REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
UN Geneva Press Briefing
On 24 July, at least 73 civilians, including 11 children, were killed and 93 injured, when two residential compounds in Taiz were hit, said Ms. Pouilly. The compounds housed the families of workers of Al Mokha Steam Power Plant. According to eyewitnesses, the residential compounds were hit by nine missiles. OHCHR was working on verifying reports of the source of the attacks, she said.
In Taiz, on 19 July, violent clashes between members of Houthi Popular Committees and Local Popular Committees resulted in massive explosions at a storage facility housing gas canisters belonging to the Yemen Petroleum Company, said Ms. Pouilly. It was particularly worrying given the only sporadic availability of cooking gas.
OHCHR was also deeply concerned about attacks against civilian infrastructure, including places of worship, hospitals and schools. It urged all parties, again, to ensure that they, at all times, distinguished between civilian and military targets, complied with the principle of proportionality when conducting military operations and took all feasible precautions to avoid, and in any event to minimise, the impact of violence on civilians.
Adrian Edwards, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said almost 100,000 people had fled Yemen in four months since the conflict erupted in late March. Receiving countries were struggling to cope in the face of a funding crisis, as UNHCR’s regional response was just one fifth funded. The UNHCR emergency response inside Yemen was also seriously underfunded at just 23 per cent of the required $105.6 million. Some 1.2 million internally displaced persons and approximately 250,000 refugees continued to need assistance in extremely challenging conditions with severely restricted access. UNHCR was concerned that delivery of assistance in Yemen, as well as to refugees fleeing the country, would be at risk without additional funding soon.
In Somalia, where over 28,000 people had arrived, just five per cent of the required funding had been received. While many of those people had not sought help as refugees, around 54,000 had been registered with UNHCR and Government authorities for assistance of various kinds, said Mr. Edwards.
In Djibouti, 21,726 people had arrived from Yemen as of the end of July. Of those 9,953 (46 per cent) were Yemeni nationals, 9,946 (46 per cent) were transiting third-country nationals and 1,827 (8 per cent) were Djiboutian returnees, briefed Mr. Edwards. UNHCR and the Government refugee agency ONARS had registered 2,397 refugees (2,271 Yemenis). There were 1,767 refugees (1,718 Yemenis) registered in Markazi refugee camp, Obock. The Djibouti Response plan for UNHCR and partners was funded at just 7 per cent of the required US$26 million.
In Ethiopia 3,210 people had arrived from Yemen since March, including 2,500 Somalis and 706 Yemenis. Somalis already registered as refugees in Yemen, after crossing the borders of Djibouti and Somaliland, were arriving in the eastern and northern regions of Ethiopia and were being assisted through existing projects in refugee camps there. An additional US$500,000 was needed for registration and transportation and distribution of emergency assistance to new arrivals in Jijiga in eastern Ethiopia.
In other countries some 5,000 arrivals comprised of mixed nationalities had been recorded in Oman since the conflict started while some 30,000 Yemenis and 9,880 third-country national arrivals had been recorded in Saudi Arabia. Of those, 4,204 remained in Saudi Arabia while the remainder had transited to other countries. With a further 271 arrivals in Sudan, that made a total of 98,176 arrivals in receiving countries across the region in just over four months, said Mr. Edwards.
Floods in Myanmar
Jens Laerke, for the Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the Myanmar Government reported yesterday that 39 people had lost their lives over the past week and over 200,000 people had been affected by heavy monsoon rains and flooding across the country. Those figures were likely to rise in the coming days as more areas became accessible and more information became available.
Mr. Laerke announced that the Myanmar authorities had today formally requested international assistance, although the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations had been working closely with the Myanmar authorities and supporting the humanitarian response since the beginning of the flooding on 30 July. UN support included dispatching assessment teams to the worst-affected areas to identify priorities in terms of water and sanitation, shelter, food, and other relief items.
Initial assessments show that people urgently needed food, shelter, water and sanitation support, and access to emergency healthcare, said Mr. Laerke. Acting Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar, Eamonn Murphy, had commended the relief efforts led by the Myanmar authorities and local organizations such as the Myanmar Red Cross Society. Responders were carrying out rescue operations and providing food, water, blankets, medical and other basic assistance to people in distress.
Across the affected areas, transport networks, power lines and communication infrastructure had been disrupted and access to many areas was a major challenge. For example, large amounts of debris floating in the rivers made it difficult to reach affected people by boat and many roads had been blocked by landslides, concluded Mr. Laerke.
A journalist asked about OCHA’s position regarding criticism of the Government of Myanmar’s response to the floods. Mr. Laerke said that the Government was responding with all its available resources and that OCHA was coordinating the support. He repeated that the Government had officially asked for international assistance today, underlining that this didn't mean that the response started today as humanitarian agencies had been responding on a bilateral level since the flooding started.
Adrian Edwards, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), briefed on UNHCR assistance to victims of Cyclone Komen and flooding in Myanmar’s Rakhine and Kachin states. Cyclone Komen, which swept across western Myanmar states late last week had caused extensive damage, including to areas that were home to thousands of displaced people. UNHCR and partners were still assessing the impact on the existing displaced populations in Rakhine and Kachin states, with a view to identifying immediate needs and distributing relief. Strong winds, heavy rains and serious flooding continued to hamper assessment and relief efforts in some areas, said Mr. Edwards.
So far teams comprising UNHCR, other United Nations and NGO staff had been able to reach camps for internally displaced persons in Rakhine’s provincial capital Sittwe, as well as in nearby townships such as Pauktaw and Myebon, briefed Mr. Edwards. In the 24 camps assessed so far, a quarter of the temporary shelters were damaged and more than 21,000 displaced people had been affected as a result. Several years on from their construction, many of those shelters had become fragile and unable to withstand severe weather.
UNHCR teams were at present assessing the situation in camps for the internally displaced in Minbya, Mrauk-U and Kyauktaw. Those areas were accessible only by boat and UNHCR was able to go yesterday after clearing debris from waterways. Once the assessments were completed UNHCR would distribute relief aid, said Mr. Edwards.
Providing an overview of local situations, Mr. Edwards said that in Maungdaw township, over 2,000 households had been affected. Receding flood waters had allowed many evacuated families to return home in the last two days. UNHCR had distributed relief aid including tarpaulins, blankets, mats and buckets to those hosted in official reception centres as well as others who had been affected.
Parts of Buthidaung township remained underwater. United Nations and non-governmental organization staff had reached 68 villages so far and found over 18,000 people displaced by the floods. As assessments continued, UNHCR were distributing tarpaulins and mats to those affected. In Kachin state, home to over 100,000 conflict-displaced people, the impact of recent rains and floods had been less extensive. At the government’s request, UNHCR and partner agencies had examined conditions in Mogaung township, said Mr. Edwards. Of the four internally displaced people camps visited, one was flooded and nine displaced families were relocated. UNHCR had also distributed relief supplies in the affected areas.
UNHCR’s assistance to people affected by the cyclone and floods was part of a wider inter-agency response to support the Myanmar government’s relief efforts. As with previous responses, it was distributing aid to all affected communities where it had a presence. UNHCR continued to work with the authorities to find longer-term solutions to situations of internal displacement, concluded Mr. Edwards.
Itayi Viriri for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the IOM team in Myanmar was currently responding to the situation by providing emergency shelter, mosquito nets and food and water. They were still assessing the needs on the ground, he added.
Burundi – attack against human rights defender
Cécile Pouilly, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said OHCHR strongly condemned the very serious attack against Pierre Claver Mbonhimpa, a well-respected human rights defender, who was badly injured after being shot four times, including in the neck, by two people on a motorbike yesterday evening, 3 August 2015, in Bujumbura, while he was on his way home.
OHCHR was also deeply concerned about the brutal arrest and ill treatment, on 2 August, of the RFI and AFP local correspondent, Esdras Ndikumana, by agents belonging to the Service national de renseignement (SNR), the national intelligence agency. Mr Ndikumana was taking pictures on the crime site where General Adolphe Nshimirimana was killed on 2 August when he was arrested and brutalized by SNR agents. They took him to their headquarters in Bujumbura and reportedly subjected him to torture, claiming that he was a “journalist enemy”. Mr Ndikumana was currently under medical care, suffering from a broken finger and psychological trauma.
OHCHR called upon the Burundian authorities to launch prompt, transparent and thorough investigations into those very serious incidents and ensure that those responsible were held to account. Impunity for perpetrators of human rights violations must stop, said Ms. Pouilly.
OHCHR also condemned the killing of General Nshimirimana and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. It condemned all acts of violence and called on all sides to show restraint to avoid any further escalation of violence. OHCHR was also concerned about the large number of arbitrary arrests over the last few months. More than 600 people had been arrested and remained in detention without charge, some of them since April. The OHCHR team, which regularly visited places of detention, had also documented over 40 cases of torture and ill-treatment.
Responding to a question from a journalist, Ms. Pouilly said OHCHR staff met the journalist Esdras Ndikumana in hospital where he told them that while he feared for his life and was traumatized by what happened he was ready to testify. He confirmed that the perpetrators were members of the Service national de renseignement.
Asked about the possibility of civil war, Ms. Pouilly said OHCHR was deeply concerned the crisis in Burundi could escalate and worsen. The assassination of General Nshimirimana had raised deep fears across the country. The OHCHR country office and team on the ground was monitoring the situation closely. Asked what sort of assistance OHCHR could offer to the Government of Burundi, Ms. Pouilly said OHCHR had a strong office in Bujumbura and was in constant contact with the authorities. An example of assistance could be the provision of training to the military and police on how to treat detainees and not use torture and ill-treatment.
Responding to a request for details of documented cases of torture, Ms. Pouilly did not have all the details at hand, but she spoke about the case of ten people, arrested in a commune of Bujumbura Rural Province, who were taken to the office of the Service national de renseignement and allegedly tortured there. OHCHR staff in Burundi later visited one of the victims in hospital who alleged he had been beaten by the Service national de renseignement agents. OHCHR was raising those cases with the authorities and insisting that such treatment had to stop, she said.
Mr. Edwards, responding to a question about Burundian refugees, said there were currently some 180,000 Burundian refugees in surrounding countries, including Tanzania, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. The estimated number of internally displaced people inside Burundi was not confirmed and remained approximately 78,000, from previous conflicts. UNHCR was ready to assist neighbouring countries if needed, said Mr. Edwards. He emphasized that their operations were only 11 per cent funded - 89 per cent of funding had not been received.
Iraq
Tarik Jašareviæ, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said due to funding shortages WHO had suspended 84 per cent of frontline health programmes in 10 Governorates in Iraq in July, leaving almost three million people without access to urgently-needed healthcare services. The closure of more than 184 health services resulted in millions of refugees, internally displaced people and host communities having no access to critical care, including trauma care, nutritional case, primary healthcare, outbreak detection and management, immunization services and reproductive health care services.
Despite warnings about the imminent closure of health services and the revision of 2015 plans to focus on the most basic priority health needs, funding was very scarce, said Mr. Jašareviæ. Out of US$60.9 million required by the health cluster, only US$5.1 million (eight per cent) had been received. Mr. Jašareviæ said a press release and an infographic would be made available with all the data after the briefing.
WHO was trying to find money from other regional funds and carrying out advocacy with donors. So far contributions had been received from Canada, Italy, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom and United States, as well as the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq and the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund, said Mr. Jašareviæ.
Responding to a question, Mr. Jašareviæ said that other health programmes were due to be closed before October. Most services were located in the north of Iraq, but some were in central Iraq. The long-term consequences of the closures on the health of the population were not yet known, he commented. WHO did not plan to cut personnel in the field, Mr. Jašareviæ added.
Answering a question about immunization programmes in Iraq, Mr. Jašareviæ said that 5.8 million children needed to continue to be vaccinated against polio in 2015 and 2016. There had been two cases of polio in 2014 in Iraq, he recalled, and no case had been declared since April 2014, but the immunization campaign had to continue for the next two years to be effective. That campaign had a funding gap of US$45 million.
Mediterranean migrant deaths
Itayi Viriri for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that a new tragic milestone had been reached: so far this year more than 2,000 migrants had died trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. That figure confirmed the Mediterranean as the deadliest route for migrants in search of a better life. By way of comparison he said that in the same period last year, 1,607 migrants perished, and a total of 3,279 migrants lost their lives in 2014.
As in 2014, the overwhelming majority died in the Channel of Sicily on the Central Mediterranean route connecting Libya and Italy, where unseaworthy vessels used by smugglers and traffickers significantly increase the likelihood of tragedies occurring, said Mr. Viriri. Despite those tragedies, IOM recognized the extraordinary efforts of maritime forces in the Mediterranean, which continued to save migrants at sea on a daily basis. Loss of life has been greatly reduced in recent months, largely due to the enhancement of the Triton operation, which could now count on more vessels patrolling international waters, where most migrants run into difficulties, said Mr. Viriri.
Approximately 188,000 migrants had been rescued in the Mediterranean so far this year and IOM strongly supported the continuation of that level of response. IOM believed that more migrants would attempt to reach European shores as the summer progressed, and the 200,000 mark would be reached very soon.
A journalist asked Mr. Viriri about the United Kingdom’s decision to oblige landlords to evict illegal migrants. Mr. Viriri responded by referring to the response of the IOM office in the United Kingdom (UK), which said the policy would place landlords in the role of immigration officials. He added the latter had not been trained in this capacity, and as such the proposal did not appear to be workable. IOM called for more concerted efforts from France and the United Kingdom to ensure that the rights of migrants were protected and that, following the deaths of ten migrants in Calais since 1 June, there were no more fatalities. Until IOM had more details on how the policy would be implemented it was hard to comment further. There was more information in the briefing note on the situation in Calais, he added.
Migration in the Post-2015 Development Agenda
Itayi Viriri, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that after more than three years of inter-governmental negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, migration had been incorporated into mainstream global development policy, rectifying the omission made 15 years earlier in the Millennium Development Goals. The text at the centre of that historical agreement establishing a new sustainable development agenda, which included a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), was adopted on 2 August in New York. There was more information in the briefing note, said Mr. Viriri.
The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog040815
Ahmad Fawzi, Director a.i. of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by Spokespersons for the Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, International Organization for Migration, United Nations Refugee Agency and the World Health Organization.
Geneva Activities
Mr. Fawzi said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was in Washington D.C. today to meet United States President Barack Obama. The Clean Power Plan launched by President Obama yesterday would no doubt feature on the agenda, and the Secretary-General appreciated the President’s strong leadership on climate change, believing his leadership by example was essential for bringing other key countries on board to ensure a universal, durable and meaningful agreement at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris this December.
Mr. Fawzi also noted that the Secretary-General had welcomed the agreement reached by Member States on the outcome document of the United Nations Summit which would be held next month in New York to adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
The Conference on Disarmament started the third and last part of its 2015 session on Monday, 3 August, and was meeting in plenary today, Tuesday, 4 August, at 10 a.m. The session would continue until 18 September.
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination started its eighty-seventh session on Monday, 3 August. This week it would consider the reports of Colombia, Costa Rica, and Niger and hear from non-governmental organizations about the situation in those countries. The reports of Suriname, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Czech Republic, Norway and the Netherlands would be considered in the following weeks. A background press release was available here.
The Committee Against Torture was this week considering the report of Switzerland, which would conclude with replies from the delegation at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, 6 August. The Committee would meet in private for the rest of the week before ending the session on Friday, 14 August. A background press release was available here.
Tarik Jašareviæ, for the World Health Organization (WHO), announced that a WHO press conference would take place today, Tuesday, 4 August, at 2.30 p.m. in Press Room III at which Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO Assistant Director-General, would provide an update on the Ebola operational response.
Yemen
Mr. Fawzi briefed the journalists on the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, meetings in Cairo. The Special Envoy had met with the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Nabil Elaraby, with whom he exchanged views on the situation in Yemen and the peace process. The Secretary-General of the Arab League was very supportive of the Special Envoy’s efforts and said that the League, when the time came, would be prepared to consider the question of monitors in the case of a ceasefire. While in Cairo the Special Envoy also met with the Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General and key leaders of the General People’s Congress. The Special Envoy still felt, as he did in Geneva, that there was momentum for a political solution to be reached and he was pushing all parties in that direction, said Mr. Fawzi. He noted that the Special Envoy and his team would soon travel to Oman for meetings, then visit Riyadh for one day, before journeying to New York to brief the Security Council.
On 24 July, at least 73 civilians, including 11 children, were killed and 93 injured, when two residential compounds in Taiz were hit, said Ms. Pouilly. The compounds housed the families of workers of Al Mokha Steam Power Plant. According to eyewitnesses, the residential compounds were hit by nine missiles. OHCHR was working on verifying reports of the source of the attacks, she said.
In Taiz, on 19 July, violent clashes between members of Houthi Popular Committees and Local Popular Committees resulted in massive explosions at a storage facility housing gas canisters belonging to the Yemen Petroleum Company, said Ms. Pouilly. It was particularly worrying given the only sporadic availability of cooking gas.
OHCHR was also deeply concerned about attacks against civilian infrastructure, including places of worship, hospitals and schools. It urged all parties, again, to ensure that they, at all times, distinguished between civilian and military targets, complied with the principle of proportionality when conducting military operations and took all feasible precautions to avoid, and in any event to minimise, the impact of violence on civilians.
Adrian Edwards, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said almost 100,000 people had fled Yemen in four months since the conflict erupted in late March. Receiving countries were struggling to cope in the face of a funding crisis, as UNHCR’s regional response was just one fifth funded. The UNHCR emergency response inside Yemen was also seriously underfunded at just 23 per cent of the required $105.6 million. Some 1.2 million internally displaced persons and approximately 250,000 refugees continued to need assistance in extremely challenging conditions with severely restricted access. UNHCR was concerned that delivery of assistance in Yemen, as well as to refugees fleeing the country, would be at risk without additional funding soon.
In Somalia, where over 28,000 people had arrived, just five per cent of the required funding had been received. While many of those people had not sought help as refugees, around 54,000 had been registered with UNHCR and Government authorities for assistance of various kinds, said Mr. Edwards.
In Djibouti, 21,726 people had arrived from Yemen as of the end of July. Of those 9,953 (46 per cent) were Yemeni nationals, 9,946 (46 per cent) were transiting third-country nationals and 1,827 (8 per cent) were Djiboutian returnees, briefed Mr. Edwards. UNHCR and the Government refugee agency ONARS had registered 2,397 refugees (2,271 Yemenis). There were 1,767 refugees (1,718 Yemenis) registered in Markazi refugee camp, Obock. The Djibouti Response plan for UNHCR and partners was funded at just 7 per cent of the required US$26 million.
In Ethiopia 3,210 people had arrived from Yemen since March, including 2,500 Somalis and 706 Yemenis. Somalis already registered as refugees in Yemen, after crossing the borders of Djibouti and Somaliland, were arriving in the eastern and northern regions of Ethiopia and were being assisted through existing projects in refugee camps there. An additional US$500,000 was needed for registration and transportation and distribution of emergency assistance to new arrivals in Jijiga in eastern Ethiopia.
In other countries some 5,000 arrivals comprised of mixed nationalities had been recorded in Oman since the conflict started while some 30,000 Yemenis and 9,880 third-country national arrivals had been recorded in Saudi Arabia. Of those, 4,204 remained in Saudi Arabia while the remainder had transited to other countries. With a further 271 arrivals in Sudan, that made a total of 98,176 arrivals in receiving countries across the region in just over four months, said Mr. Edwards.
Floods in Myanmar
Jens Laerke, for the Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the Myanmar Government reported yesterday that 39 people had lost their lives over the past week and over 200,000 people had been affected by heavy monsoon rains and flooding across the country. Those figures were likely to rise in the coming days as more areas became accessible and more information became available.
Mr. Laerke announced that the Myanmar authorities had today formally requested international assistance, although the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations had been working closely with the Myanmar authorities and supporting the humanitarian response since the beginning of the flooding on 30 July. UN support included dispatching assessment teams to the worst-affected areas to identify priorities in terms of water and sanitation, shelter, food, and other relief items.
Initial assessments show that people urgently needed food, shelter, water and sanitation support, and access to emergency healthcare, said Mr. Laerke. Acting Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar, Eamonn Murphy, had commended the relief efforts led by the Myanmar authorities and local organizations such as the Myanmar Red Cross Society. Responders were carrying out rescue operations and providing food, water, blankets, medical and other basic assistance to people in distress.
Across the affected areas, transport networks, power lines and communication infrastructure had been disrupted and access to many areas was a major challenge. For example, large amounts of debris floating in the rivers made it difficult to reach affected people by boat and many roads had been blocked by landslides, concluded Mr. Laerke.
A journalist asked about OCHA’s position regarding criticism of the Government of Myanmar’s response to the floods. Mr. Laerke said that the Government was responding with all its available resources and that OCHA was coordinating the support. He repeated that the Government had officially asked for international assistance today, underlining that this didn't mean that the response started today as humanitarian agencies had been responding on a bilateral level since the flooding started.
Adrian Edwards, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), briefed on UNHCR assistance to victims of Cyclone Komen and flooding in Myanmar’s Rakhine and Kachin states. Cyclone Komen, which swept across western Myanmar states late last week had caused extensive damage, including to areas that were home to thousands of displaced people. UNHCR and partners were still assessing the impact on the existing displaced populations in Rakhine and Kachin states, with a view to identifying immediate needs and distributing relief. Strong winds, heavy rains and serious flooding continued to hamper assessment and relief efforts in some areas, said Mr. Edwards.
So far teams comprising UNHCR, other United Nations and NGO staff had been able to reach camps for internally displaced persons in Rakhine’s provincial capital Sittwe, as well as in nearby townships such as Pauktaw and Myebon, briefed Mr. Edwards. In the 24 camps assessed so far, a quarter of the temporary shelters were damaged and more than 21,000 displaced people had been affected as a result. Several years on from their construction, many of those shelters had become fragile and unable to withstand severe weather.
UNHCR teams were at present assessing the situation in camps for the internally displaced in Minbya, Mrauk-U and Kyauktaw. Those areas were accessible only by boat and UNHCR was able to go yesterday after clearing debris from waterways. Once the assessments were completed UNHCR would distribute relief aid, said Mr. Edwards.
Providing an overview of local situations, Mr. Edwards said that in Maungdaw township, over 2,000 households had been affected. Receding flood waters had allowed many evacuated families to return home in the last two days. UNHCR had distributed relief aid including tarpaulins, blankets, mats and buckets to those hosted in official reception centres as well as others who had been affected.
Parts of Buthidaung township remained underwater. United Nations and non-governmental organization staff had reached 68 villages so far and found over 18,000 people displaced by the floods. As assessments continued, UNHCR were distributing tarpaulins and mats to those affected. In Kachin state, home to over 100,000 conflict-displaced people, the impact of recent rains and floods had been less extensive. At the government’s request, UNHCR and partner agencies had examined conditions in Mogaung township, said Mr. Edwards. Of the four internally displaced people camps visited, one was flooded and nine displaced families were relocated. UNHCR had also distributed relief supplies in the affected areas.
UNHCR’s assistance to people affected by the cyclone and floods was part of a wider inter-agency response to support the Myanmar government’s relief efforts. As with previous responses, it was distributing aid to all affected communities where it had a presence. UNHCR continued to work with the authorities to find longer-term solutions to situations of internal displacement, concluded Mr. Edwards.
Itayi Viriri for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the IOM team in Myanmar was currently responding to the situation by providing emergency shelter, mosquito nets and food and water. They were still assessing the needs on the ground, he added.
Burundi – attack against human rights defender
Cécile Pouilly, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said OHCHR strongly condemned the very serious attack against Pierre Claver Mbonhimpa, a well-respected human rights defender, who was badly injured after being shot four times, including in the neck, by two people on a motorbike yesterday evening, 3 August 2015, in Bujumbura, while he was on his way home.
OHCHR was also deeply concerned about the brutal arrest and ill treatment, on 2 August, of the RFI and AFP local correspondent, Esdras Ndikumana, by agents belonging to the Service national de renseignement (SNR), the national intelligence agency. Mr Ndikumana was taking pictures on the crime site where General Adolphe Nshimirimana was killed on 2 August when he was arrested and brutalized by SNR agents. They took him to their headquarters in Bujumbura and reportedly subjected him to torture, claiming that he was a “journalist enemy”. Mr Ndikumana was currently under medical care, suffering from a broken finger and psychological trauma.
OHCHR called upon the Burundian authorities to launch prompt, transparent and thorough investigations into those very serious incidents and ensure that those responsible were held to account. Impunity for perpetrators of human rights violations must stop, said Ms. Pouilly.
OHCHR also condemned the killing of General Nshimirimana and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. It condemned all acts of violence and called on all sides to show restraint to avoid any further escalation of violence. OHCHR was also concerned about the large number of arbitrary arrests over the last few months. More than 600 people had been arrested and remained in detention without charge, some of them since April. The OHCHR team, which regularly visited places of detention, had also documented over 40 cases of torture and ill-treatment.
Responding to a question from a journalist, Ms. Pouilly said OHCHR staff met the journalist Esdras Ndikumana in hospital where he told them that while he feared for his life and was traumatized by what happened he was ready to testify. He confirmed that the perpetrators were members of the Service national de renseignement.
Asked about the possibility of civil war, Ms. Pouilly said OHCHR was deeply concerned the crisis in Burundi could escalate and worsen. The assassination of General Nshimirimana had raised deep fears across the country. The OHCHR country office and team on the ground was monitoring the situation closely. Asked what sort of assistance OHCHR could offer to the Government of Burundi, Ms. Pouilly said OHCHR had a strong office in Bujumbura and was in constant contact with the authorities. An example of assistance could be the provision of training to the military and police on how to treat detainees and not use torture and ill-treatment.
Responding to a request for details of documented cases of torture, Ms. Pouilly did not have all the details at hand, but she spoke about the case of ten people, arrested in a commune of Bujumbura Rural Province, who were taken to the office of the Service national de renseignement and allegedly tortured there. OHCHR staff in Burundi later visited one of the victims in hospital who alleged he had been beaten by the Service national de renseignement agents. OHCHR was raising those cases with the authorities and insisting that such treatment had to stop, she said.
Mr. Edwards, responding to a question about Burundian refugees, said there were currently some 180,000 Burundian refugees in surrounding countries, including Tanzania, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. The estimated number of internally displaced people inside Burundi was not confirmed and remained approximately 78,000, from previous conflicts. UNHCR was ready to assist neighbouring countries if needed, said Mr. Edwards. He emphasized that their operations were only 11 per cent funded - 89 per cent of funding had not been received.
Iraq
Tarik Jašareviæ, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said due to funding shortages WHO had suspended 84 per cent of frontline health programmes in 10 Governorates in Iraq in July, leaving almost three million people without access to urgently-needed healthcare services. The closure of more than 184 health services resulted in millions of refugees, internally displaced people and host communities having no access to critical care, including trauma care, nutritional case, primary healthcare, outbreak detection and management, immunization services and reproductive health care services.
Despite warnings about the imminent closure of health services and the revision of 2015 plans to focus on the most basic priority health needs, funding was very scarce, said Mr. Jašareviæ. Out of US$60.9 million required by the health cluster, only US$5.1 million (eight per cent) had been received. Mr. Jašareviæ said a press release and an infographic would be made available with all the data after the briefing.
WHO was trying to find money from other regional funds and carrying out advocacy with donors. So far contributions had been received from Canada, Italy, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom and United States, as well as the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq and the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund, said Mr. Jašareviæ.
Responding to a question, Mr. Jašareviæ said that other health programmes were due to be closed before October. Most services were located in the north of Iraq, but some were in central Iraq. The long-term consequences of the closures on the health of the population were not yet known, he commented. WHO did not plan to cut personnel in the field, Mr. Jašareviæ added.
Answering a question about immunization programmes in Iraq, Mr. Jašareviæ said that 5.8 million children needed to continue to be vaccinated against polio in 2015 and 2016. There had been two cases of polio in 2014 in Iraq, he recalled, and no case had been declared since April 2014, but the immunization campaign had to continue for the next two years to be effective. That campaign had a funding gap of US$45 million.
Mediterranean migrant deaths
Itayi Viriri for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that a new tragic milestone had been reached: so far this year more than 2,000 migrants had died trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. That figure confirmed the Mediterranean as the deadliest route for migrants in search of a better life. By way of comparison he said that in the same period last year, 1,607 migrants perished, and a total of 3,279 migrants lost their lives in 2014.
As in 2014, the overwhelming majority died in the Channel of Sicily on the Central Mediterranean route connecting Libya and Italy, where unseaworthy vessels used by smugglers and traffickers significantly increase the likelihood of tragedies occurring, said Mr. Viriri. Despite those tragedies, IOM recognized the extraordinary efforts of maritime forces in the Mediterranean, which continued to save migrants at sea on a daily basis. Loss of life has been greatly reduced in recent months, largely due to the enhancement of the Triton operation, which could now count on more vessels patrolling international waters, where most migrants run into difficulties, said Mr. Viriri.
Approximately 188,000 migrants had been rescued in the Mediterranean so far this year and IOM strongly supported the continuation of that level of response. IOM believed that more migrants would attempt to reach European shores as the summer progressed, and the 200,000 mark would be reached very soon.
A journalist asked Mr. Viriri about the United Kingdom’s decision to oblige landlords to evict illegal migrants. Mr. Viriri responded by referring to the response of the IOM office in the United Kingdom (UK), which said the policy would place landlords in the role of immigration officials. He added the latter had not been trained in this capacity, and as such the proposal did not appear to be workable. IOM called for more concerted efforts from France and the United Kingdom to ensure that the rights of migrants were protected and that, following the deaths of ten migrants in Calais since 1 June, there were no more fatalities. Until IOM had more details on how the policy would be implemented it was hard to comment further. There was more information in the briefing note on the situation in Calais, he added.
Migration in the Post-2015 Development Agenda
Itayi Viriri, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that after more than three years of inter-governmental negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, migration had been incorporated into mainstream global development policy, rectifying the omission made 15 years earlier in the Millennium Development Goals. The text at the centre of that historical agreement establishing a new sustainable development agenda, which included a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), was adopted on 2 August in New York. There was more information in the briefing note, said Mr. Viriri.
* * * * *
The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog040815