UN Gazeti

Wednesday 20 August 2008

Issue No. 277

UN Observances

UN IN AFRICA

DEADLY ALGERIAN BOMBING SPARKS OUTRAGE FROM SECURITY COUNCIL

The Security Council has strongly condemned yesterday’s suicide bombing at a gendarmerie training academy in Algeria that has left dozens of people dead and injured many more.

Offering their condolences to the victims “of this heinous act of terrorism,” Council members issued a presidential statement stressing the need to bring the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of the bombing to justice.

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

SG SADDENED BY DEATH OF ZAMBIAN PRESIDENT

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed profound sadness yesterday after learning of the death of the President of Zambia, Levy Patrick Mwanawasa.

“Mr. Mwanawasa was at the forefront of Zambian politics at a time of exceptional challenge and change in his country,” Mr. Ban said in a statement issued by his spokesperson in which he offered condolences to the late President’s family, and the people and Government of Zambia.

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

UN-BROKERED PEACE DEAL SIGNED IN SOMALIA

Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and an opposition group have formally agreed to end all armed confrontation between them in a peace deal mediated by the top United Nations envoy to the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation.

The TFG and the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, meeting in neighbouring Djibouti, yesterday also decided to cease making inflammatory statements and to take steps to ensure the agreement goes into effect.

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

FLOODING IN WEST AFRICA PUTS LIVES AT RISK, SAYS WHO

International aid is urgently needed to reduce the risk to millions of lives in danger across West Africa due to the effects of flooding, the United Nations health agency warned yesterday.

Rising flood water and heavy rains forecasted to continue until September are exacerbating the threat of potentially deadly conditions including malaria, diarrhoea and other fatal communicable diseases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a statement.

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

FIVE KILLED IN DARFUR CAMP FLOODS, UN PEACEKEEPING MISSION REPORTS

At least five people have been killed and some 1,500 homes destroyed in floods at camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region, the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) reported yesterday.

The floods affected several camps and UNAMID said a damage assessment was under way. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the area are trying to provide water, food and sanitation, it added.

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

UNDP DONATES 500 BICYCLES TO HELP WOMEN PEDAL FOR PEACE IN UGANDA

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is contributing more than 500 bicycles to women in northern Uganda as part of its campaign to curb sexual and gender-based violence and to enhance female participation in the local peace process.

Some 516 bikes have been donated to women in four districts in the region, the scene of two decades of conflict between Government forces and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), according to a press release issued by UNDP on Friday.

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

SUDAN’S NORTH-SOUTH ACCORD FRAGILE DESPITE RECENT PROGRESS

The foundations for a durable peace in Sudan remain fragile in spite of progress in a number of areas covered by the 2005 peace agreement which ended the country’s long-running north-south civil war, a senior United Nations official said on Monday.

Briefing the Security Council on recent developments, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan, reported that implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), though behind schedule, remains on track.

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

UN AID OFFICIAL VOICES SHOCK AT KILLING OF STAFF MEMBER IN SOMALIA

The head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on Monday expressed shock and sadness at the killing of one of the agency’s staff members in southern Somalia, which has witnessed a spate of attacks on aid workers in recent months.

WFP says the details surrounding the death of Somali national Abdulkadir Diad Mohamed, who joined the agency as an administration and finance assistant in June, are still being gathered. However, it adds that all indications are that Mr. Mohammed was abducted by unidentified armed men and killed after trying to escape.

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

SG WARNS LIBERIA STILL NEEDS HELP TO PROTECT UNSTEADY PEACE

The struggle with the rule of law and competition over natural resources threatens Liberia’s fragile stability despite its economy showing significant improvement, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a report to the Security Council on Monday.

“Overall, the main threats to peace and stability emanate from the law and order maintenance issues,” Mr. Ban reported, while recommending a 12-month extension to the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) through September 2009.

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

 UN AROUND THE WORLD

FIVE YEARS AFTER BAGHDAD ATTACK, UN REMEMBERS SOME OF ITS ‘BEST AND BRAVEST’

The United Nations yesterday honoured those killed and injured in the terrorist attack on the world body’s headquarters in Baghdad five years ago, at a solemn ceremony in New York that included a classical music piece composed in memory of the fallen.

The bombing of the Canal Hotel in Baghdad on 19 August 2003 claimed the lives of 22, including the top UN envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and wounded more than 150.

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

GEORGIAN PEACE ACCORD MUST BE FULLY IMPLEMENTED, SECURITY COUNCIL HEARS

The full implementation of the principles enshrined in last week’s peace plan that ended fighting in Georgia remains the best way to defuse tensions, find a lasting solution to the conflict and allow humanitarian assistance to those in need, the top United Nations political official told the Security Council yesterday.

Briefing Council members at an open meeting, B. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said the UN was ready to facilitate international discussions to implement the accord and to take part in concrete arrangements to achieve a settlement.

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

UN MISSION ALARMED AS ANOTHER CHILD KIDNAPPING VICTIM IS KILLED IN HAITI

Officials with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti have voiced alarm at the continuing spate of kidnappings of children in the impoverished country, days after abductors killed a boy apparently because his family could not pay the ransom.

The body of the 12-year-old boy was found in Grande Ravine on Saturday, four days after he had been kidnapped, the mission (known as MINUSTAH) reported yesterday. He was the third child kidnapping victim to be killed this year.

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

UN’S WORK IN IRAQ BEST TRIBUTE TO COLLEAGUES KILLED FIVE YEARS AGO, SAYS TOP OFFICIAL

As the United Nations yesterday remembers the colleagues killed and injured in the attack on its headquarters in Baghdad in 2003, the world body’s top political official said there is no better tribute to the fallen than continuing the vital work they began in Iraq.

“The United Nations will continue to support the Government and people of Iraq as they try to rebuild their country in peace,” B. Lynn Pascoe, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, writes in an op-ed published in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

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

SECURITY COUNCIL DEPLORES RECENT GOVERNMENT OVERTHROW IN MAURITANIA

The Security Council yesterday condemned the recent overthrow of the Mauritanian Government by the country’s military and demanded the immediate release from detention of the national president and the restoration of democratic institutions.

The Council “opposes any attempts to change governments through unconstitutional means,” Ambassador Jan Grauls of Belgium, which holds the rotating Council presidency this month, said in a statement issued at the end of an open meeting on the issue.

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

UPCOMING UN CONFERENCE TO FOCUS ON DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Around 2000 civil society groups are slated to attend the upcoming annual United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) conference on non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which will focus this year on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a senior UN official said yesterday.

Kiyotaka Akasaka, Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information, told a press briefing that the DPI-NGO conference will be held in Paris from 3 to 5 September, the first time the event is being staged outside New York since it was inaugurated 61 years ago.

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

UN UPGRADES HOSPITAL FOR AFGHAN REFUGEES IN PAKISTAN

A hospital in an area in south-west Pakistan where many Afghans have taken shelter has received a facelift thanks to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and its partner, the American Refugee Committee (ARC).

The Refugee Affected and Hosting Areas (RAHA) scheme was inaugurated at District Headquarters Hospital in Pishin, Balochistan province, yesterday.

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

SG TO SET UP NEW CLIMATE CHANGE CENTRE TO SUPPORT PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced yesterday that the United Nations and Samoa plan to establish an Inter-Agency Climate Change Centre to help coordinate support to Pacific Island countries to combat the impact of global warming in their region.

Given the direct impact of climate change on vulnerable States in the region, the new agency will focus its support on the mitigation, adaptation and reduction of the risk of disaster facing the Islands, Mr. Ban said in a message to the Pacific Islands Forum Summit meeting, held in Alofi, Niue.

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

SG WELCOMES NEW UN CENTRE PUSHING FOR DISARMAMENT IN ASIA-PACIFIC

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday welcomed the launch of a new United Nations facility promoting disarmament and non-proliferation in the Asia-Pacific region.

The UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific, based in Kathmandu, Nepal, will focus on nuclear proliferation, illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons, landmines and explosive remnants of war, terrorism and organized crime, and armed conflicts.

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

TOYOTA AMONG SIX COMPANIES TO JOIN UN SCHEME TO CUT GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

The European branch of the world’s largest car maker, Toyota, on Monday became one of six companies to join the Climate Neutral Network (CN Net), a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) initiative bringing together organizations which pledge to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Toyota Motor Europe is the first car manufacturer to join CN Net, a web-based network pooling the resources of governments, local authorities, private companies and individuals to make large cuts to their carbon footprints or even neutralize them.

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

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