorrow, 12 April, and on Thursday, 13 April, the United Nations Office at Geneva would be hosting the seventeenth annual meeting of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in room XVIII of the Palais des Nations. Tomorrow, Deputy High Commissioner Mehr Khan Williams would open the meeting, in the absence of the High Commissioner. In the back of the room a list of participants was available, which included representatives of national human rights commissions, ombudspersons and national mechanisms for the protection of human rights from around the world, who would be coming together for the two days in Geneva. The agenda for the meeting was also available in the back of the room, as well as contact numbers for the secretariat of the meeting.
Democratic Republic of the Congo

Simon Pluess of WFP said that, following the announcement last week of the start of its first airdrop operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, WFP had successfully managed over the weekend to airdrop some 78 tons of food into Dubie in the Katanga province. The airdrops were a very essential step and would help replenish the food stocks and feed some 13,000 displaced persons around Dubie during several weeks over the rainy season. The people were suffering from staggering malnutrition rates and WFP had been unable to access them sufficiently due to bad road conditions and insecurity owing to the presence of militia groups. The immediate plans were now to airdrop food to some 16,700 internally displaced persons in Sampwe and 11,500 IDPs in Mitwaba. WFP airdropped mostly flour, including cereal and pulses. Salt and oil was sent by road on light trucks. The humanitarian situation in Katanga remained dire and recent offensives against militias had forced tens of thousands of people to flee. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and especially Katanga, remained largely neglected by the world, and he noted that the WFP faced a 36 per cent shortfall to provide food for some 1.6 million displaced and vulnerable Congolese.

Insecurity in Sudan and eastern Chad

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said that UNHCR was extremely concerned about the growing insecurity in eastern Chad, including actions by a large armed group yesterday around the UNHCR-run camp at Goz Amer, which houses some 17,700 refugees from the Darfur region. The armed group entered the camp in the afternoon during a food distribution. That action clearly frightened the refugees and was of deep concern to UNHCR and its partners. A group of 118 staff from various aid groups, including three staff from UNHCR, who were in the camp to help with the food distribution yesterday were unable to leave the camp yesterday evening. The situation in the camp last night and early this morning was reported as calm and humanitarian workers who had overnighted in the camp could leave this morning.

UNHCR was watching the situation very closely. In all, UNHCR operated a dozen camps in eastern Chad, housing more than 200,000 refugees from Darfur. High Commissioner António Guterres had warned in recent weeks that unrest had now spread to both sides of the Sudan-Chad border, posing a growing risk to civilians, the displaced and humanitarian workers alike. Responding to a question by a journalist, Ms. Pagonnis noted that security in all UNHCR camps virtually anywhere in the world was the domain of the Government; they provided the gendarmes, they provided security for the camps; it was not something that UNHCR did. A couple of weeks ago she had mentioned that UNHCR had reached an arrangement with the Chadians to increase the number of gendarmes around the camps because of growing insecurity; however, the situation in eastern Chad was extremely fluid and volatile at the moment. They had asked for more guards, but the situation was such that the level of security that would insure total security for the refugees in the camps was an unknown number. Responding to another query, Ms. Pagonnis commented that she did not think the armed group entered the camp in search of food. The incident only happened last night and the UNHCR staff could not leave the camp last night so details were still coming out and UNHCR was still assessing the situation.

Other

In response to a query from a journalist as to the opening date of the World Health Assembly, Ms. Elena Ponomareva-Piquier responded that it would be held held from 22 to 25 May at the Palais des Nations.

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children’s Fund said that Zimbabwe was the African country that probably received the least attention from donors, and for that reason he had distributed an important press release to journalists on the United Kingdom grant of ₤22 million, or about $35 million, to UNICEF for the children of Zimbabwe, in particular to improve the plight of orphans there. Almost one in three children in Zimbabwe, 1.6 million, were now orphaned, having lost at least one parent, mostly owing to AIDS. The funding — the largest ever to UNICEF in Zimbabwe — was significant, as it was a country that really received very little donor attention. It also showed that UK donors distinguished between the humanitarian and political sphere, and for that UNICEF was grateful. Zimbabwe was plunged in complete social and economic chaos and that its mortality rate for children under five had doubled, from 59 to 126 per 1,000 births — the largest increase in under-five mortality in the world.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM was increasingly concerned about the fate of thousands of displaced Dinkas attempting to return to their homes in northern Bahr El Ghazal from South Darfur and who were currently stranded on the southern banks of the river Kiir, at a place called Kiir Galama near the border of the two provinces. Together with community leaders, IOM had registered about 4,500 displaced Dinkas so far, living in desperate conditions with no potable water, adequate food or health care and no money to move on. Their situation was set to worsen as more and more people, who were also unable to move on, arrived in Kiir Galama. This group of Dinka was part of a much larger group of tens of thousands of Dinkas displaced to South Darfur from South Sudan 19 years ago because of the civil war or drought, and who were again displaced by the conflict in Darfur in 2003. Since last year’s signing of the peace agreement between Khartoum and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement, more and more spontaneous returns had been taking place from South Darfur to South Sudan. Ms. Pandya stressed that these Dinkas had no possessions, and their journey to Kiir Galama had been extremely long and difficult. Those without money had to make the journey on foot, including women, children and the elderly. Yesterday IOM organized the first land convoy from Kiir Galama to assist 321 people to get to their homes in the central highlands of Bahr El Ghazal, and this week they would be opening a way station in Samaha, about 26 kilometres east of Kiir Galama, to provide basic facilities such as water, sanitation, and shelter. She warned that the window of opportunity for the displaced Dinkas to make the journey home was extremely short, owing to the onset of the rainy season in May, so that if they did not make the journey home now they would not be able to do it until next year. Responding to a query, Ms. Pandya noted that it was impossible to help all the displaced: there were simply too many people spontaneously returning; it would cost enormous amounts of money, which the IOM did not have; and the window of opportunity was too small. But the IOM had already started to help and as things developed she was sure they would be doing much more.

Press Conferences

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier recalled that there would be two press conferences this week: today, there would be a press conference at noon by the World Trade Organization on trade developments in 2005 in Room III; and tomorrow, 12 April, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees would host a briefing by Philippe Lavanchy, Director of the Bureau for the Americas, on his recent mission to Colombia at 2 p.m. in Press Room 1.

UNOG Holidays

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier reminded journalists that Good Friday, 14 April, was an official United Nations holiday and the United Nations Office at Geneva would be closed. The Office would remain closed through the following Monday, 17 April, which was Easter Monday and also a UNOG holiday. Therefore the next regular UNIS press briefing would be held on Tuesday, 18, April.