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 world Food Programme, the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the International Labour Organization and the International Organization for Migration.

At the beginning of the briefing, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier welcomed a group of Palestinian journalists who were visiting the Palais des Nations this week.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier reminded journalists that on 26 November, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, would inaugurate the sixth seminar organized by the United Nations Office at Geneva and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. The theme was “meeting the security challenges of today while upholding human rights standards”.

The Committee on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families opened its ninth session yesterday and was today concluding its review of the initial report of El Salvador. The Committee would issue its concluding observations and recommendations on the report on Friday, 28 November.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had learnt with deep distress of the murder last Friday night in Bukavu of Didace Namujimbo, a journalist of Radio Okapi, the MONUC radio station managed in partnership with Fondation Hirondelle. The statement by the Secretary-General was available in the press room.

The Secretary-General’s latest report on children and armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was available, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said. In the report, the Secretary-General said that while he recognized the decrease in recruitment and use of children by the parties to the conflict as compared with the period covered by his last report, he remained deeply concerned about the thousands of children remaining with armed forces and groups in the country, and urged the parties to cease any new recruitment of children and to release unconditionally all those currently associated with their forces. The report covered the period from 1 June 2007 to September 2008. The report was available on the website of the United Nations.

A journalist asked whether there would be a special session of the Human Rights Council held this week on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said unfortunately she could not give a definitive answer because the President of the Council was continuing his consultations today. Journalists would be informed as soon as a decision was taken.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said OCHA strongly condemned the murder of Didace Namujimbo, who was the second journalist from Radio Okapi to be murdered in Bukavu. Humanitarian actors still lacked access to the South Lubero region due to insecurity and bad road conditions. Health structures of this area had run out of medical supplies. Last Sunday, a non-governmental organization was attacked and looted by armed men in the area of Rwanguba, east of Rutshuru. After rumours of a possible attack by an armed group against Kiwanja, about 10,000 displaced families had fled towards Rutshuru. There were more details in the briefing note.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said humanitarian efforts continued in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Available at the back of the room was an operational update with the latest information available. WFP was continuing to build on its delivery of food assistance to around 400,000 people.

William Spindler of the United Nations Refugee Agency said UNHCR was ready to start the voluntary transfer of displaced Congolese civilians who had found themselves in a precarious situation at the Kibati camps north of Goma. The first transfers would include vulnerable persons, children and sick and elderly individuals who would be initially moved to the four existing camps on the western outskirts of Goma (Buhimba, Bulengo, Mugunga I and II) where additional accommodation facilities were identified and where all services were already running. The final decision about the start of the transfer would be made this afternoon in Goma together with all the partners involved in this operation. Tens of thousands of displaced Congolese civilians in the Kibati camps were in a dangerous situation as the warring parties remained in close proximity. Meanwhile, UNHCR and its partners had intensified the pace of building on the Mugunga III site - focusing on essential sanitation and accommodation facilities. Together with its partners, UNHCR was also rushing to put in place other facilities to ensure that the voluntary transfer went as smoothly as possible. UNHCR also welcomed yesterday’s decision by the UN peacekeeping force to start, as soon as possible, regular night patrols in and around the Kibati camps.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said the situation health-wise remained relatively stable in the areas where WHO had access to. In Goma, they were seeing a relative stabilization in the numbers of cholera cases and outbreaks of other infectious diseases. WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Health Action in Crises was arriving today in Kinshasa, and he would be travelling to Goma on 26 November and would remain there for three or four days to assess the health status in the Kivus and to see what further needs were required.

Mr. Spindler said UNHCR was increasing its logistics capacity in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Meanwhile, in the neighbouring South Kivu province, UNHCR was planning to establish a site for the displaced persons at Minova. It was estimated that some 11,000 displaced families still lived with host families, in school blocks, government offices and churches. These Congolese
civilians fled the hostilities in North Kivu.

Zimbabwe

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the number of cholera cases in Zimbabwe had increased from 6,072 to 7,283, while reported deaths had risen to 313 from 294 on 20 November. New affected areas were being reported. More details were available in the briefing note at the back of the room. Ms. Byrs also noted that the 2008 appeal for Zimbabwe for $ 394 million was only 60 per cent funded. More money was needed to help the country. The appeal for 2009 was for $ 550 million. Access to the country had improved a lot since a ban on the work of non-governmental organizations had been dropped, and the Government continued to assure free access to the country.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said WHO was very concerned about the deteriorating situation regarding the health status of Zimbabwe, particularly the status of the health services system. WHO’s Representative in Zimbabwe had been in close contact with the Ministry of Health, non-governmental organizations and other health partners in the country to try and bring the situation under control and to respond to both the weakness of the health system and the latest situation regarding cholera. WHO was contributing to the surveillance in the country to understand where the trends were, how they were increasing and what kind of reaction was needed. WHO was also sending supplies to the country. Yesterday in Harare, WHO spoke with regional countries, particularly Angola, South Africa and Mozambique. South Africa and Mozambique reported that the situation with regard to cholera on their borders with Zimbabwe was under control. For WHO, the major concern at the moment with regard to cholera was in the urban areas of Harare. There was a risk of the disease spreading to other regions of the country which was why WHO was extremely concerned about the control of the disease.

Véronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF was also very worried about the situation in Zimbabwe. In such situations of crises, the United Nations worked in clusters, and UNICEF was in charge of the water and sanitation cluster. The cholera epidemic was very worrying especially in a country like Zimbabwe where the population was already very vulnerable. Lack of access to healthcare and lack of food, as well as the large numbers of people who had HIV or AIDS all contributed to the vulnerability of the population. Available at the back of the room was an overview of the cholera crisis in Zimbabwe with more details. UNICEF called on the Government of Zimbabwe to urgently address the water, sanitation and sewer infrastructural challenges that were driving the outbreak. This was the only way to stop it.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said all of this concern about the health situation in Zimbabwe was on top of the fact that the population in Zimbabwe was in a particularly fragile food security situation. WFP estimated that by January, 45 per cent of the population would need food assistance, around 5.1 million people. In December, WFP hoped to be able to feed 4 million people, but because it did not have enough resources to get enough food into the country, it would most probably be a reduced ration for people who were already surviving on one meal a day.

In response to a question, Fadela Chiab of the World Health Organization said this cholera epidemic had started at the end of August in Zimbabwe. The epidemic had already spread to three large regions of Zimbabwe. The health system was very weak in Zimbabwe.

Greenhouse Gas Bulletin 2007

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said WMO was today publishing the 2007 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.

Geir Braathen of the World Meteorological Organization said the WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin was published every year in the autumn. It provided in a concise manner and with as few numbers as possible the state of the atmosphere with respect to the most important greenhouse gases. The main greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide had all reached new highs in 2007. Two of them, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide were continuing a steady growth. Carbon dioxide was also responsible for 90 per cent of the greenhouse gas warming over the last five years. Methane over the past 10 years had levelled off, but from 2006 to 2007 they had observed an increase in methane. There were more details in the press release and the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin itself was also available.

Other

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said there would be a press conference at 3 p.m. on Monday, 1 December with the Trade Ministers of Mali, Benin and Chad before the multi-stakeholder meeting on Cotton which the Secretary-General of UNCTAD was organizing on 2 December.

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Office reminded journalists that at 11:30 a.m. today in Salle III, right after the briefing, there would be a press conference to launch ILO’s Global Wage Report 2008/2009. There were copies of an embargoed press release at the back of the room.

William Spindler of the United Nations Refugee Agency said High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres would be arriving in Baghdad today for a three-day
visit that would include meetings with top government officials and a review of UNHCR’s work with its national and international staff in the country.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said available at the back of the room was a news note on the situation in the Central African Republic where the political situation remained unstable and precarious, which affected the work of humanitarian actors. More details were available. UNICEF’s Representative in the Central African Republic would brief journalists about the situation in the country on 26 November at 3 p.m.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said WFP was launching today an emergency food operation in Kyrgyzstan to help 580,000 vulnerable people during the cold season. According to an assessment by WFP, one out of very five households in Kyrgyzstan was at a high nutritional and health risk. WFP had launched this emergency food operation with a budget of $ 8.4 million to provide a ration of wheat flour and oil to help more than one-fifth of the population.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said IOM, in cooperation with the Gyeonggi provincial government and the Korean Ministry of Justice would today launch a two-day International Symposium on Migration Policy Research and Training in Goyang City, Gyeonggi Province, Korea.

Ms. Pandya said a three-day workshop organized by IOM, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union Commission (AUC) on border management and irregular migration in the IGAD region would be opening on 26 November in Nairobi, Kenya.