REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Office at Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from spokespersons and representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Organization for Migration the World Health Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Secretary-General’s Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that she had placed in the press room a statement by the Secretary-General welcoming the judgement by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in the cases of Bagosora et al. involving four senior officers of the Rwandan army in 1994. He also welcomed the judgement against Protais Zigiranyirazo, a préfet in Rwanda in 1994.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier announced the nomination yesterday by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of Ján Kubiš of Slovakia to the post of Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE). Mr. Kubiš, who replaced Marek Belka of Poland, would take up his post in the middle of January 2009. A biographical note had been placed in the Press Room.

Turning to Darfur, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that, in his latest report to the Security Council on the question, the Secretary-General noted that, almost one year after the transfer of authority from the African Union force to the hybrid African Union-United Nations operation, UNAMID, the joint operation continued to face enormous challenges. Violence and displacement continued, humanitarian operations were at risk, clashes between the parties occurred with regrettable regularity and the parties had not yet reached a negotiated peace agreement, the Secretary-General said in the report. He also reiterated his appeal to countries in a position to provide Mission-critical capabilities to do so without delay, noting in particular that tactical and utility helicopters were all still needed for the Mission to fulfil its mandate. The report was available on the United Nations website.

Cholera in Zimbabwe

Anna Schaaf of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said ICRC was issuing a news release this morning on ICRC activities in Zimbabwe to counter the cholera epidemic. Starting this week ICRC had been broadening its response and ICRC was now joining with health workers from Beatrice Hospital and Budiriro Polyclinic to go to the homes of those affected and to disinfect their homes. They were also talking to the communities in the suburbs of Harare to explain to them how they could avoid becoming infected. In this way ICRC was trying to break the transmission cycle of the cholera virus. In addition, ICRC was checking the neighbourhoods for additional cases and taking any additional cases to the hospitals ICRC was supporting in Harare. On Wednesday, ICRR had also donated pumps and water-testing equipment to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority.

Providing information on the cholera response in the border areas, Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that, in Beitbridge, on the border with South Africa, IOM was continuing to pre-position supplies to address the epidemic. On the South African side of the border in Musina, IOM was distributing water and decontamination sprayers. On the frontier between Zimbabwe and Botswana, at Plumtree, IOM staff remained on standby, in the event of an outbreak. On the Zambian border, at Chirundu, there had been 17 cases admitted to the Chirundu Clinic, with 4 deaths reported as of 17 December. There, also, IOM was busy pre-positioning medical supplies and support staff. In the province of Matabeleland North and Victoria Falls on the Zambian and Botswana borders, IOM was continuing to monitor the situation. Finally, on the border with Mozambique, IOM was also carrying out assessments with its partners and to put in place a cholera monitoring system.

Dominique Legros, Coordinator of the World Health Organization Disease Control and Emergency Operations at WHO headquarters, said he had just come back from Zimbabwe on Tuesday, where he had set up the United Nations control and command centre for the cholera outbreak. Responding to a request for more information on the situation in the health clinics, and statistics on cases in neighbouring countries, he said that, regarding neighbouring countries the most affected was South Africa.

The situation in the health facilities was “quite worrying”, Mr. Legros continued. Basically, staff were not going to work because their salaries were too small. “I have seen hospitals that were basically empty – ghost hospitals, with no material, no staff.” But some government staff had resumed working in the cholera treatment units and cholera treatment centres. “Something we have to fix quickly is the discrepancies in salaries. There are Government staff being paid government wages – which was very little in practice – and staff working for non-governmental organizations with much higher wages. We have to fix that and get incentives for staff to work in the health facilities.” That was the priority if they were to save lives and improve the quality of care, Mr. Legros concluded.

As to an assessment on the trend of the outbreak, Mr. Legros said that a first epidemic bulletin had been published on Monday, and they would be published on a weekly basis. They were also working with partners to set up a system of daily reporting of cases. ICRC had received clearance from the Government to get figures directly from the periphery to the central area through contact persons in the cholera treatment units and centres in the main cities and main towns so that they could have immediate updates and alerts for any new outbreaks. They were already making huge progress – they had the system in place and the authorization to get the data. They also had excellent cooperation with partners and so he was “pretty confident” that in a few days’ time they would have really good daily updates.

“What we have seen so far ... is that overall the incidence seems to be more or less stable with a peak at the end of November”, Mr. Legros conjectured. There were places, such as the suburbs of Harare, where the situation was getting better, but also places where the situation was worsening. That was why the monitoring system was so crucial.

Floods in Papua New Guinea

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the expert team, which had arrived on 18 December in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, had begun its assessment, which would be issued next week. There were major logistical problems with this region, as the distances were enormous and it was very hard to have a comprehensive picture of the needs for all the atolls. The sea swells occurred every year, but were particularly bad this year because there had been a conjunction between the sea swells, the full Moon, the cyclone season and two low depressions in the waters of Guam. That had meant that the lowest atolls, which did not rise above 2 metres, had been severely flooded, in particular Bougainville and nearby islands.

Priority needs were potable water, mosquito nets, food assistance and shelters for the 75,000 for those who had lost their homes, Ms. Byrs said.

To a lesser degree, the Marshall Islands had also been affected, and were currently assessing their situation to see if they needed international assistance. Similarly, a portion of the Solomon Islands had also been affected. A briefing note was available at the back of the room.

Somali Refugees in Kenya

Ron Redmond of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that UNHCR had just issued a press release on a UNHCR appeal for $92 million to ease the plight of nearly 250,000 Somalis in one of the world’s oldest, largest and most congested refugee sites – the Dadaab Camp in Kenya on the border with Somalia. The appeal came amid growing fears of more arrivals in that region as the situation in Somalia deteriorated.

The assistance would focus on relieving dramatic overcrowding in three adjacent camps that were now operating at three times their initial capacity, Mr. Redmond said. Thousands more people continued to arrive each month, with more than 60,000 Somalis having crossed into Kenya so far in 2008. The appeal followed a visit by High Commissioner António Guterres to Dadaab in June, when he had pledged to camp residents that UNHCR would develop a comprehensive plan to address the twin problems of congestion and the concerns of the host community. A copy of the appeal would be posted today on the UNHCR website.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Mr. Redmond said UNHCR had urged rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to ensure the protection of civilians in accordance with humanitarian principles in a makeshift site for some 10,000 internally displaced people near a United Nations peacekeeping base in Rutshuru. That had followed reports that pressure was being brought to bear by rebel forces on internally displaced persons at that sight to go back to their villages. UNHCR was particularly concerned to learn of recent demands in which displaced persons had said they were asked to provide lists of those at the site and to list their villages of origin. Others had reported that they had been arbitrarily detained or forced to work. UNHCR was providing assistance to that camp and was preparing to make deliveries there.

Human Rights

Rupert Colville of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that OHCHR was releasing a report today here in Geneva and in Kathmandu on its investigations into a series of disappearances in Nepal’s Bardiya District in the period from 2001 to 2003, during the conflict between Government and Maoist forces. The introduction of the very long (99-page) report was available at the back of the room. It covered 170 specific cases. The majority of cases followed arrests by the Royal Nepalese Army, but the Royal Police and the Armed Police Force also accounted for some cases. The fate of most of those who disappeared by the State authorities remained officially unknown, despite repeated requests by families and human rights organizations, including OHCHR. But, the report cited credible witness testimony suggesting that a number of the detainees were killed while in custody or shortly afterwards. The report also documented in considerable detail the systematic use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in the Royal Nepalese Army’s Chisapani Barracks.

On a more positive note, the Government of Nepal had prepared legislation to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate all enforced disappearances committed during the conflict, and OHCHR warmly welcomed that step, Mr. Colville added.

Responding to a query on the length of time it took to complete the OHCHR investigation and issue the report, Mr. Colville said that until a ceasefire had been declared that really worked, in late 2006, people were too afraid to come forward. The proper investigation really began after that time. The key factor was that the cases were still alive, even if the people were not, their relatives were still looking for them; it was still really current.

Other

Mr. Redmond announced the closure of the Nduta camp for Burundian refugees in north-western Tanzania at the end of this month. UNHCR was currently in the process of relocating the 10,000 remaining refugees from Nduta to Mtabila camp. As of January, Mtabila would be the only camp in Tanzania hosting the remaining 46,450 Burundian refugees who had fled their homeland in the 1990s. Tanzania had been the hosting hundreds of thousands of Burundian refugees for almost four decades. They had fled ethnic tensions and armed conflict in two big waves – first in the 1970s and the second in the 1990s. Early in 2000, Burundians were one of the largest populations in the world – second only to Afghan refugees. Hundreds of thousands had returned already, and UNHCR had assisted the return of some 63,000 just this year.

Turning to Japan, Mr. Redmond noted that High Commissioner António Guterres was concluding his fifth official visit to Japan. During a meeting with Prime Minister Taro Aso, an announcement had been made that Japan would be introducing a pilot resettlement programme to accept Myanmar refugees in Thailand beginning in 2010. That would make Japan the first country in the region to introduce a resettlement programme, and UNHCR and the High Commissioner welcomed that move.

On the situation of the migrant workers who had been stranded in the Baghdad airport, Mr. Chauzy said that, out of a group of 60 such workers coming from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, this morning a first group of 8 Nepalese migrants had been repatriated to Kathmandu. The group had been in Iraq for five months, lured by promises of lucrative jobs that never materialized. IOM was continuing to assist those who wished to return voluntarily to do so. One obstacle was that some of the workers did not wish to return home for fear of the debt they had incurred to travel to Iraq.

In that connection, Mr. Chauzy also announced that India’s first Migrant Resource Centre had been opened in Kochi, Kerala. The Centre, established by IOM and the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, would provide migrants with information about legal employment opportunities in the European Union, the entry requirements of EU member States and the risks of irregular migration.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development had requested her to announce the publication of its fifth policy brief, entitled “Will we never learn?”. Copies were available in Press Room I and on the UNCTAD website. The text continued UNCTAD’s analysis of the global financial and economic crisis and explained that exchange rate policies had to be directed to stimulating domestic demand and compensating external demand. Those recommendations were in opposition to International Monetary Fund recommendations.