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 United Nations Environmental Programme, the International Labour Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the International Organization for Migration, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Conference on Disarmament

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Conference on Disarmament was meeting in public plenary this morning to hear a statement by the Foreign Minister of Brazil, Celso Amorim, as Brazil this week was taking over the rotating Presidency of the Conference for four weeks. A press release would be issued at the end of the meeting.

International Labour Conference

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization said this was the third and last week of the International Labour Conference. The Commissions had finished their work yesterday, especially the Commission on HIV/AIDS and work, which adopted a recommendation. This recommendation would be discussed in the plenary tomorrow and would be voted on 17 June in the morning. They would be organizing a press briefing on 17 June at 3 p.m. to brief the journalists about the recommendation. On 17 June at 11:30 a.m., there would be another press briefing on the Commission on domestic labour.

Kyrgyzstan

Anna Nelson of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said yesterday, ICRC launched a preliminary, very initial appeal for 10 million Swiss francs to assist 100,000 people in Kyrgyzstan alone over the next month. Today the situation in the south remained tense. ICRC had an initial team already in Osh on Thursday 10 June, with prepositioned medical supplies already on the ground. They delivered those supplies over the weekend.

Yesterday, ICRC was unable to reach Jalalabat as there was too much shooting going on, but this morning the team was able to reach the town and assess the situation in the main hospital. They saw less seriously wounded people than they expected to see, although the hospital staff were running low on medicine, suture equipment and wound dressing. The team was able to distribute enough materials to assist around 60 wounded persons at the hospital, said Ms. Nelson.

ICRC was also evacuating to Bishkek 17 extremely wounded patients from Jalalabat. ICRC was also starting today a pipeline between Bishkek and Osh. They would have a flight arriving at 5 p.m. local time, around 1 p.m. Geneva time today, carrying food and non-food items, including high-energy biscuits for 20,000 persons. Also as part of the appeal, ICRC intended to supply buckets, jerry cans, tarps, as well as other food items for 100,000 over the coming month, said Ms. Nelson.

The markets remained closed. Many people were telling the team that their main needs were food and water. Some of the delegates saw people drinking out of the irrigation system. The water system in Osh depended on the electricity, so when the electricity and gas were cut over the weekend, that had an impact on the water supplies. Ms. Nelson said a good piece of news was that the World Food Programme (WFP), whom they were working with, had a warehouse full of food in Osh. ICRC was able to gain access to that warehouse today and was working with WFP to be able to start distributing those stocks of food hopefully as of tomorrow.

The priority would be making sure that the hospitals in Osh would be able to come collect that food at the warehouse. ICRC also had other emergency personnel on the way, said Ms. Nelson. One of the issues of concern was that bodies were being buried before being identified. Over the weekend, an ICRC team passed by the cemetery in Osh and saw about 100 bodies being buried without being identified. ICRC was trying to encourage people as much as possible to bring bodies to the morgue, or at least to identify them before they were put in the ground. ICRC delegates on the Uzbek side of the border had met with some mothers who had lost their children in the chaos, and ICRC was now sending in “tracing” personnel. Water and sanitation experts were also on the way.

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, expressed alarm Monday at the escalating violence in southern Kyrgyzstan. “It seems indiscriminate killings, including of children, and rapes have been taking place on the basis of ethnicity,” Pillay said. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights believed that this was a very dangerous situation, given the ethnic patchwork in this part of Kyrgyzstan, which consisted of some 80 different groups.

It had been known for many years that this region was a potential tinder-box, and for that reason it was essential that the authorities acted firmly to halt the fighting, said Mr. Colville. There were also strong indications that this event had not been a spontaneous inter-ethnic clash but that it had been, to some degree, orchestrated, targeted and well planned.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bishkek had been collecting reports from eyewitnesses. Several of these reports suggested that the incidents had begun with five simultaneous attacks in Osh, involving men wearing balaclavas and carrying guns, said Mr. Colville. It looked like they had been seeking to provoke a reaction. One of these attacks had been on a gym, known to be the home of a criminal gang. Reports also indicated that both Kyrgyz and Uzbek women had been rape, but such reports should be taken with caution, as these could also be used to inflame the situation even more.

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that they would launch tomorrow an emergency airlift to Uzbekistan. The first of six planned Ilyushin-76 cargo planes, each carrying 40
tons of UNHCR relief supplies for refugees fleeing violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, was scheduled to take off from Dubai tomorrow morning and was expected to land at Andijan airport in Uzbekistan some hours later.

UNHCR had offered its assistance to Uzbek authorities who were already dealing with needs of the persons fleeing from Kyrgyzstan. The government in Tashkent had welcomed this humanitarian aid from UNHCR on Monday, said Mr. Mahecic.

At the request of the Uzbek authorities, the first UNHCR-chartered flight would be loaded with 800 lightweight tents to meet the rapidly growing shelter needs. According to the Uzbek government more than 75,000 refugees had crossed from Kyrgyzstan since Friday. Mr. Mahecic said UNHCR appreciated Uzbekistan’s decision to receive and assist these desperate persons.

The subsequent five flights would be loaded with blankets, sleeping mats, kitchen sets and plastic sheeting for emergency shelters. In total, UNHCR planned to deliver some 240 tons of humanitarian assistance from its central emergency stockpile in Dubai, said Mr. Mahecic. Upon arrival in Uzbekistan the supplies would be loaded onto trucks and taken immediately to various sites hosting refugees in close coordination with the government.

Part of the UNHCR emergency team was traveling today to Uzbekistan in advance of these flights, said Mr. Mahecic. The team included field officers as well as experts on operations, site planning and logistics. UNHCR was also preparing a separate airlift for Kyrgyzstan, as well as the deployment of an emergency
team to Kyrgyzstan.

UNHCR was alarmed by the rapid escalation of violence since 10 June in Southern Kyrgyzstan, which had left scores of people dead and led to the displacement of an estimated 200,000 people within the country in addition to 75,000 refugees who had sought safety in Uzbekistan, said Mr. Mahecic.

The situation in Osh and Jalalabat remained tense and difficult with sporadic fighting and attacks on civilians, including women and children, continuing yesterday. UNHCR feared that unless peace and order was restored swiftly more people could be displaced as they fled to the countryside or tried to cross the border to Uzbekistan. As part of the United Nations country team in Kyrgyzstan, UNHCR was appealing to halt the violence and ensure the protection of civilians throughout the country, said Mr. Mahecic.

UNHCR was also concerned about the poor security situation in Osh, Jalalabat and other areas, which was impeding thorough needs assessments as well as aid deliveries and UNHCR’s access to this area. Urgent needs in this part of Kyrgyzstan included food, medicine, and shelter and UNHCR needed better security to ensure the safety of humanitarian staff and goods, said Mr. Mahecic. Some food and health aid has been being delivered already, but not enough aid was getting through. There were reports that displaced people near the border might be short of water and that those made homeless by violence were in dire need of shelter.

Christiane Berthiaume of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that they had dispatched emergency supplies to refugees last night. The initial rapid response supplies had left in seven trucks from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The supplies comprised tents, blankets, emergency health kits including bandages, soaps, sanitary napkins and disposable diapers, as well as kitchen sets, T shirts, packs of water purification tablets and water containers.

UNICEF was currently the only United Nations agency in the field, said Ms. Berthiaume. Three teams were specifically working on the crisis: two of them were in the field to map and conduct needs assessments of the situation of the refugees. The third team was involved in procuring emergency supplies. Further supplies, mainly hygiene items, were being procured in Uzbekistan and would be sent shortly, thanks to a US$ 100,000 donation by the United Sates.

UNICEF Representative in Uzbekistan, Jean-Michel Delmotte who had worked in the Rwanda and Balkan emergencies said that refugees were coming across the border with only the clothes they wore. He said that he had never seen this before, said Ms. Berthiaume.

Children and women had been terrible affected by the violence and a major priority for UNICEF would be dealing with trauma among the children, said Ms. Berthiaume. UNICEF would be sending in psychosocial experts quickly. Supported by the Ministry of Health of Kyrgyzstan, UNICEF had also been able to deliver medicine and materials for surgical interventions. These items were already in hospitals and these would allow at least 1,500 people to be treated.

UNICEF would also release from its warehouse in Osh items to ICRC for immediate distribution, including two pieces of 5,000 litres water-tanks, 150 jerry cans and 27 packs of water purification tablets, said Ms. Berthiaume. UNICEF estimated that more than 100,000 people had fled into Uzbekistan. The current estimates pointed to the need of an urgent financial support of at least US$ 1.5 million. A Flash Appeal would probably be launched by the end of this week.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that the Flash Appeal was indeed under preparation and would probably be launched by the end of the week. The current crisis had created flows of displaced and refugees. The humanitarian coordination was currently put in place.

United Nations personnel were present in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and Tashkent, Uzbekistan and additional emergency personnel would soon be deployed. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs would send four additional staff members in the coming days to support the Resident Coordinator in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. A taskforce would also be set up in Geneva, said Ms. Byrs.

Ms. Byrs said that order had to be restored and violence stopped as rapidly as possible. The international community would have to mobilize itself and support Uzbekistan’s efforts in helping the many refugees that were crossing the border and would have to answer as fast as possible to the Flash Appeal. Also, it was important to have a good coordination between the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the European Union.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that WFP had already 3,000 metric tons of food already in Kyrgyzstan. This would be enough to feed 87,000 persons for two months. An additional 15,000 metric tons were being procured and should be delivered in the coming weeks. Working with the local authorities, WFP had started distributing food, prioritizing institutions such as hospitals. It had however been difficult to start a full-fledged distribution to the affected people due to the security situation and WFP was calling for security of access to be implemented.

West Africa Coastal UN Humanitarian Air Service

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that as of tomorrow, the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service would cease all of its flights in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, due to lack of funds.

The West African Coastal service of the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service had been serving about 500 humanitarian passengers per months – people working for non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies, donor missions and journalists - providing assistance to about 250,000 persons in some of the hardest to reach parts of these three countries, said Ms. Casella.

The Air Service was not just a convenience for the humanitarian community, said Ms. Casella. It was a necessity in terms of safety and actually helped to save time and resources. Without it, a lot of programmes would not be able to work in an optimal way. The West African Costal service had been one of the smaller services of the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service, needing only US$ 2.5 million to continue operating until the end of the year.

Angola/MDGs

Koen Vanormelingen, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative in Angola, said that they had now gotten the preliminary data from the first-ever national Multiple Indicator Cluster Sample Survey the Government of Angola and UNICEF had recently conducted together. This was the first time since the war that they had been able to conduct this survey at the national level. Five of the eight Millennium Development Goals showed good results: the goals on malnutrition, education, gender-balance, child survival and malaria and HIV/AIDS.

Malnutrition had gone down from 35 to 23 per cent. Enrolment in schools had gone up from 56 to 76 per cent. Gender balance in schools was of 98 girls for 100 boys. Child survival had improved by almost 20 per cent. The proportion of child death attributable to Malaria had gone down from 35 to 23 per cent. Emerging data showed that these improvements had been achieved thanks to the consistent economic growth since 2002 and to the tremendous efforts and investments of the Government in rehabilitation and revitalization, plus the consistent allocation of 30 per cent of the state budget to the social sector, said Mr. Vanormelingen.

Nevertheless, there were still some setbacks. While there was good progress in child survival, maternal mortality had not improved tremendously, mainly because skilled attendance at birth was still standing at 48 per cent. Despite the improvements in the school environment, at this date only 35 per cent of the children finished primary school on-time. There was also a backlog of people that had not been able to go to school during the war years. Further, the water and sanitation sector was seeing a worsening trend as 42 per cent of people only had access to safe and drinkable water and 60 per cent to basic sanitation, said Mr. Vanormelingen.

One of the major hindrances was the fact that 87 per cent of persons in Angola lived in slums, said Mr. Vanromelingen. Angola had done the easy part of rebuilding institutions and infrastructures. Now the hard part was to improve the skills of its human capital in order to ensure a quality of service and continue on the current upward trend. The Government should continue to invest, as agreed with the International Monetary Fund, at least 30 per cent in the social sector but it should also invest more in social protection to reduce poverty and invest much more in improving the skills of young people.

Polio Eradication

Sona Bari of the World Health Organization’s Polio Eradication Department said that this Friday there would be a meeting following on the recent adoption of the new strategic plan for polio eradiation, which had been endorsed last month by the World Health Assembly. The meeting would look at how to bring the process forward, as well as its financial aspects.

For the 2010 to 2012 period they had a budget of US$ 2.6 billion, of which US$ 1.3 billion were still missing. Thus, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan had called for an urgent meeting of all the stakeholders this Friday afternoon to launch the plan and look at what needed to be done to fill the current financial gaps. Several health ministers and ministers of development would take part in the meeting.

Mercury Negotiations

Isabelle Valentiny of the United Nations Environmental Programme, said she just wanted to tell journalists that she was officially back as information officer for UNEP as of today. Her contact details had not changed, but she also had her cards with her if anyone needed them. Ten days ago, David Piper had briefed journalists on the Mercury negotiations which took place last week. Today, Sheila Logan would be pleased to give journalists a briefing on the first round of negotiations on the Mercury negotiations.

Sheila Logan of the Mercury Negotiations Team said they were very pleased to have the full week of meetings in Stockholm last week. It was considered a very successful meeting which was attended by representatives of 119 Governments and representatives of 41 different accredited non-governmental organizations. There were also representatives of other United Nations bodies, especially UNIDO and WHO. There were a total of 450 attendees during the week. The meetings provided an opportunity for Governments to set out their positions and some initial discussions on how the treaty might be structured, and as a result of this, the secretariat had been asked to start drafting a text for them to consider in Japan. The negotiations would start in earnest next year between 24 and 28 January in Japan. Another big announcement was that the Japanese Government had announced their intention to host a diplomatic conference which was where the treaty would be opened for signature, and also requested the Governments to consider naming the treaty the Minamata Convention, in recognition of Minamata disease which was related to mercury poisoning.

In response to a question, Ms. Logan said negotiations were expected to take a series of five meetings, the last of which negotiating session would be held in February 2013 before the UNEP Governing Council. It was expected that the diplomatic conference would be held later in 2013, probably in the autumn in the northern hemisphere.

Colombia/Displaced

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM was assisting 200 displaced families in Caquetá, Colombia to obtain their own homes, thanks to a social housing construction project which sought to improve the quality of life and the socio economic situation of this population.

IOM was providing technical assistance and was implementing the project with the financial support of the United States Agency for International Development the Municipality of Florencia, the Banco Inmobiliario, FONVIVIENDA, as well as with the efforts of the beneficiary community, said Mr. Bloch.

Currently 170 housing units were under construction and formed part of the 200 housing units proposed for the first part of this project. These would be handed over by the end of the year, said Mr. Bloch. A second phase was already being planned with the aim of helping an additional 400 families in similar circumstances.

In addition to the housing, the displaced would receive integrated assistance in health, education and psychosocial accompaniment with the aim of integrating the families into their new communities. These activities sought to reconstitute "life projects" amongst the displaced, strengthen social ties and to promote healthy coexistence with the greater community, said Mr. Bloch.

Since 2007, the components of Social and Community Housing of the USAID/IOM Programme for Assistance to Displaced and Vulnerable Groups had assisted more than 3,600 persons with support in the building and improvement of basic housing, school classrooms and health posts among other projects, said Mr. Bloch.

Cacao Conference

Catherine Sibut-Pinote said that the United Nations Cacao Conference would take place from 21 to 25 June in Geneva. The aim of the conference was to negotiate, conclude and discuss the application of international agreements on cacao that would be adopted in September 2012 and which would replace earlier agreement that had been adopted in 2005.