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 attended by Spokespersons for and Representatives of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Organization for Migration, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Health Organization.

19 August 2003

Ms. Heuzé said that five years ago on this day, 22 staff members died in the bombing of the United Nations Headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq. A solemn ceremony to commemorate this tragic anniversary would take place at 11:45 a.m. in the Salle des Pas Perdus at the Palais des Nations. The Director-General, Mr. Sergei Ordzhonikidze would address the assembly.

Situation in Georgia and UN appeal

Ms. Heuzé said that yesterday, the United Nations launched a consolidated flash appeal of US$ 58.6 million dollars with regard to the situation in Georgia. The principal actors of the appeal were the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the appeal of US$ 58.6 million was for addressing the needs of 128,700 persons affected by the conflict in Georgia for six months. The two most important sectors composing the appeal were food aid with US$ 15.8 million and the shelter and non-food items sector with US$ 18.5 million, followed by health with US$ 7.7 million, protection $7 million, logistics US$ 2 million and water, sanitation and hygiene $6 million. The appeal had been launched in New York yesterday and would also be launched today from Tbilissi at 11 a.m. local time.

Ms. Byrs also noted that since yesterday, several villages in Georgia, including the city of Gori, were now accessible for the first time since the start of the conflict. According to information provided by the Resident Coordinator in Tbilissi, a humanitarian corridor allowed humanitarian actors now to go from the East of the town of Gori to the West in direction of the port of Podi. They had however still no access to South Ossetia and had not been able to respond, nor evaluate the needs of the population there. They were very concerned about the situation of the civilian population in the region.

Georgian authorities had registered approximately 81,500 internally displaced persons, who were being accommodated in 672 different locations, most of which were public buildings and kindergartens. It was very difficult to know the exact number because the situation was very fluid; people were coming and going. Ms. Byrs however noted that OCHA’s current estimate of displaced persons was of 128,000 persons.

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, had arrived earlier today in the Georgian capital Tbilisi at the start of a four-day mission to Georgia and the Russian Federation. He would assess UNHCR’s humanitarian operations in both countries and would meet people displaced by last week’s conflict in and around the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia. Mr. Guterres would meet with Georgian and Russian authorities and would discuss any further aid they might require. The High Commissioner would again press for the protection of the civilian population, especially those newly displaced, and for safe and unhindered access by humanitarian organizations to the areas of displacement.

Also this morning, they had organized the first humanitarian flight to Batumi in western Georgia, said Mr. Mahecic. Aid supplies for more than 50,000 people had been flown to Tbilisi but road convoys could not reach western Georgia, where some 15,000 displaced were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. UNHCR, which had six offices in Georgia working on behalf of some 220,000 previously displaced people, was now rapidly moving ahead with distribution of aid items. Only yesterday, 13 UNHCR teams had distributed humanitarian assistance to some 11,000 internally displaced people. Another 10 of their teams had visited 50 collective centres accommodating some of the newly displaced population and had assessed the numbers of displaced, their needs and living conditions.

Mr. Mahecic underscored that the situation on the ground in Georgia remained volatile and unpredictable. On Sunday, a joint UNHCR and World Food Programme (WFP) convoy had managed to enter the town of Gori. This had been the first time since the outbreak of the conflict that UN agencies had been given access to that city. UNHCR staff that had managed to enter the town reported that it seemed to be mostly deserted. They had come across some 50 to 60 people gathered in the city centre and waiting for assistance.

The latest estimates of displacement related to the conflict totaled more than 158,700 people, according to the Georgian and Russian governments. An estimate of up to 30,000 people had been displaced within South Ossetia. In addition, some 98,000 people were displaced in Georgia proper, including most of the population of the town of Gori. Some 30,000 people from South Ossetia were still in the Russian Federation. During a meeting this morning with the Georgian Minister for Reintegration, Temuri Yakubashvili, High Commissioner Guterres had called on the international community to mobilize resources for the humanitarian assistance effort in Georgia. UNHCR urgently needed additional funds to ensure continued assistance to the newly displaced population in the Caucasus region. Their part of the US$ 58.5 million Georgia Crisis flash appeal, amounted to US$ 16 million for the next six months. This would cover UNHCR's protection, shelter and assistance programmes for the newly displaced in the Caucasus region, said Mr. Mahecic.

Shahnaz Kianian Firouzgar, Deputy Regional Director for the Central and Eastern Europe, Commonwealth and Independent States Regional Office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that UNICEF’s component of the flash appeal was of nearly $6.5 million, covering the sectors of health and nutrition with other partners, most notably WHO and USAID. They were also the lead agency for coordinating the relief assistance for water, sanitation and hygiene and their own share of that component amounted to US$ 2.7 million. The third component was protection including education, where they were addressing issues related to the protection of children from abuse, exploitation and violence as well as psychosocial support.

UNICEF had conducted an assessment mission with other United Nations Agencies which went to Gori yesterday to see what the needs were. The feedback of the mission was that food was an issue, water and electricity were available and cooking gas was in short supply. In the two hospitals the team had visited, children had been moved to Tbilissi. Two assessment missions were also currently underway in the Russian Federation to assess the situation in the regions where people had been moved from Ossetia. Further, UNCIEF was planning two charter flights between today and tomorrow to bring in large quantities of supplies for 40,000 students, as the September school start was approaching and children really needed to go back to normal life as fast as possible. The planes were also carrying large quantities of supplies for water, hygiene and sanitation.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that they were appealing for US$ 1.9 million to support on-going World Food Programme food distributions, and to distribute shelter materials and non-food items. IOM was currently mobilizing some 20 staff in Tbilisi, Kutasi and Batumi who were currently supporting data collection on the newly displaced persons.

There were some 81,000 displaced persons in Tbilisi, currently sheltering in collective centers. The influx of displaced was considerable and the process fluid. All these factors, together with limited transportation, communications and access to certain areas complicated the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable, noted Mr. Chauzy.

Anna Nelson of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m. Jakob Kellenberger, President of the ICRC, would give a press conference at ICRC Headquarters. He had visited Georgia on Sunday and North Ossetia on Monday. He had also met with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this morning. The meeting had been positive. Russian authorities stated that the work and the presence of the ICRC in South Ossetia would be useful. ICRC remained ready to go to South Ossetia in order to evaluate the humanitarian needs as soon as practicalities would be rediscussed with the South Ossetians authorities, who had previously invited ICRC.

ICRC had also been contacted last night by the Georgian authorities to act as a neutral observer in a handover of Georgian and Russian prisoners of war with Russia. ICRC had been present but not involved. Five Russians prisoners of war were exchanged with 20 or 21 Georgians. Further, the last ICRC air bridge shipment was scheduled to arrive today in Tbilissi; it was the ninth plane bringing assistance into the region. ICRC staff had been able to reach Gori over the weekend. There were an increasing number of people on the street and ICRC delegates had been approached by many civilians asking for medicines and food, residents looked emotionally drained.

Turning to a question by a journalist who asked why OCHA was not able to access South Ossetia, Ms. Byrs responded that they had no access to the region because of the security conditions.

Answering a question about the schedule of the High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Mahecic said that today he was meeting with Georgian high officials in Tbilisi, including the Minister for Refugees and Accommodation, the Minister of Reintegration, and the speaker of the Parliament. But he would spend most of his time with the people in the collective centers. He would travel to Moscow tomorrow where he would meet the Minister of Foreign Affairs and would later travel to North Ossetia and go back to Moscow on Friday from where he would return to Geneva.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the main hospital in Tskhinvali had been destroyed and that the Russian EMERCOM had moved in mobile health clinics to provide emergency health services. WHO had increased its presence in the region and was coordinating with the Georgian and Russian authorities to provide help and assistance to internally displaced persons. The major health concern was the treatment of wounds. WHO was also part of the appeal launched yesterday. The health sector part was $US 7.7million.

Conference on disarmament

Today, the CD heard statement by Venezuela as President of the Conference, France, Pakistan, New Zealand, Brazil, Sri Lanka and China on the stalemate in its work and by Slovakia, the Russian Federation and Ireland on the conflict in Georgia.


Floods in West Africa

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization (WHO) said concerning the floods in West Africa that that they were affecting six counties. More than 200,000 people had been displaced due to the flooding. This was leading to health problems in the region and increasing the risk of the spread of communicable diseases. As this region was already severely affected by the food crisis, the damage caused by flooding and the displacement of people was raising the health risks for people already suffering from malnutrition. In Benin, there had been more than 150,000 displaced people and there had been a cholera outbreak, as well as in Guinea Bissau. WHO was assisting all of these countries and was providing basic medicines, food and sanitation. There was a major funding gap concerning West Africa as the WHO had requested earlier this year, in its 2008 revised Consolidated Appeal, US$ 76 million for emergency health care. To date, only 22 per cent of the health funding needs had been received.

Answering a question by a journalist, Mr. Garwood said that the floods had commenced in July and were predicted to continue into September.