REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which provided information about new statements by the Secretary-General on Western Sahara and the Middle East, a report of the Secretary-General on the situation in the Darfur region of Sudan, a new report from the World Health Organization on the Millennium Development Goals, the humanitarian situation on the Central African Republic and the second anniversary of the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad. Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees participated in the briefing. Spokespersons for the International Telecommunication Union and the International Organization for Migration were present but had no announcements.

Secretary-General

With regard to Western Sahara, Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said that Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday welcomed the decision by the Frente POLISARIO (Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro) to release all remaining 404 Moroccan prisoners of war, who are being repatriated to Morocco by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The Secretary-General described the release as “a positive step,” and he expressed his hope that it would serve to foster better relations between the parties and contribute to overcoming the present political impasse. He also reiterated his call on the Kingdom of Morocco, and on the Frente POLISARIO, to continue cooperating with the ICRC to account for those who are still missing. Copies of a statement were made available in the press room.

The Secretary-General commended the decision of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel to carry through with the process of disengagement from the Gaza Strip and part of the northern West Bank and condemned the terror attack of 17 August against Palestinian civilians. Copies of the Secretary-General’s statement were made available in the press room.

In his report concerning Darfur, Secretary-General Annan noted that, while deaths from clashes between Sudanese Government forces and armed factions in Darfur have declined, looting and rebel attacks against civilians and aid workers has intensified insecurity in the war-torn region. He underlined that the parties had a clear responsibility to improve the situation and called upon them to seize the opportunity of the African Union-led peace talks reconvening next week in Abuja to negotiating an end to the conflict. Copies of the report of the Secretary-General were available in the documentation centre.

Today, the Secretary-General will be accepting the “2005 Award for Global Excellence” in Accra, Ghana. The award is being bestowed on a citizen of Ghana who has distinguished himself in the international arena, especially in championing the cause of world peace, and the eradication of poverty and diseases worldwide.

Anniversary of Bombing of United Nations Headquarters in Baghdad

In commemoration of the two-year anniversary of the bombing of United Nations Headquarters in Baghdad in which 22 people lost their lives and hundreds more were injured, a brief ceremony will be held at the Salle des Pas Perdus today at 12:00 p.m. The ceremony will start at 12:00 p.m. with a minute of silence, following which the Director-General of United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordhonikidze, will deliver a message of the Secretary-General and lay a wreath with a staff representative.

Activities in Geneva

Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier drew attention to the press release issued on the plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament held yesterday.

Correspondents were also reminded that Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination will conclude its 67th session today and that a press conference was scheduled to take place in Room III immediately following the regular briefing. The Chairman of the Committee, the Vice-Chairman and the Coordinator on Follow-up Activities was expected to brief the press on the outcomes of the current session.

Human Rights

Praveen Randhawa of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said at a press conference held today in Kathmandu, OHCHR’s Nepal office released reports of two investigations into possible violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.

The first report pertained to two attacks on public buses during which civilians were killed - one in the district of Chitwan on 6 June 2005 and the second in Kabhrepalanchok on 10 June 2005. The report of OHCHR’s investigation into the attack on public buses deplored the loss of life and injury caused by these attacks. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) was found to be responsible for the killing of civilians and to have been in violation of its international humanitarian law obligations. The investigation also found the State authorities to have been in breach of its international humanitarian law responsibilities through its failure to take precautions to protect the civilian population, in the context of the RNA’s repeated and regular use of public transportation facilities.

The second report condemned the violent abduction, abuse and murder of six civilians (three women, two men and a one-year old child) in Banbehda in the early hours of 14 June 2005. The Office has not been able to reach a conclusion as to the identity of the perpetrators, but the report noted that the acts suggest a level of premeditation and organization. The report urged the police to continue its own criminal investigation and calls upon the CPN (Maoists) to conduct an enquiry, to establish whether any of its local cadres were involved and to make its findings public.

Copies of both reports were available in the press room.
Central African Republic

Turning to the situation in the Central African Republic, Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs said from 6 to 7 August, torrential rains hit the southern part of the country where heavy downpours caused damage to the capital city of Bangui and particularly affected the poorest and most heavily populated districts. The floods affected more than 9,000 people and over 600 homes were completely destroyed and 800 damaged. On 11 August, a United Nations Inter-Agency Assessment Mission visited part of the affected areas but could only carry out a limited assessment, as most of the land was inaccessible. In response, the Government established a task force to manage the crisis and mobilized military engineers and OCHA has set up a coordination mechanism.

Jennifer Pagonis of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees stated that over the last eight days some 4,000 refugees from the Central African Republic have crossed the border into South Chad, according to the Chadian authorities. The new arrivals told UNHCR they were fleeing attacks by unidentified armed groups on 7 and 9 August on villages in the Paoua region. This was the third major wave of CAR refugees to South Chad. In June this year, some 10,000 CAR refugees crossed the border following clashes between Government forces and unidentified armed groups. And, in 2003, about 30,000 refugees crossed into Chad after a military coup.

Other

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization drew attention to a new report from the WHO on the Millennium Development Goals which correspondents would find at the following website – ftp://ftp.who.int/pub/outgoing/. The report was under embargo until Monday, 22 August at 0930 (GMT). In that connection, a press conference will be held in Room III at 11:30 a.m. with Dr. Andrew Cassels, Director of the MDGs, Health and Development Policy (HDP) at the WHO and Ms. Carla Abou-Zahr, Interim Executive Secretary of the Health Metrics Network, Measurement and Health Information Systems (MHI). The embargoed report was made available in the press room.

Ms. Chaib made mention of another WHO report on the geographical spread of the H5N1 avian influenza in birds concerning the risks and implications of the disease for human health. Citing one example, in Kazakhstan, several villages bordering the initial outbreak site in Siberia were now known to have experienced disease in poultry and, to date, close to 120,000 birds have died or have been destroyed in Russia and more than 9,000 affected in Kazakhstan as a result of the disease.

Ms. Chaib announced that an additional note would be available on WHO’s website regarding a statement made by the Saudi Arabian Minister for Health who announced that all people under the age of 15 will have to get a polio vaccination in order to enter the country. This is a result of two recent cases of polio recorded in the country. The Saudi authorities have also issued a list of countries where people under 15 years of age were obliged to get a polio vaccination in order to enter Saudi Arabia.

Ms. Pagonis of UNHCR announced that the High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, was scheduled to set off on a ten-day mission to visit UNHCR operations in the Darfur region of Sudan, Chad, Southern Sudan and Kenya. The situation in Sudan, both in Darfur and in the South, were of key importance to UNHCR with some 200,000 refugees from Darfur in 12 camps in neighbouring eastern Chad and hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people within Darfur with serious protection needs.

UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner Kamel Morjane has accepted a new appointment as Tunisia’s Defence Minister, Ms. Pagonis announced. Mr. Morjane was in Tunis today to be sworn in to the new cabinet. He is expected to take up his new post in early September.

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