REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which provided information about the statement by the Secretary-General on the Bali bombings; the "World Youth Report 2005"; the Secretary-General's upcoming visit to Europe; Geneva activities and other issues. Spokespersons for the Economic Commission for Europe, the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Food Programme, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration participated in the briefing. Spokespersons for the World Health Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Labour Office and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights were present but made no announcements.

Secretary-General Condemns Bali Bombings

Mrs. Heuzé said the Secretary-General had strongly condemned the bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali that had reportedly killed at least twenty people and injured many more. He was dismayed that Bali had yet again been the scene of terrorist outrage almost three years after the attacks of October 2002. He sent his deepest sympathy to the injured and the bereaved of many nationalities as well as to the Indonesian government. He urged the Indonesian authorities to act promptly in identifying and bringing the perpetrators of this cowardly attack to justice. Copies of the statement were in the press room.

World Youth Report 2005 to be Launched

Mrs. Heuzé said the "World Youth Report 2005: Young People Today and in 2015" would be launched at the noon briefing in New York today. The report, the executive summary and a media advisory were available in the Documentation Centre in the six languages of the United Nations.

Secretary-General's Upcoming Visit to Europe

Mrs. Heuzé said the Secretary-General's upcoming visit to Europe would be officially announced at the noon briefing in New York today. A note to correspondents would be issued in Geneva tomorrow concerning the Swiss-leg of the Secretary-General's trip. For planning purposes, she wished to inform journalists that the Secretary-General would be giving a press conference on Monday, 10 October.

Geneva Activities

Mrs. Heuzé said there would be a press conference this afternoon at 3:30 p.m. in Salle III on the new WHO report "Preventing Chronic Diseases: a vital investment". The report was embargoed until midnight Tuesday, 4 October.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies would be launching at 2 p.m. this afternoon the "2005 World Disasters Report: Focus on information in disasters". The launch would be held in Salle III.

Mrs. Heuzé said the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Klaus Topfer, would probably be available for a press conference around noon on Thursday, 6 October. The confirmation and further details would be available later in the day.

Other

Jean Michel Jakobowicz of the Economic Commission for Europe said available were two press releases on the timber market. The first concerned a one-day session organized on 29 September by the UNECE Timber Committee and the FAO European Forestry Commission on the role of Governments in forest certification for sustainable forest management. The second concerned the UNECE Timber Committee's analysis of the current forest products market situation in 2005 and forecast markets for 2006 in light of current policy issues. One of the Committee's findings was that the expansion of the Chinese forest products industry was causing significant consequences for the forest sector in the UNECE region.

Angela Hawke of the United Nations Children's Fund reminded journalists that there would be a media briefing on a UNICEF report on children with disabilities in Central and Eastern Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic States at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 5 October in Salle III. The report was exclusively being launched in Geneva.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said the Somali ship that had been held by pirates for some three months had been released and WFP was very happy. Another ship carrying cement which had also been held by the pirates was also freed. WFP was awaiting confirmation that the 850 tons of food aid on the Somali ship were still on board and safe. WFP had not paid any ransom and neither had the owners of the second boat.

Mrs. Berthiaume said in El Salvador, WFP was closely following the situation following the eruption of the Santa Ana volcano which forced the evacuation of 5,000 persons. WFP was already present in El Salvador where it was helping some 250,000 persons so it had been able to move quickly and to distribute aid to the evacuated persons. If there was a need, WFP would also distribute food aid.

Ron Redmond of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees reminded journalists that High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres would speak to the media around noon on Friday, 7 October, after his concluding remarks at UNHCR's Executive Committee meeting.

Mr. Redmond said a UNHCR team, accompanied by officials from the Chadian Government's refugee agency, visited a village on the Chadian border at the weekend and discovered that several hundred refugees from the Central African Republic had crossed the border in the last few days. UNHCR believed that 150 to 200 persons were currently present in Komba village. The local authorities were reporting that a total of 467 people crossed the border last week following an attack on Markounda in the north of the Central African Republic on 27 September. A second mission by UNHCR and the Chadian refugee agency would go to Komba today to see if there had been any more new arrivals and to assess their situation.

Mr. Redmond said the latest round of strategic consultations on refugees and population movements to and from Afghanistan would be held on Friday, 7 October at the Palais des Nations. It was being co-chaired by Richard Greene, Acting United States Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, and High Commissioner Guterres. Attending would be the Governments of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, donor governments and international organizations who would discuss future policy and arrangements for Afghans still outside the country and for the millions of returnees to Afghanistan.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said a new report published by the IOM office in Guatemala suggested that remittances, migration and free trade had the common goal of fighting poverty. The report titled "The Effects of the Free Trade Agreement between Central America, the United States and the Dominican Republic on Central American Migratory Processes", confirmed that free trade, migration and remittances were an essential part of a new development model delineated in the early 1990s. The report was available in Spanish on the IOM website.

Mr. Chauzy said in Kosovo, IOM and the Office of the Prime Minister had launched a province wide counter-trafficking awareness campaign which addressed the demand side of the trafficking business. This was part of IOM's on-going programme "Programme of Assistance and Reintegration for Kosovar Victims of Trafficking". In Turkey, IOM was launching a regional information hub for trafficking in the 12 nations of the Black Sea region.

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