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 the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme, the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration.

Secretary-General’s Visits to Germany and Austria

Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General was in Berlin on Wednesday, where he met with the other principal members of the Quartet for the Middle East. The Quartet statement, which the Secretary-General read out at the end of the meeting, was available in the press room. While in Berlin, the Secretary-General also met with Iraq’s Foreign Minister, as well as with Germany’s Minister for Economic Development and the President of the German Bundestag.

Yesterday, the Secretary-General began an official visit to Austria. He held a meeting with Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik and then had a joint press encounter, the transcript of which was available. The Secretary-General also met with Austrian President Heinz Fischer, Federal Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer and Barbara Prammer, Speaker of Parliament.

The Secretary-General told reporters in Vienna that he was deeply concerned that the Iranian Government did not meet the deadline set by the Security Council. The Iranian nuclear issue, he said, had great implications for peace and stability, as well as for the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. He urged that the Iranian Government fully comply with the Security Council as soon as possible and engage in continued negotiation with the international community to address and peacefully resolve this issue.

Also in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei circulated his latest report to the upcoming meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors on the Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and Relevant Provisions of Security Council Resolution 1737 (2006) in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The report - submitted in parallel to the UN Security Council - covered developments since Dr. ElBaradei´s report of 14 November 2006. The 35-member Board would consider the report at its next meetings beginning in Vienna 5 March. The report was not yet an official document, but it would probably be made available to journalists next week.

Iraq

Ms. Heuzé said the Security Council had issued a press statement on the recent terrorist attacks in Iraq. In the statement, the Security Council said its members were following with concern the situation in Iraq, and condemned all terrorist attacks, including the recent chlorine gas and other bombings in and around Baghdad, which had resulted in the death and injury of many innocent Iraqi civilians and others.
Darfur

Ms. Heuzé said according to the latest Sudan Humanitarian Overview produced by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which covered the month of January 2007, new population displacements were registered weekly as attacks on villages, sexual violence and intimidation continued to force large numbers of people to move throughout Darfur. An estimated 46,000 people were newly displaced throughout the region. The Humanitarian Overview also indicated that generalized violence, attacks on humanitarian assets and bureaucratic impediments continued to affect humanitarian operations throughout Darfur.
Humanitarian access continued to be compromised. While access was regained in some long cut-off areas, key locations, such as Gereida in South Darfur remained out of bounds for most agencies.

Also concerning Darfur, Ms. Heuzé said the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court had announced that on Tuesday, 27 February, Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo would submit evidence to the Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber in connection with individuals suspected of having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. On the same day, the Prosecutor would brief the press on this important development. Interested correspondents would be able to view a webcast of the prosecutor’s press conference on the ICC’s website.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Heuzé said there was a press conference today at 2 p.m. on avian influenza by Ambassador John E. Lange, Special Representative of the United States Department of State on Avian and Pandemic Influenza, and David Bell, Head of the International Influenza Unit at the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States. There was another briefing at 3 p.m. on the agriculture negotiations going on at the World Trade Organization. And the press conference on the work of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries had been moved to 4 p.m.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was this morning concluding its consideration of the periodic reports of Israel, and this afternoon, it would start a review of the reports of India.

Questions

Asked when the Secretary-General was coming to Geneva, especially in light of his visit to Austria, Ms. Heuzé said there would be several opportunities this year for the Secretary-General to visit Geneva, but she did not have dates yet. Asked why Vienna first and not Geneva after visiting Berlin, Ms. Heuzé said that as the second largest UN presence in Europe, Vienna was important with a number of UN agencies based there. Also, the International Atomic Energy Agency and UNOV were playing an important role at the present time.


Asked if Adolf Ogi, the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, would be going to Liberia, Ms. Heuzé confirmed that Mr. Ogi was scheduled to go to Liberia for a visit from 28 February to 2 March during which he would be meeting with the President and other senior government officials. She had more details about the visit for interested journalists.


Floods in Bolivia and Mozambique

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said there were documents at the back of the room concerning the floods in Mozambique and in Bolivia. The United Nations would today be launching a six-month flash appeal for $ 9.2 million for Bolivia, to help the 350,000 persons affected by the floods and the 25,000 persons displaced. OCHA had already made available a $ 50,000 emergency cash grant for urgent relief activities, and the United Nations Development Programme had made a $ 100,000 grant available. Eight of the nine departments of Bolivia were affected by the floods and landslides as well as hail and freezing weather. Water and sanitation conditions had also been seriously affected, raising fears of increased respiratory, diarrhoeal and skin diseases and dengue fever. More details were available in the press release.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said a situation report on Mozambique was available at the back of the room. WHO had sent four teams to the four worst affected provinces. The rains and winds of tropical cyclone Flavio had exacerbated flooding of the Zambeze river valley and 120,000 persons had been displaced. The displaced population was living in overcrowded camps with poor sanitation and little access to safe drinking water. There was a risk of water borne disease and vector-transmitted disease. More details were available in the report. In addition to the teams, WHO would provide medicine and medical supplies, health education materials, training for community workers, and technical support in the field and at the central level for health coordination.

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children’s Fund said tropical cyclone Flavio had seriously damaged crucial public facilities in Vilankulos, the town first hit by the cyclone on the mainland, including hospitals and schools. A comprehensive assessment of the damage was still not available, but among the 120,000 displaced persons, half were children. UNICEF’s efforts to help the affected persons were listed in detail in the press release at the back of the room.

Mark Oliver of the World Meteorological Organization said tropical cyclone Flavio was disintegrating gradually and was expected to keep on tracking mainly north west Mozambique. It had been downgraded to an overland depression. More heavy rains and strong winds were expected which would affect Mozambique and the eastern part of Zimbabwe.

Looming in the Indian Ocean was another tropical cylone, around 1,300 kilometres east of Madagascar, Mr. Oliver said. It could be on the coast of Madagascar within 50 to 60 hours.

International Conference on Refugees and Displaced People in Iraq and Surrounding Area

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said the High Commissioner announced during his recent mission to the Middle East that UNHCR would be convening an international conference here in Geneva on the humanitarian needs of refugees and displaced people in Iraq and the surrounding region. The dates had been set for 17 and 18 April. The ministerial-level conference would be held here at the Palais des Nations. The specific agenda, exact room location and other arrangements were still being worked out. The conference would bring together Iraqi authorities and those of neighbouring countries, major refugee-hosting states, major donor countries, resettlement countries, concerned regional governmental organisations; NGOs, UN and non-UN partners and others.

Ron Redmond said the objectives of the conference were to sensitize the international community to the humanitarian dimensions of the situation, as well as foreseeable needs for protection and assistance for the millions who have been uprooted; to seek commitments to address the humanitarian problems, including through more international burden-sharing to ease the strain on the current refugee-hosting states; through financial support or capacity-building; through more funding for IDP and refugee protection and assistance programmes; and through improving the quality of protection for the uprooted and by providing resettlement opportunities for the most vulnerable; and to identify more targeted responses to specific problems, including finding lasting solutions for those groups most at risk -- e.g. Palestinian refugees in Iraq.

Ron Redmond noted that this was not specifically a pledging or donor conference. It encompassed a much broader range of issues and objectives - including a better understanding of the dimensions of this displacement crisis and the needs of those affected. Close to 2 million Iraqis are displaced within Iraq, and about 2 million are outside, mostly in Syria, Jordan and nearby countries. While many of those inside and outside Iraq had fled before 2003, increasing numbers of Iraqis were now fleeing their homes - up to 50,000 a month. An estimated 712,000 have been internally displaced just over the past year, since the Samarra bombing on Feb. 22, 2006. As a result, the hospitality of nearby host countries was becoming strained.

Human Rights

Yvon Edoumou of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the Working Group on the use of mercenaries was concluding its second session this afternoon and there would be a press conference at 4 p.m. to talk about its week-long session.

Mr. Edoumou said High Commissioner Louise Arbour would probably address journalists during the briefing of Tuesday, 6 March.

Other

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan was convening a large consultation on polio eradication on 28 February. After reviewing the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Polio Eradication, which concluded in October 2006 that eradication was technically feasible in the remaining four endemic areas, Dr. Chan had examined the progress made in Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan and concurred that eradication was feasible. The one-day agenda would centre on solutions to the operational challenges of reaching enough children in each area.

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children’s Fund said the German Government had donated a massive 17.9 million Euro to UNICEF in Zimbabwe to help Zimbabwe’s orphaned and vulnerable children. One in four Zimbabwean children were orphaned and more than two million were vulnerable. More details were available in the press release at the back of the room.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said the situation in the east of Chad was deteriorating daily because of insecurity and violence. The number of persons displaced by the security situation was increasing. WFP was trying to map out a strategy to reach the affected population with food aid. WFP had been providing food aid for the displaced persons as well as the local populations. It had distributed food aid to 60,000 displaced persons and their host families in 11 locations in the east of Chad. Because of the increasing insecurity, it was estimated that there were now 110,000 displaced persons in the east of Chad. WFP and UNHCR were carrying out a joint assessment of the situation to help plan how to help them before the rainy season, from July to October, during which transportation of aid came to almost a complete halt.

Ms. Berthiaume said in the Philippines, WFP was continuing to help the victims of the typhoon which hit the country at the end of 2006. It continued to distribute food aid to vulnerable populations, including those still in camps for displaced persons. WFP expected the affected persons would need help for at least one more month.

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said in eastern Nepal last night, clashes between refugees and locals outside Sanischare camp in Morang district, left one refugee dead and eight wounded - five seriously. There were some 106,000 refugees from Bhutan who had been living in seven camps in eastern Nepal since the early 1990s. Frustration had been growing amongst the refugees as they had seen no solution to their situation over the last 16 years. In Africa, UNHCR was today repatriating some 200 Liberian refugees from camps in Guinea, back to their homes in Liberia. This was the second convoy this week, bringing the weekly total to 600.

Mark Oliver of the World Meteorological Organization said there would be a press conference at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, 27 February on WMO’s upcoming conference from 19 to 22 March on “Secure and Sustainable Living, Social and Economic Benefits of Water, Weather and Climate Services”. The Secretary-General of WMO, Michel Jarroud, would give the press conference.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said in Somalia, an IOM research aimed at gauging levels of human trafficking among Ethiopian migrants attempting to reach the Gulf countries via Somalia had shed valuable light on smugglers and routes on a practice that was costing hundreds of lives each year.
Tens of thousands of Ethiopians and Somalis used the port of Bossasso in Somalia's Puntland on an annual basis as a departure point for irregular migration to the Gulf countries via Yemen with many falling victim to the dangerous sea crossing and unscrupulous and ruthless practices of smugglers.

Ms. Pandya said IOM was providing relief assistance to victims of flooding in the remote Cazombo district, in Angola's eastern province of Moxico. In Moxico province, the district of Cazombo had been particularly affected and according to the government, 17,000 persons were in desperate need of food and non food items, medicine and shelter material. IOM was the only international organization to maintain a presence in the district. In Colombia, the first meeting at the national level to discuss links between migration and development was being held today in the Colombian west central city of Pereira, the area with the highest rate of migration of Colombians abroad.