REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was also addressed by Spokespersons for the World Food Programme, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration. Spokespersons for the World Health Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs were also present.

Geneva activities

Ms. Heuzé said that the Human Rights Council was continuing its session in accordance with the Order of the Day. She reminded journalists that Rolando Gomez of the United Nations Information Service was available to assist journalists.

Ms. Heuzé said that the 10th anniversary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty would be marked with a ceremony today. In a short while, there would be a presentation and speeches outside the Council Chamber, followed by a reception, to which journalists were cordially invited.

The Conference on Disarmament would hear four statements this morning, from the representatives of Canada, Ukraine, Switzerland and Nigeria.

Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, would represent the Secretary-General at the United Nations International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace, which would take place at FAO Headquarters in Rome on 22 and 23 March.

New York activities

Ms. Heuzé said that the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General had yesterday announced the Secretary-General’s upcoming trip to the Middle East. The Secretary-General would leave this week for Egypt, before attending the Arab Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 28 March. He would also visit the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Israel and Jordan, and would conclude his trip in Beirut, Lebanon. The Secretary-General would return to Headquarters on 2 April.

In preparation for his visit to the region, the Secretary-General had spoken yesterday morning with the other members of the Quartet for peace in the Middle East. The conference call had included United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, High Representative for European Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, and European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner. A joint statement was expected

Ms. Heuzé said that the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General had yesterday issued a statement in which the Secretary-General strongly condemned the recent multiple terrorist bombings using chlorine gas in the Al Anbar province of Iraq, which had wounded or sickened more than 350 people. “The Secretary-General is appalled by these attacks which are clearly intended to cause panic and instability in the country,” the statement said. “The Secretary-General is confident that firm action will be taken to prevent such attacks in the future.”

Ms. Heuzé said that the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, was scheduled to depart today on his first field mission since taking up his post on 1 March. During his two-week mission, Mr. Holmes would visit Khartoum and Juba, in southern Sudan, before going to the Darfur region. Meanwhile, the United Nations Mission in Sudan continued to report attacks on villages in Darfur. Following an attack yesterday in a village north of El Geneina, in West Darfur, villagers in neighbouring Jebel Moon were fortifying their defences fearing similar attacks.

On Afghanistan, the Security Council was expected to approve the Secretary-General’s recommendation of a further 12-month extension of the mandate of the United Nations Mission, due to expire on 24 March.

International conference on refugees and displaced in Iraq

Ron Redmond of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that invitations had now gone out to 192 governments, 65 international organizations and some 60 NGOs for next month's international humanitarian conference on refugees and displaced in Iraq and neighbouring countries. The April 17-18 ministerial-level meeting would be held at the Palais des Nations. It would examine the humanitarian dimensions of the displacement crisis, identify the enormous needs, and seek to forge a common international effort to address those needs. Some 2 million Iraqis were now in neighbouring countries in the region. In addition, there were an estimated 1.9 million Iraqis who remained displaced inside their own country, of which 730,000 were estimated to have been displaced by sectarian violence since the beginning of last year.

Mr. Redmond said that the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) estimated that more than 15 million Iraqis were now considered extremely vulnerable. An estimated 4 million Iraqis were dependent on food assistance. The chronic child malnutrition rate was at 23 percent. Some 70 percent of the Iraqi population lacked access to adequate water supplies, while 80 percent lacked effective sanitation. The unemployment rate was over 50 percent. About a third of UNHCR's $60 million appeal for the region - more than half of which had so far been raised - was aimed at providing help to tens of thousands of the most vulnerable IDPs inside Iraq. Compared to the overall needs, it was a drop in the ocean. With displacement continuing at an estimated rate of up to 50,000 a month, the humanitarian needs were growing by the day.

Internally displaced in Sri Lanka

Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that particularly heavy fighting and shelling in the area west of Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka had dramatically increased the number of displaced persons in the region in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. Some 90,000 people had fled heavy shelling last week. This was in addition to the 60,000 that WFP had already been supplying food aid to in camps in Batticaloa for the past few months. It would be a major logistical and food supply challenge to reach the people in time. WFP appealed to the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to guarantee unimpeded humanitarian access to all the victims. WFP would shortly begin transporting 590 tons of rice and wheat flour to Batticaloa by truck, but the stocks were dwindling and WFP would run out of food supplies by the end of April. The Common Humanitarian Action Plan for Sri Lanka had only received 33 percent of its required funding for food assistance. There was a critical and urgent need for additional contributions. Mr. Pluess said he would be circulating a press release on this issue shortly.


Refugees from Chad and Sudan

Mr. Redmond said that over the weekend, UNHCR had moved a group of over 200 Chadian refugees from the volatile Chad-Sudan border area to a UNHCR refugee camp in West Darfur. On Saturday, 17 March, a first convoy of 14 trucks carrying 221 Chadian refugees and their donkeys had departed from the border village of Arara, arriving safely on Sunday at Um Shalaya camp near Mornei, 75 km from the border. The new arrivals were part of a bigger group of 550 Chadian refugees in Darfur who had approached UNHCR to be moved away from the border because of the ongoing insecurity. In total, an estimated 20,000 Chadian refugees had crossed the border to Darfur since the end of 2005, fleeing the increased presence of various armed groups and growing insecurity.

Jamini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM, in coordination with UNHCR and the South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, was providing onward transportation assistance to a group of some 550 Sudanese who, unable to wait any longer to return home, spontaneously returned on foot from Dimma Camp, in Ethiopia’s Western region of Gambela, to Boma in Sudan’s Southern Jonglei State. On Wednesday, 21 March, IOM would be undertaking the first of 14 airlifts out of Boma to some 20 locations in Southern Sudan for the returnees. In a joint effort, the Ethiopian Government, IOM and UNHCR planned to assist some 27,000 Sudanese refugees return voluntarily to former home communities in South Sudan this year.

Other

Ms. Pandya said that IOM had yesterday officially opened a Liaison Office in Beijing. The establishment of the office was important as it paved the way for increased cooperation on migration related issues. IOM Director General Brunson McKinley was in Beijing to meet with senior Government officials on these issues.

According to the latest report in the IOM Migration Research Series, “Migration & Poverty Alleviation in China”, migration was now playing an increasingly important role in rural income growth and poverty reduction in China. Labour market policy reforms were creating an institutional environment supportive of rural-urban migration. The incidence of rural poverty in China had been reduced by half over the past 30 years. But rural poverty reduction had slowed since the 1980s, resulting in widening urban-rural income inequalities. The researchers saw migration as a tool to accelerate the transformation of economic structures and recommended the abolition of remaining constraints on labour mobility and the creation of a portable social security system for rural migrants.

On Zimbabwe, Ms. Pandya said that the Swedish Government had given IOM USD 3.6 million for its humanitarian programmes in the country. Part of the funding would be used to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to returned Zimbabwean migrants from Botswana by establishing a Reception and Support Centre at Plum Tree at Zimbabwe’s border with the country. More than 38,000 Zimbabwean migrants were returned annually from Botswana. The remainder of the funding would provide essential assistance for returned migrants from South Africa at IOM’s Beitbridge Reception and Support Centre.

Finally, Ms. Pandya said that in Indonesia, IOM was nearing was nearing completion of a 150-home resettlement site in Aceh for survivors of the December 2004 tsunami. IOM and the American Red Cross and jointly agreed to construct up to 1,630 permanent homes, 149 transitional homes and 12 schools and community centers in Aceh. Some 634 units had already been completed and the remainder was scheduled for completion by 30 June.