UN Gazeti
Wednesday 21 March 2007
Issue No. 213
UN Observances
UN IN AFRICA
DARFUR: UN SEEKS NEW CAMP SITES FOR INTERNALLY DISPLACED
Camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sudan’s conflict-torn Darfur region are almost at full capacity due to a continuing influx of people fleeing violence, with 30,000 people uprooted last month alone, the United Nations reported today.
Since January 80,000 people have fled, on top of half a million others displaced in 2006. Since fighting between the Sudanese Government, allied militias and rebels seeking greater autonomy erupted almost four years, more than 200,000 people have been killed and some 2.5 million more displaced, 230,000 of them seeking refuge in neighbouring Chad.
The most recent UN humanitarian update from Darfur noted the need to locate a site for a new camp in the vicinity of El Fasher, capital of North Darfur province. A new site has been identified near Zam Zam camp, which is nearing maximum capacity.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
PAKISTANI PEACEKEEPERS RENOVATE SCHOOL IN LIBERIA
Over 200 Liberian students will benefit from a school facility recently rehabilitated by United Nations blue helmets, officials from the world body’s peacekeeping mission there said today.
At a dedication ceremony, UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) Force Commander Lt.-Gen. Chikadibia Isaac Obiakor said the school project was key to the recovery effort in Liberia, which is rebuilding following a brutal civil war.
“You have delivered a very vital instrument of recovery, growth, and development because you have decided not to give fish to the people but rather teach them how to fish for themselves,” he told the Pakistani contingent which undertook the project.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
DUTCH LAWYER APPOINTED ACTING REGISTRAR FOR UN-BACKED COURT IN SIERRA LEONE
The United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), set up to bring to justice those responsible for the worst crimes during the country’s brutal civil war, announced today that it has appointed an experienced Dutch practitioner of international law as its Acting Registrar.
Herman von Hebel, who had been serving as Deputy Registrar since last July, replaces Lovemore Munlo, SC, who is departing after one and a half years at the Special Court.
Before joining the SCSL, Mr. von Hebel worked as a lawyer for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and represented his Government in negotiations on the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC). He also served as Senior Legal Officer at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AGENCY HELPS CONGOLESE MASSACRE SURVIVORS RESETTLE IN US
The United Nations refugee agency has helped a first group of 35 Congolese who survived a massacre that killed 160 of their fellow countrymen in Burundi to start a new life in the United States, the vanguard of some 500 others who will head to US cities such as Denver, Louisville and San Francisco in the next few months.
“It is a salutary resettlement that will allow refugees with special medical needs to have better access to care,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representative in Burundi Kaba-Guichard Neyaga said as the first group left Bujumbura, the capital, on Sunday 18th March.
“Since neither local integration in Burundi nor a return to the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo] could be foreseen in the near future, this ensures these refugees are safe and have better opportunities for their families,” he added.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
CHADIAN REFUGEES MOVED DEEPER INTO SUDAN BY UNHCR
20 March 2007 – The United Nations refugee agency is helping to move hundreds of Chadians from a volatile border area to a camp deeper in Sudan at the refugees’ own request because of ongoing insecurity.
On Saturday 17th March, a first convoy of 14 trucks carrying 221 Chadian refugees and their donkeys departed from the border village of Arara, arriving the following day at Um Shalaya camp, 75 kilometres from the border and 60 kilometres from El Geneina, capital of Sudan’s West Darfur province. A second convoy was set to depart yesterday.
An estimated 20,000 Chadian refugees have crossed the border to Darfur since the end of 2005, fleeing the increased presence of various armed groups and growing insecurity, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva yesterday.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SUDANESE OBJECTIONS MEAN DARFUR PEACE FORCE ‘LONG WAY’ OFF
There is still “a long way to go” before the United Nations and the Sudanese Government can resolve their differences over the situation in the war-torn Darfur region and the proposed speedy deployment of a hybrid UN-African Union (AU) peacekeeping force to protect civilians and stop the bloodshed there, the top peacekeeping official warned on Monday.
Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told a Security Council meeting that the latest written response from Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al Bashir to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s letter detailing the planned force indicated there may be “fundamental strategic differences” over Darfur.
“We still have, unfortunately, a long way to go because there may be some fundamental misunderstandings on what are the expectations of the Government of Sudan and what is on offer,” he told journalists following the closed-door meeting.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AROUND THE WORLD
RISING RACIAL DISCRIMINATION UNDERMINES DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Although the world has made significant strides in the battle against racial discrimination in recent decades, recent reports point to “a disturbing rise” in incidents of a practice that constitutes a formidable obstacle to national development, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned today.
“Racist practices hurt their victims, but they also limit the promise of entire societies where they are tolerated,” Mr. Ban said in a message marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
“They prevent individuals from realizing their potential and stop them from contributing fully to national progress. They perpetuate deeply embedded social and economic inequalities. Where unaddressed, they can cause social unrest and conflict, undermining stability and economic growth,” he added.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
THAILAND: UN CALLS FOR END TO DEADLY ATTACKS ON SCHOOLCHILDREN
United Nations agencies today called for an end to violence against children in southern Thailand, where five children were killed recently and 12 others injured in escalating unrest in provinces bordering Malaysia.
“UN agencies working in Thailand are deeply concerned about the ongoing violence against schoolchildren in the provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla,” UN Resident Coordinator Joana Merlin-Scholtes said. “First we saw schools and teachers attacked; now children themselves are becoming targets.”
It is estimated that the conflict in southern Thailand has taken over 2,000 lives in the past three years, including 60 teachers. Over 100 schools have been burned down.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN ENVOY CALLS FOR GREATER EFFORTS TO STABILIZE AFGHANISTAN
The senior United Nations envoy to Afghanistan yesterday called on both the international community and the war-torn country’s Government to increase efforts to promote reconstruction and bring lasting stability to the “place of hope and challenge.”
Given the conflict in the south of the country and militarily vulnerable borders in the east and southeast, “the threat to peace has not diminished,” the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, told the Security Council in an open meeting that saw the participation of more than two dozen speakers.
“To be candid, international participation needs to improve,” he said, calling on donors to ensure “meaningful participation” of their representatives in international meetings on Afghanistan’s future and on the ground.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
PROBE OF FORMER LEBANESE LEADER’S KILLING EXPECTS TO REACH ‘UNIFYING THEORY’
The head of the United Nations probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri says in a new report that his team expects to develop a “unifying factual theory” behind the crime in the next three months or so, and points to Mr. Hariri’s likely 2005 election victory as a possible motive behind the killing.
Presenting the seventh report of the International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) to the Security Council, Serge Brammertz also said it unlikely that the Commission will complete its work before its mandate expires in June, and so requested more time.
“The Commission’s understanding of the facts has advanced substantially, producing valuable links within and between the main components of the case. In the next reporting period, and potentially beyond that, the Commission believes that it will be able to develop further a unifying factual theory built upon newly identified linking evidence,” the report states. The IIIC reports to the Council every three months.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
DPR KOREA FACES POTENTIAL FOOD CRISIS DUE TO LAST YEAR’S FLOODING
A potential food crisis faces the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) with serious flooding last year leading to a possible shortfall of 1 million to tonnes of grain, a fifth of total food requirement for 2007, according to an update by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the largest UN agency working in the country.
Meanwhile, far less food is coming into the country because of the Government’s decision not to accept humanitarian aid, UNICEF country representative Gopalan Balagopal said on a recent visit to his agency’s headquarters in New York.
UNICEF is currently active in six of its nine provinces with Programmes focusing on nutrition, health and education, as well as safe water and sanitation.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN ENVOY WARNS AGAINST DELAYS ON KOSOVO’S FINAL STATUS
Any delay to the process of determining Kosovo’s final status could make a sustainable solution impossible to attain, the head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission to the Serbian province (UNMIK) told the Security Council on Monday.
Joachim Rücker, who is also the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, told a closed-door Council session that there were high expectations among Kosovo’s population for a timely solution.
“It’s very important that the momentum in the status process is kept,” Mr. Rücker told journalists after the meeting, adding that he had used his briefing to inform Council members about the perceptions on the ground about the process.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG WELCOMES ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW PALESTINIAN GOVERNMENT
20 March 2007 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon views the establishment of the new Palestinian government as “an important and positive step forward” and wants to encourage that process, his spokesperson emphasized yesterday at a press briefing in New York.
The Secretary-General leaves this week for his first official trip to the Middle East since taking office in January, with stops scheduled in Egypt, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.
Ms. Montas explained that Mr. Ban had earlier expressed disappointment regarding the new government’s Programme “because he would like to see the Programme of the National Unity Government fully reflect Quartet principles.” These include commitments to non-violence, recognition of Israel and acceptance of previously signed agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
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