REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from Spokespersons for the World Health Organization, the UN Refugee Agency, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Trade Organization and the International Organization for Migration.

Olympic Games

Mrs. Heuzé said the Secretary-General’s message calling for observance of the Olympic Truce during the XXth Olympic Winter Games in Turin was available in the press room, as was the solemn appeal made by the President of the General Assembly concerning the observance of the Olympic Truce.

Mrs. Heuzé recalled that in the Outcome Document of the 2005 World Summit, Member States had underlined that “sports can foster peace and development and can contribute to an atmosphere of tolerance and understanding and we encourage discussions in the General Assembly for proposals leading to a plan of action on sports and development”. Mr. Adolf Ogi, his Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, would be representing the United Nations at the opening of the Turin games this afternoon. Since 1998, the United Nations flag has been flying among the Olympic flags at the games.

Conference on Disarmament

Mrs. Heuzé said the Conference on Disarmament had yesterday held an interesting plenary in which the President had outlined the timetable for discussions on agenda items during the 2006 session. The Presidents of the 2006 session had agreed to hold structured debates on nuclear disarmament during the Presidency of the Republic of Korea; on a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty during the Presidency of Romania; and on prevention of an arms race in outer space during the Presidency of the Russian Federation. The detailed timetable which also included other items for discussion was available in the press release in English and French.

The next plenary of the Conference on Disarmament will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 16 February.

Avian Influenza and Polio in Nigeria

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization introduced two WHO Experts who would speaking about avian influenza in Nigeria and the infrastructure to fight polio in Nigeria which might help with the fight against avian influenza in the country. She reminded journalists that an update on the situation of avian influenza in Nigeria as well as a statement by the WHO Director-General had already been issued.

Mike Perdue, an epidemiologist with the Global Programme on Influenza, said it had recently been announced that the H5N1 virus had arrived in Nigeria. The focus was apparently in a state in the north central part of the country. There was also anecdotal evidence of outbreaks in birds occurring in a state adjacent to it. There was no evidence of any human infection so far. However, the fact that it had reached Nigeria represented the fears that the virus was being carried by migratory water fowl. The genetic sequence was not known yet, but once it was available, it would show whether they were the same birds that had been found in Turkey and in the region surrounding the Black Sea area. It was a concern that this strain of the virus had moved through Asia, Central Asia, Turkey, Iraq and now down into Africa. The risk of the virus infecting humans in Africa was not known right now, but obviously it was a concern. A WHO assessment team would be leaving this weekend, sponsored by the WHO office in Harare, and team members from Headquarters would be joining them.

Bruce Aylward, the coordinator of the Initiative to Eradicate Polio, said the issue about the implications of the spread of the virus on the polio initiative, both concerning the infrastructure on the ground and their activities, had already been raised. The H5N1 virus was overlapping geographically with the WHO polio operation in Nigeria. The major polio campaign would be starting on Saturday, 11 February across Nigeria, including the area where avian flu had been found. This was not the first time that WHO had dealt with the two epidemics concurrently. That had happened in Indonesia last year and a joint operation had been conducted there. So this was the second time. If there was any silver lining, it was that the outbreak of avian flu was in a state where WHO had one of the strongest surveillance and operations infrastructure in Africa. The Government of Nigeria also had an avian influenza response plan, and that plan sat largely on the polio infrastructure. The critical issue at this point was to prevent human exposure to the virus to prevent human cases if they had not already occurred.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said thousands of people were being forced to flee their homes in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo as fighting continued between the Congolese army and dissident forces in North Kivu. Thousands of Congolese had fled to neighbouring Uganda since the fighting started in mid-January. The influx continued. At the same time, the vast majority of the civilian population affected by the fighting was not crossing the border. Thousands of Congolese were being displaced within North Kivu itself. UNHCR was also extremely concerned about the fate of these people. While the situation in North Kivu was extremely worrisome, other parts of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo were also affected. In Katanga province, tens of thousands of people had been displaced by continuing violence.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was grave. She recalled that an important ministerial conference would be held in Brussels on Monday, 13 February on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for humanitarian affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, would be co-hosting the conference, along with the European Union. The Democratic Republic of the Congo was at a cross roads. Elections were upcoming and this was an opportunity for the international community to help the country return to democracy and leave this dramatic crisis behind. Some 1,200 people died daily from the armed conflict, malnutrition and disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, so every six months, as many victims died there as had died as a result of the tsunami in 2004. A humanitarian plan of action would be launched in Brussels for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children’s Fund said 6,000 persons who were displaced after violent fighting in Ituri had taken refuge in a small village some 70 kilometres south of Bunia. The village was completely surrounded by the army and the rebels. Yesterday, a four-truck convoy organized by the World Food Programme and UNICEF had entered the village, carrying 40 tons of food as well as high-energy biscuits. This was enough to allow the 900 families who had taken refuge there to survive for one month.

Other

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said unseasonably warm temperatures in Pakistan’s quake-hit north had resulted in a stable situation in the relief camps, with only small numbers of people trickling down to the camps because of unpredictable weather in the mountains. A new cold front was expected this weekend, but UNHCR felt equipped to cope with it after distributing thousands of stoves, blankets, plastic sheets and mattresses for winterisation in relief camps.

Mr. Redmond said UNHCR was disappointed over the Solvene Parliament’s vote on Monday in favour of amendments to the country’s asylum law. UNHCR warned that as a result of the amendments, there was a real danger that could lead to persons in need of international protection being deported to countries where their life or freedom was threatened, which was contrary to international law.

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children’s Fund said available was an information note which noted that the elections in Haiti offered hope for Haitian children, adding that more international support was still needed. Child mortality rates were high in Haiti, where one child out of five died from preventable illnesses before reaching the age of five. Insecurity pervaded all aspects of children’s lives. About 1,000 children were associated with armed gangs in Port-au-Prince, as messengers, spies and some even carried guns and participated in the fighting. Health projects were understaffed and poorly supplied. The information note included more details.

Aurelia Blin of the World Trade Organization said service negotiations which were held this week would continue on Monday, 13 February and on Thursday, 16 February. There would also be agriculture negotiations on Tuesday, 14 February and Friday, 17 February. Concerning WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, he would be in Washington on 16 and 17 February to meet with officials from the United States administration as well as members of Congress.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said with good weather conditions holding for just over a week, IOM had accelerated its relief activities in quake-hit areas of North West Frontier Province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. A community mobilization relief programme in the Federally Administered Tribal Area had also been successfully completed after an IOM-initiated and coordinated effort to help leaders work with their communities in assessing needs.

Mr. Chauzy said the IOM Mission in Belgrade was launching a new one-year programme to provide housing for vulnerable families of former refugees and internally displaced persons who were currently living in overcrowded centres. Approximately 11,000 beneficiaries, who were expelled from Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, from Croatia in 1995 and from the province of Kosovo in 1999, would be helped by the programme which was funded by the European Union.

Mrs. Heuzé reminded journalists that at 11:30 a.m. today, there would be an UNCTAD press conference with Love Mtesa, Ambassador of Zambia, President of the 10th Trade Commission, and Lakshmi Puri, Director of the Division on international trade in goods and services and commodities.