REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from Spokespersons for the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Trade Organization, the World Meteorological Organization and the International Organization for Migration.
Secretary-General’s Visit to Kenya
Ms. Heuzé said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Nairobi about 90 minutes ago and was presently meeting with the Panel of Eminent African Persons, led by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He would then meet with the President of the opposition ODM party, Raila Odinga, have a working lunch with UN staff and heads of agencies, then meet with Kenyan elders before giving a press conference. He would be leaving Nairobi late tonight on his way back to New York.
Ms. Heuzé recalled that in his address to the opening session in Addis Ababa of the African Union Summit yesterday, the Secretary-General drew attention to the alarming developments in Kenya, and called on the gathered African leaders to urge and encourage the leaders and people of Kenya to calm the violence and resolve their differences through dialogue and respect for the democratic process. At a press conference later, Mr. Ban urged the Kenyan people to “Stop the killings and end the violence now, before it is too late!” The Secretary-General met with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki in Addis Ababa on Thursday. His diplomatic efforts continued as the second opposition member of Parliament was killed yesterday.
Situation in Kenya
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said according to the WHO Representative in Nairobi, Dr. David Okello, no one had a clear idea of how many people were in the camps for displaced persons, as the situation changed all the time. The situation of water and sanitation in the camps was mediocre, and there was practically no access to health services. There was a lack of medicines in the camps, medicines for children, antibiotics, medicines against malaria, and other kinds. The hospitals received many cases of victims of sexual violence, but they had little to offer to help these victims. Because of the insecurity, very few health workers went to their work, as they were staying at home to protect their families. Dr. Okello was worried that in view of the situation in the camps, it was possible that diarrhea, malaria and other epidemics might spread. WHO and the Kenyan Red Cross were working with the Ministry of Health of Kenya to evaluate the needs of the persons in the camps, especially those in the south of the Rift Valley.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said the violence affecting the main roads through the Rift Valley and towards Uganda in recent days had often interrupted the transportation of commercial food as well as food aid. Drivers were afraid to drive trucks through the affected areas because of the danger. The situation was changing quickly. Trucks carrying WFP food could go from Mombassa to Nairobi without escort, but escorts were necessary when the trucks drove out of Nairobi and through the Rift Valley. There was a shortage of food in the markets around the country, and food prices were increasing. It was too early to estimate how this crisis has affected the Kenyan food harvests. The Rift Valley was Kenya’s grain basket. To date, WFP had helped distribute food to more than 185,000 displaced persons in the Rift Valley and the western provinces. Population movements continued. WFP aimed to reach 250,000 displaced persons with food aid. Fuel prices were also increasing, which affected the transport of food. Ms. Berthiaume said WFP had also provided food aid to 2,000 Kenyan refugees in Uganda.
In response to a question, Ms. Berthiaume said displaced persons in Kenya were constantly moving, trying to find refuge close to churches or police stations. When WFP knew there were groups in one area, it could reach them, but it was problematic when it did not know where they were moving or gathering.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said according to the Kenyan Red Cross, there were 290,000 displaced persons in Kenya. Many internally displaced persons were continuously moving from one area to another as the security situation was constantly shifting, with violence erupting in areas previously thought to be safe. The humanitarian situation in Molo district was a top priority now for aid actors as violence was escalating there and there were more than 40,000 internally displaced persons living in congested urban sites or insecure and poorly provisioned rural camps there. Available was a report on cases of gender based violence between 27 December and 20 January treated at the Nairobi Women’s Hospital-General Violence Recovery Centre (152 cases). That figure now stood at 167 cases. The description of the cases showed how sexual violence was being used as a weapon to threaten and intimidate, and also as reprisal. Crisis centres around the country were providing medical and psychosocial support for survivors of sexual and physical violence of post-election conflict. The report stated that sexual violence was not only occurring as a byproduct of the collapse of the social order in Kenya brought on by the post-election conflict, but it also was being used as a tool to terrorize families and precipitate their exclusion from their communities. Other perpetrators were exploiting the conflict in order to commit sexual violence with impunity.
William Spindler of the UN Refugee Agency said more UNHCR supplies were ferried yesterday from Nairobi to three displacement sites some 30 kilometres outside of the Kenyan capital in the wake of new evictions of nearly 10,000 non-indigenous communities working mainly in tea plantations and flower farms around Tigoni. There were other evictions Wednesday from homes in Kikuyu and Kabete, small towns outside of Nairobi. UNHCR immediately handed over 1,800 family kits, enough for 9,000 people, and 25 lightweight tents to the Kenyan Red Cross for distribution to the internally displaced people in the three towns. UNHCR had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kenya Red Cross Society to provide them with emergency shelter and basic household items, assist with camp coordination and management, and strengthen systems for IDP registration. The Government of Kenya and the Kenyan Red Cross estimated that there were now more than 250,000 internally displaced persons living in over 300 sites in various parts of the country.
Situation in Gaza
Matthias Burchard of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said as if the severe closure regime of the past week was not enough for Gaza, Gazans now had to cope with unusually cold weather, heavy rains and winds which only exacerbated the misery of the 1.5 million inhabitants. Jerusalem was under snow, severely hindering aid delivered from there. The Sofa and Karni crossings remained closed. However, some wheat entered via the conveyer adjacent to the terminal, but in insufficient quantities to make any difference to the supply situation. Via Nahal Oz, near Karni, 500,000 litres of industrial fuel, 170,000 litres of diesel, five trucks of cooking gas and 25,000 litres of benzene entered Gaza, barely enough for one day. As a result, the power plant was working at a little more than half its capacity. Overall, Gaza was presently receiving three quarters of its electricity needs from Egypt and Israel, but no one knew for how long. Power supply was irregular and out for most of the day.
Mr. Burchard said the Kerem Shalom crossing was closed. Twelve UNRWA trucks with food arrived at the Israeli side of the crossing but were forced to return to Ashdod despite prior coordination and approval of the Israeli military. UNRWA presently had 161 trucks loaded with vital food waiting in Ashdod to go into Gaza. No commercial or other food had been allowed into Gaza since 18 January. UNRWA and WFP food provisions could only cover about 61 per cent of the minimum daily calorie intake, and recipients had to cover the rest from the commercial market. In the last 10 days, UNRWA provided 15,000 litres of fuel to the main Palestinian Gaza hospitals so that they could continue running their generators and heating systems. It also supplied 112,500 litres to the Gaza Solid Waste Management. This however still fell far short of demand, resulting in garbage piling up along the streets. Because of lack of fuel for waste water treatment, the Gaza Costal Municipal Water Utility was forced to dump 40,000 cubic metres of raw sewage daily in the sea. The border between Egypt and Gaza remained somewhat open. Fear of animal disease due to live stocks brought in from Egypt had prompted Israel to send in thousands of vaccines immediately, but not to send food to feed hungry people. UNRWA hoped that the mission next week to the occupied Palestinian territory by the European Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana and Quartet envoy Tony Blair would be fruitful in helping find a solution to the Gaza access problem. UNRWA also hoped that the UN Secretary-General’s appeal to the parties for the implementation of the Agreement of Movement and Access would be heard. It was not acceptable that whole communities were further penalized for the condemnable actions of a few. UNRWA had been told that more trucks would be allowed in on Sunday, and it hoped that would happen.
Mr. Burchard said the situation in the West Bank was equally grim. Daily Israeli military raids on homes and whole villages and settler violence resulted in daily casualties, including among Palestinian refugees. Land confiscations and house demolitions continued unabated.
In conclusion, Mr. Burchard said that last December, the Consolidated Appeal for the occupied Palestinian territory was launched. UNRWA appealed for $ 237 million in urgently needed humanitarian aid, but to date, it had only received 1 per cent.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said free access to humanitarian and commercial food into Gaza was crucial to avoid a generalized humanitarian crisis. WFP had received assurances yesterday that the access situation would improve next week, and like UNRWA, WFP could only hope. The access problem was causing the shortages of food stuff and the increase in prices of food. Last week, 9 trucks carrying WFP food were allowed into Gaza and this week, 11 trucks were allowed in. But in normal times, WFP sent in 15 trucks daily into Gaza, five days a week. Because of this situation, WFP had been distributing partial aid portions to its receiving community, except for the most vulnerable among them. The opening of the border between Gaza and Egypt last week had allowed some commercial stock into Gaza which had slightly improved the situation. Technically, 75 per cent of the inhabitants of Gaza depended on WFP-UNRWA food aid for their survival. Usually, these winter months were the best times for fishing, but because of the lack of fuel, the 3,000 fishermen in Gaza were not able to go out to sea in the vessels. The lack of fuel had also affected the gathering of garbage. WFP helped 300,000 persons in Gaza, including 48,000 new persons it was helping since January.
Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF was voicing its concerns along with UNRWA and WFP concerning the situation in Gaza. UNICEF helped UNRWA a lot with the schools in Gaza. Tomorrow, schools would be re-opening in Gaza following the winter break. But these schools probably would have no heating or electricity because of the situation in Gaza. This meant that children would be expected to work under extreme conditions. It was snowing in Jerusalem and very cold in Gaza and this was affecting the already weak and vulnerable population. Most schools in Gaza had no paper or other educational materials because of the closing of the crossings. Some 56 per cent of Gazans were under 18 years old, so children were bearing the brunt of the shortages of food, fuel and school supplies. Enrolment levels and test scores told a story of deep decline.
Situation in Chad
William Spindler of the UN Refugee agencies said more than 40 UNHCR staff and aid workers from partner non-governmental organizations had been relocated from the eastern Chad town of Guereda following a series of armed attacks in the area amid growing concern over the security situation in the country. Over the past three days, five vehicles belonging to UNHCR, its non-governmental partners and MSG Suisse were stolen at gun-point in Guereda. The UNHCR compound in Guereda was entered by armed men two nights in a row, on Wednesday and Thursday. More aid workers were being relocated from Guereda today, but a number of essential staff would remain to ensure basic support in the two Guereda camps which hosted 30,000 refugees from Darfur. The refugees were very worried about the deteriorating security situation. Tensions between opposition forces and the Chadian National Army had been mounting since Monday. There were reports of opposition groups moving toward the capital N’Djamena, where UNHCR staff had been advised to stay at home. Further complicating the situation was the arrival of some 2,000 Sudanese refugees in Um Dukhum in south west Darfur. In a separate development, an estimated 5,800 refugees from the Central African Republic had arrived in several border villages in southern Chad over the past few weeks, fleeing attacks by bandits in the north of the Central African Republic. With the new arrivals, there were now some 50,000 refugees from the Central African Republic in southern Chad.
In response to a question, Mr. Spindler said this was not the first time that UNHCR had had to evacuate its staff from camps in Chad and it had stockpiled provisions in the camps. In situations like this, UNHCR relied on the refugees themselves and the refugee camp leaders to run their own affairs.
Harsh Winter Conditions in Tajikistan and Afghanistan
Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said extreme winter conditions in Tajikistan had caused a sharp decline in water levels in the Nurek reservoir, which powered the hydro-electric Nurek Power Plan. Electricity was already strictly rationed throughout much of the country with most areas only receiving a few hours of electricity a day. The Government and international partners were preparing themselves for possible humanitarian implications of a prolonged electricity crisis. An OCHA humanitarian affairs officer would be arriving in Dushanbe today to assist in the collation and analysis of the results of the rapid assessments and to determine the response.
Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said Tajikistan was suffering from extreme cold and power cuts and this situation was having a severe impact on families and children. In the capital Dushanbe, electric power was limited and the majority of rural areas did not have electricity at all. Most water wells had frozen over and piped water supplies relying on electric pumps had been knocked out by the power shortage. Many families were melting snow for drinking water and cooking and the price of solid fuel had doubled. Around 60 per cent of the country’s maternity hospitals did not have access to safe water, and children in all 3,800 schools in the country were learning in extremely severe conditions, with limited or no heating or electricity. School attendance had plunged. UNICEF was distributing generators, covers, and had launched an appeal for
$ 720,000 to improve its ability to help meet the needs of children. The precise numbers of people affected and the areas affected had not yet been established. A UN team was assessing the situation. A note was available with more details.
William Spindler of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR was rushing emergency supplies to over 1,000 desperate refugees in Tajikistan in the midst of the country’s coldest winter in 25 years. Most of the affected refugees were from Afghanistan.
Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said IOM was distributing non-food winter kits including blankets, sweaters and shawls to some 2,500 internally displaced families in three camps in Heart province in Afghanistan in response to some of the harshest winter weather in decades. There were reports that at least 329 people had died from the cold so far in Heart.
Geneva Activities
Ms. Heuzé said the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was today concluding its fortieth session, the first it was holding in Geneva. The Committee’s concluding comments on the reports of Bolivia, Burundi, Saudi Arabia, France, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Morocco and Sweden, which it considered during the session, would be put in the press room later this afternoon, as well as the roundup press releases in English and in French.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child was also concluding its forty-seventh session today and its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Timor-Leste and the Dominican Republic would be released shortly. The Committee also considered the reports of Timor-Leste, Kuwait and Chile on efforts to comply with the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and the reports of Timor-Leste, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait and Chile, on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and the concluding observations and recommendations as well as the roundup press releases in English and in French would be available shortly.
Ms. Heuzé said the next plenary of the Conference on Disarmament would be held on Tuesday, 5 February at 10 a.m. and would be addressed by the Secretary of State for Defence of the United Kingdom, Des Browne. There would be a briefing on Monday, 4 February at 2:30 p.m. by Tim Caughley, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Conference.
Human Rights
Yvon Edoumou of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said High Commissioner Louise Arbour would be visiting Mexico from 5 to 8 February. This would be her second visit to Mexico since becoming High Commissioner, and Ms. Arbour would be signing an agreement with the Mexican authorities on the renewal of the OHCHR presence in the country.
Other
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the floods, hail and frost that started last November had affected 118 out of the 327 Bolivian municipalities. The number of casualties was 40 and the crisis was to worsen in the next few weeks and was still at its initial phase. More than 600,000 hectares of crops were so far affected and electronic losses suffered in the Department of Santa Cruz were estimated as much as $ 500 million due to the current emergency. The UN had decided to request funds from the Central Emergency Response Fund to start critical life-saving operations. There were more details in the briefing notes.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said that French naval vessels had been escorting ships carrying WFP food to Somalia for the past two months. Now Danish naval vessels would carry out this duty for two months, and WFP hoped other navies would offer their services after that. This started after repeated pirate attacks against WFP ships and in the past two months, there had been no incidents.
Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization said the General Council will meet on Tuesday, 5
February and will consider Ukraine's accession to the World Trade Organization. The accession will be discussed at 3 p.m. and President Victor Yushchenko of Ukraine will attend the session. If WTO members approve Ukraine's documents by consensus, President Yushchenko and Mr. Lamy will sign the Accession Protocol. A press conference with President Victor Yushchenko and WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy will start immediately after the signing ceremony.
Ms. Borges said today, Mr. Lamy is meeting with José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. There will be a meeting of the dispute settlement body on Friday, 8 February.
William Spindler of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR welcomed Nepal’s recent decision to issue exit permits to refugees from Bhutan who voluntarily opted for resettlement.
Paul Garwood of the World Meteorological Organization said WMO was kick-starting a major global effort to better predict changes to the Earth’s climate and deal with extreme weather and climatic events, such as flooding, drought and desertification. Starting 4 February, WMO would hold the first meeting of the International Organizing Committee of the World Climate Conference-3 (WCC-3), to take place in Geneva in 2009. More than 20 organizations, including United Nations agencies, would participate in the three-day meeting to prepare for the milestone 2009 conference, with the theme: “Climate prediction for decision-making: focusing on seasonal to inter-annual time-scales taking into account multi-decadal prediction.” A press release was available with more details.
Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said some 3,500 vulnerable flood-affected families living in the central flood plains of the lower Zambezi and Save Rivers in Mozambique would receive additional emergency shelter and non-food assistance from IOM thanks to a $ 600,000 grant from the UN Central Emergency Fund. Mozambique had been badly affected by floods for several weeks with heavy rains continuing to tall this week across the country with river levels above flood alert.
Ms. Pandya said IOM and the Department of census and statistics in Sri Lanka had opened a National Centre for Migration Statistics in Colombo. In Indonesia, IOM had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indonesian National Police (INP) to accelerate the implementation of IOM’s INP community policing and human rights programme.