United Nations Daily Highlights, 02-06-05

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From: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.org

OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY

MARIE OKABE

ASSOCIATE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Wednesday, June 5, 2002

ANNAN, IN MOSCOW, CONDEMNS BOMB ATTACK IN ISRAEL

Secretary-General Kofi Annan, on the second day of his visit to Moscow, awoke to the news that a suicide bomber had blown up a commuter bus in northern Israel, and issued a statement through his Spokesman, saying he was appalled and that the brutal and willful killing of innocent civilians can never be justified, no matter what the political objective. Every effort must be made to bring to justice those responsible for this cruel act, the statement said.

"It comes at a time when there is a concerted international effort to convene a peace conference on the Middle East," the statement said.

The Secretary-General urged those committed to finding a political solution in the Middle East to stay the course.

"The enemies of peace should not be allowed to derail this process," the statement said..

The Secretary-General extended his condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government of Israel.

His envoy in the region, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Terje Roed-Larsen, told reporters that he also condemned the attack, which he called morally repugnant Larsen urged the Palestinian Authority to take immediate action against those groups and individuals responsible for such acts.

Larsen was to meet in Ramallah with the President of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat. The meeting had been scheduled before todays suicide attack.

ANNAN MEETS WITH RUSSIAN PRESIDENT, FOREIGN MINISTER IN MOSCOW

On the second day of his visit to Moscow, the Secretary-General met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had just returned from the Asian security conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Putin reported on his meetings with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who was also at Almaty, and on his efforts to defuse the lethal tensions between the two countries.

Putin indicated that he was prepared to continue in a peacemaking role between India and Pakistan, with the Secretary-Generals help.

The two men also discussed in some detail the situation in Afghanistan, which is preparing to choose a new government through a traditional council meeting, or loya jirga.

He then had a working lunch with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, during which they reviewed questions on India and Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Middle East.Their discussion also focused on Iraq, terrorism, Georgia/Abkhazia, Chechnya and Kosovo.

The Foreign Minister then presented the Secretary-General with a commemorative Prince Gorchakov medal, making him the first international recipient.

The Secretary-General later visited the Duma, Russias Parliament.

Earlier Wednesday, the Secretary-General traveled to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, just outside the walls of the Kremlin, and then met privately with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. He and Kasyanov addressed a conference on sustainable city development in Russia.

ANNAN VISITS AIDS CLINIC; MEETS WITH YOUNG PATIENTS

The Secretary-General also visited the SANAM clinic, which works at preventing HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases among vulnerable populations in Russia, including street children. He listened to presentations of their work by different young people, most of them HIV positive.

They reported a dramatic rise in HIV infections in Russia, with nearly 200,000 registered cases, suggesting an actual figure six times that much.

He thanked them by saying he was really happy there so many young people involved in the struggle against HIV/AIDS. Young people, he added, listen to their peers much more than old one with gray hairs like me.

SECURITY COUNCIL TO ADOPT PRESIDENTIAL STATEMENT ON DR CONGO

The Security Council is meeting this afternoon at 3 p.m. in consultations with a view to adopting a presidential statement on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Tuesday afternoon, the President of the Security Council, Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe of Syria, when speaking to reporters condemned recent attacks against the UN mission in the DRC by officials from the Rally for Congolese Democracy-Goma.

Also this afternoon, the Security Council has scheduled a meeting with the troop-contributing countries to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.

UN MOBILIZES TO ASSIST VICTIMS OF SYRIAN DAM ACCIDENT

This morning in Damascus, the UN Resident Coordinator, Tawfik Ben Amara, met with Syrian authorities to begin coordinating assistance following yesterdays dam collapse in the north of the country.

The UN country team was immediately convened and permission from the government to travel to the devastated area has been sought.

According to latest figures compiled by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, a 60-kilometer square area was submerged when the Zeyzoun dam collapsed around 3 p.m. local time yesterday. According to information compiled by OCHA, at least three villages have been submerged and ten people may have been killed.

As telephone lines to the affected area have been cut, judging the extent of the damages and casualties remain unclear.

In New York, Kenzo Oshima the UNs Emergency Relief Coordinator and head of OCHA, issued a statement, extending condolences to the government and the people of Syria. Oshima has decided to deploy an UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team to Syria. The four-member team is expected to arrive Thursday.

DEPUTY SG URGES CREDIBLE POLITICAL DECLARATION ON ENVIRONMENT

Today is the first day of the Ministerial Segment of the Preparatory Committee Meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. More than 100 ministers began the three-day segment in Bali, which aims at generating political commitment for action at the Summit in August in Johannesburg.

Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Fréchette, said that challenges faced on both sides of the development-environment equation were great and the summit in Johannesburg was meant to find a way to improve standards of living while protecting the environment.

She underlined the need to move forward on five key issues: water and sanitation, energy, agriculture, biodiversity and ecosystem management and health, issues which the Secretary-General has proposed as most fundamental to sustainable development.

The Deputy Secretary-General stressed the need for a credible political declaration that committed leaders to act. The political declaration, she said, is the place for commitments to action in key areas, global and local, and for providing a sense of the values that underpin the concept of sustainable development and instigate actions.

ANNAN ON ENVIRONMENT DAY: EARTH STILL NEEDS INTENSIVE CARE

Today is World Environment Day and in his message on the occasion the Secretary-General said that his years theme, Give Earth a Chance, was meant to convey a sense of urgency about the state of the earth.

He said the planet was still in need of intensive care and added that there was little chance of protecting the environment without a greater sense of mutual responsibility as the environmental footprint left by some societies was much larger than others.

UN-BACKED HIMALAYA MISSION NOTES RAPID THAW OF GLACIERS

Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a press release that a team of climbers, backed by UNEP, had recently returned from a survey of the Himalayas and reported that global warming is having a dramatic impact on glaciers, causing them to thaw rapidly.

As an example, the team discovered that the glacier, from which Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay launched their historic climb of Mount Everest 50 years ago, has receded some five kilometers.

The team interviewed the local population and took photographs chronicling the dramatic impact of climate change on the worlds most famous mountain range.

UN WEB SITE ON OCEANS LAUNCHED TODAY

The UN Atlas of Oceans was launched today.

The Internet-based atlas will provide users with continuously updated strategic data on the state of the worlds oceans. The atlas has been two and a half years in development and represents the first time the scientific community and academic experts have collaborated on such a broad project. The initiative was led by the Food and Agriculture Organization with the UN Foundation providing the principal funding.

UN REPORT BEING PREPARED ON INTERNALLY DISPLACED IN TURKEY

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons Francis M. Deng visited Turkey from May 27 31.

He was invited by the Turkish Government to study the situation of internal displacement in the country, and to discuss with the Government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) towards ensuring effective responses to the conditions of the internally displaced in Turkey.

Deng will elaborate upon the findings of his mission in a report which will be presented to the UN Commission on Human Rights.

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