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 was also attended by Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

At the beginning of the briefing, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier introduced a new colleague, Jean Rodriguez, who had been named as Senior Public Information Officer at the Economic Commission for Europe.

New Statements by the Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday addressed the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, pledging the United Nations’ continuing support for Africa and praising progress in the efforts to form governments in Somalia and Zimbabwe. Mr. Ban said that all of us can take pleasure in the progress to a political settlement in Somalia, and he congratulated the newly elected President, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed. The people of Somalia, he added, must build on their excellent start in Djibouti to achieve a truly national political and social compact. On Zimbabwe, he urged all sides to build on the hard-won breakthrough which has taken place, so that the international community can partner with Zimbabwe in meeting the desperate humanitarian needs of its people. He added that he will immediately send a high-level humanitarian mission to Zimbabwe.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has congratulated the people of Iraq for strongly exercising their right to vote last weekend in governorate elections, in an atmosphere that was notably and admirably free of violence. He said he was deeply impressed by their resolve to participate in a process that should strengthen Iraq’s democracy and further the cause of national reconciliation. He commended their determination to ensure a transparent and credible process.

On Pakistan, the Secretary-General was deeply distressed to learn about the attack on two UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) workers yesterday in Quetta, Pakistan that took the life of Syed Hashim and resulted in the apparent abduction of John Solecki, the head of the UNHCR sub-office in Quetta. Mr. Ban condemned, in the strongest terms, attacks on UN staff who serve the neediest people around the world. Such acts are aimed, not only against UN personnel, but also against those they serve selflessly and with dedication.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women yesterday started the third and last week of its forty-third session by examining the periodic report of Germany. Today, the Committee was considering the periodic report of Guatemala, and tomorrow the Committee would be taking up the situation in Rwanda. The Committee would conclude its work on Friday, 6 February and adopt its concluding observations and recommendations on the situation in Dominica, Armenia, Haiti, Cameroon, Libya, Germany, Guatemala and Rwanda.

The Conference on Disarmament was meeting twice this week. It was meeting this morning and was scheduled to hear from the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh and from Georgia. The Conference would also hold a public plenary at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 5 February.

Darfur

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said High Commissioner Navi Pillay today said she was alarmed by reports of the rapidly deteriorating conditions facing civilians in the Muhajeria area of South Darfur, where fighting between Government forces and the Sudanese Liberation Army/Mini Minawi faction (SLA/MM) against the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) had resulted in civilian casualties and displaced some 30,000 people.

The fighting, which broke out on 15 January, had reportedly resulted in at least 30 deaths, including women and children, with dozens more wounded. Of the 30,000 people believed to have been displaced, some 5,000 had sought refuge in the vicinity of an African Union-UN mission in Darfur (UNAMID) military camp in Muhajeria, while many others had fled to other destinations on the outskirts of the town

“The fighting is reported to have involved ground offensives and indiscriminate aerial bombardment by Government forces that failed to distinguish between civilian communities and military targets,” Ms. Pillay said. “JEM forces are also reported to have deliberately placed themselves in areas heavily populated by civilians, thereby jeopardizing their safety.”

The High Commissioner reminded all parties involved in the fighting that international humanitarian law was binding on both state and non-state actors, including armed groups, and called on all sides to respect their obligations, particularly with regard to the protection of civilians.

“I’m extremely concerned at the impact the fighting is having on the already dire humanitarian situation in Muhajeria,” Ms. Pillay said, noting that aid agencies have been forced to evacuate their staff from the area out of fears for their safety.

The High Commissioner called on the Government and both the armed groups involved in the fighting to allow access to humanitarian relief, in order to prevent a further deterioration of the situation in Muhajeria.

The statement was available at the back of the room, Mr. Colville said.

Gaza

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said available at the back of the room was a press release which came following the flash appeal for Gaza which was launched yesterday by John Holmes, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator. The press conference outlined UNICEF’s needs, which were part of the flash appeal. Out of the $ 613 million requested in the appeal, UNICEF was seeking $ 34.5 million to address the urgent recovery needs for children and their families in Gaza. This additional funding was required to enable UNICEF to carry out 20 projects with partners in the sectors of protection, health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, and education. The bulk of UNICEF’s funding requirements would cover child protection programmes amounting to $ 12 million, followed by education projects totalling $ 9.5 million. UNICEF was also taking a lead role in coordinating humanitarian and recovery assistance in the sectors of child protection, education with Save the Children, psychosocial support and mental health with WHO, as well as water, sanitation and hygiene.

Ms. Taveau said Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special Representative for children and armed conflict, was visiting the Occupied Palestinian territory and Israel from 2 to 6 February. The objective was to ascertain first hand the situation of children in Gaza and also to visit southern Israel. UNICEF had contact numbers for her if journalists were interested in contacting her. She would check to see if the Special Representative was free on Friday, 6 February for a conference call with interested journalists in Geneva.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu province, 85 children recruited by the Mayi Mayi in recent months had been released. The first group of 65 children, including two girls, were released last Thursday, and a second group of 20 children, including three girls, was released last Sunday. The children were aged 7 to 17 years and were presently being cared for by UNICEF and its partners at a centre for demobilization of child soldiers in Goma. The search for the identification of their families would now start. It was estimated that there were still some 2,000 child soldiers with armed militias in North Kivu.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said there would be a press conference tomorrow at 12 :30 p.m. in Salle III on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Speaking would be Alan Doss, Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the UN in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Head of MONUC.

Other

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said the International Health Partnership was a joint WHO-World Bank association. It was organizing a two-day meeting at the Kempinski Hotel this week on the financing of health programmes, which would conclude with a press conference on Thursday, 5 February at the hotel. Available at the back of the room was documentation on the meeting.

Bob Fryatt, Director of Partnership and Cooperation Office within Health Systems and Services of WHO said the International Health Partnership was set up in 2007 as a new way of working between civil society, governments and international agencies to speed up the development of healthcare systems in developing countries through compacts agreed on a country by country basis. With the economic crisis and the reduction of global trade, the need for this partnership had become even stronger and more acute. This week, members of the partnership, development ministers from 12 developing countries, heads of international agencies, and civil society were all meeting to review progress on how they could make faster efforts to get more resources into developing healthcare systems in developing countries. On 4 February, there would be a public meeting starting lunchtime, which would be opened by the Director-General of WHO. On 5 February, the meeting would be closed but there would be a press conference at 10:30 a.m. at the Kempinski Hotel.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reminded journalists the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes would be meeting with the press at 12:30 p.m. today in Salle III to present the humanitarian action plan for Afghanistan 2009.

Ms. Byrs said also available was a documentary for the press on the impact of the attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.