POINT DE PRESSE DU SERVICE DE L'INFORMATION (en anglais)

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which also heard from Spokespersons for the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the World Meteorological Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Middle East crisis

Marie Heuzé said the Human Rights Council would hold a second special session today to consider the situation in Lebanon. Three successive meetings are planned: at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Ms. Arbour, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, had just delivered her statement which was available in the back of the room. A resolution was expected to be adopted at the end of the meeting. The President of the Council, Ambassador de Alba, would address the press at a stakeout near room XX. The stakeout would be confirmed later in the day.

Humanitarian assistance to Lebanon

Marie Heuzé said that lack of safe access continued to hamper UN humanitarian operations in Lebanon as described yesterday by Jan Egeland.

Antonella Notari of the International Committee of the Red Cross said that President Kellenberger had visited Beirut to meet with Lebanese authorities and had later gone to Tyre. After crossing the border in South Lebanon, he visited Haifa and had a meeting in Tel Aviv with Israeli authorities. During his visit he stressed the urgent need for access to reach people blocked in South Lebanon. Antonella Notari said that there were injured and sick people calling for help, but neither the ICRC nor the Lebanese Red Cross were able to evacuate them. “It remains extremely difficult for aid workers to reach the south. Even Tyre is now virtually inaccessible following bombing of the last road that linked the city with the north. Delivery of aid to this city by road had been postponed indefinitely”, she said. The ICRC had been planning to evacuate hundreds of people from several villages but had not been able to reach them as permission by Israel had been given too late, and they had had to return to Tyre. Of course the ICRC will keep on trying to reach those villages in the coming days, she stated. Also yesterday, the boat that was supposed to reach Tyre could not make it, again due to late permission, and had returned to Larnaca. Another attempt will be made today. She also mentioned that 1,100 tons of relief goods had been brought to Lebanon and distributed. Journalists will find more figures in the ICRC Bulletin No. 11 of 11 August.

Wivina Belmonte from UNICEF said Executive Director Ann Veneman had made a statement in which she had added her voice to the many already existing voices demanding humanitarian access for supplies into the country. The humanitarian equation is simple: no access, no improvement, she emphasized. She said a boat was scheduled to leave Marseille for Beirut today, and to arrive on the 18th, with humanitarian supplies from UNICEF, UNHCR and WFP. Despite the absence of humanitarian goods being allowed to enter into the country and the great difficulty this represented, there were however ways to help, she said. For instance, UNICEF in Beirut broadcasts radio and TV spots throughout the country with the help of the government of Lebanon, targeted at parents and children, to help deal with the traumas that children were suffering.

Fadela Chaib of WHO said the question of fuel shortages in Lebanon remained a grave concern. This morning, the Lebanese government had identified a gas station in a region close to Tyre called Zahrani. But this gas station had a limited capacity and would not be able to provide fuel in the long term to hospitals in the south. WHO recalled that a survey had been made of 23 out of 28 hospitals, which showed that their fuel supplies were low and that they lacked oxygen, medicine and food for both patients and staff.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said there were several convoys of WFP, UNFPA and UNRWA trucks heading towards Saida, Nabathiye Baalbeck and Arida. This was far from sufficient as none were heading towards the South where the needs were urgent, she pointed out. The situation was getting worse every day and WFP calls for a cessation of hostilities. There were 100,000 people in the Southern region and about 20,000 in Tyre who desperately needed help and who could not be reached. It is impossible to reach Tyre as the road is ruined; 70 bridges have been destroyed; it is total paralysis. Moreover, permission to provide assistance is hard to obtain. But WFP and its partners are working 24 hours a day trying to provide assistance by road, air and sea. So far 650 tons of food have been conveyed to more than 180,000 people in Lebanon and Syria since the 23rd of July.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said that by the end of tomorrow more than 10,000 stranded migrants will have been evacuated from Lebanon to Syria. By mid-week next week, IOM will have to stop all evacuation and return operations unless donors respond urgently. Another US$15 million are needed if IOM is to assist an additional 10,000 migrants in Lebanon who are without documents or the financial means to leave the country. The longer the crisis continues the more the migrants want to leave. In the past 6 days, IOM has evacuated more than 5,000 migrants from Lebanon. And more and more migrants are turning up. Another reason why IOM needs some reserve of money is for the yet undefined number of stranded migrants who are still in Southern Lebanon and cannot be accessed at the moment.

Jennifer Pagonis of the United Nations Refugee Agency said the UNHCR had started an airlift from Jordan and Denmark to Larnaca and Beirut since the major roads they were using were bombed. The first C-130 flight arrived in Beirut on Thursday morning loaded with 14.76 tonnes of supplies. A second C-130 flight was supposed to land in the afternoon but had not been allowed to land for security reasons and had returned to Amman. It finally landed in Beirut this morning. In total, 116 tonnes of supplies will be flown into Larnaca and transferred to a United Nations logistics ship bound for Beirut on Sunday.


As mentioned earlier by UNICEF, a French ship had also left the southern port of Marseille for Beirut, carrying five Mercedes trucks which will be used by UNHCR to deliver relief supplies in Lebanon. It will also bring in blankets, jerry cans, plastic rolls and kitchen sets. On the ground, both in Syria and Lebanon, UNHCR is continuing to distribute supplies.

Sri Lanka

Antonella Notari of ICRC said that fighting continued between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam in Muttur and ICRC was unable to reach this city in the east of the country. The priority now is to reach this city and evaluate the needs of the people who are still blocked there, she said. The number of displaced people is increasing and they are currently gathered at 45 sites across Trincomalee. One of the priorities is to provide shelter, food and to make sure they have access to water, she pointed out. The ICRC works in close collaboration with the Sri Lankan Red Cross.

Jennifer Pagonis of the UNHCR said local authorities reported that more than 50,000 people are now displaced and sheltering in 51 sites in Trincomalee - a big jump from the 21,000 she mentioned on Tuesday. Their most urgent needs are medical, water and sanitation and the UNHCR is sending urgently needed relief items - plastic sheeting, cooking sets, hygiene kits, other non-food items - to the areas of displacement and distributing through local NGOs and the local authorities. To help people to get access to information and trace separated family members, the UNHCR has also distributed mobile phones in some of the IDP centres. There were several areas where civilians are reportedly trapped by ongoing military operations and where an unknown number of people displaced could not be reached. UNHCR is particularly concerned about reports of ongoing fighting close to IDP centres around Seruwila, to the south of Trincomalee town.

Indigenous murders in Colombia

UNHCR Colombia is calling for a thorough investigation into the murder of five Awá indigenous people on Wednesday in the south-eastern department of Nariño. Jennifer Pagonis reported that the five had been murdered on World Indigenous Day. According to eyewitnesses, nine armed men conducted a house-to-house search shortly before dawn, took the five people and shot them. The UNHCR calls on the Colombian Government to fulfil its duty to protect all its citizens.

Human Rights

Praveen Randhawa of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the fourth Periodic report on the situation of human rights in Sudan was released on 9 August and was available on the website. She drew attention to the fact that there had been an increasing number of rapes cases in Kalma camp in South Darfur.

She said the High Commissioner expressed grave concern in a statement yesterday at the deportation of four Uzbek refugees and an asylum seeker by the Kyrgyz Republic. She also mentioned that the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan, Sima Samar, would visit Sudan at the invitation of the government, from 11 to 17 August 2006. During the visit, Ms. Samar will hold meetings with a wide range of interlocutors in Khartoum and then travel to West and North Darfur to assess the current human rights situation.

On the right of education, she mentioned that the Special Rapporteur Vernor Munoz Villalobos issued a statement on 9 August to appeal to anti-government groups to stop attacks on schools in Afghanistan. The full text is available on the website.

The UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the rights of peoples to self-determination will visit Honduras and Ecuador from 21 August to 1 September 2006, at the invitation of the respective Governments. Details of the visit will be available in a release to be issued later today.

A statement on the escalation of violence in Sri Lanka would be issued later today by three independent experts: Hina Jilani, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders; Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, arbitrary and summary executions; and Jean Ziegler, Special Rapporteur on the right to food.

Ethiopia

Christiane Berthiaume from WFP said 220 people had died after the devastating floods that struck Dire Dawa, in Ethiopia. This number might be higher as there were still 300 missing people, she added. For the moment, survivors are safe, sheltered and are receiving medical assistance. WFP is working in close collaboration with the government of Ethiopia to identify those who need the most assistance. Elisabeth Byrs of OCHA referred journalists to a Situation Report by OCHA on the floods in Ethiopia.

China

Anna Nelson of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the provincial Red Cross branches in the areas hit by Typhoon Saomai were immediately mobilized to help with relief activities and the emergency distribution of tents, blankets, family kits, clothes, medicine, disinfectant and other basic necessities. The Typhoon has killed 111 people and left 149 missing, according to local reports. It has also severely disrupted power and communications. The IFRC launched its own emergency appeal for almost six million francs and is still seeking coverage for that appeal and welcoming contributions.

She also drew attention to the monsoon rains that are wreaking havoc across areas in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.

Mark Oliver of the World Meteorological Organization said that eight hours before Typhoon Saomai arrived on the coast and, for the first time ever, the China Meteorological Administration initiated a Category 1 typhoon response plan: atmospheric and surface observations were intensified, ensuring that the latest data was made available to central and local authorities as rapidly as possible. The evacuation went extremely successfully, he pointed out, and added in response to a question, that Typhoon Saomai was of the same intensity as hurricane Katrina.