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 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, World Food Programme, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Environment Programme, the International Committee of the Red Cross, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Conference on Disarmament was holding a plenary meeting today at 10 a.m., under the presidency of Slovakia, and incoming President Anton Pinter. It also held a general debate in which speakers addressed issues connected to the report of the Conference and to the agenda for next year’s Conference. The Conference would meet in plenary tomorrow at 10 a.m. and had also provisionally scheduled plenary meetings for Thursday and Friday.

The Sub-Commission was meeting this morning from 10 to 11 a.m. to take up item 7 on its agenda, Implementation of Human Rights Council decision A/HRC/1/Dec/102 and other related issues. This afternoon, at 3 p.m., the Sub-Commission would continue its debate on the administration of justice, the rule of law and democracy.

Lebanon

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the delegation that the Secretary-General had dispatched to the Middle East to deal with the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 was in Israel, where it had met yesterday with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Amir Peretz. Following that meeting, one of the delegation’s members, Terje Roed-Larsen, had said that the delegation had discussed with Livni all matters related to the full implementation of all provisions of resolution 1701. Among the topics discussed were the issues of the release of prisoners, the necessity of implementing the Security Council resolution’s call for an arms embargo and the lifting of the blockade in Lebanon. Over the weekend, the delegation had met with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and other senior officials in Lebanon. Available were a press release and the summary of the press conference held by Terje Roed-Larsen and Vijar Nambiar in Beirut.

In his first report on the situation in Lebanon, which was presented to the Security Council yesterday in the context of the application of resolution 1701, the Secretary-General cautioned that the situation was still very fragile. He calls on all parties to do their utmost to urgently reinforce UNIFIL as required by resolution 1701 and the Lebanese consensus, which was vigorously in favour of an extended role for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. He also underlined that the most urgent thing was to increase UNIFIL’s manpower by 3,500 people before 2 September. The report indicated that the Secretariat had done its duty by inquiring into the views and concerns of the countries who could send contingents and by taking these into account whilst elaborating the Concept for Operations and the Rules of Engagement. It was up to Member States now to go beyond expressing interest in sending troops into the area. Copies of the Secretary-General’s report were available in the Documentation Centre.

In response to a question on whether the blockade on Lebanon by Israel had a legal basis, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said she would get back to the journalist.

Elizabeth Byrs, of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that since 26 July over 52 humanitarian convoys had arrived in Lebanon. An inter-agency assessment mission that had visited the Nabatiyeh region had found that the area had been heavily contaminated by unexploded ordnance (UXO). Approximately 3,700 landmines remained along the Blue Line. The heavy contamination in the Marjayoun-Nabatiyeh-Jezeen triangle was likely to create economic problems, as the farmers in that predominately agricultural region would not be able to access their fields. The inter-agency team estimated it would take six months to de-mine the Nabatiyeh region alone. Regarding the humanitarian response, the most urgent needs were for bottled water, hygiene kits, generators and fuel. There was also an urgent need for shelters. The fuel situation was improving as from 2 to 17 August, 135,000 tons of fuel had been delivered. The Flash Appeal was now financed up to 54 per cent. A situation report and a media fact sheet were available in the back of the room.

Christiane Berthiaume, of the World Food Programme (WFP), said that since 23 July 3,600 tons of aid had been shipped to Lebanon, of which some 2,700 tons were food supplies. In the four weeks of fighting, WFP distributed some 1,400 tons of food, and in the seven days since the cessation of the hostilities some 1,300 tons of food had been distributed. That showed a clear stepping up of WFP operations since the ceasefire. Today, a humanitarian convoy would be going from the Syrian frontier to Beirut and several convoys from Beirut would be going out to affected towns, such as Marjayoun, Tyre, and Nabatiyeh.

Responding to questions, Ms. Berthiaume said that WFP had reached 470,000 people since 23 July, including some 345,000 in Lebanon and about 125,000 returning from Syria. The big issue at the moment for returnees was shelter, as a lot of houses had been destroyed. Food would still be a problem for the next few months, but as soon as commercial life restarted, this should change.

Jennifer Pagonis, of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that UNHCR teams were still doing field assessments of the returnee situation in Lebanon, but some facts were already clear. Shelter needs were high, and UNHCR was providing plastic sheets, hammers, nails, wood, and other such materials. It was not possible to have a blanket approach, instead it was necessary to determine the needs of each area. While the vast majority of the displaced had returned thousands still had not. In Syria, as of last night, 146,000 Lebanese were recorded as returning, not counting those who had returned unofficially. According to Lebanese government figures about 90 per cent of people had returned, but that did not always reflect the mixed picture: sometimes families returned only to find that their houses were totally destroyed and then went to the homes of relatives for shelter. A UNHCR team that had gone through nine villages along the border on Monday had found that four of the villages were largely destroyed, with buildings razed and rubble all around. UNHCR would dispatch relief items to that area and would also send an engineer to help plan the rebuilding of the villages. A briefing summary was available at the back of the room.

Responding to a question, Ms. Pagonis confirmed that that there were still people who had not returned, and UNHCR was sending out mobile teams into those regions to assess the situation, but virtually all the public shelters were now empty.

Jean Fabre, of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said that, with the support of the World Bank, UNDP had undertaken activities on priority areas identified by the Government of Lebanon. First, some $500,000 had been donated for emergency relief. Even more important, however, were the recovery and reconstruction needs. There was a multi-agency team in place, which was coordinated by the UNDP Resident Coordinator. UNDP had established a political advisory group within the Prime Minister's Office, concentrating on support to the recovery and reconstruction effort, with initial funding of $800,000. They were working on a reconstruction assessment, which would take several months to complete. But what UNDP could already say was that the destruction had been so devastating that it had effectively wiped out the past 15 years of rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts. Moreover, it had wiped out all the progress Lebanon had made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, and now had to start from zero again. Overall economic losses were in the neighbourhood of $15 billion, at the very least. UNDP had outlined six quick impact projects to address recovery and reconstruction, which the Government had approved, at an estimated cost of $46.3 million, and UNDP had already disbursed $3.1 million of its own funds to jump-start the projects without waiting for donors. The funds for the project would be raised by UNDP and administrated by the Government of Lebanon.

Responding to questions, Mr Fabre said that the situation was very grave, as there had been much destruction. The debt of the country was so big before that the capacity to repay it had been limited, and this would now be impossible. The investments required to fill the gaps were not available. Fifteen years of reconstruction had been wiped out in a month.

Michael Bociurkiw, of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), wanted to highlight two areas that UNICEF was working on in Lebanon to meet the needs of the almost 100,000 children and their families throughout country. First, was an initiative on Unexploded Ordinance (UXO). Official reports said five children had been killed so far from picking up UXO, and well over a dozen had been injured. But there were also unofficial reports and new reports were coming in every day that UNICEF was trying to collate. UNICEF was educating kids and their parents on what such devices looked like so they could stay away from them, as the issue remained a huge problem. The second area was water and sanitation, which UNICEF's water and sanitation expert, Paul Sherlock, who had just come back from a three-week mission to Lebanon, would talk about.

Paul Sherlock, UNICEF Global Cluster Coordinator for Water and Sanitation, a water expert with UNICEF said that during the actual bombing, it had been very difficult to do any servicing for the internally displaced. UNICEF started sending water in the first convoys and it was still distributing bottled water and sending water tanks around because it was too difficult to fix the water systems very quickly. One of the key things that UNICEF was doing in Lebanon was to act as the Cluster Coordinator for Water and Sanitation Sector. He had just set up a national-level cluster, which worked alongside the Government and the national water authorities, and some 57 agencies were operating through that cluster, working alongside the Government. As they had only had a week’s access so far, they did not fully know yet what all the needs were. There was a real problem at the level of both pipeworks and the energy supply to pump it. Many agencies would be putting in temporary tanks and tanking in water to areas. Access to water was also intertwined with the UXO problem as, to do the repairs, often required sorting through rubble strewn with UXOs. Another difficulty was simply getting through the rubble-blocked streets, which it would take weeks to clear.

Responding to questions, Mr. Sherlock said WHO was working with the authorities to see if water testing could be done. Bottled water had been sent as it was the easiest and safest way of delivering water. Right now, at this stage, water was still being moved, but the bottled water deliveries would be run down over the next few days. The problem of UXOs should not be underestimated, and there should be no surprise at the quantity of destruction in Beirut.

Michael Williams of UNEP said that UNEP had three different units with three different roles, which were assisting through three important partnerships: in partnership with OCHA that played a coordinating role on environmental issues. Secondly, the oil slick, which the Environment Minister of Lebanon had called the biggest environmental disaster ever in the country. In Malta, UNEP had a Centre of Excellence called REMPEC (Regional Maritime Pollution Emergency Response Centre), which had a number of assets, including a network of experts which could be mobilized for oil clean up, and it had already mobilized equipment for the oil clean up from Sweden and equipment from Spain was on its way. The REMPEC had a clean-up plan in place for the oil slick, and the European Union Governments had pledged 50 million Euros. Some work had been accomplished, but the bulk of the oil remained. Thirdly, there was the post-conflict assessment branch, which would be conducting an environmental assessment of the conflict beyond the issue of the oil spill, and it was hoped the report on this would be issued in December.

Dorothea Krimitsas of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that today they had published their bulletin No. 14 on Lebanon, which contained information on all of ICRC activities there. The ICRC continued to focus on the resident and displaced population, mainly in the South. It continued to deliver fuel to hospitals in isolated villages, to repair water systems, and had a plan to circulate a generator on a truck to help facilitate the pumping of water in villages that had lost power. This weekend the ICRC had distributed food packages to 250 people with supplies for one month each, and had distributed food packages to 350 families in Nabatiyeh with 2 weeks’ worth of supplies. Medical supplies had also been supplied to two areas in the South.


Other matters

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Secretary-General's "Progress report on the prevention of armed conflict" had been published and was available in the Documentation Centre.

Murielle Scibilia of UNCTAD said the latest edition of the Trade and Development Report was available, under embargo until 31 August, when it would be presented by the Secretary-General of UNCTAD. The report showed that the world economy was in relatively good shape. Some developing countries were doing well due to a stable demand for basic materials, and an increase in the latter’s price. The central theme of the report was the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals and the world partnership for development. There were a number of recommendations included in the report, as well as an assessment of previous policies on development. A press release was available.

Praveen Randhawa of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, Philip Ulster began a 5-day visit to Guatemala yesterday, during which time he would consider allegations of so-called social cleansing or the killing of socially-marginalized persons, the failure to effectively prevent and investigate the brutal murders of women, impunity for past human rights violations, and the debate surrounding the death penalty. Also, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan, Sima Samar visited Sudan from 11 to 17 August 2006. This was her third visit. A full report would be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in September and to the UN General Assembly in October. Preliminary findings were available in the form of a statement on the OHCHR website.

Responding to a question, Ms. Randhawa said that OHCHR was currently organizing the details of a mission. She confirmed that a team of four independent experts have requested to travel to Lebanon and Israel and would travel by the end of this month and when details were confirmed they would issue a press release. She expected that would be in the coming days.

Ms. Berthiaume of WFP said that, in Ethiopia flooding had caused 118,000 victims to date. The level of the water behind a number of dams in the country was of great concern, as they threatened to give way and cause considerable destruction. The three dams were that of Gelgel Gibe, Koka, and Tise Aby. The population living near these dams had repeatedly been asked to leave by the Government. Meteorologists were saying that the situation would not improve, and six areas in the south of the country were still at risk from flooding. The Government was working hard to bring aid to its population, and WFP had provided food to the Government to distribute to the population, which was being airlifted by helicopter, but weather conditions were impeding the evacuation efforts.

In Sri Lanka, Ms. Berthiaume said that they were having difficulty getting aid to those displaced by conflict. It was finding it especially difficult to access areas that were in the control of the Tamils, and this was a problem. Stocks were being distributed, but those were almost exclusively placed in Government-controlled areas.

Michael Bociurkiw of UNICEF, said that in Ethiopia there had been quite a serious outbreak of Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD). More than 140 people had died and 11,000 diagnosed with AWD since the first report of an outbreak in April. The AWD was spreading at an alarming rate and children were especially vulnerable. UNICEF was working with WHO, the Government and OCHA to respond. The situation was being monitored very carefully and daily situation reports were issued.

In response to questions, Mr. Bociurkiw said that UNICEF’s prime focus right now was on education, raising awareness of how the disease was spread, which could be prevented by making sure that food was cooked properly and by preventing contamination through washing of hands.