UN Gazeti
Thursday 21 January 2009
Issue No. 03
UN Observances
UN IN AFRICA
UN ENVOY ENCOURAGES SOMALI PARTIES TO ‘GET IT RIGHT’ IN FORMING NEW GOVERNMENT
The top United Nations envoy for Somalia yesterday voiced his hope that talks in Djibouti aimed at forming a unity government will succeed and bring stability to the strife-torn nation that has not had a functioning central government since 1991.
“This is a key moment for Somalia and it is extremely important to get it right, after almost two decades of violence,” said the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, as the High-level Committee, comprising delegates from the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS), continue discussions.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
CONGOLESE DISPLACED BY UGANDAN REBELS WILL BEGIN RECEIVING AID
The flood of Congolese civilians fleeing raids by the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) are in dire need of food, shelter, medicines, clothes and other aid items, and United Nations’ relief will begin reaching them tomorrow despite immense logistical challenges, the Organization’s refugee agency said yesterday.
“This remote and increasingly unstable area poses immense logistical challenges for aid agencies due to the lack of roads or their poor condition,” Ron Redmond, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said, following renewed assaults in the north-east Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) over the past week.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
INCLUSIVE DIALOGUE KEY TO ALL OTHER PROGRESS IN CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
Without concrete and substantive progress in inclusive political dialogue in the Central African Republic (CAR), efforts to achieve improvement in security, rule of law and development will remained stalled in a country that is beset by unrest, widespread displacement and entrenched poverty, according to United Nations report released yesterday.
“There is also a general awareness that progress has to be simultaneous on all three fronts,” says the report of the UN Peacebuilding Commission mission that visited CAR last autumn.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN OFFICIAL APPLAUDS LIBERIAN POLICE AFTER A RECORD NUMBER OF FEMALE OFFICERS GRADUATE
A record number of over 100 newly-trained women police officers, making up two-thirds of the cadets completing the training for the Liberia National Police (LNP), prompted a senior United Nations official to hail the progress made since the first batch of recruits passed through the gates of the National Police Training Academy in 2005.
“LNP now has 3,800 officers trained in modern policing methods and techniques,” said Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, the Deputy Head of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), speaking at a graduation ceremony on Saturday.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SOLID PEACE IN WEST AFRICA REQUIRES COLLABORATION IN MEETING CHALLENGES
West Africa continues to strengthen its hold on peace and stability, but the 15-nation region needs a well-coordinated approach to overcome food uncertainty and the effects of the global financial downturn, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a report released on Monday.
Mr. Ban calls on the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA) to continue to facilitate closer cooperation among UN agencies, sub-regional organizations and other actors to meet those challenges, as well as election-related issues, security sector reform, human rights, transitional justice, and the rule of law.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN-SUPPORTED PROGRAMME HELPS AFRICAN ORPHANS IN FIGHT AGAINST HUNGER AND AIDS
A United Nations-backed scheme aimed at reducing hunger and the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people in Kenya has brought hope to children from the ancestral homeland of United States President-Elect Barack Obama.
Nyanza Province, home to Mr. Obama’s father, has the highest HIV prevalence in Kenya with about one in six people living with the fatal disease, leaving a legacy of thousands of orphans struggling for food and to stay in school.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
ZIMBABWE RECEIVES $5 MILLION BOOST FROM UNICEF IN FIGHT AGAINST CHOLERA OUTBREAK
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have announced a $5 million donation for Zimbabwe’s besieged health sector to help it battle an out-of-control cholera epidemic and the effects of collapsing health services.
The death toll in the southern African country’s worst ever cholera outbreak has now topped 2,000, with over half the estimated 40,000 diagnosed cases in the capital, Harare.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
ENVOY HAILS PROGRESS IN UN-BACKED TALKS TO HALT VIOLENCE IN EASTERN DR CONGO
The top United Nations official in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Monday welcomed progress toward a key agreement between the Congolese Government, Rwanda and a rebel militia that last year launched a devastating offensive in the eastern region of the vast central African country.
“If this accord brings a genuine cessation of hostilities between the Congolese parties, it would be a truly significant advance toward peace,” Alan Doss, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for the DRC said in a statement released on Monday.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
WITH 30,000 CIVILIANS AT RISK, UN URGES HALT TO RENEWED CLASHES IN SOUTH DARFUR
18 January 2009 – The senior United Nations humanitarian official in Sudan has called for an end to the renewed fighting in southern Darfur's Muhajeria area, which has exposed about 30,000 people to previously unseen levels of violence, destroyed an aid agency's office and forced the world body to relocate its staff.
Acting UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan Kenro Oshidari deplored the loss of life and injury to civilians in the area, where the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Sudan Liberation Army/ Minni Minawi (SLA/MM) have clashed in recent days.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AROUND THE WORLD
SECRETARY GENERAL GETS FIRST-HAND LOOK AT GAZA DEVASTATION
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the war-shattered Gaza Strip yesterday to demonstrate solidarity with the population and assure them of the full support of the United Nations and the international community.
“I am just appalled,” he said on visiting the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) compound that was bombed by Israel last week. “Everyone is smelling this bombing still. It is still burning. It is an outrageous and totally unacceptable attack against the United Nations.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
BRAVERY OF OWN STAFF WAS INSPIRATION FOR TOP UN OFFICIAL IN GAZA DURING ISRAELI OFFENSIVE
In the darkest hours of Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza, when his own headquarters was shelled and went up in flames, when children were dying or being horrifically injured, the top United Nations official on the ground drew inner strength from the bravery of his own staff – and from a vision from his own homeland, Ireland, of reconciliation between implacable foes.
“I drew it from the staff around me,” Gaza Director of Operations of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) John Ging told the UN News Centre in a Newsmaker interview.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SECRETARY GENERAL CALLS FOR STEPPED UP EFFORTS TO ACHIEVE NUCLEAR-WEAPON-FREE WORLD
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday called on nations to build on the momentum generated by recent progress made towards disarmament to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
“From conventional weapons and small arms to weapons of mass destruction, the risks are clear,” Mr. Ban said in a message to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
MEMBER STATES BEGIN PREPARATORY TALKS FOR UPCOMING UN ANTI-RACISM CONFERENCE
A working group made up of United Nations Member States has begun formal negotiations on a draft outcome document for the so-called Durban Review Conference later this year, which will examine the progress made worldwide since the 2001 global anti-racism summit held in the South African city.
The review conference will be held in Geneva in April to monitor and accelerate progress towards the implementation of measures adopted at the landmark 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN CONDEMNS TALIBAN USE OF CHILDREN AS VICTIMS AND PERPETRATORS OF SUICIDE BOMBINGS
A senior United Nations official on Monday strongly condemned the increasing number of attacks using and targeting children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including both as victims and perpetrators of suicide bombings, which have been claimed by the Taliban and other armed groups.
“Children must be protected and not targeted,” UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy said in a statement, calling on the Taliban and others to immediately stop using children and cease attacks against civilians.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN ENVOY IN IRAQ CONDEMNS KILLING OF DIGNITARY, OPENS ANTITERRORISM WORKSHOP
The top United Nations envoy in Iraq on Monday condemned in the strongest terms the third assassination of a political figure in the country in the past three weeks, calling on the Government to guarantee safe and democratic campaign for provincial elections slated to be held at the end of this month.
The Secretary-General’s Special Represenative Staffan de Mistura expressed deep sorrow over the death of Sheikh Hassan Zaidan al-Luhaibi, who, along with family members, was killed yesterday by a suicide bomber in Nineveh province.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN PROVIDES CASH, ASSISTANCE TO FLOOD-BELEAGUERED IN FIJI
The United Nations has been providing assistance to Fiji, where recent heavy rains have claimed 11 lives and forced over 10,000 people from their homes.
The Pacific island nation’s National Disaster Management Office reported that the flooding, caused by rains which fell mainly between 7 and 10 January, will recede over the coming days, allowing people to return to their homes. But it cautioned that Fijians still face health, sanitation and livelihood challenges.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES HIT HARD BY DOWNTURN IN FOREIGN INVESTMENT, UN REPORTS
Hitting business in the developed world hardest, foreign direct investment (FDI) dropped by over 20 per cent last year and is projected to fall further in 2009, according to a new United Nations report which warned policy-makers to resist calls for more protectionism to aid recovery.
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) publication estimated that flows of investment made by corporations outside of their own country have fallen by an average of 21 per cent worldwide to an estimated $1.4 trillion.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
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