REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Refugee Agency, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Sudan

Ms. Heuzé said that Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the Secretary-General's envoy to Khartoum, had met yesterday with Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir to discuss the way forward on Darfur. He had delivered a letter from the Secretary-General, detailing ways to move forward on a proposed UN-African Union hybrid mission to end the conflict. Mr. Ould-Abdallah also met with the Sudanese Foreign Minister, Mr. Lam Akol. Mr. Ould-Abdallah has remained in Khartoum pending the Sudanese President's written response.

Situation in Chad

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres today was visiting strife-torn eastern Chad, where UNHCR and its partners were struggling to maintain the humanitarian lifeline to hundreds of thousands of Darfur refugees and internally displaced people. Mr. Guterres had emphasized UNHCR's commitment to carry on its work in Chad even in the most difficult of security conditions, but had noted that a stronger international presence was needed to improve security for those affected by the violence and the aid workers trying to help them. Since early November, some 300 people in eastern Chad had been killed in attacks on more than 70 villages by armed marauders. Most of the villages were looted, burned and emptied. Mr. Guterres was this morning in some of those villages, talking both to residents who had stayed behind as well as to the internally displaced. Currently, UNHCR was only able to maintain skeleton crews in half of the 12 refugee camps in eastern Chad.

The High Commissioner was also discussing a proposal by Chadian authorities to move the refugee camps in the east some 600 kilometres inland, away from the volatile border with Darfur. UNHCR and government experts had visited the proposed sites last week and were currently preparing a report, Mr. Spindler said.

Netherlands donates $315 million to UNICEF

Michael Bociurkiw of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced that Netherlands had given UNICEF the largest single donation ever. UNICEF would receive $201 million from the Dutch Government to radically expand the agency's ongoing efforts to ensure that children in conflict, in natural disasters and in areas emerging from crisis could go to school. It was expected that 40 countries in emergency or post-crisis situations would benefit from this funding – countries such as Sudan, Lebanon, the occupied Palestinian territories, Myanmar, Uganda and others. It would enable about 10 million children who were deprived of any form of education to return to school, and would give 15 million living in a crisis situation a better education. In addition to the $201 million donation for schoolchildren, UNICEF was also to receive a further $56 million from the Dutch Government for water and sanitation programmes, $24 million for child protection programmes, and $24 million for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. An announcement of this grant would shortly be made in The Hague. A press release was available at the back of the room.

Food Insecurity in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Mr. Bociurkiw said that it was feared there would be severe food shortages in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea by this Spring. There was far less food coming into the country because of the Government’s decision not to accept humanitarian aid, and severe flooding in four provinces had decimated food production, which was down by 20 per cent. Multilateral sources had brought in less than a tenth of what they had the previous year, and bilateral assistance was down by a quarter. UNICEF had only received half of the $11.2 million it required for humanitarian aid to the country for 2006 and additional funding was immediately required to ensure basic services for women and children in 2007.

Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme (WFP) added that the root of the problem was that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea consumed more food than could be grown domestically. About a third of the population was chronically undernourished, half of the population was undernourished for at least some part of the year, and 37 per cent of the children were stunted owing to malnutrition. WFP had identified 1.9 million who were in need of food aid, however, so far, they only had funds to feed some 700,000. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations had estimated a cereal deficit for next year of 1 million tons. The situation was critical. WFP's $102 million assistance programme was currently only 15 per cent funded.

Tsunami Relief

Mr. Bociurkiw announced the release of UNICEF's update on tsunami relief. Two years on much had been accomplished in helping communities rebuild, but much remained to be done. UNICEF response had reached 4.8 million women and children in eight countries since it began delivering aid to the Tsunami-affected. Among other things, an estimated 1.2 million in tsunami-affected areas now received safe water with UNICEF support, and UNICEF had provided some 1 million women and children with insecticide-treated bed nets to protect against malaria. As of end October, UNICEF had spent a little over half of the $695.9 million in donations it had received for tsunami relief and recovery. A media release was available at the back of the room.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) drew attention to a report recently launched in New York on how the funds channelled through OCHA's Tsunami Trust Fund had been used. Some $72.27 million of the $74.6 million in the Fund had been distributed to 14 organizations in 7 countries for 67 tsunami-relief projects. Most of the funds had been spent, but OCHA was awaiting a final accounting in the middle of next year. It was recalled that OCHA, as a coordinating agency, normally did not receive funds for projects directly, and had had to set up the trust fund when Governments and other private donors had spontaneously made donations to OCHA on behalf of tsunami relief. The UN as a whole had received approximately $1 billion in funds for tsunami programmes. Copies of the report were available at the back of the room, and Ms. Heuzé recalled that the full report, as well as other details on funding and how it was spent, was available online at www.reliefweb.int under "financial tracking system".

Somalia - ICRC

Antonella Notari of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that serious fighting had broken out in Baidoa. ICRC would shortly issue a press release to remind combatants of all parties of their duty to respect civilians and to avoid direct attacks upon them, as well as to facilitate, support and protect any medical or humanitarian missions in the country. There were already at least 200 war-wounded, according to information received on Wednesday, and ICRC's priority was to support medical facilities. A second priority was to aid the hundreds of displaced persons fleeing the fighting.

Other

Ms. Notari of the ICRC reported that there was unfortunately no news about the fate of some staff from the Red Crescent Society of Iraq who were abducted last Sunday, 17 December. A number of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society staff and volunteers abducted from one of the Society’s offices in Baghdad had been released over the course of the week, but there were at least 7 members from the Red Crescent as well as others who still had not been heard from. The ICRC was appealing once again for the hostages immediate and unconditional release.

Mr. Pluess of the World Food Programme (WFP) said WFP was appealing today to the international community to rapidly step up funding for the 106,000 Bhutanese refugees in eastern Nepal. If there were no new funding quickly, WFP would have to cut rations to refugees as early as January. Refugees were not allowed to work outside the camps or to own land where they could grow food, and so were 100 per cent dependent on WFP assistance. Funds had not been forthcoming for WFP's $23.6 million 2007-2008 programme; they had a shortfall of just under $20 million.

Mr. Redmond of UNHCR said UNHCR was disturbed to learn that four Iranian Ahwazis in Syria – earlier recognized as refugees – had been extradited by Syrian authorities to Iran. UNHCR was concerned about their well-being in Iran and about the action by the Syrian government, which had previously indicated the four refugees were still in detention in Syria. UNHCR learned a few days ago that the four Iranian refugees had already been deported to Iran in May. Two of the four had called their family members and told them that they had been detained immediately upon arrival in Iran and were now awaiting their sentence. One had reportedly told a relative that he was "about to be executed".

In an update on the plight of Palestinians in Iraq, Mr. Redmond said that more Palestinians had arrived at the Iraq-Syria border after having fleeing Baghdad to escape increasing violence, harassment and targeted killings. The latest group, 41 in all, had been stranded on the Iraqi side of the border with Syria since last Saturday.