UN Gazeti

Wednesday 03 October 2007

Issue No. 241

UN Observances

UN IN KENYA

WORLD HABITAT DAY IN KENYA

UN-HABITAT, the Ministry of Housing as well as Thika Municipal Council have joined hands in organizing the national celebrations of this year’s World Habitat Day in Kenya.

Some of the activities in the pipeline for the event to be commemorated in Thika town, some 40 kilometers North East of Nairobi include a football tournament for both boys and girls, a bicycle race, a music road show and a radio and TV show promoting awareness on urban safety.

For more information, visit: http://www.unicnairobi.org/WHD.asp

RAPHAEL TUJU URGES INCREASED UN ROLE IN SOMALIA

The Foreign Minister of Kenya yesterday cautioned that the crisis in Somalia threatens to be overshadowed by the Darfur conflict, and called for a stepped-up United Nations role in the volatile Horn of Africa country.

“The problem with Somalia may be less visible today, having been overshadowed by the conflict in Darfur, but the Somalia crisis is far from over,” said Raphael Tuju.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

UN IN AFRICA

SECURITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS ATTACK ON AU PEACEKEEPERS IN DARFUR

The Security Council yesterday condemned last weekend’s “murderous” attack on African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Haskanita, South Darfur, and demanded that no effort be spared to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

Nearly a dozen personnel from the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) were killed in the attack, reportedly committed by a rebel group, with many more wounded and missing.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

CHAD PLEDGES FULL COOPERATION FOR NEW UN PEACEKEEPING PRESENCE

The Foreign Minister of Chad yesterday welcomed the recent creation of a United Nations-mandated, multidimensional presence in the country, pledging full support for its work on behalf of the thousands of people who have been uprooted by insecurity in the region, including the conflict-torn Darfur region of Sudan.

Ahmad Allam-Mi told the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate that the mission, to be known as MINURCAT, will help lighten the heavy burden that until now has been borne by Chadian gendarmes working to help alleviate the plight of refugees, displaced persons and others victimized by the conflict.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

UN PEACEKEEPS SHOULD BE DEPLOYED TO SOMALIA, FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS

The Foreign Minister of Somalia yesterday decried slow international action in response to the crisis in his country and urged the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping operation there to restore stability.

“Regrettably, we feel that our major efforts in nation-building and State institutions development were confronted with an unreceptive response and reticence of an inexplicable nature,” Husein Elabe Fahiye told the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate. “Collective action by this world body was less consistent and devoid of vigour, until very recently, to come to the rescue of a nation in dire need of help.”

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

UNHCR FACING NEW ‘CRITICAL’ FUNDING SHORTFALL IN SUDAN

The United Nations refugee agency yesterday reported another critical shortfall in its funding for Sudan, this time threatening its reintegration operations to help the South recover from two decades of civil war, just a week after announcing that its aid for more than 2 million people in the strife-torn western Darfur region was imperilled.

“The funding situation is so dire that transportation of refugees back home from camps in neighbouring countries to Sudan, due to pick up pace again soon after the rainy season ends, may not be able to go ahead, defeating the purpose of our work in South Sudan,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told a news briefing in Geneva of the $11.1 million shortfall.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

AT UN DEBATE, UGANDA CALLS FOR STEPPED-UP PRESSURE ON NORTHERN REBELS

Warning that peace talks “cannot go on forever,” Uganda’s Foreign Minister told the General Assembly on 1 October that the international community must step up the pressure on the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to meet its commitments under an agreement aimed at ending hostilities in the long-running civil war in the country’s north

Sam K. Kutesa told the Assembly’s annual high-level debate, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York, that the LRA has not met any of the terms of the agreement on the cessation of hostilities that it signed with the Ugandan Government in August 2006.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

SG SENDS TEAM TO CÔTE D’IVOIRE REGARDING ATTACK ON PRIME MINISTER

On the request of the President of Côte d’Ivoire for an independent international inquiry into the June attack against a plane carrying Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sent an exploratory mission to the West African country.

On 29 June, at least four people were killed when unidentified attackers fired a rocket on a plane carrying Mr. Soro as it landed at the airport in Bouaké, situated in the north of Côte d’Ivoire.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

ERITREA ACCUSES SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBERS OF ALLOWING ETHIOPIA TO DISREGARD LAW

Ethiopia seems to be planning to renounce the accord that ended its border war with Eritrea so that it can renew hostilities, the latter’s Foreign Minister told the General Assembly on 01 October, accusing some Security Council members of accommodating the interests of Ethiopia despite its repeated breaches of international law.

Speaking at the Assembly’s annual high-level debate at United Nations Headquarters in New York, Osman Saleh said “the simple truth is that Ethiopia has refused to cooperate” since 2002 with the binding decisions of a boundary commission charged with demarcating the border between the two African countries.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

UN ROLE SHOULD BE TO INCULCATE ‘CULTURE OF DEMOCRACY’ – LESOTHO SAYS

The United Nations should strive “to aggressively inculcate the culture of democracy in all nations” and discourage losing parties from using unlawful means to contest election results, Lesotho’s Deputy Prime Minister told the General Assembly on 01 October.

Archibald Lesao Lehohla told the annual high-level debate at the Assembly that all too frequently in poor countries the losing parties resort to violence and other methods to dispute the results.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

UN ACTIONS TO END DARFUR ‘GENOCIDE’ TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE – SAINT VINCENT LEADER

The killings and violence that have engulfed the Sudanese region of Darfur for the past four years constitute genocide, the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines told the General Assembly on 28 September, calling the planned hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force insufficient and too late.

Ralph Gonsalves told the Assembly’s annual high-level debate that the actions of the UN in recent years “have caused the world to wonder about the relative worth of a Sudanese or Rwandan life, versus an Israeli, Chinese, American or European life.”

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

TOGOLESE REPATRIATION FROM GHANA KICKS OFF WITH HELP OF UNHCR

A group of 176 men, women and children are the first Togolese refugees to return home from Ghana by road convoy with the assistance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

They are among 1,700 Togolese refugees in eastern Ghana’s Volta region who have registered with the agency to seize on easing tensions and return to their home country.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

PRESIDENT MUGABE LEADER URGES ‘REVITALIZED’ UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

To counter the influence of strong countries, the United Nations General Assembly must be reinvigorated and become more active in all areas, including peace and security, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe said on 26 September.

“We are for a United Nations that recognizes the equality of sovereign nations and peoples whether big or small,” Mr. Mugabe told the annual high-level debate at UN Headquarters in New York. “We are averse to a body in which the economically and militarily powerful behave like bullies, trampling on the rights of weak and smaller States, as sadly happened in Iraq.”

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

UN AROUND THE WORLD

GANDHI’S MESSAGE OF NON-VIOLENCE NEEDED NOW MORE THAN EVER – SG SAYS

The message of Mahatma Gandhi, whose peaceful struggle helped birth an independent India and inspired countless people around the world, is needed now more than ever amid rising global tensions, intolerance and conflict, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday.

Addressing the General Assembly’s first-ever observance of the International Day of Non-violence, Mr. Ban said that communities around the globe were “increasingly mired in rising intolerance and cross-cultural tensions. We see extremist dogma and violent ideologies gaining ground, as moderate forces retreat.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

NEARLY 50 COUNTRIES TAKE TREATY ACTION AT ANNUAL UN EVENT

This year’s special United Nations event to spur participation in international pacts wrapped up yesterday, with 47 countries having taken a total of 79 treaty actions.

The Focus 2007 Treaty Event – focusing on peace, development and human rights – was held on the sidelines of the General Assembly’s general debate at UN Headquarters in New York, and concluded with 40 signatures and 39 ratifications, approvals, acceptances, accessions or like actions.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

‘MARSHALL-LIKE’ PLAN NEEDED FOR AFGHANISTAN, RIAZ MOHAMMAD KHAN TELLS UN DEBATE

Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary yesterday called for the adoption of an ambitious international reconstruction plan for Afghanistan during his address to the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate.

“No country stands to gain as much as Pakistan from peace and stability in Afghanistan,” said Riaz Mohammad Khan, voicing support for “every initiative” that could help with rebuilding and national reconciliation in the war-ravaged country.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

SG CONDEMNS RECENT VIOLENCE IN TURKEY

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday spoke out against recent attacks in Turkey which have killed over a dozen people and injured at least 10.

The attacks include two bomb blasts in Izmir yesterday which reportedly left one person dead and 10 people wounded, as well as an attack on a bus on 29 September in south-eastern Turkey near the town of Beytüssebab in the Sirnak province, which reportedly killed 13 people.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

ON WORLD HABITAT DAY, SG CALLS FOR SAFER, GREENER CITIES

With two-thirds of the human race expected to be urban dwellers by 2030, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 01 October marked World Habitat Day with a call to make cities around the world safer, greener and more inclusive.

“We are at the dawn of a new urban era,” Mr. Ban stated, noting that half of the world’s population now live in towns and cities.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

PACIFIC ISLAND NATIONS SPOTLIGHT PERILS OF CLIMATE CHANGE DURING ADDRESSES TO UN

Developing countries must be allowed to make voluntary commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions under any new global agreement to deal with the effects of climate change, the Deputy Prime Minister of Tuvalu told the General Assembly on 01 October.

Tavau Teii, who is also his country’s Natural Resources and Environment Minister, said the international summit being held in Bali, Indonesia, in December, “will be very important” in determining how and whether the world can respond successfully to the impact of global warming.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

UNESCO HONOURS PROJECTS IN BELGIUM AND US FOR USING ICT TO ENHANCE LEARNING

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recognized the Claroline open source eLearning platform project, based in Belgium, and Curriki, a global education community based in the United States, for their use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education.

The two projects were selected as the winners of this year’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICT in Education by UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura, on the recommendation of an international jury and from among 68 projects in 51 countries and one non-governmental organization (NGO).

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

KOSOVO'S STATUS PROCESS CAN BE CONCLUDED SOON, TOP UN ENVOY SAYS

Following direct talks between Belgrade and Pristina, the Secretary-General's top envoy to Kosovo expressed optimism that the status process of the Serbian province - which the world body has run since western forces drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid ethnic fighting - can be concluded soon.

Direct negotiations between both sides, the first to be led by the Troika comprising the European Union, Russia and the United States, were held on 28 September in New York.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

UNREST IN MYANMAR COULD BLOCK FOOD AID FOR 500,000 PEOPLE, WFP WARNS

The restrictions Myanmar has placed on the movement of food due to the current unrest are an obstacle to feeding half a million people, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on 28 September.

“We appeal to the authorities for access to all parts of the country,” WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said. “We have to protect the most vulnerable people in the country,” most of whom are young children and HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis patients in desperate need of assistance.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

MIGIRO URGES BOOST IN DONOR FUNDING TO IMPROVE MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro has called on donor nations to keep their development aid promises, citing the lack of funding as a major reason for the slow progress in reducing maternal and child mortality.

“That in the last two decades little progress has been made on maternal and newborn health in many developing countries is a sombre commentary on the global village we live in,” Ms. Migiro told a gathering in New York on 26 September in support of a new global push to achieve the internationally agreed development targets related to health.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

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