REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service at Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from Spokespersons for the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Meteorological Organization and the World Food Programme.

Lebanon

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General was in Beirut yesterday for the first leg of his trip to the Middle East. He met with the Lebanese Prime Minister and with the Speaker of Parliament to discuss the aftermath of the war and the measures being taken to implement Security Council resolution 1701 and to work towards a long-term ceasefire and a long-term peace. The Secretary-General said this was a very critical time for Lebanon, adding that the United Nations had worked with the Government during the war to provide relief to the needy, and that they were now entering the stage of recovery and reconstruction and implementing the resolution to the fullest.

Speaking in a joint press conference with Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, the Secretary-General called for the lifting of the Israeli blockade and the return of the captured Israeli soldiers. He also stressed the importance of having “one law, one authority and one gun” in Lebanon.

Available were the transcripts of the Secretary-General’s arrival statement in Beirut, his comments after meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and the joint press conference with Mr. Saniora.

Jennifer Pagonis of the United Nations Refugee Agency said UNHCR relief convoys were heading into the villages of south Lebanon daily now. Up to yesterday, there had been 17 convoys, carrying essential items like tents, blankets, mattresses and cooking kits. Generally, UNHCR delivered items to a village and the distribution was organized by local officials to make sure the aid supplies reached the most needy. The tents were an emergency measure to help those whose houses were destroyed or were too damaged to live in while they rebuilt. UNHCR was also discovering more of the complexity of the displacement situation. UNHCR was reporting evidence of the psychological effects of the war, especially on children. In Sidon and Nabatiyah, UNHCR was providing tents to the local authorities that were organizing boy scout camping for children in the areas as a way to ease the trauma of the war.

Michael Bociurkwi of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF was providing assistance to around 100,000 children and their families and was now accelerating its interventions in Lebanon after the initial period of assessment and as a result of the increased access. UNICEF had not realized how important the provision of water would be, as the damage to the water systems was far greater than originally expected. UNICEF was now providing bottled water to children and families and yesterday, its deliveries of bottled water peaked to 140,000 litres in a day. UNICEF hoped to phase out of bottled water and switch to tanks, rigid ones as well as rubber bladders. Also, generators for water stations were very important.

Mr. Bociurkwi said unexploded ordnance, particularly cluster munitions, remained the most urgent threat to the beneficiaries and humanitarian workers. Over the weekend, four children were injured by unexploded ordnance. UNICEF was also getting ready for the resumption of school which had been postponed until 9 October.

Disabilities Convention

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General has hailed the agreement reached by a committee of the General Assembly on a new treaty on the rights of persons with disabilities as an historic achievement for the 650 million people with disabilities around the world. The draft United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was expected to be adopted by the General Assembly during its coming session.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Fête de la Communication 2006 would be celebrated by the Swiss Press Club at the Villa Pastorale on Thursday, 31 August. Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, would provide a statement at the opening of the Fête.

The next plenary of the Conference on Disarmament would be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 31 August.

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was continuing its work at the Palais Wilson and would conclude its session on Friday, 1 September. The meetings of the Working Group were closed.

Human Rights

José Luis Díaz, Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, had proposed dates for a mission that he had requested to Lebanon. He wanted to go from 11 to 14 September. Lebanon had already agreed to a visit by the Special Rapporteur.

Mr. Díaz said he did not have any other developments concerning the other Rapporteurs or experts who had requested a visit to Lebanon and Israel. These were the Special Rapporteurs on extrajudicial killings, on health and on adequate housing, as well as the representative on internally displaced persons.

Floods in Ethiopia, Pakistan, India and Nepal, Environmental Crisis in Philippines

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said there had been an error made by the Ethiopian Government on the assessment of the floods in Ethiopia with regards to the appeal for Ethiopia. OCHA had used that faulty figure and had spoken about the figure of $ 61 million for the appeal, while the appeal was only for $ 27 million.

Mark Oliver of the World Meteorological Organization said the latest ten-day forecast from Ethiopia’s National Meteorological Agency predicted further rain for areas within the country which had already been subjected to serious flooding over the past few weeks. The Ethiopian Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency had issued emergency warnings for the regions which were expected to be threatened by heavy precipitation.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said she had been asked last week about a figure for the damages which the floods had made to the crops and homes in Ethiopia. No reliable estimate was available yet. Officials were still busy with organizing evacuations and it might be some time before an estimate was available. WFP had sent more than 20 staffers to the affected areas. So far 387 tons of food had been delivered by WFP and others. WFP had made available to the Government enough food to help 50,000 victims. Concerning the appeal for $ 27 million, WFP estimated that it needed 10,000 tons of food to help some 200,000 victims for the coming months at the cost of $ 5.2 million.

Ms. Byrs said concerning the floods in Nepal, heavy monsoon rains in the past days had caused floods in the mid and far western regions of the country. The districts of Bardiya and Banke were particularly affected, while the remote district of Achham had had one of the worst-ever landslides. More than 9,000 families were now known to have been affected by the floods. Electricity had been cut for the past three days. More details were available in the Nepal situation report at the back of the room. A flash appeal for Nepal was being prepared.

Michael Bociurkwi of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF had been working with OCHA to carry out assessment missions to find out what was needed in Nepal. UNICEF had had materials pre-positioned in UNICEF’s regional field mission Banke, including tarpaulins, blankets and oral dehydration salts.

Mr. Oliver of WMO said western regions in Nepal suffered 310 millimetres of rain in 24 hours last Saturday – that had not been seen since the year 2000. The rains had now subsided and forecasters expected this to continue until Friday or Saturday which would give some respite from further landslides until then. Rains were expected to continue after that.

Ms. Byrs of OCHA said there was an environmental catastrophe in the Philippines where an oil tanker had capsized due to weather and sea conditions approximately 16 nautical miles off Guimaras and sunk to the depth of 640 metres. It had been transporting 13,000 barrels of industrial fuel oil, and it had already spilled 200,000 litres of oil. A “state of calamity” had been declared in the affected areas. More details were available in the situation report on the oil spill in the Philippines at the back of the room.

Mr. Bociurkwi said UNICEF had also been dealing with pretty bad weather-related disasters in Pakistan and India. In Pakistan, UNICEF’s major earthquake relief efforts had been disturbed by landslides caused by heavy monsoon rains. In India, monsoon rains and floods had killed at least 135 people in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, where the rains had been coming down since 18 August. Tens of thousands of people had been displaced by the swirling waters. In support of government efforts, UNICEF was working with the worst affected population in 65 villages with a population of 10,000 children below five years of age. Schools had been closed down for the last 10 days, leaving 400,000 children without education. UNICEF was inspecting school buildings to assess their level of safety before children could return.

In conclusion, Ms. Byrs said that on Friday, 1 September, at noon, just after the briefing, David Shearer, Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon, would speak to journalists about the situation in Lebanon. On Wednesday, 30 August, the Common Humanitarian Action Plan for Sri Lanka would be presented to the donor community. The plan covered the period from September to December 2006.

Ms. Berthiaume said WFP was participating in the Common Humanitarian Action Plan. WFP had only sporadic access provided by the Government to the displaced persons in the Tamil-controlled regions and it wished to stress the importance of such access. Requests for access were usually turned down by the Ministry of Defence for security reasons. WFP understood that the authorities were concerned about the safety of the humanitarian actors who might be harmed in cross fire. However, it was important to underline that humanitarian actors were neutral and their only preoccupation was the well-being of the displaced population. There were many displaced persons who were in need of aid and there was a real risk of a humanitarian crisis in the Tamil-controlled regions if there was no access to them.