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 for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN Refugee Agency, the World Health Organization, the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development.
During the briefing, Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency introduced a new colleague, Andrew Purvis, who would be the acting Head of the Media Unit at UNHCR.
Secretary-General’s Activities
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General’s schedule for today was available in the press room. He was leaving Geneva at noon.
This morning, Secretary-General Ban and Navi Pillay, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, met with Justice Goldstone. She would now read out a statement issued at the end of the meeting. “The Secretary-General met Justice Goldstone and the members of the Fact-Finding Mission with High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. He was briefed about the mission's work plan and reiterated his support to the work of the mission. He hoped the mission's work would proceed smoothly with the cooperation by the concerned parties and send a positive message to the international community about accountability.”
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said as announced yesterday by the Secretary-General in his press conference in Geneva, he would visit Sri Lanka on May 22 and 23 to respond to the urgent need to treat the wounds of a war that had alienated the communities in the Island for almost three decades. He said he would travel to hardest hit areas for a first-hand assessment of conditions on the ground. The Secretary-General said the task now facing the people of Sri Lanka was immense and required all hands. Progress must come in three critical areas: first, immediate humanitarian relief; second, reintegration and reconstruction; third, a sustainable and equitable political solution. He said progress on all three of these fronts must move forward in parallel—and it must begin now.
On Sunday, 24 May, the Secretary-General would arrive in Denmark to attend the opening of the World Business Summit on Climate Change. While in the Nordic region, he would also make his first official visit to Finland. Arriving on Sunday for a two-day visit in Copenhagen, the Secretary-General would deliver his opening statement at the business summit, meet with Al Gore, former Vice-President of the United States and Chairman of the Generation Investment Management, and would hold a joint press conference with the Danish Minister for Climate and Energy. On the occasion of his visit to Copenhagen, the Secretary-General would meet with the Queen, the Prime Minister, and the Ministers for Foreign Affairs, for Development Cooperation, and for Defence. He would also attend a lunch meeting on “Global Compact and Climate”.
The Secretary-General would head on to Helsinki, Finland, on Monday, 25 May for a two-day official visit, where he was expected to meet with the President, as well as the Prime Minister, and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development. While in Helsinki, he would address the Finnish Parliament and have a working lunch with the Head of Parliament.
Geneva Activities
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Ban had yesterday addressed the first plenary of the second part of the 2009 session of the Conference on Disarmament. The Foreign Ministers of Algeria and Switzerland had also addressed the Conference. The next plenary of the Conference would be held at 10 a.m. on Friday, 22 May as tomorrow was a day off.
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would be closing its forty-second session on Friday, 22 May. It would issue its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Australia, Brazil, Cyprus, Cambodia and the United Kingdom.
Sri Lanka
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said John Holmes, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, would accompany Secretary-General Ban on his trip to Sri Lanka and his visit to the conflict zone. Military authorities in Sri Lank had announced that combat operations had been concluded in the conflict zone. During the last 27 years of conflict, 80,000 to 100,000 lives had been lost. The United Nations had no information about ill or injured civilians who might remain in the conflict zone and therefore needed to have access by the United Nations and/or the International Committee of the Red Cross to the zone to evacuate any who remain. In Jaffna, although the Security Forces Commander had announced that most non-governmental organizations were granted access to camps for internally displaced persons in the district, most of them had not yet received official notification in this regard and some agencies continued to report difficulties in access to camps. As of 20 May, the 2009 Appeal for Sri Lanka was 39 per cent funded, with $ 60.7 million received out of the $ 155 million required.
Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said as the fighting in north-east Sri Lanka came to an end, the scale of the challenges facing UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies on the ground was becoming more apparent. It was now estimated that up to 80,000 people had left the former fighting zone in the last three days, which brought the total who had fled the fighting in the last several months to 280,000. Some 23,000 had been screened and registered and were currently accommodated in 41 sites spread across four districts. Another 50,000 people were undergoing screening and registration at various points and awaiting transportation to the sites. The Government of Sri Lanka was facing great challenges in providing assistance to the internally displaced population. There were several issues that needed urgent attention, including overcrowding and the limited services available in the camps. UNHCR and its partners continued to support the Government in this process. Civilians coming out of the conflict zone were sick, hungry and suffering from acute malnourishment and dehydration.
Mr. Redmond said UNHCR had put up 25,000 emergency shelters and was putting up an additional 10,000 to accommodate the tens of thousands of civilians who had left the combat zone and who were expected to arrive seeking shelter in coming days. UNHCR’s efforts would now focus on stabilizing this population while assisting the Government in preparing the conditions conducive for safe return to their areas of origin.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said IOM was present at the Omanthai checkpoint north of Vavuniya where internally displaced persons were screened by government forces. IOM staff distributed 20,000 bottles of drinking water at weekend and deployed 14 1,000 litre water tanks. It was also supporting a field kitchen at the site with the World Food Programme and a local non-governmental organization. IOM had also deployed an ambulance to Omanthai to evacuate seriously injured people to Vavuniya Hospital. More aid would be arriving from China for distribution. There were more details in the press notes.
In respond to a question on access to the former conflict zone, Ms. Byrs said the official UN position was that it was urging the Government to grant full and unimpeded access to all places, including the conflict zone. As of today, the UN had no information about ill or injured civilians who may remain the conflict zone and therefore needed access to the conflict zone.
Answering another question, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said yesterday Secretary-General Ban said that he would offer to the Government and people of Sri Lanka the partnership of the United Nations to address the huge challenges of early recovery, resettlement and rehabilitation of populations internally displaced by the conflict. He said he would also extend United Nations support in establishing the basic building blocks for peace throughout an inclusive political process. A good start would be to provide the United Nations and its partners with full, unconditional access to all civilians. He said he would also urge the Government to expedite the screening and separation of former combatants from civilians and permit a more rapid release of internally displaced persons from the camps. Families should be reunified on a much quicker basis.
Answering the same question, Mr. Redmond said in any displacement situation, the ultimate responsibility lay with the Government. The United Nations team was there to support the humanitarian efforts carried out by the Government. The challenges were enormous.
Pakistan
Ms. Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said more than two million displaced people were now registered in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province, including 1.4 million who had fled the fighting since 2 May. Twenty-six camps in total had been established in six districts to provide shelter and access to food, water and medical assistance, while some 1.5 million people were staying with host families or in rented accommodation. Five registration centres had been set up in Swabi and Mardan, providing the newly displaced from Buner, Dir and Swat with information on camp locations, registration and access to basic assistance. Nine new humanitarian hubs for the distribution of humanitarian supplies had been established in Mardan and Swabi in addition to those in other areas. The health situation in districts hosting internally displaced persons remained stable. Safe water supplies and sanitation were needed to avoid the spread of disease, particularly as summer temperatures started to rise.
Mr. Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said the total number of newly displaced persons since 2 May was currently at 1,454,000. New figures might be received this afternoon. Thousands of displaced people continued to arrive in camps and to approach registration centres. On average, some 100,000 had been registered daily in the 89 registration points established in districts of the North West Frontier Province. With reports of thousands of new arrivals in other districts, UNHCR was planning to set up more registration centres to ensure speedy access to assistance. Of the 1.45 million who arrived since 2 May, some 131,000 people were staying in camps and more than 1.3 million were staying in private accommodation with host families or friends. Others were being accommodated in schools. Given the speed and scale of the new influx, the Ministry of Social Welfare of the North West Frontier Province, with UNHCR’s help, was carrying out a fast track registration process to ensure that people could get assistance. The internally displaced persons joined another half a million people registered in North West Frontier Province who had fled other parts of the north-west, including the tribal areas, over several months since August 2008.
Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said the major health issues that they were noticing in multiple camps throughout the North West Frontier Province were poor sanitation conditions and the risk of disease outbreaks such as diarrhea and measles. WHO and health authorities were currently investigating a rumor of a measles outbreak in Mardan district. To counter this threat, the vaccination of thousands of children was ongoing throughout the North West Frontier Province. WHO was making urgent please for improvement of water and sanitation conditions in the camps to prevent the spread of water borne diseases. WHO was also helping to ensure a better infrastructure for health clinics in camps to provide a more conducive environment for patients receiving treatment.
Mr. Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said IOM continued to dispatch truckloads of non-food items to the humanitarian cluster hub in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, for their onward distribution among the internally displaced persons. Along with UN agencies, IOM medical teams had carried out a health needs assessment and prioritization mission in four camps for internally displaced persons.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ms. Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the protection of civilians had become a major concern in South Kivu, due to the harassment of populations by armed men following the announcement of impending military operations by the Forces Armees Congolaises (FARDC) against the Forces Democratiques pour la Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR) in South Kivu. Since April, civilian populations were increasingly victims of lootings, extortions, killings and rape. The deterioration of the security situation resulted in population movements and affected access by humanitarian actors. For example, in total, 1,128 houses in three villages were burned by the FDLR since mid-March and approximately 77 persons were killed with machetes, axes and knives or burned alive. Concerning rapes, during the first quarter of 2009, the preliminary report of the Provincial Coordination for the Fight against Sexual Violence had already registered 463 rape cases, which represented more than half of the total cases registered last year. There were more details in the briefing notes. Since March 2009, an estimated 120,000 people had been displaced in South Kivu due to FDLR reprisals or FARDC-DDLR confrontations.
Somalia
Mr. Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said despite the lull in fighting in Mogadishu, the number of people fleeing the Somali capital in the last 12 days had now risen to 45,000. A significant proportion of the displaced were heading towards the Afgooye corridor, south-west of Mogadishu, swelling the ranks of the sprawling makeshift camps that had sprung there in the last two years, which already hosted an estimated 400,000 persons. There were more details in the briefing notes.
Other
Mr. Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said High Commissioner Antonio Guterres has asked the European Commission to consider convening a meeting between Italy, Malta, Libya and UNHCR and other relevant partners to work on a joint strategy for a more satisfactory response to irregular migration across the Mediterranean, following Italy’s recent “push-backs” to Libya.
Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said she had with her today UNCTAD Expert Fabrice Hatem, who specialized in foreign direct investment. He would speak about a study on how the global crisis was having a strong, wide impact on foreign direct investment. A press release on the study was available.
Fabrice Hatem of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said foreign direct investment constituted an essential part of external financing of growth. That was why UNCTAD had carried out this study, which showed that while developing and transition economies were quite resilient in 2008 during the downturn in global foreign direct investment flows triggered by the economic and financial crisis, they would be increasingly affected in 2009 as international investment continued to decline.
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said the World Health Assembly was continuing its work. Committee B started its work this morning for the first time since the WHA opened. After electing its President, the Committee was expected to discuss the health situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, including east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Available on the WHO website were a number of documents concerning this subject, including a draft resolution proposed by a number of Member States, and reports from the WHO Secretariat, UNRWA and Israel on the situation. In Committee A, they were discussing the budget and the social determines of health, to be followed by follow-up to the realization of the Millennium Development Goals related to health. The World Health Statistics report would also be released.
Fiona Fleck of the World Health Organization said the World Health Statistics 2009 report was being issued during the World Health Assembly, and this year, they were including a progress report on the health-related Millennium Development Goals. They were waiting for the debate, and as soon as it was held, the report would be released on the stands at the Assembly. Embargoed copies of the report would be brought to the press room. It was embargoed until tomorrow’s briefing at 11:30 a.m. with Fadela and two technical experts. For the first time this year, the report was not only appearing in English, but it would also be in Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. The report was embargoed until midday tomorrow.
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier reminded journalists that while the United Nations was closed tomorrow, the World Health Assembly was continuing its work.
Ms. Chaib said concerning Influenza A H1N1, according to the latest statistics, as of 6 GMT today, 40 countries had officially informed WHO of 10,243 cases of Influenza A H1N1, and 80 deaths. The breakdown of the deaths was 72 in Mexico, six in the United States, one in Canada, and one in Costa Rica. This was an increase of 413 cases in the last 24 hours, with most of those in the United States, 346, bringing the total cases in the United States to 5,469, and 51 new cases in Japan, bringing the total in Japan to 210.