UN Gazeti
Wednesday 07 March 2007
Issue No. 211
UN Observances
UN IN KENYA
WFP APPEALS FOR AN END TO THE HIJACK CRISIS
As the hijacking of a United Nations World Food Programme chartered vessel off the coast of Somalia entered its tenth day, WFP urged for a swift end to the impasse, citing concerns for the welfare of the crew, as well increasing difficulties in contracting additional ships to deliver urgent food aid to hungry people.
With 12 crew members aboard, the MV Rozen was captured by pirates off the northeast coast of Somalia on Sunday, 25 February, as it returned empty to Mombasa after completing a contract delivery of WFP food aid to Bossaso and Berbera.
Six hijackers remain in control of the vessel, now anchored off Gara'ad close to the border of Puntland and the central region of Somalia. None of the crew has been released, despite appeals and interventions for their immediate safe return. WFP is in close contact with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the Puntland authorities and with the vessel's agents.
"It's vital that the crew and the vessel are released -- safely and immediately," said WFP Country Director Peter Goossens.
For more information please contact Penny Ferguson, email address: penny.ferguson@wfp.org
UN IN AFRICA
UN ENVOY SAYS PARTIES IN DAFUR MUST CEASE ALL FIGHTING
As the Security Council met yesterday in closed session on the situation in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region, a senior United Nations envoy told reporters that the parties must cease all fighting and improve conditions for the delivery of relief aid in order to facilitate the political process.
Jan Eliasson, who was in Sudan last month on a joint diplomatic mission with Salim Ahmed Salim of the African Union (AU), pointed out that both the Government as well as non-signatories to last year’s Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) said that there is no military solution to the conflict.
“We have met with understanding on pushing this process forward,” he said. “The Government has indicated a willingness to have negotiated amendments to the DPA and is not taking a ‘take it or leave it attitude’; on the other hand they don’t want a renegotiation of the DPA.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG PRAISES GHANA ON ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY
As Ghana marked its 50th anniversary yesterday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulated the West African country, one of the first to attain independence, for serving as an example for freedom movements across the continent and also for its enthusiastic support for the world body.
The people of Ghana can look proudly back at their history and know that their country served as “an inspiration to the freedom struggles of people all over Africa,” Mr. Ban said in a statement delivered in the capital Accra by his Special Adviser on Africa, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila.
Mr. Ban hailed the previous UN chief, Ghanaian Kofi Annan whose tenure ended at the end of last year, as his “esteemed predecessor” and “great son of this country who made an indelible contribution to the United Nations and its mission for a better world.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
68,000 MAURITANIAN CHILDREN FACE CUT IN UN FOOD RATIONS
Up to 68,000 young children in Mauritania, already threatened by malnutrition, will have their rations reduced or cut completely at the most critical time of the year unless substantial new contributions are forthcoming, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned yesterday.
“We are raising the flag early,” WFP Country Director Gian Carlo Cirri said, noting that the agency requires a further $14.4 million for its Mauritania operation this year amid concerns that funding has largely dried up in recent months despite the imminent onset of the annual ‘lean season,’ when poor families routinely struggle to find enough to eat.
“We need these funds urgently to ensure there is no break in deliveries to hundreds of feeding centres across the worst affected parts of the country. The system is in place; we absolutely have to keep it supplied.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN REFUGEE AGENCY LAUNCHES $56 MILLION SUDAN APPEAL
The United Nations refugee agency launched a $56.1-million appeal yesterday, to help more than 125,000 southern Sudanese refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) return home this year and reintegrate into their communities in a region where two decades of civil war uprooted some 4.5 million people.
Since a peace deal was signed in January 2005 between the Sudanese Government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLA), an estimated 102,000 refugees have already returned home, including 32,400 under the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) voluntary repatriation Programme. An estimated 850,000 IDPs have also returned to south Sudan, mostly using their own means.
“Against a backdrop of landmines, human rights abuses and the almost total destruction of infrastructure and services, ensuring return and reintegration in safety and dignity and contributing to rebuilding economic, social, civil and political life are major undertakings, not just for UNHCR but for all partners involved,” the agency said in launching the appeal. “Despite considerable achievements during the past two years, many receiving communities are still struggling to absorb returnees.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN ENVOY ON CHILDREN IN CONFLICT ON A SIX-DAY MISSION IN DRC
The top United Nations envoy on children and armed conflict is currently on a six-day mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to ensure greater protection for youngsters in the immediate post-conflict phase and peace consolidation process as the vast country emerges from years of civil war and factional fighting.
Special Representative Radhika Coomaraswamy will pay particular attention to the issues of children associated with armed groups, sexual violence and impunity. “The UN Special Representative will have a constructive dialogue with the Government on these important issues,” her office said in a statement, noting that she will meet with relevant non state parties, civil society, non-government organizations (NGOs) and children affected by conflict “in the effort to address grave violations against children.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AROUND THE WORLD
SG VOICES OUTRAGE OVER PILGRIM BOMBINGS IN IRAQ
Condemning blasts in Iraq yesterday targeting Shi’as on a religious pilgrimage, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the country’s leaders to use their influence to protect civilians and promote dialogue among all communities.
“The Secretary-General is outraged by the series of bomb attacks in Iraq yesterday on Shi’a pilgrims who were making their way to the holy city of Karbala,” a spokesperson for Mr. Ban said.
“He condemns these heinous acts, which appear to be aimed at provoking sectarian strife,” spokesperson Michele Montas said of the attacks, which reportedly killed scores of innocent Iraqis.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG OFFERS AID AFTER DEADLY QUAKE HITS INDONESIA
Expressing his sadness at a deadly earthquake that hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra yesterday, killing up to 100 people and injuring over 70 others, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated the world body’s offer of emergency help, while an inter-agency aid team prepared to fly out to the devastated area and specialized UN disaster officers were placed on stand-by.
“The United Nations has been in contact with the Government of Indonesia and stands ready to lend its assistance to efforts to respond to humanitarian needs created by the disaster, including by using existing resources and providing grants from emergency funds, and to mobilize international support for that response,” Mr. Ban said in a statement by his spokesperson, conveying condolences to the victims.
An inter-agency emergency team out of the Indonesian capital Jakarta and Aceh in northern Sumatra, comprising staff from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN World Food Programme (WFP), UN World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), is scheduled to arrive in the area today, OCHA said.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG URGES KOREA’S COOPERATION IN AUDIT OF UN ACTIVITIES
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to help facilitate an external audit of the world body’s funds and Programmes there.
“Your continued cooperation would be much appreciated to allow the audit to be completed in a timely manner,” Mr. Ban said in a letter dated 28 February and made public yesterday which was addressed to Pak Gil Yon, the Permanent Representative of the DRPK to the UN.
In the letter, Mr. Ban recalled that earlier this year, he initiated an evaluation of UN Programmes in several countries, of which the DPRK was one. On further review, it was decided further work was necessary to ensure that UN operations in the country were in line with the world body’s rules and regulations.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
NEW COMMISSIONER TAKES OVER AS HEAD OF UN POLICE IN KOSOVO
A veteran British police officer with wide experience in international law enforcement has taken over as the new United Nations police commissioner in Kosovo after his predecessor was asked to resign following the deaths of two people in a clash with pro-independence demonstrators in the Albanian-majority Serbian province.
Richard Monk, first Director and Senior Police Adviser to the Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) from 2002 to 2006, was appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to replace Stephen J. Curtis, who stepped down last month.
Mr. Ban’s Special Representative in Kosovo Joachim Rücker asked for Mr. Curtis’s resignation after police used rubber bullets against pro-independence demonstrators in the province, which the UN has run ever since North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid brutal ethnic fighting.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
BETTER HAND HYGIENE COULD CUT HEALTH CARE-LINKED INFECTIONS – UN
With some 1.4 million people suffering from health care-associated infections at any given time, United Nations health officials are urging Latin America and Caribbean countries to join a global effort to improve hand hygiene and related practices in hospitals and care facilities to help reduce the growing number of deaths and illnesses.
“There are effective strategies to improve hand hygiene and other basic practices that, if implemented by PAHO/WHO [UN Pan American Health Organization and UN World Health Organization] member countries, will save lives and reduce the largely preventable burden of health care-associated infections,” WHO World Alliance for Patient Safety Chairman Liam Donaldson told a regional workshop on Monday.
The workshop – Clean Care is Safer Care – in San José, Costa Rica, was convened to develop a regional strategy for reducing health care-associated infections, also called nosocomial infections, in the region through better hand hygiene and other improvements in infection-control practices, clinical procedures and surveillance. Participants include experts on infection prevention and control from 21 countries.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
HAITI: UN PEACEKEEPERS COMPLETE PHASE 1 OF ANTI-GANG CRACKDOWN
United Nations peacekeepers and Haitian police have completed the first phase of a crackdown on armed gangs in one of the violence-ridden country’s most dangerous areas, the Cité Soleil neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, the capital, arresting dozens of criminals and converting gang headquarters into medical and social centres.
“We’ve got a good catch,” UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) spokesman David Wimhurst told the UN News Service on 2nd March of the security operation which began in late December and ended on 28 February. “We’ve taken over all of the gangs’ buildings and locations. We’re patrolling the streets and delivering aid.
“It was a very good operation. The local people are pleased that once again they can lead a normal life. What we need now is to get the schools and clinics up and running, and water and other services delivered.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
For more information on the United Nations and its activities, please visit the main U.N website at www.un.org or the U.N Kenya website at www.un-kenya.org
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