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 UN Refugee Agency, the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Economic Commission for Europe.

New Texts by Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said available in the press room were the texts of the Secretary-General’s statement to the Security Council on 18 February on recent developments in Kosovo, his concluding remarks to the Security Council meeting, and his statement to the press following the meeting of the Security Council.

Geneva Meetings

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination yesterday opened its seventy-second session which will continue until 7 March. The Committee elected a new Bureau with Fatimata-Binta Victoire Dah of Burkina Faso as Chairperson, who replaces Régis de Gouttes. The other members of the Bureau elected were Alexei Avtonomov (Russian Federation), Francisco Cali Tzay (Guatemala) and Anwar Kemal (Pakistan) as Vice Chairpersons; and Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos (Greece) was elected as Committee Rapporteur. This afternoon, the Committee would start its review of the report of Fiji. Also during the session, the Committee would be reviewing the reports of Italy, the United States, Belgium, Nicaragua, Moldova and the Dominican Republic on how those countries are fulfilling their obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. The Committee was meeting at the Palais Wilson, but for the consideration of the report of the United States on 21 February in the afternoon and 22 February in the morning, the meeting would be held in Room XVI of the Palais des Nations. This morning, the Committee was holding a private meeting with the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diene, and at noon, it would meet in public to exchange views with the Coordinator of the unit in charge of indigenous peoples and minorities at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Conference on Disarmament was this morning meeting in the Council Chamber. The incoming President of the Conference, the Ambassador of Turkey, and the Ambassador of Germany both spoke and the next public plenary of the Conference would be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 26 February.

Refugees

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said aerial bombing overnight and this morning in West Darfur, Sudan, close to the border with Chad, had forced UNHCR to withdraw its team caring for newly arrived refugees in the Birak area away from the insecure border, but they would return as soon as the situation calmed down. Last night, seven refugees from West Darfur crossed the border into Chad carrying a 55-year old women who they said had lost both her legs during an alleged overnight bombing of Aro Sharow camp for internally displaced people, north of Jebel Moon in West Darfur. The woman later died at Birak’s health centre. The refugees said more people would now be fleeing to Chad. UNHCR had no confirmation or further details of the alleged bombing raid but bombing could be heard from Birak. This highlighted the extremely vulnerable situation of the refugees and the humanitarian workers helping them. For protection and security, the refugees needed to be moved urgently away from the border. UNHCR was still discussing the transfer to existing camps near Guereda with the Chadian authorities. Over the weekend, UNHCR carried out another assessment mission to the Birak and Korok areas to locate newly arrived refugees from West Darfur. UNHCR now estimated that there were at least 10,000 new arrivals since 8 February. Most of the refugees were in Figuera, with smaller numbers in Birak, Djange and Korok. But more arrivals were still expected and with the fresh bombing UNHCR expected more displacement in West Darfur. UNHCR had no further details at the moment.

Ms. Pagonis said in Cameroon, UNHCR started moving Chadian refugees who had fled conflict in the capital N’Djamena from Madana transit site in Kousseri in Cameroon to Maltam 1 camp, located 35 kilometers away, over the weekend. So far, 1,400 refugees had been transported to the new camp with more planned to be moved on Thursday. A pre-registration exercise showed that 20,000 people wanted to be relocated to Maltam 1.

High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres yesterday wrapped up his weeklong mission to Syria, Jordan and Iraq, where he was reviewing UNHCR’s operations to support millions of Iraqi refugees and those displaced internally in their own country. During his mission, Mr. Guterres appealed to the international community for more support to Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan, for more resettlement places in third countries and for the Government of Iraq to be more active in supporting its uprooted people.

In conclusion, Ms. Pagonis said tomorrow, UNHCR will be opening a new field office in Arauca in eastern Colombia, a part of the country that had seen a sharp increase in forced displacement over the past three years. More than 38,000 people were known to have been forced to flee from conflict and violence in the region, although the actual numbers could be much higher since under-registration, especially in rural areas, was an ongoing concern.

Gaza Strip

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said the shortage of fuel and electricity combined with the virtual absence of exports and very little imports was seriously threatening the situation of food security for the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza strip. The key economic sectors in Gaza, agriculture and fishing, were no longer functioning, and many found themselves unemployed because of this. WFP believed it was urgent that the border re-opened and called for the entry of basic commodities and the exit of exports to be allowed. WFP was working with other partners to ensure a complete opening of the border for humanitarian aid and the return of trade in Gaza. Families found themselves spending 62 per cent of their income to buy food, in comparison to 38 per cent in June. Fifty-two per cent of the population had seen their income diminish rapidly since June. Nearly 302,000 persons out of 460,000 non-refugee Palestinians suffered from food insecurity and 55,000 others could become similarly vulnerable unless the situation improved. WFP had increased the number of people it was helping with food aid to 302,000 since January, up from 252,000. Thanks to UNRWA and WFP, 70 per cent of the inhabitants of Gaza received food aid, but the two agencies were not able to fulfill all their food needs, only between 60 and 65 per cent. Availability of electricity and fuel was sporadic. Sufa was the only open border point between Israel and Gaza and it was not equipped to handle the flow of trucks carrying humanitarian aid and other stuff. Last week, 50 trucks passed through Sufa daily, including 15 carrying WFP humanitarian aid. Before June 2007, between 200 to 300 trucks passed daily through the Karni check point.

Teresa Buerkle of the Food and Agriculture Organization said FAO would be issuing a press release tomorrow on its emergency projects in Gaza. FAO currently had 14 projects running in the West Bank and Gaza, but the greatest needs were in Gaza where the agriculture and fishery sectors had been badly hit by the lack of input, constraints on farm exports and restrictions on fishing areas.

Bolivia

Ms. Berthiaume said according to the Bolivian authorities, La Nina phenomenon had caused 52 deaths and affected 58,929 families in the country. The three departments worst affected were Chuquisaca, Santa Cruz and Beni. Ninety per cent of the population affected by the floods in 2007 was affected by this phenomenon this year and the situation could actually be worse than the floods in 2007. WFP was helping 115,000 persons affected by the floods since last November. Last weekend, WFP brought 10 tons of high-level biscuits in the country. WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization and Government authorities were jointly undertaking an assessment of the food security situation to identify needs.

Economic Commission for Europe

Charlotte Griffiths of the Economic Commission for Europe said UNECE was holding a press conference this afternoon at 2:45 p.m. in Room III on the meeting of transport ministers on Euro-Asian links. At 1 p.m. today, transport ministers and other officials would be signing a joint statement on the future development of Euro-Asian transport links, which was essential if the economic growth that was currently seen between Asia and Europe was not to be hampered. Ministers and senior officials from Azerbaijan, Belarus, China and the Russian Federation would be attending the press conference and there were other Ministers who might join them.

WIPO

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the World Intellectual Property Organization had asked her to remind journalists that on Thursday, 21 February, in press room 1, Francis Gurry, WIPO’s Deputy Director General, would brief journalists at: 2:30 p.m. on the Patent Cooperation Treaty in 2007.