REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by spokespersons and representatives of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the European Organization for Nuclear Research and the Universal Postal Union. Representatives of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the World Health Organization were also present to respond to questions from journalists.
Situation in South Ossetia (Georgia)
Ms. Heuzé said that the Secretary-General had urged all parties to the conflict in South Ossetia (Georgia) to immediately end hostilities and to engage, without delay, in negotiations to achieve a peaceful settlement. In that regard, the Secretary-General had welcomed international efforts to assist the parties in resolving the situation. He believed that for the success of that endeavour, all armed contingents which had not been authorized by respective agreements on South Ossetia should leave the zone of conflict. The Secretary-General had also urged all parties to respect the principle of the territorial integrity of States enshrined in the Charter, to refrain from actions that could undermine efforts to settle the longstanding conflicts in Georgia. The Secretary-General also underscored the need for immediate steps to be undertaken in order to address the humanitarian crisis in the region.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said OCHA was seriously concerned about the reports of violence in South Ossetia and of aerial bombardments in other parts of Georgia. For security reasons, no UN agency had yet been able to carry out an assessment mission or assistance operations in South Ossetia. UN agencies had, however, been able to obtain access to Gori.
Ms. Byrs said the UN agencies were consolidating their response capacities in Georgia and, as soon as the security situation permitted it, would conduct rapid assessments of the humanitarian needs with a view to providing assistance and support to civilians. OCHA urged the parties to the conflict to allow humanitarian organizations unimpeded access to the affected areas and to enable medical personnel and ambulances to reach the sick and wounded. OCHA remained very concerned that an escalation of the fighting would lead to greater civilian deaths, injury and displacement and called on all parties to the conflict to refrain from further fighting.
Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said the first UNHCR humanitarian airlift flight carrying relief supplies for civilians affected by the South Ossetia conflict had arrived in Georgia this morning as the estimated number of people uprooted by the fighting approached 100,000. A UNHCR-chartered Boeing 707 cargo plane had landed at Tbilisi airport at 11.45 a.m. local time, carrying 34 tons of tents, jerry cans, blankets and kitchen sets from UNHCR’s central emergency stockpile in Dubai. The airlift and other emergency response activities, including additional staff deployments, were being financed through a $2 million withdrawal from UNHCR’s emergency reserve that had been approved yesterday by High Commissioner António Guterres.
Mr. Redmond underlined it was the first UN humanitarian flight to reach Georgia since the fighting in the breakaway region of South Ossetia had erupted on Friday. A second UNHCR flight was scheduled tomorrow from Copenhagen, another of UNHCR’s central logistical hubs. The two flights would provide more than 70 tons of aid supplies for up to 30,000 people and would augment other relief items already distributed by UNHCR from its warehouses in Georgia. UNHCR had offered humanitarian support to both Russia and Georgia. It had a presence in both countries, including in South Ossetia and in the North Ossetia region of the Russian Federation. Its six offices and more than 50 staff in Georgia already worked for an existing beneficiary population of some 275,000 previously displaced people, refugees, stateless people and returnees.
According to the latest figures provided by the two Governments, the total number of people uprooted in the conflict was approaching 100,000, Mr. Redmond continued. Russian officials in North Ossetia indicated some 30,000 people from South Ossetia remained in the Russian Federation. Georgian officials said a few thousand had fled south into Georgia proper from South Ossetia, but a registration had to be carried out to get an exact figure. Up to 12,000 were estimated by officials to be displaced within South Ossetia. In addition, there were movements in Georgia proper. A UNHCR team which had travelled to Gori on Sunday had been told by local government officials that up to 80 per cent of the population had left, fearing further attacks. Over the weekend, UNHCR and its partners had provided aid supplies to some 300 vulnerable Georgians from South Ossetia who had been transferred from Gori to Tbilisi. The agency had also provided tents and other supplies to partners in Gori for use by the displaced, if necessary.
Anna Nelson of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said ICRC had launched a preliminary emergency appeal for 8 millions Swiss francs - roughly $7.4 million – to meet the emergency needs of around 50,000 people affected by the armed conflict. The appeal was intended to ensure adequate surgical and other medical care for the war wounded as well as emergency aid for people displaced in North Ossetia and Georgia, and civilians remaining in South Ossetia. ICRC shared OCHA’s concerns about access to all areas affected by conflict. It still had no safe access to South Ossetia and had been calling since Friday for safe and unimpeded access to all areas affected by the conflict.
A plane with about 16 tons of medical supplies as well as material to support water distribution for around 20,000 people was expected to leave Geneva in the morning and was due to arrive in Tbilisi today, Ms. Nelson said. In North Ossetia, ICRC was carrying out a distribution of hygiene items, blankets and other household items to 600 people. ICRC had also been asked to help transport and provide food for roughly 1,500 people who were residing in Kodori Gorge, a Georgian enclave in Abkhazia.
Ms. Nelson also said the ICRC had been given unimpeded access to two Russian pilots who were being held by the Georgian authorities. The pilots were fine and had been given the possibility to send Red Cross messages to their families. The Russian Embassy in Tbilisi had been notified. The ICRC called for access to all persons detained, arrested or captured in connection with the conflict. She concluded by adding that, while ICRC was present in North Ossetia, no movement was yet possible in South Ossetia.
Gordon Alexander, Office-in-Charge, UNICEF Regional Office CEE-CIS, said the main message from UNICEF and from the UN system perspective was one of access and of establishing a humanitarian corridor as soon as possible. UNICEF was working closely with UN colleagues on the ground, noting in particular the role played by the United Nations Resident Coordinator and the team in Tbilisi who were in close contact with the government of Georgia. No direct request for assistance had yet been received, but they were actively involved in making assessments. UNICEF was the lead of the UN emergency cluster on water and sanitation. Water needs were absolutely critical, but often forgotten were sanitation needs.
UNICEF was calling for getting things into perspective and looking not only at immediate needs, but also thinking about what was down the line, including getting children back to school, Mr. Alexander continued. UNICEF itself had teams in Tbilisi and in the North Caucasus (Russian Federation). There was pressure on local authorities in the North Caucasus to respond to the refugee flow, many of whom were children and women, including some children without their parents. There was a need to look after those persons. UNICEF was assessing all of those cases.
UNICEF had issued a media statement about the protection of women and children in the zone of the conflict, which was available on the UNICEF website at www.unicef.org/ceecis.
Recalling that the High Commissioner for Refugees had received promises from both Georgia and the Russian Federation that they would secure a humanitarian corridor, a journalist wished to know which country had impeded such access. Responding, Mr. Redmond of UNHCR underlined that it was not a question of agreeing or not. Both sides had agreed to the principle of safe passage for humanitarian workers. But the situation depended on the military developments that had taken place in the last few days. It was more a question of the changing situation on the ground rather than agreeing or refusing.
In response to a question as to why humanitarian workers had not yet been able to gain access to South Ossetia, Ms. Byrs of OCHA said the security situation had prevented humanitarian agencies from entering that region. Ms. Nelson of ICRC added that the agencies had to make sure that the situation was safe enough to move around. At the moment that was not the case. But this situation could not be qualified as deliberate. ICRC and others were currently talking to both sides to try to gain that access. Under international humanitarian law all sides to the conflict had an obligation to ensure protection of civilians and access to medical care.
Asked about the situation of women and children on the ground, Mr. Alexander of UNICEF said an assessment team was currently in Gori. There were no details yet, but UNICEF knew from experience that in such situations immediate needs were access to health care, food and safe drinking water. An assessment of the needs would come through within 24 hours. No details were available on whether a water supply system destroyed by the Georgian forces in Tskhinvali had been repaired, but that issue was sure to be part of the assessment the UN team was currently undertaking. One of the top priorities of the ICRC preliminary emergency appeal was to provide safe drinking water to Tskhinvali, Ms. Nelson added.
Geneva Activities
Turning to the activities in Geneva, Ms. Heuzé said that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination had yesterday completed its consideration of the report of Switzerland, which it had begun on Friday afternoon. On Monday afternoon, the Committee had turned to the consideration of the report of Sweden, which should be concluded at this morning’s meeting. That was the last country report that the Committee would be considering at this session. At the end of its session, on Friday, 15 August, the Committee would issue its final observations and recommendations on all the country reports reviewed, namely, on Ecuador, Namibia, Togo, the Russian Federation, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden.
Ms. Heuzé noted the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Council would also end its first session on 15 August. A briefing with the Chairperson of the Advisory Committee, Miguel Alfonso Martínez of Cuba, would be organized for journalists.
The Conference on Disarmament was also continuing its work, and would hold its next public meeting on Thursday, 14 August, at 10 a.m., Ms. Heuzé said.
Other
James Gilles of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced that the first attempt to circulate a beam in the Large Hadron Collider after 14 years of construction would be made on Wednesday, 10 September, early in the morning. Journalists were welcome to attend.
Laurent Widmer of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) said the twenty-fourth Universal Postal Congress would conclude its work today, after three weeks of discussions. Among other decisions, the Congress had re-elected, by acclamation, France’s Edouard Dayan and China’s Guozhong Huang, respectively, to the positions of Director General and Deputy Director General of the Universal Postal Union’s International Bureau for the period 2009 to 2012. Kenya would take the Chairmanship of the Council of Administration and Greece had been elected Chair of the Postal Operations Council. The next Universal Postal Congress would be held in 2012 in Doha (Qatar).