UN Gazeti
Wednesday 25 October 2007
Issue No. 244
UN Observances
| 24 October |
United Nations Day |
| 25 October |
Launch of GEO 4 |
| 29 November |
International day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People |
UN IN KENYA
ABBAS GULLET NAMED UN IN KENYA PERSON OF THE YEAR
The United Nations in Kenya, on the occasion of UN Day on 24 October, has decided to award the 2007 "UN in Kenya Person of the Year" to Mr. Abbas Gullet, Secretary General of Kenya Red Cross Society.
Speaking for the UN agencies based in the country, the United Nations Resident Coordinator Elizabeth Lwanga said: "Today the United Nations family in Kenya recognizes Abbas Gullet for his important contributions in making the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) the first place the Government of Kenya and locally based humanitarian organizations look to for leadership in times of national emergencies.
For more information: http://www.unicnairobi.org/UNPOY07.asp
UN IN AFRICA
TOP UGANDAN REBEL SURRENDERS IN NEIGHBOURING DR CONGO
A senior commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army, the northern Ugandan rebel group, has surrendered in the northeast of the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations peacekeeping mission to that country reported yesterday.
Patrick Opiyo Mayasi and his wife gave themselves up, along with their weapons and ammunitions, to Congolese border police earlier this month and have been transferred to the DRC capital, Kinshasa.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
WFP STAFF RELEASED IN MOGADISHU
The head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed the release today of Idris Osman, officer-in-charge of WFP’s office in Mogadishu, detained by authorities in the Somali capital since 17 October.
“We welcome the release of Idris Osman, and are pleased that he will be reunited with his family,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran at WFP headquarters in Rome.
For more information, visit: http://www.wfp.org
NEW UN SUDAN ENVOY ARRIVES IN KHARTOUM FOR MEETINGS WITH TOP-LEVEL OFFICIALS
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's new Special Representative for Sudan arrived yesterday in the country's capital, Khartoum, where he is expected to hold meetings with top-level officials.
Ashraf Jahangir Qazi, who also heads the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), is expected to meet over the next few days President Omar Al Bashir, First Vice President and President of the Government of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir, and senior officials of the Government of National Unity and the Government of Southern Sudan.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
FIGHTING IN NORTH KIVU FORCES THOUSANDS TO FLEE TO UGANDA
A flare-up of fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) North Kivu province, where Government forces have been clashing with those loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda and other groups, is sending thousands of people across the border into neighbouring Uganda, the United Nations refugee agency reported yesterday.
“An estimated 8,000 Congolese refugees who fled to Bunagana in Uganda over the weekend were still there this morning,” Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva. “This is the third such influx into Uganda since August amid the spiralling conflict in North Kivu.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG - RISK OF PROTRACTED STATUS QUO AND NEGOTIATIONS ON WESTERN SAHARA
The recent two rounds of United Nations-sponsored talks between Morocco and the Frente Polisario on Western Sahara were positive but they could not be described as negotiations, given the two sides largely rejected each other’s views, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in his latest report on the issue.
Mr. Ban says “we now risk entering a protracted stage of negotiations and status quo” on Western Sahara, with more direction needed from the Security Council before any substantive negotiations can begin.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
CONGOLESE WAR CRIMES SUSPECT APPEARS BEFORE ICC
Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga on 22 October made his first appearance before the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he faces charges of murder, sexual enslavement, forcing children to serve as soldiers and other war crimes.
The senior commander of the group Force de Résistance Patriotique en Ituri (FRPI), which has been active in fighting in the far east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is only the second suspect to appear before the ICC.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNESCO CHIEF CONDEMNS ASSASSINATION OF BASHIR NOR GEDI
The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on 22 October condemned the assassination of Bashir Nor Gedi the chief executive of a popular radio station.
“I am gravely concerned about worsening violence against journalists and media personnel in Somalia who are brave enough to fulfil their professional commitments in such a dangerous environment,” said UNESCO chief Koïchiro Matsuura.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN PEACEKEEPERS OPEN RESOURCE CENTRE FOR LIBERIAN SCHOOLCHILDREN
About 600 students will benefit from technical and vocational skills training at a new resource centre equipped with computers, sewing machines and a library, courtesy of Pakistani peacekeepers serving with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
The Pakistan-Liberia Friendship Centre is located in C. H. Deway High School in Tubmanburg, some 60 kilometres west of Monrovia, the capital of the West African nation that is seeking to recover from a brutal civil war that killed almost 150,000 people.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
ETHIOPIA AGREE ON PLAN TO SEND AID TO EASTERN AREAS
The United Nations on 18 October announced plans with the Government of Ethiopia aimed at ensuring that much needed emergency relief food, medicines and other assistance reach the country's Somali Regional State.
“The Ethiopian Government has assured the UN that humanitarian activities within Somali region will be unrestricted,” said Fidele Sarassoro, UN Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Representative. “These developments are very good news for the people of the region.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
RWANDAN ON RUN FROM UN WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL ARRESTED IN FRANCE
French authorities have arrested a Rwandan national and former public official who had been on the run from the United Nations war crimes tribunal set up after the 1994 genocide in the African country.
Dominique Ntawukuriryayo, who faces charges over a notorious massacre in which up to 25,000 Tutsis were killed over a five-day period, was detained earlier this week by French police in the town of Carcassonne, UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters on 18 October.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AROUND THE WORLD
ANNUAL UN DAY CELEBRATIONS SPAN THE GLOBE
From the planting of some 2,000 trees in Ethiopia to the opening of an exhibition inside one of Asia’s largest shopping malls to a public forum in Afghanistan to the staging of classical music concerts in New York and Geneva, people around the world are marking United Nations Day, which celebrates the day in 1945 when the Organization was born.
In Addis Ababa, UN staff members are planting up to 2,000 trees in a national park above the Ethiopian capital and holding their traditional flag-raising ceremony as part of a series of events to observe the Day.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
AT UN ASSEMBLY, MINISTERS DISCUSS NEW PUSH TO FINANCE DEVELOPMENT
The future of development financing is under discussion at a High-Level United Nations event in New York that has attracted the participation of ministers, central bank governors, government delegates and representatives of business and civil society, meeting to advance a 2002 agreement made in Monterrey, Mexico.
“Progress in implementing the Monterrey Consensus has been mixed,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the General Assembly High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development, which opened yesterday, referring to the understanding which emerged from the Mexico conference based on developing countries taking primary responsibility for mobilizing domestic resources and developed countries agreeing to promote an environment conducive to this effort.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
WHO PROJECTS DRAMATIC EXPANSION OF FLU VACCINE STOCKS
The projected supply of influenza vaccines in case of a global pandemic has soared this year, but medical officials should accelerate rather than relax their efforts to prepare for an outbreak, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) warned yesterday.
Experts anticipate that the world will be capable of producing 4.5 billion pandemic immunization courses per year by 2010, WHO said in a press release issued at its headquarters in Geneva.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SECURITY COUNCIL CALLS FOR BOOST TO WOMEN’S ROLE IN PEACE AND SECURITY
Recognizing the recent progress towards including women in the search for peace, justice and reconciliation, the Security Council yesterday urged countries and the United Nations system to enhance female participation in decision-making and to take specific steps to protect women and girls from gender-based violence during conflicts.
In a presidential statement adopted at the end of a day-long open meeting, the Council noted the “constant underrepresentation of women in formal peace processes,” and called for enhancing their role in matters related to the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
ORGANIZED RADIO COMMUNICATION CONFERENCE OPENS IN GENEVA
The United Nations telecommunication agency on 22 October opened an international conference on radio communications that aims to examine the worldwide use of radio frequencies and meet the global demand for spectrum.
More than 1,500 delegates attended the opening day of the World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) reported. It is the first time the conference has been held since mid-2003.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG SAYS, DISARMAMENT MUST REMAIN AT TOP OF GLOBAL AGENDA
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for energetic efforts to achieve disarmament, pointing out that weapons of mass destruction pose a “very real threat” to all of humanity.
“Developments in science and technology are raising hopes that new innovations could contribute to improving the quality of life of people throughout the world,” Mr. Ban said in a message on 21 October to the 57th Pugwash Conference, held in Bari, Italy.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG PROPOSES EXPEDITING HEADQUARTERS RENOVATION PROJECT
Citing the need to make up for lost time and move ahead with renovating the United Nations Headquarters complex in New York, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has proposed a revised strategy that is “less risky, less expensive and faster” in the long run than the current seven-year, $1.9 billion plan.
“The schedule has slipped,” Mr. Ban writes in his latest progress report on the UN Capital Master Plan (CMP), noting a slowdown in the project owing to planning and scheduling delays, as well as the loss of leadership following the resignation last year of the project’s Executive Director.
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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