REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section, chaired the briefing which also heard from Spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Secretary-General’s Middle East Tour - Lebanon

The Secretary-General arrived yesterday in Syria and was meeting today with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before flying to Iran. In Jordan, where he met with King Abdullah II as well the Foreign Minister of Jordan, the Secretary-General gave a press conference in which he renewed his call on Israel to lift its blockade of Lebanon, adding that the continued blockade risked being seen as “collective punishment” of the Lebanese people.

Available was the transcript of the press conference in the press room.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said also yesterday, Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown addressed donors at an international aid conference for Lebanon in Sweden. The meeting received $ 940 million in pledges for the reconstruction of Lebanon. Speaking about the immediate goals of the early recovery process, Mr. Malloch Brown said this strategy, which had been developed by the Lebanese Government in consultation with the UN and the World Bank, reflected Lebanese needs, Lebanese ownership and Lebanese leadership of the recovery process. With UN support, the Government had set-up a recovery and coordination cell within the Prime Minister's office, and was carrying out a comprehensive assessment for a longer-term National Recovery Plan. Mr. Malloch Brown reiterated the need for the immediate end of the Israeli air and sea blockade and a political solution to the underlying causes of the conflict, adding that the blockade's effect on Lebanon’s civilian economy, and therefore the donor efforts, could not be minimized.

Michael Bociurkwi of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF was continuing to transition from providing immediate relief to more long-term interventions in Lebanon. UNICEF was helping around 100,000 children and their families and its main interventions were in the areas of water and sanitation, health and education. There continued to be a lack of electricity in many of the areas. UNICEF was slowly moving away from distributing bottled water to transferring water in big tanks; UNICEF was also providing more power to water plants to help get the water distribution system back up and running.

Mr. Bociurkwi said according to the Mine Action Committee, about 100,000 unexploded cluster bomblets remained in Southern Lebanon that needed to be defused and destroyed. As UNICEF had said before, these posed a particular threat to children, especially now they were returning to their homes and playgrounds and were often attracted to the shape and colour of these toy-size munitions. UNICEF was doing as much as in could on mine action awareness and its education campaign included television spots, pamphlets and posters. Until 30 August, the grand total of casualties from unexploded ordnance was 61, including 10 adults and three children who were killed and the rest wounded.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reminded journalists that at noon, David Shearer, Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon, would speak to journalists about the situation in that country.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said the delivery of food and other aid to people living in the southern part of Beirut as well as in Southern Lebanon was continuing. Among other food aid, WFP provided bakeries with flour to make bread. WFP had revised its part of the appeal for Lebanon and had reduced the number of persons who needed food aid to 310,000 for the next few weeks. In order for the economic life in Lebanon to resume, the Israeli blockade had to be lifted.

Sudan

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Security Council yesterday adopted resolution 1706 (2006) in which it decided to expand the mandate of the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) to include its deployment to Darfur, in order to support the early and effective implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement. The Council decided also that UNMIS would be strengthened by up to 17,300 military personnel and by an appropriate civilian component including up to 3,300 civilian police personnel and up to 16 Formed Police Units. The Council requested the Secretary-General to consult jointly with the African Union, in close and continuing consultation with the parties to the Darfur Peace Agreement, including the Government of National Unity, on a plan and timetable for a transition from the African Mission in the Sudan to a United Nations operation in Darfur. The Council invited the consent of the Sudanese Government of National Unity for that deployment, and called on Member States to ensure an expeditious deployment. It requested the Secretary-General to arrange the rapid deployment of additional capabilities to enable UNMIS to deploy in Darfur. The text of the resolution was available in the News Centre.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said torrential rainfall in Sudan since the beginning of August had caused extensive flooding in most parts of the country, especially the north, east and centre. Early estimates spoke of 30,000 households affected. The enormous amount of stagnant water made flood victims highly vulnerable to malaria, diarrhoea and respiratory infections. The number of fatalities was difficult to assess for the moment. Flooding was evident along the length of the Blue Nile River, affecting mainly agricultural land which would of course affect the harvest. Sinnar state was the worst affected area on the Blue Nile and it needed immediately 2,500 tents, 10,000 plastic sheets, 10,000 mosquito nets, 5,000 blankets, 5,000 jerry cans and 5,000 kitchen sets, plus sanitation/latrines. The International Federation of the Red Cross had launched an appeal for 600,000 Swiss francs in order to meet the emergency needs of 15,000 victims in Khartoum, Sinnar, Kassala and Hamadab. More details were available in the situation report on the Sudan floods which could be found at the back of the room.

Somalia

Christiane Berthiaume said concerning the serious floods in Somalia, the heavy rain was causing flooding in Mogadishu and other parts of the country. WFP’s national staffers were assessing the situation and the needs. Jowhar, 80 kilometres north of Mogadishu, was among the worst affected areas, and delivering aid was extremely difficult because the flooding had destroyed the roads. WFP was considering the possibility of using small boats or even tractors to deliver the aid.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the third and last part of the 2006 session of the Conference on Disarmament would conclude on 15 September. The next plenary would be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 6 September in Room XX.

The fifteenth session of the Group of Governmental Experts of the States Parties to the Conventional Weapons Convention was continuing its meetings until 6 September. The meetings, under the Presidency of Ambassador Francois Rivasseau of France, were open. The programme of work of the Working Group was available.

Other

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which was based in Vienna, would be announcing the first details of the 2006 Afghan Opium Poppy Survey on Saturday, 2 September. The Executive Director of the Office Antonio Maria Costa would hold a press conference in Kabul with President Hamid Karzai at 5:30 p.m. local time, 1 p.m. GMT on Saturday. A press release would be posted simultaneously at www.unodc.org.

Michael Bociurkwi of the United Nations Children’s Fund said today was the first day of school in Russia, and it also marked the second anniversary of the Beslan attack which left 344 dead, including 186 children. Today remained a day of sadness and reflection in Russia. There were a number of commemorative events going on in Beslan whcih UNICEF was supporting. UNICEF continued to provide support to families who were affected by this tragedy. A press note was available.

Ron Redmond of the United Nations Refugee Agency said a new flare-up of fighting in Trincomalee District in Sri Lanka had put an end to the return of displaced civilians from Kanthale to Muttur Town, a return that had started last week. The new shelling around Trincomalee came as the number of civilians displaced within Sri Lanka since April reached 214,981. This may not reflect the full number, since UNHCR did not yet have access to all the areas hosting displaced persons. To ensure the needs of people displaced within Sri Lanka were met promptly and efficiently, UNHCR, as part of a joint UN humanitarian action plan for Sri Lanka, was appealing for more than $ 5 million to provide shelter, emergency supplies and protection. The UN Common Humanitarian Action Plan for Sri Lanka, which was launched in Geneva on Thursday, was appealing for a total of $ 37.46 million, including $5.3 million for UNHCR.

Mr. Redmond said UNHCR yesterday closed its offices in Pakistan’s earthquake-affected areas and handed over full responsibility for the management of relief camps to the local authorities. In Timor-Leste, UNHCR handed over 1,500 family-sized tens, plastic sheeting and other relief items to the Government in Dili to help families whose houses had been destroyed in the recent violence return to their homes and rebuild. Burning and stoning of houses in the capital had increased in recent days as the city had returned to a higher level of violence.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said in Sri Lanka, as fighting continued in north and north-eastern districts, leaving more than 200,000 people displaced, IOM had been providing humanitarian assistance to thousands of those affected. In Pakistan, the Government had launched a high-level consultation process on international migration and development with an Inter-Ministerial Preparatory Conference organized by IOM in collaboration with the Ministry of Interior in Islamabad on Wednesday. The Conference was designed to inform the government and stakeholders ahead of the UN General Assembly High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development on 14 and 15 September in New York. In Afghanistan, IOM was organizing an IOM workshop on raising awareness on human trafficking among government officials in order to synergism counter-trafficking interventions in the country. The workshop would start on 3 September.

Anna Nelson of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the one-year commemoration of the earthquake in Pakistan was on 8 October. The Federation had produced two audio-visual materials for journalists, including footage of the recovery projects and of the recent flooding which had wreaked havoc in many areas, including recovery projects. Regarding the flooding in Asia, there were now 14 countries in the Asia Pacific which had been affected by unusually heavy flooding caused by monsoons, cyclones and typhoons this year.

Ms. Nelson said available was a press release on the launch of the first phase of an Aceh-wide multi-hazard early warning system in Indonesia. Matthew Cochrane of the International Federation said this launch concerned the implementation of a region-wide radio network. This was part of a joint initiative with the Indonesian Government, the United Nations and accredited aid organizations in the region.