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 for and Representatives of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Organization for Migration, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, CARE International, the World Meteorological Organization, the International Strategy for Disaster Control, the International Telecommunication Union and the World Health Organization.
New Statements by the Secretary-General
Ms. Heuzé said available in the press room were copies of a statement by the Secretary-General in which he condemned the double suicide bombing in the Pakistani town of Wah yesterday. Secretary-General Ban also sent a letter of condolence to Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero, following the plane crash in Madrid that reportedly left more than 150 people dead.
Humanitarian Situation in Georgia
Ms. Heuzé said as the Spokesperson for the World Food Programme was not present today at the briefing, she wanted to tell journalists that as of yesterday, WFP had delivered food aid to 120,000 beneficiaries. WFP noted a substantial movement of populations between South and North Ossetia, making it difficult to establish the exact number of displaced persons.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said she had just spoken with Robert Watkins, the UN Resident Coordinator in Georgia, who said that access remained a priority for the UN agencies. Access was available to almost all areas in Georgia. The east-west humanitarian corridor was functioning de facto, but the problem was access to the small villages outside of the corridor. It was a matter of security because they did not know if there were mines in these villages. The Resident Coordinator had asked the UN’s Mine Action Service to assess the situation in these villages, and once he received the green light that they were free of mines, the UN would be able to access the villages which were presently cut off from the Georgian economy.
Concerning South Ossetia, Ms. Byrs said the Resident Coordinator said that there was still no access to South Ossetia. As Ms. Heuzé had said, the delivery of food aid to displaced persons in Tbilisi and in Georgia was progressing well. WFP had delivered food aid to 126,000 persons. With regard to non-food aid, the United Nations was delivering it to 120,000 persons. They were still working with the working figure estimate of 128,000 persons displaced within Georgia.
Ms. Byrs said an information briefing would be held in Geneva on Tuesday, 26 August, to inform UN Member States and UN humanitarian partners about the UN appeal for Georgia. Some 77 airlifts, truck convoys or ships had so far delivered supplies to Georgia, South and North Ossetia. Assessments in Georgia had been conducted in 550 communal centers out of 600. The railway lines were being repaired and the over burdening of the port of Poti was on its way to being resolved.
In conclusion, Ms. Byrs recalled that the UN Flash Appeal earlier this week had requested $ 58.6 million dollars with regard to the situation in Georgia, and the UN had so far received $ 18.3 million.
Anna Nelson of the International Committee of the Red Cross said as ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger announced on 20 August, an ICRC team arrived in South Ossetia on Wednesday afternoon. Yesterday, they were able to get a good look around the capital Tskhinvali. The 17-member team visited the main hospital. Contrary to some reports, the hospital was not completely destroyed but some buildings of the large complex were damaged. Today, the ICRC water and habitat engineer was meeting with hospital technicians to examine whether ICIR could help improve and fix the facility’s water pipes and sewage system. The team was told that all 223 people who had been wounded in the conflict and taken to the hospital had already been transferred to medical facilities in the Russian Federation. The team estimated that there seemed to about half the normal population in the city. Earlier reports had estimated that the city was mainly empty, so the number of people currently there could be an indicator that some displaced people had returned home. The team said some areas of the city, including the library, seemed totally destroyed, while others seemed untouched. They saw blown out windows. The electricity and water supplies seemed to be up and running with some occasional cuts. There were supplies, such as oil and fruit juice, in the stores but residents were mostly getting their hot meals from the Russian Government’s emergency agency EMERCOM. The team was continuing to meet with people who said they had lost contact with their families to help re-establish family links.
Also on Thursday, Ms. Nelson said ICRC’s medical and assistance teams based in the Georgian town of Gori were able to visit isolated villages north and south of the town for the first time. It appeared that there were mostly elderly people who had been left behind. They were living in very difficult conditions and especially lacked food. Some villages were without electricity. ICRC delivered a truck load of food to some residents, and it was now beginning to get a sense of the scale of the needs outside the towns. ICRC distributions continued and it had now reached at least 10,000 people in Georgia with food aid, non-food items and water and sanitation supplies.
Andre Mahecic of the UN Refugee Agency said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Antonio Guterres was now in South Ossetia talking to the de facto Government in the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia. His mission was aimed at evaluating the humanitarian situation as well as the possibilities of humanitarian access and seeing firsthand the conditions for the return of those uprooted by the crisis. Mr. Guterres was the first senior international official to travel to South Ossetia since the crisis erupted in early August. Noting that under the current circumstances, the only way to enter South Ossetia was from Northern Ossetia, Mr. Guterres stressed his appreciation to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian authorities for facilitating his humanitarian mission. UNHCR would continue its humanitarian assistance based on a strictly non-political approach while stressing the non-discriminatory nature of humanitarian action for all of the people affected by the conflict and emphasizing the right of return for all displaced persons regardless of ethnicity, religion or political affiliation.
Today, Mr. Guterres was concluding his four-day mission to Georgia and the Russian Federation that included visits with people who were uprooted by the crisis. On Tuesday in Moscow, Mr. Guterres met with the Russian Foreign Minister and focused on humanitarian cooperation between UNHCR and the Russian Federation in a number of areas, including strengthening joint emergency response mechanisms. Much of the discussion focused on humanitarian concerns linked to the South Ossetia situation as well as broader protection-related issues for affected civilian populations. Mr. Guterres said these discussed humanitarian access, both in relation to areas of Georgia proper where military movements were still taking place and to South Ossetia itself. They also examined humanitarian assistance and protection in North Ossetia, which had received thousands of people who fled South Ossetia, and the process of and prospects for voluntary return. They agreed to the principle of the non-discriminatory nature of the right of return for all civilians forced to flee. Russian authorities estimated that more than 30,000 people from South Ossetia fled to North Ossetia. Another 128,000 were estimated to have been displaced in Georgia. In Georgia, UNHCR was continuing its large-scale distributions. Yesterday morning, the first UNHCR convoy entered Gori carrying some 1,000 blankets, tents and jerry cans. Staff reported that the town was still largely deserted, and according to the elderly people who were still in Gori, the main obstacles for return seemed to be prevailing insecurity and lack of food and other basic goods.
John Budd of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF was continuing its distribution of supplies in and around Tbilisi and the east of Georgia. Forty tones arrived on 19 August, and a further 40 tonnes arrived on 21 August. An additional airlift would take place this weekend. Supplies comprised mainly of education equipment and water and hygiene kits. Assessments of the needs of displaced persons in North Ossetia were also continuing.
Jean Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said in Georgia, IOM staff in Tbilisi continued to provide humanitarian assistance to newly displaced vulnerable families who were currently sheltering in ad hoc collective centers set up in public schools and nurseries, some of them with limited space and inadequate facilities. Family, child and baby kits had been distributed to some 500 conflict affected individuals who had fled Gori and rural areas around Tskhinvali in South Ossetia. IOM’s stocks were low and it needed funds to continue with its operations. As part of the UN Flash Appeal, IOM required an initial $ 1.9 million.
Colombia
Andre Mahecic of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR was becoming increasingly concerned about the humanitarian situation along southern Colombia’s Pacific coast where thousands of people had been displaced or caught in fighting. In Calca region, fighting involving two rival guerilla groups and the national army had forced some 800 people to flee to a small town and their conditions were precarious. Most lived in public buildings like schools, and the municipality had been providing them with one meal a day for the past week. The majority of the displaced belonged to indigenous and Afro-Colombian groups, and more than half of them were children. In the neighbouring department of Narinio, further down the coast, some 1,000 had fled their homes in the mountains of the regions because of fighting between the Colombian army and the irregular army group. They took refuge in another town, which had received repeated waves of forced displacement in the past few years. They were staying in the school and the local and national authorities were providing humanitarian assistance with the help of international organizations. The situation in Narinio had been critical for the past two years because of interlinked factors. Earlier this week, the provincial authorities said that more than 100,000 people were registered as displaced in Narinio, more than a quarter of them in the past year alone. This trend was continuing over the entire region.
Climate Change
Ms. Heuzé said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was celebrating its twentieth anniversary in Geneva. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would be participating in the ceremony, which would be held in the “Bâtiment des Forces Motrices” on Sunday, 31 August. A note to correspondents had been issued on 19 August with the details. The official ceremony would start at 3 p.m. and feature opening speeches by the Secretary-General and others. This would be followed by a press encounter in the BFM auditorium. UN accredited journalists would not need additional accreditation to attend the ceremony and the press conference.
Brenda Abrar-Milani of the IPCC said the IPCC would be holding its twenty-ninth plenary from 31 August to 4 September. The two main events during the plenary were holding elections for new officers of the IPCC and celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the body. Once the officers were elected, the plenary would work on budget issues, and members would talk about a new cycle of evaluations of climate change which would be held between 2009 and 2014. She recalled that in December 2007, the IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The official ceremony on 31 August would start at 3 p.m. and feature opening speeches by the UN Secretary General; the Swiss Federal Councillor, Mr. Leuenberger and the Chairman of the IPCC, Dr. R.K. Pachauri. The Heads of the IPCC parent organizations, Mr. Michel Jarraud, Secretary General of WMO, and Mr. Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP, as well as Mr. Roberto Acosta, representing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) would also address the audience. The rest of the meetings would be held at the International Geneva Conference Centre and on 4 September a final press conference would be held at 1 p.m..
OCHA introduced Jock Baker, Coordinator for CARE Emergency Group in Geneva, who said that CARE International and an organization called Maplecroft had started a joint coordination effort. The report “Humanitarian Implications of Climate Change: Mapping Emerging Trends and Risk Hotspots for Humanitarian Actors” was the result of this joint effort. It was available at the back of the room. The main recommendation was to reduce climate change which would reduce the impact of disasters, but focus should be on disaster risk reduction and early warning systems.
Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said that from 25 to 30 August in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a workshop on climate change and food security: towards a regional framework for South Asia would be held. Some 300 experts and officials would be participating in the workshop, which would be inaugurated by the President of Bangladesh and closed by the President of Iceland. The charge d’affaires of the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh would give a press conference at 11:30 today, right after the briefing, to talk about the workshop.
Ms. Sevenier said WMO’s first Antarctic Ozone Bulletin this year would be issued next week. WMO had been issuing this bulletin since the 1980s on the ozone hole. She would come back next week with an expert to speak further about the bulletin.
Tze Ming Mok of the International Strategy for Disaster Control said ISDR, along with Global Risk Forum Davos, jointly invited journalists to the International Disaster and Risk Conference 2008 which would be held in Davos from 25 to 29 August. The conference would talk about the world’s increasing frequent and intensifying disasters and the global level crises that they may feed. A full day would be devoted to climate change risks, on 25 August, and on 29 August, they would discuss the Wenchuan Earthquake in China. A press release with more details was available at the back of the room.
Other
Sanjay Acharya of the International Telecommunication Union said ITU Telecom Asia 2008 would be held in Bangkok from 2 to 5 September. ITU had been issuing a series of press releases and advisories on the meeting, and the latest were at the back of the room. There would be a press conference on 1 September to launch ITU’s 2008 report on the Asia-Pacific Telecommunications and ICT Indicators. He would be leaving for Bangkok, but would arrange for copies of the report to be made available to journalists in Geneva, and he could also be reached on his phone for any interviews with experts.
Ms. Heuzé said available at the back of the room was a press release on the renewal of the membership of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group, which was entrusted with assisting in the preparations for the annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum that would be held in Hyderabad, India from 3 to 6 December. The release included the names of the members of the group.
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said a number of journalists had called her about the World Cancer Congress 2008 which would be held at Palexpo in Geneva from 27 to 31 August. The congress was being organized by the International Union against Cancer and not WHO. WHO Director General Margaret Chan would address the opening meeting of the congress on 27 August around 10 a.m. Her statement about WHO’s work on cancer would be sent to journalists and put up on the website. During the congress, a number of other WHO experts would be addressing the meetings and journalists interested in interviews could contact her. According to WHO’s cancer fact sheet, which was updated in July this year, 2.9 million persons died of cancer around the world in 2007. According to estimates, starting 2030, cancer would kill 12 million persons globally every year.
Ms. Chaib said there would be a press briefing on Thursday, 28 August at 10 a.m. in Salle III which would be attended by WHO’s Director-General on the launch of the WHO report on the Social Determinant of Health. Embargoed copies of the report would be available in the press room on 27 August.
Carla Hadad of the International Committee of the Red Cross said a press release would be issued in the coming few hours on the situation in Pakistan. The armed conflict in Pakistan had left more than 200,000 people displaced and they were in dire need of emergency need. ICRC was launching a relief operation along with the Pakistani Red Crescent in order to assist more than 64,000 people, 14,000 on the Afghanistan side, and 50,000 in the affected areas in Pakistan. ICRC said it was concerned that large number of civilian women and children were forced to flee and were in need of basic necessities. The operation had started and ICRC had already assisted around 2,000 familie. The operation was ongoing.