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 Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Organization for Migration, the International Federation of the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Refugee Agency and the United Nations Economic Commission of Europe. A representative of the GAVI Alliance, a public-private health partnership, also participated in the briefing.

Secretary-General’s Trip to Myanmar

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General was in Myanmar today. Yesterday, he had been flown by helicopter over the heavily devastated Irrawaddy Delta. The four-hour tour had included two stops during which Ban Ki-moon met survivors, telling them, “The United Nations is here to help you. The whole world is trying to help Myanmar.”

Ban Ki-moon had said he would meet everyone – governmental authorities, leaders of neighboring countries, humanitarian coordinators and international donors. He stressed the need to speed up the settlements required to allow aid workers to move freely.

The Secretary-General would leave the country for Bangkok at the end of the day to hold bilateral meetings on Saturday, and would be heading back to Yangon on Sunday to attend the pledging conference for Myanmar, which is co-sponsored by the UN and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier added that she had just received a note to the media containing comments made to the press by the Secretary-General, following his meeting with Myanmar's Senior General Than Shwe. "I had a very good meeting with the Senior General and particularly on these aid workers ... He has agreed to allow all the aid workers", Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said quoting Mr. Ban Ki-moon. The Secretary-General had also reported the Senior General had agreed to allow access for all aid workers regardless of nationality and to allow Yangon airport to be used a logistical hub for aid distribution. This note was made available to the journalists.

Myanmar

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 133 flights had arrived in Yangon so far: 22 of the United Nations; 72 of bilateral donors; 13 from non-governmental organizations; 25 International Federation of the Red Cross flights; and 1 International Organization for Migration flight. On logistics, she said the main challenge was the upcoming monsoon, and concerns that heavy rainfalls would hinder road transportation. OCHA was therefore trying to get boats in order to reach the many small islands scattered throughout the delta. The United Nations was now operating a 4,000 square meter warehouse in Yangon (managed by DHL), along with a fleet of 30 trucks, four 800-ton barges with four barge pushers, and two boats able to carry up to 600 tons. In five local hubs (Pyapon, Bogale, Mawlamyinegyun, Labutta and Pathein), six Mobile Storage Units had been or were being constructed.

Ms. Byrs also said that thanks to private partners OCHA had enough fuel to assure trucking operations for the next two days. As for the UN Flash appeal of $201 million, it was so far 25 per cent covered with $50.3 million received. A further $42.5 million had been pledged.

Responding to a journalist who asked how many aid workers the United Nations could prepare to go to Myanmar, Ms. Byrs said there was no precise figure. The United Nations wanted to get more experts on board. It was not the quantity but the quality. Experts in coordination, in disaster management, in information management were needed in order to supplement the efforts of the UN Country Team, the Red Cross of Myanmar and the whole aid workers community which was already working very hard in Myanmar.

In answer to other questions, Ms. Byrs said over 100 visas had been granted so far, underscoring that that number was a very approximate estimate. There was no precise update coming from the field as of today. Many of the visas of the people who were already in Yangon had been extended, she added.

As for the assertions stating that experts who had been allowed to go to Yangon were not allowed to leave Yangon, Ms Byrs said the United Nations had a kind of remote control system and was working closely in coordination with the network of the Myanmar Red Cross and with the UN National staff deployed in the area. The United Nations relied also upon local communities, local networks and local non-governmental organizations to have this kind of coordination.

As for the latest figures, it was now estimated that 2.4 million people were now affected by the crisis and that, of that number, approximately 1.4 million were severely affected, with 110,000 people living in temporary settlements in 14 townships. Ms. Byrs stressed it was extremely difficult to gather this information and that those numbers were estimates.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said IOM doctors were now treating over 100 victims of Cyclone Nargis a day from a new operational hub in the Irrawaddy Delta township of Bogale. Five doctors and four nurses were working in coordination with agencies present on the ground. Assessment of health needs in the Bogale region was continuing, even though hampered by the high water levels. As that level could rise even more when the monsoon came, IOM was trying to acquire Zodiac inflatable boats, in order to be able to reach the most remote areas.

Furthermore, on Wednesday this week, IOM Yangon had taken delivery of 10,000 treated mosquito nets donated by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. IOM would also start distributing 14 tons of essential drugs donated by the United States NGO Americares, which had arrived in Yangon last weekend. Distribution of both shipments would be coordinated with the Myanmar Ministry of Health and World Health Organization. Mr. Chauzy said.

China

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General announced that the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) was granting up to $8 million for relief efforts following the earthquake in China.

Ms. Byrs underlined the earthquake in China had been one of the most severe in the world. She said 5.2 million people had been left homeless. The Chinese Ministry for Environmental Protection had reported that the air quality was normal compared to that before the earthquake. Bikou reservoir, China’s largest earth-rock dam located in Qingchuan County, had moved 30 centimetres due to the earthquake and had become a potential threat. The situation was being closely monitored by experts. She also mentioned that all potentially dangerous situations - such as the threat posed by lake formation - were continuously monitored by Chinese experts and not United Nations experts.

Ms. Byrs noted that UN agencies had submitted projects in the five main sectors: water and sanitation, food, non-food items, health and shelter. In addition, the Government of China was urgently requesting tents – with more than 3.3 million urgently needed.

Jenna Clarke of the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) said the Chinese Red Cross had made a request for 100,000 tents and IFRC was working to mobilize this number of tents through the network of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The Chinese Red Cross had already sent more than 18,000 tents from its regional warehouse. There were more than 120 local and regional Red Cross emergency relief and emergency teams that had been supporting individuals affected by the earthquake. In addition, over 800,000 people had received assistance from the Red Cross.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Human Rights Council had held its seventh Special Session yesterday and adopted by consensus a resolution on the negative impact on the realization of the right to food of the worsening world food crisis, caused inter alia by soaring food prices. The press release was available at the back of the room.

In other fora, the Conference on Disarmament would hold its next plenary on Monday, 26 May at 10:30 a.m, under the Presidency of the United Kingdom.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier also drew attention to the upcoming commemoration of the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers on the theme of: “Sixty Years of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations” to be held next week. Festivities would begin with a wreath-laying ceremony, to be opened by Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, and which would be held on Thursday, 29 May 2008, starting at 3 p.m. at the United Nations Memorial (Ariana Park). A round-table discussion would follow, to be held in the Council Chamber from 4 pm to 6 p.m., which the Director-General would also open.

Xenophobic Violence in South Africa

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said UNHCR remained deeply concerned about the xenophobic attacks against foreigners in South Africa, including against refugees and asylum-seekers who had fled to South Africa seeking protection from persecution in their own countries. So far, estimates were that more than 17,000 people had been displaced and dozens had been killed over the past two weeks. UNHCR was present on the ground and had been assessing the needs at the sites near police stations where the displaced had gathered. On Wednesday, UNHCR had conducted the first distribution of blankets and mats to the survivors. Additional blankets were released from UNHCR emergency stocks today.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said IOM was continuing to provide assistance through its “Dignity Kids - Emergency Assistance Kids” programme for those who have been displaced. IOM was also working with the South African Red Cross Societies, the Council of South African Churches and non-governmental organizations like Médecins sans frontières. IOM was also working with with METRO FM, a partnership putting out a message advocating tolerance.

The news from the ground indicated that violence seemed to have spread to Cape Town, Mr. Chauzy said. Information showed that shops of Zimbabweans had been being smashed. The violence seemed to be ongoing. IOM had also noticed in Pretoria - where it had a regional office - that foreigners where coming to the IOM Office to ask for assistance, because they wanted to leave South Africa but most of them had no money and no documentation because of their status. Mozambique was trying to evacuate about 10,000 of its nationals.

Human Rights

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the OHCHR was calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. El Hadj Ahamadou Ahalawey (the Vice-Chair of the National Human Rights Commission of Niger) and his nephew, who had been kidnapped by a group of armed men in Tanout, in the Zinder region of Niger, on 14 May. Mr. Ahalawey had recently been carrying out sensitization campaigns aimed at enhancing prospects of peace in the north of the country. Mr. Colville said the general security situation in the northern part of Niger had been particularly unstable since February 2007, when the “Mouvement Nigérien Pour la Justice” began an armed insurgency in that part of the country. Ambushes, armed raids, kidnappings, killings, mining of roads and hostage taking had been relatively common events since then. OHCHR was particularly concerned about Mr. Ahalawey’s well-being, because in addition to being kidnapped he had recently undergone a number of surgical operations and therefore needed regular medical examinations.

On other issues, Mr. Colville said the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Kyung-wha Kang, would visit Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia from 25 to 29 May 2008. The purpose of her mission was to underscore the centrality of human rights in the efforts for reconciliation and reconstruction in the two countries.

World Health Assembly

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization informed the journalists about the World Health Assembly activities of the day. She said three resolutions had been adopted during the plenary meeting in the morning: on Poliomyelitis, on International Health Regulations and on Health Conditions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the Occupied Syrian Golan. After the plenary meeting, Committee A and B had resumed their work to discuss implementation of the global strategy for prevention and control of non-communicable diseases. The strategy was finally approved by Committee A after long discussions and would later be considered for adoption by the plenary meeting. Discussions in the Committees were now about the Global Immunization Strategy and Climate Change and Health, among other issues.

The World Health Assembly was supposed to end its sixty-first session on Saturday by noon, but would probably extend it in the afternoon due to heavy workload, Ms. Chaib said.

Craig Burgess of the GAVI Alliance, a public-private partnership of major stakeholders in immunization, which includes the World Heath Organisation (WHO), the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank, said that the GAVI Alliance Secretariat and partners were helping to introduce new and underutilized vaccines to the poorest countries of the world, to work to help to strengthen poor countries' health systems to absorb those vaccines and to help them to be delivered to those who needed them most. The GAVI Alliance announced that they had increased their investment, specifically for health system strengthening, from $500 million to $800 million. That decision had been made by their Board in February on the basis of the large demand they had from countries. So far 51 countries had applied for this funding and 40 had been approved. The funding would be monitored in a result based-way, focusing on results and would help countries meet Millennium Development Goals in health.

Other

Ms. Pagonis said UNHCR was following very closely developments in Italy relating to the new provisions approved by the Italian Council of Ministers on Wednesday in Naples, according to which as part of a draft “security package” illegal immigration would become a crime. She said UNHCR was looking forward to receiving the full text of the new provisions to examine them in detail. While understanding that States faced considerable challenges in dealing with illegal immigration, UNHCR was concerned about the potentially prejudicial impact of these new measures on asylum in Italy.

On Sudan, Mr. Chauzy of IOM drew attention to the situation in the town of Abyei which was in one of the three transitional areas of Sudan where there had been some fighting between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and Sudanese Armed Forces. Some 60,000 people had been displaced from the town of Abyei. They had moved to a town called Agok, some 25 kilometres South of Abyei, and others had fled to surrounding villages. IOM was working with its partners in the United Nations to provide assistance to those newly displaced people. Two convoys carrying non-food items, water purification systems and other relief goods had left in the past couple days, one from Wau, in neighbouring Warrab State, and one from Juba. The situation of the displaced was said to be very bad and they were in desperate need of shelter, food and medical assistance. The relief operation was incredibly complicated by chronic insecurity and the poor state of roads.

Charlotte Griffiths of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) presented the results of the fourth meeting of the parties to the Espoo Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundray Context which had taken place in Bucharest earlier this week. On 21 May, the meeting had issued a decision that Ukraine had been in non-compliance with its obligations under that Convention in relation with the Bystroe Canal project. Ukraine had responded by saying that they would commit to reconsider its decision to fully implement that canal project in the Danube Delta. Ukraine had also stated that it would not commence work on the second phase of the project until its obligations under the Convention were complied with. Ukraine further announced that it would fully comply with the provisions of the Convention for other similar projects with a likely transboundary impact on the environment of the Danube Delta.

Also at the meeting, environmental ministers and high-level representatives form seven South-Eastern European countries signed the Bucharest Agreement, which included detailed provisions for consultations between neighbouring South-East European countries concerning all major projects under consideration that might have an adverse transboundary environmental impacts.

In addition, a stakeholder meeting would be held at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) today at 2 p.m. on public participation in Internet Governance, focusing on good practice building on the principles of the World Summit on the Information Society and the Aarhus Conventions, Ms. Griffiths announced. The event was part of a trilateral initiative of the Council of Europe, the UNECE and the Association for Progressive Communications.