REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the World Meteorological Organization, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the Economic Commission for Europe, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the International Organization for Migration.

Statements by the Secretary-General

Ms. Momal-Vanian drew attention to three new statements by the Secretary-General which had been forwarded to members of the press at the Palais. They concerned Kyrgyzstan, the elections in Sudan and the report of the independent Commission of Inquiry into the facts and circumstances of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto on 27 December 2007.

Director-General of UNOG to Attend Funeral of Polish President

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Secretary-General had asked Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, to represent him at the funeral of the Polish President Lech Kaczynski on Sunday, 18 April in Poland.

Geneva Activities and Other

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Conference on Disarmament would hold a public plenary meeting on Wednesday, 21 April at 3 p.m. to hear statements by the heads of the negotiation teams of the recently completed START agreement, Ambassador Antonov of the Russian Federation and Ms. Gottemoeller of the United States.

Also related to disarmament, the General Assembly would hold on Monday, 19 April, a thematic debate entitled disarmament and global security, challenges for the international community and the role of the United Nations Organization.

On Tuesday, 20 April, right after the briefing, there would be a press conference by the Roll Back Malaria Partnership - WHO/ UNICEF/ The Global Fund - on progress made in controlling and eliminating the disease.

In conclusion, Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Ninth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues would be held from 19 to 30 April at UN Headquarters in New York. A background press release was available.

Effects of Volcanic Ash from Iceland’s Volcano on Air Traffic and Health

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said ash clouds from Iceland’s spewing volcano were strongly affecting air traffic. Yesterday the airspace had been closed over Ireland, Britain, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and France, and partially over France, Germany and Poland.

Scylla Sillaayo of the World Meteorological Organization, responding to a question on whether these volcanic ashes could have an impact on the climate, said they could have a short-term impact. The ashes were a pollutant just like any other aerosol; the heavier ashes stayed closer to the source, but the lighter ones travelled for long distances, but finally they settled down on the ground. When the ashes were in the atmosphere, they blocked sun rays, and that could cool the temperature levels, but only for a short time. After that, the ashes settled down on the ground or were covered by rain. The effect of the ashes was just a matter of weeks.
Mr. Sillaayo said that there were volcanic ash advisory centres, and the centre in the United Kingdom was dealing with this problem. The eruption of the volcano in Iceland started on the 14th and the ash cloud was moving eastwards. The issue was that the eruption was still continuing up to now.

Daniel Epstein of the World Health Organization said WHO did not know yet what the health risks would be from this specific volcanic eruption. WHO had guidelines that were developed in 2005 for particulate matter, which was a concentration or combination of sulfate, ammonia, sodium chloride, carbon, mineral dust and water which were among the types of particles that would be deposited in the ash from this volcano. This could be harmful because these particles, when inhaled, could reach the peripheral regions of the bronchioles in the lungs, and could cause problems, especially for people with asthma or respiratory problems. WHO had not identified any threshold for particulate matter, but its aim was to have the lowest concentration possible. WHO was studying the situation closely.

Responding to questions on how the cloud was already over large parts of Europe and how this could affect people, Mr. Epstein said the cloud was presently suspended high in the atmosphere and the particles had not begun to settle. When they began to settle on the ground, that might cause an increase in health concerns, especially for people with respiratory problems. At that point, WHO might recommend that people stay indoors as much as possible, and if they did go outdoors, people with respiratory problems should wear a protective mask.

Chine Earthquake

Mr. Epstein of the World Health Organization said they had just received a situation report on the China earthquake. The estimates of casualties were expected to keep changing. So far there were 617 deaths, 9,100 injured and up to 100,000 people who might need to be moved to safer places. There were limited health facilities in this Chinese region where the earthquake took place, so the Chinese Ministry of Health was assessing the need for reinforcements. The Government had sent in teams and local sources had said there was a concern about lack of tents, medical equipment, medicine and medical staff. There was a major concern among health emergency experts on how to conduct rescue operations in high altitudes and low temperatures. The response was ongoing and the Ministry of Health was holding emergency meetings. Sixty medical teams with more than 1,320 staff had been deployed to the earthquake region with 6 tons of medical materials. WHO was in constant communication with the Health Emergency Response Office and the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Health of China, and had expressed its commitment to support the Government. The WHO representative in China was activating the disaster management team.

Christiane Berthiaume of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF was very worried about the impact of the earthquake in Yushu, China on the children in the region. According to the latest information, 103 children had been killed and 12 teachers, 684 had been injured, 35 were buried under the debris and 38 were missing. At the moment of the earthquake, most of the children were on their way to school, or were already in school playgrounds. Health and education authorities of the province of Qinghai had asked UNICEF to mobilize people on an immunization campaign to get the message out and for boots for children, warm clothes, wool covers, tents and prefabricated buildings to set up shelters. It was very cold in the affected region.

Pakistan

Ms. Berthiaume of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF was very worried about school age children who were presently living in camps for displaced persons in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Without new funds, thousands of children living in these camps would be deprived of education as early as the end of this month. There were more than 1.3 million internally displaced persons in Pakistan. Before the crisis in this region of Pakistan, only 17 per cent of girls went to school and 93 per cent of women were illiterate. To date, UNICEF had only received $ 17 million of the $ 58 million which was needed for its operations in Pakistan. Concerning the education needs in the camps, UNICEF had asked for $ 1.4 million but had only received 6 per cent of that figure.



Tanzania Naturalizes Burundian Refugees/Fighting in Somalia

Melissa Fleming of the United Nations Refugee Agency said UNHCR was pleased to announce a major milestone in refugee history. High Commissioner Antonio Guterres was in Tanzania last week and he witnessed the Government’s decision to naturalize 162,000 refugees from Burundi who fled to Tanzania in 1972. UNHCR considered this to be a major milestone in one of Africa’s longest-running refugee dramas. Mr. Guterres expressed his gratitude and appreciation to the people and leadership of Tanzania. He called on the international community to recognize Tanzania’s gesture and appealed to donors to respond positively to ensure that the process of integrating these new citizens was fully successful. There were more details in the briefing notes.

Ms. Fleming said UNHCR was shocked by the further loss of civilian lives they had seen from fighting in Mogadishu earlier this week. More than 30 people were reported killed, many of them civilians, including children. It was unacceptable that the conflict in Somalia continued to be conducted without respect for the safety of civilians and in clear violation of international humanitarian and human rights principles.

Other

Jean Rodriguez of the Economic Commission for Europe said the ECE Executive Secretary Jan Kubis was in New York since yesterday to present his report on his mission to Kyrgyzstan. He was scheduled to return to Geneva next week. On Monday, 19 April, he was scheduled to meet with the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights and would open a meeting of the Working Group on Energy Efficiency.

There were a number of meetings taking place next week, Mr. Rodriguez said. They included the meetings on the energy efficiency project from 19 to 21 April; the Meeting of Parties to the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers from 20 to 22 April; and in Almaty on 20 to 22 April, the Second Meeting of the EC-IFAS Working Group on Strengthening Institutional and Legal Frameworks and Aral Sea Basin Programme – 3.

Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization said this morning at WTO at 11:30 a.m., the Asian Development Bank would launch its flagship publication, the European launch of their Asian Development Outlook. WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy started yesterday a trip through Latin America. Today, he was in Chile where he would meet with the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. On 17 and 18 April, he would be in Brazil where he would meet with Brazil’s Minister for Foreign Affairs. On 19 and 20 April, he would be in Uruguay and on 21 April he would be in Argentina. After that, Mr. Lamy would be in Washington. More details on his trip were available in the briefing notes. In Geneva, the Dispute Settlement Body would be meeting on 20 April.

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said the United Nations Cocoa Conference would be held from 19 to 23 April. The Conference was bringing together 14 cocoa-exporting and 29 cocoa-importing countries and UNCTAD was hosting the negotiations. A background press release would be issued shortly. A briefing would also be held at the end of the meeting.

A meeting on corporate governance in the wake of the financial crisis: linking governance, strategy and sustainability, would be held on 20 and 21 April. A media alert with details of the programme would be issued.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said there would be a launch of a publication next week marking the fifteenth anniversary of the UNEP/OCHA unit, the Environment Unit. A media advisory was available at the back of the room. The publication was entitled “environmental emergencies – learning from multilateral response to disasters” and the event would be held on 22 April from 2 to 4 p.m. at the International Conference Centre Geneva.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said four years after the bombing of the Al-Askari Mosque in the northern city of Samarra, which triggered an unprecedented wave of sectarian violence and large scale displacement, tens of thousands of families have returned to their places of origin and new displacements have all but stopped, according to a new IOM report released today. The report underlined the need for continued humanitarian assistance for vulnerable displaced families and sustainable solutions for those who wished to return, resettle, or integrate into their current locations. It said that improved security, combined with difficult conditions in areas of displacement and governmental financial incentives for retuning families had led to the return of more than 62,000 displaced families (374,000 individuals) since mid-2007.

Mr. Chauzy said in Haiti, IOM and partners were pushing forward with the voluntary relocation of thousands of Haitians displaced by the January 12 earthquake, as part of a Government of Haiti-led process to find safe shelter during the rainy season. IOM had by Thursday evening welcomed 1,417 people to a new site at Corail Cesselesse, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. The new residents were relocated from the Petionville Golf Club camp, where 7,500 people lived in areas deemed unsafe and in need of emergency engineering work. There were more details in the briefing notes.