REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for and representatives of the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Food Programme, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Conference on Disarmament

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Conference on Disarmament would hold its next plenary meeting at 10 a.m. next Tuesday.

Human Rights Council

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that Alex Van Meeuwen, outgoing President of the Human Rights Council would hold a press conference later today in Press Room I.

Situation in Kyrgyzstan

Giuseppe Annunziata, Coordinator, Emergency Response and Recovery Unit, World Health Organization (WHO), said that they were following the crisis and supporting WHO's Regional Office for Europe as well as the WHO country offices in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan’s responses to the events. They were still in the phase of assessing the situation.

The conflict area in Kyrgyzstan was not fully accessible. WHO was however working with a planning figure of around one million persons directly or indirectly affected by the events, with approximately 300,000 refugees in Uzbekistan, said Mr. Annunziata.

In terms of public health priorities, there were two major concerns, said Mr. Annunziata. One was to address the health needs of women that had been subject to gender based violence. Unconfirmed reports from several sources pointed out that this was in fact an issue in this crisis and that atrocities targeting the Uzbek minorities in Kyrgyzstan have been committed. Several cases of rapes had also been reported among the Uzbek refugee women in Uzbekistan.

The second issue was linked to the fact that the majority of the refugees in Uzbekistan were elderly, women and children, said Mr. Annunziata. Thus, the specific health needs of those categories needed to be prioritized.

In addition to these two specific aspects, there were also wounded persons. No precise number was available yet. The health needs of wounded persons, including surgical care, was thus another focus of WHO's concerted action, said Mr. Annunziata. Also, on the coordination front, the health cluster mechanism had been officially activated.

Answering a journalist’s question on the risk of seeing outbreaks of communicable disease among the refugee population, Mr. Annunziata said that there were existing health surveillance mechanisms being run by the national health authorities in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. However, WHO assumed that some of the public health services in Kyrgyzstan were not fully functional at the moment due to the current security situation there.

In Uzbekistan, the existing health surveillance mechanism was working but was being challenged by the arrival of the refugees, said Mr. Annunziata. There was however no need for additional health personnel for surveillance purposes but rather for technical advice in order to help the existing surveillance mechanism tune into to the emergency situation. Specialized staff with experience in emergency surveillance systems would thus soon be deployed to the ground.

Also, there were currently no huge refugee settlements, only small refugee settlements close to the border, said Mr. Annunziata. This was good in terms of preventing the spread of communicable diseases. There were however challenges with water and sanitation.

Christian Cardon of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that ICRC teams in Kyrgyzstan continued to describe what was “an uneasy calm”. The situation remained tense and some violent incidents had been reported in Osh last night. The main priority at the moment for ICRC was to provide help to the tens of thousands of internally displaced persons in southern Kyrgyzstan.

The most urgent needs were food, water, shelter and medicine. The displaced were taking refuge in mosques, farms, villages, as well as administrative building that had been emptied following last week’s violence, said Mr. Cardon.

ICRC teams had started yesterday to deliver 12,000 litres of water to around 15,000 displaced regrouped in a camp near Osh, Kyrgyzstan, said Mr. Cardon. Food distribution had also started in the neighbourhood of Osh. ICRC was also concerned about the potential injured persons remaining among those reported to be hiding in their houses in Osh and which feared to go out.

ICRC had also been able to visit a place of detention two days ago and deliver food to the around 1,000 persons that were being detained there, said Mr. Cardon.

Around 30 ICRC staff members had arrived in Osh and more were expected to arrive there in the coming hours, said Mr. Cardon. Four planes had already landed in Osh with emergency medical supplies and other items.

Turning to the situation in Uzbekistan, Mr. Cardon said that a first ICRC plane had landed in Andijan, Uzbekistan, yesterday and another earlier this morning. These planes were carrying emergency medical supplies, but also food and non-food items for the refugees. It was currently difficult to give a precise number of the refugees present in Uzbekistan. The Uzbek authorities had registered 75,000 adults that had crossed the border.

Mr. Cardon said that ICRC had also been able to visit three refugee camps in Uzbekistan yesterday: one in Andijan holding 65,000 refugees, one in Ferganan holding 12,000 and one in Namanga with 4,000 persons. The most urgent needs for them were food and the tracing of family members.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the tension was very high and that there was a lot of sporadic violence, a lot of aggression. They were also very concerned about the safety of the people who were still barricaded in Osh.

Ms. Byrs also said that 30 humanitarian cargo flights had landed in Osh and Jalal-Abad with 780 tons of medical supplies. Two inter-agency assessment missions had been carried out in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

In Uzbekistan, the assessment mission had been conducted by the World Food Programme, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNAIDS, the United Nations Population Fund and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in close coordination with the local authorities, said Ms. Byrs. The mission would make its results known later today and an inter-agency meeting was scheduled tomorrow to analyze these results, as well as to agree on an overall response strategy.

An inter-agency assessment team also conducted a rapid assessment in the city of Osh yesterday but due to the security situation there it had been able to only visit some parts of the city, said Ms. Byrs. OCHA was also concerned about the security of the local United Nations staff, which was made of persons from both ethnicities.

Ms. Byrs further noted that the Flash Humanitarian Appeal would be launched at 3 p.m. today, New York time.

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations Refugee Agency said that the situation in southern Kyrgyzstan remained fragile and tense. There were continued sporadic reports of violence. Access for humanitarian workers to many parts of Osh, neighbouring villages and other parts of southern Kyrgyzstan was extremely difficult and limited.

UNHCR estimated that some 300,000 people had been internally displaced in Kyrgyzstan since the outbreak of violence last week, while an additional estimated 100,000 had fled and sought safety in neighbouring Uzbekistan, said Mr. Mahecic.

UNHCR’s airlift into Kyrgyzstan would be launched this weekend, said Mr. Mahecic. Two chartered Ilyushin-76 cargo planes carrying 80 tonnes of relief items were expected to arrive in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh. This initial assistance would help cover the immediate needs of about 15,000 persons. The first flight, with 800 tents, was expected to land in Osh on Saturday, while the second one was expected on Sunday.

UNHCR’s part of the joint UN humanitarian funding appeal to assist the internally displaced population in Kyrgyzstan, being launched today in New York, amounted to some US$ 10 million, said Mr. Mahecic. These funds would allow UNHCR to cover the needs of some 260,000 internally displaced persons who were currently being sheltered by families and host communities. Some 40,000 others required immediate shelter.

UNHCR had already spent some USD$ 2.5 million for initial aid to support the airlifts to Uzbekistan and the ones to Kyrgyzstan scheduled this weekend. A separate funding appeal for Uzbekistan would be launched next week, said Mr. Mahecic.

Meanwhile, the sixth relief flight into Uzbekistan was expected to land. This would complete the initial airlift of some 240 tonnes of relief supplies to Uzbekistan. The distribution of aid would be closely coordinated between UNHCR, the Uzbek Government and the United Nations country team in Uzbekistan, said Mr. Mahecic.

Christiane Berthiaume of the United Nations Children's Fund said that insecurity continued to prevent UNICEF from delivering aid in southern Kyrgyzstan. 35 tonnes of emergency aid consisting of water sanitation equipment would arrive in Bishkek tomorrow.

A first assessment of the situation showed that UNICEF would probably need to assist over one million displaced persons, refugees and host families, said Ms. Berthiaume. In Uzbekistan, 90 per cent of the refugees were women and children. They were in very bad health and psychological conditions and needed immediate assistance. Several of them had been witnesses or victims of violent acts. Further, thousands of families have been separated and needed to be reunited. The conditions in the camps were difficult for children and there was an urgent need for shelter, food, water and medicines there.

The local Uzbek communities showed a lot of solidarity and support to the refugees and provided them with food, blankets and mattresses. But in the long term, this risked representing a burden to the local population, said Ms. Berthiaume.

UNICEF called all parties to the conflict to stop the fighting and to find a peaceful solution to the current situation. Ms. Berthiaume said women and children needed to be protected at all times and not be the target of combatants.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that WFP had been able to move food from its warehouse in Osh and would be increasing its staff there over the coming days. So far, they had been able to move approximately 100 metric tons of food that would be distributed by WFP and partners to about 13,000 persons. This was in addition to the 50 metric tons that WFP had provided for distribution to the ICRC. WFP was further waiting for the green light to fly-in 80 metric tons of high energy biscuits into Kyrgyzstan and another 40 metric tons of high-energy biscuits into Uzbekistan.

In addition, WFP was also exploring at alternatives to using the warehouse in Osh, as they had had some difficulties to reach it, given that it was located in one of the trouble spots of the city, said Ms. Casella. One of the solutions was to bring in convoys to Osh, directly from other locations. WFP staff would also try to access some food that WFP had on railcars some 50 km north of Osh.

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights answering to a journalist’s question on whether any United Nations agency was planning to conduct an assessment of the responsibilities and the reasons behind the events, as well as the possible future development of the crisis, said that the analysis was just starting and that they were dealing with a highly complex and extremely confuse situation.

There were political and ethnic strands, historical problems and the powerful and well-established criminal elements in Osh. At the moment there were strikingly different narratives as to what had happened coming from various non-governmental organizations and human rights observers. It would take some time to get some clarity about exactly what had happened.

Ms. Momal-Vanian also said that Miroslav Jenca, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia was currently in the region and holding consultations.

Millennium Development Goals 2010 Report

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would launch the Millennium Development Goals Report 2010 on 23 June at 11 a.m. New York time, at a press conference at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

During the press conference, Mr. Ban would also announce the appointment of the Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group, composed of eminent personalities actively engaged in promoting the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, said Ms. Momal-Vanian. A press briefing on the report would be organized at the Palais on 22 or 23 June. Details would be communicated later.

World Drug Report

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that this year’s World Drug Report would be officially launched in Vienna on 23 June. This year’s report opened with an analytical discussion on three key transitional drug markets: those for heroin, cocaine and amphetamine-type stimulants. The market discussion was followed by a presentation of statistical trends for all major drug categories and a discussion on the relationship between drug trafficking and instability. The report was available under embargo and upon request.

World Refugee Day

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations Refugee Agency noted that Sunday would be World Refugee Day. A number of events were planned around the world. The message this year was: “They can take away my home, but they can’t take away my future”.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Secretary-General’s message for World Refugee Day was also available in the press room.

Forced Returns of Iraqi Refugees

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), answering to a journalist’s question about UNHCR’s reaction to the forced returns of Iraqi refugees, said that UNHCR’s guidelines concerning Iraqi refugees remained the same as last week: Iraqi asylum seekers originating from the five central Iraqi Governorates, including Baghdad should not be sent back.

UNHCR was also looking into accounts of mistreatments among the rejected asylum seekers who had been forcibly returned yesterday from the United Kingdom, said Mr. Mahecic. UNHCR lawyers in Baghdad had interviewed 14 of the 42 men that were forcibly returned yesterday by the United Kingdom’s border agency.

The men had claimed that they had been beaten by the agency personnel at London Airport while being forced onto the plane. UNHCR staff had met with six of them and fresh bruises on them indicated that mistreatment could have occurred. The remaining 36 men were still being held at Baghdad airport by the authorities and UNHCR lawyers had spoken by phone to eight of them. All those interviewed had reported that 42 deportees had been forcibly returned to Baghdad against their will, said Mr. Mahecic.

Myanmar/Floods

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that for the past five days, the Northern Rakhine State in Myanmar was facing continuous rains that had flooded several areas including in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung. The population of these three cities all together was of around 900,000 persons but there was currently no figure concerning the affected population. More than 85 villages had been affected and close to 40 villages were severely flooded. Hundreds of houses were affected. Landslides had been reported and roads and bridges had either been cut or damaged.

An interagency mission had carried out a rapid assessment on 16 June, said Ms. Byrs. A meeting was being held today between local authorities and United Nations agencies to review the results of the assessment and list the needs that have been identified. The United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Food Programme, the Myanmar Red Cross and non-governmental organizations were currently leading the operations.

Ms. Byrs also noted that Bishow Parajuli, United Nations Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator in Myanmar would be holding a press conference on 22 June in Press Room III.

Africa/Measles Outbreak

Christiane Berthiaume of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that UNICEF and the World Health Organization were reporting a steep increase in cases of measles in Eastern and Southern Africa. As of mid-June, the outbreak had affected more than 47,000 children in 14 countries, resulting in 731 deaths.

While most of the affected countries had conducted vaccination campaigns, the current wave of measles outbreak came as a result of inadequate financial commitments from governments and partners, said Ms. Berthiaume.

WFP Reopens Office in Sri Lanka

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that a year and a half after its closure in September 2008, WFP’s Office in Kilinochi, Sri Lanka had officially reopened. The new office was currently manned by four WFP staff, living in portable containers. Further 14x20 foot containers were being fitted out and would eventually be used by additional WFP staff, as well as staff from the Food and Agricultural Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Department of Safety and Security, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Much of the 7.5 acre office site had been destroyed following heavy aerial and ground bombardment during the height of Sri Lanka’s recently ended conflict, said Ms. Casella. The rehabilitation of the hub had been ongoing under WFP’s special logistics operations in Sri Lanka.

Now that staff was present on the ground and that more personnel would soon be arriving, WFP would be able to re-establish enhanced monitoring of food dispatches to the targeted population in the area and support the ongoing resettlement and early –recovery process of the region, said Ms. Casella.

Answering a journalist’s question on who WFP was reaching food supplies with, Ms. Casella said that 62,000 persons remained in camps and about 228,000 had left camps and had returned to their district of origin. All those who remained in the camps and the returnees were receiving food assistance by WFP. In addition WFP was also providing take-home rations to 27,000 pregnant and lactating women and small children. In addition 300,000 children received school meals. Recently, during the heavy rains of last May, WFP had conducted a temporary emergency food operation for 400,000 persons.

Haiti

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM community mobilizers in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, trained in cutting-edge geo-location mapping would be working with the Haitian Government, as well as a volunteer mapping service to identify concerns amongst the displaced communities in Port-au-Prince.

This remarkable programme which highlighted the co-operation between the Haitian Government, IOM and the largely volunteer organization OpenStreetMap.org used maps and open data to empower civil society, said Mr. Bloch.

OpenStreetMap, which has been founded in 2004, has been inspired by sites such as Wikipedia which allowed participants to edit the entries, or in the case of maps to directly draw new elements. Mr. Bloch said that tools such as the geo-location mapping were seen as key to assisting displaced communities to communicate their concerns, and for responding to growing frustrations among the estimated 1.5 million displaced people living in emergency situations. A hotline was already in place that allowed community members to make urgent calls when worried about security, health or sanitation and these concerns would then be plotted on a community map.

Thailand Refugees Resettlement

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that this week marked the departure of the eighty-thousandth refugee through the IOM Thailand Resettlement Programme. Moung Nu and his family who had fled Myanmar to seek asylum in a remote border refugee camp in Thailand's northern Mae Hong Son province, would make their new home in Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota, United States.

Their departure, ahead of World Refugee Day this weekend, marked a milestone in IOM's refugee resettlement programme in Thailand, bringing the total number of refugees moved since the start of the program in 2004 to 80,000, said Mr. Bloch.

This family brought the number of refugees accepted by the United States to over 62,000, said Mr. Bloch. The remaining 18,000 had been accepted by other resettlement countries including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

This year IOM Thailand had resettled over 5,000 refugees from nine Thai border camps - almost all of them Karen and Karenni ethnic minorities fleeing conflict and persecution in Myanmar, said Mr. Bloch.

Guatemala

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM and partners were providing emergency assistance to victims of Tropical Storm Agatha and the Eruption of the Pacaya Volcano. IOM Guatemala would lead shelter and protection activities, in coordination with the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Population Fund, by providing emergency shelter and humanitarian assistance to 2,400 families (some 14,400 persons) living in temporary shelters who either had lost their home or whose homes had been severely damaged.

With funding from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund, IOM and its United Nations partners would repair public buildings used as shelters in emergencies, and distribute non-food items including water containers, kitchen sets, mattresses, pillows, and sheets, and clothing for men, women and children, said Mr. Bloch.

Children Medicines WHO Guidance

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that WHO was releasing today its first ever Model Formulary for Children. This document provided information on how to use over 240 essential medicines for treating illness and diseases in children form 0 to 12 years of age. It provided medical practitioners with information of the recommended use, dosage, adverse effects and contraindications of these medicines for use in children.

A number of individual countries had developed their own formularies over the years, but until now there had been no single comprehensive guide to using medicines in children, said Ms. Chaib.

Cacao Conference

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said that the United Nations Cacao Conference would be held in Geneva next week. The aim of the conference was to negotiate, conclude and discuss the application of international agreements on cacao that. A press briefing on the negotiations would be organized next week.

Other

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said that a press conference on Cyberlaws Harmonization in Developing Countries would take place on Monday at 11 a.m. in Press Room I.