REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by spokespersons for the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Secretariat of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the World Food Programme, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Libya

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said that the latest WFP-chartered ship had arrived and unloaded in Misrata. It had arrived on Saturday, 23 April and departed last night after offloading about 500 metric tons of food, ambulances, medical supplies and other relief items for programmes run by WFP and partner organizations. WFP continued to remain concerned, however, about access to food for people stranded in areas heavily affected by fighting, especially internally displaced people, third-country nationals and vulnerable groups. WFP was also concerned about food security and the future of the public food distribution system in Libya as food stocks were being consumed without replenishment. A recent inter-agency mission had found that food stocks in the eastern parts of the country were not being replenished at normal rates and the current stocks were enough for up to two months only. The ports of Benghazi and Tobruk were reported to be operational and it was urgent that commercial vessels returned there to restart trade. Libya was a net food importing country and if the import capacity was not restored quickly, this could lead to a massive food availability problem for the entire population of eastern Libya. An operational update was at the back of the room.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that, as fighting waged on in Misrata and other parts of Libya, the fundamental concern of the UN remained the protection of civilians. Nonetheless, more than 10,000 people had been evacuated from Misrata thanks to the efforts of the humanitarian community, the UN had established an international humanitarian presence in Tripoli, and the UN Humanitarian Air Service into and within Libya had been established for use by humanitarian agencies, donors and partners. Initial funding had been provided by the Central Emergency Response Fund. As of today, the $ 310 million Flash Appeal for Libya was funded at 42 per cent, with $ 129 million received and $ 1.4 million pledged.

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that UNHCR now estimated that some 30,000 Libyan civilians had fled their homes in Libya’s Western Mountain region and crossed to southern Tunisia over the past three weeks. Most of the refugees were ethnic Berbers who had told UNHCR staff they had fled the fighting and shelling of their towns and villages in Western Mountains. Many families had left fearing the proximity of the clashes and indiscriminate shelling. According to the latest arrivals, the towns of Nalut and Wazin in the Western Mountains region were now virtually deserted. Only a few men could be seen there - no women and children.

Less than ten per cent of Libyan arrivals into Tunisia were staying in camps. The vast majority of Libyan refugees were hosted by the local Tunisian communities, demonstrating once again their great generosity. However, these Tunisian hosts were under a growing strain as their resources were running out quickly. UNHCR was working with a number of local partners in southern Tunisia in order to ease the pressure and provide more assistance and support to the host communities. UNHCR planned to further expand these activities in the coming days.

UNHCR staff, as part of a UN inter-agency humanitarian team, had traveled from the Tunisian border to Tripoli on Sunday. The goal of the team was to re-establish an international presence in the Libyan capital, as well as to review humanitarian needs. The team was also discussing with the Libyan authorities in Tripoli humanitarian access in the west. Meanwhile in the eastern Libya, a UNHCR-chartered DC-8 airplane had arrived on Monday in Benghazi carrying relief assistance from UNHCHR’s emergency stockpile in Dubai. This was the first UN humanitarian flight to land in Benghazi. Yesterday’s consignment included 21 hospital tents, kitchen sets, as well as plastic sheets for shelter. The airlift also brought cars and equipment for UNHCR to support the opening of an office in Benghazi together with other UN agencies, said Mr. Mahecic.

As fighting continued to rage in Misrata, the families recently evacuated by boats to Tobruk from the embattled city described a catastrophic situation with many having lived in fear of indiscriminate shelling for weeks. Many houses and buildings had been destroyed and some families had to move several times. Parts of Misrata had had neither electricity nor water. Sniper fire and shelling had prevented people from venturing outside of their homes to get food and medicine, said Mr. Mahecic.

Families evacuated from Misrata also said that they had been hiding in their homes for the past two months before seizing the opportunity of a lull in fighting to get to the harbour and board a boat. They also informed UNHCR’s team that in some neighbourhoods in Misrata, pregnant women gave birth in their homes as it would have been too dangerous to make the trip to the hospital. Last week UNHCR had sent 100 tents and 1,500 blankets by ship to Misrata. These relief items were being provided by its partner to vulnerable people awaiting evacuation to safer locations in eastern Libya or to their countries of origin, said Mr. Mahecic.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said that the IOM-chartered ship “Red Star One” had sailed out of the Eastern Libyan city of Benghazi yesterday at 7 p.m. local time and was expected to arrive in Misrata. Prior to departure, the ship had been loaded with 160 tons of food and medical supplies, including ambulances. IOM-charted ships had so far evacuated about 4,500 people and delivered more than 1,470 tons of urgently needed food, water, medical supplies and other aid which had been donated by partner NGOs and the Libyan and United Arab Emirates Red Crescent Societies, among other donors.

Turning to the situation in Chad, Mr. Chauzy said that, with more than 12,000 Chadians having recently returned to Chad through the Libyan-Chadian border, IOM was focusing its activities on the border towns of Faya-Largeau and Kalait. It has accelerated its road evacuations and had already helped several thousand people reach N’Djamena. At the same time, the organization was also organizing 10 charter flights for the next 24 to 48 hours to assist weak and vulnerable returnees, while also continuing evacuations from Tunisia and Egypt.

IOM had appealed for $ 160 million for its response to the Libyan crisis. To date, however, it had only received close to $ 68 million, which had been spent on operations helping more than 117,000 migrants return to their home countries and evacuate many more from inside Libya to Egypt and Tunisia. Today, IOM once again appealed for funds to pursue its evacuation operations, both from Libya and from neighbouring countries.

Syria

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that it seemed that more than 100 people had been killed in Syria between Friday and Sunday. In addition to the list of 76 people killed during protests on Friday (referred to in the press release issued by the High Commissioner on Monday), this morning OHCHR had received more lists of individuals killed in the Syrian Government crackdown over the weekend. It appeared that at least 31 people had been killed in seven towns and cities across the country on Saturday and Sunday, 23 and 24 April, namely seven in Jebla, three in Douma, five in Berza, five in Saqba, five in Daraa, one in Jisreen and five in Hama. There had also been a large number of arrests. More arrests and killings had reportedly taken place on Monday 25 April, but OHCHR had not yet been able to verify information on these.

In a meeting with the High Commissioner last week, the Syrian Ambassador had invited OHCHR to send a mission to Syria, subject to certain conditions. OHCHR looked forward to being able to visit and independently assess the situation on the ground. In the meantime, it repeated its call to the Government to exercise restraint and fulfill its promises to investigate the killings that had happened earlier this month, as well as those over the past few days.

As the High Commissioner hat noted in her statement on Monday, the Government's response had been erratic, with announcements of welcome reforms, such as the lifting of the decades-long state of emergency, followed a few days later by tanks in the streets and more killing.

Sri Lanka

Mr. Colville said OHCHR welcomed the release late yesterday in New York of the report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka.

The report was 214 pages long, very thorough and detailed and could be accessed on the UN website at http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Sri_Lanka/POE_Report_Full.pdf. OHCHR would probably issue a press release on this later today.

Tenth anniversary of the Stockholm Convention

Michael Stanley Jones, Information Officer at the United Nations Environment Programme, said that Ministers and officials from more than 120 countries had convened yesterday and would be meeting in Geneva this week for the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). Held under the theme “Stockholm at 10: Chemical Challenges, Sustainable Solutions”, the conference marked the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Stockholm Convention, which had been concluded to protect human health and the environment from the scourge of POPs.

Over 700 participants -- representing governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and UN agencies -- were expected to attend the conference. Major attention would be given to the new POPs added under nine amendments to the Stockholm Convention last year, implementing those amendments in the work programme for the coming biennium, and considering the addition of a new POP, Endosulfan, to Annex A to the Convention, as recommended by the POPs Review Committee.

The parties would also consider adoption of recommendations on the elimination of BDEs from the waste stream and on risk reduction for PFOS. They would also consider adoption of a six–year process for evaluating the effectiveness of the Convention.

The conference included several side-events, said Mr. Stanley Jones. This evening, the first assembly of the Global Alliance for Alternatives to DDT will meet at 6.30 p.m. at the Geneva International Conference Center. The parties would consider the report from that assembly later this week.

In the evening of 27 April would take place the Switzerland premiere of “Silent Snow”, to be followed by a panel discussion featuring the film’s co-director, Jan van den Berg.

Responding to a question, Mr. Jones said the reports of the POPs Review Committee, including recommendations and analysis, were available from the Stockholm Convention website. More information could be received from Mr. Stanley Jones at 079/730 44 95 or safeplanet@unep.org.

UNCTAD Global Investment Trends Monitor

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said that UNCTAD would publish the latest Global Investment Trends Monitor at a briefing taking place tomorrow at 11 a.m. in Press Room I.

Disaster Risk Reduction Platform and Press Conference

Brigitte Leoni of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Secretariat said the third session of the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction would be held at the Geneva International Conference Center from 10 to 13 May. The programme and media advisories would be distributed to journalists.

Journalists would be briefed on that platform on Thursday, 28 April at 11 a.m. at the Club Suisse de la Presse. Speaking would be Margareta Wahlstrom, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Reduction, Toni Frisch, the Deputy Director General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and Selina Jackson, the World Bank’s Special Representative to the UN and the WTO.

Funeral for deceased WFP staff member in Southern Sudan

Ms. Casella said that a funeral would be held today in Juba for a WFP staff member who had been killed in Southern Sudan on 22 April. WFP’s Senior Programme Assistant, Santino Pigga Alex Wani, had been killed in an ambush by unknown assailants near Duk Payuel, Duk County in Jonglei State. He had been on mission with members of WFP’s partner, Joint Aid Management, when their vehicle had been attacked. Santino first started working with WFP in 2004. He was born in the Western Equatoria State capital of Yei in Southern Sudan. He left behind a wife and a teenage son and daughter.

WFP staff would be holding a memorial service for Santino and a funeral would be held today at noon in Juba.

WFP was providing food assistance to 1.5 million people in Southern Sudan, assisting returnees to the south, and helping communities to recover from decades of instability and conflict.

Other

Ms. Casella said that Daly Belgasmi, WFP’s Director for the Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, would brief the press on Thursday, 28 April at 12.30 a.m. to update on WFP’s programming for North Africa and possibly speak about the situation in Yemen and elsewhere.

Mr. Colville said that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, was leaving today for a two-day visit to Mauritania (27-28 April) at the invitation of the Government. Ms. Pillay was due to meet the President, the Prime Minister, a number of other senior ministers, the Speaker of the House, national institutions and NGOs. She would also open the Seventh Regional Workshop of Arab National Institutions.