United Nations Daily Highlights, 02-09-11

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

OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY

FRED ECKHARD

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

ANNAN SAYS WORLD COMMUNITY STANDS TOGETHER ON SEPTEMBER 11

This morning, Secretary-General Kofi Annan, accompanied by his wife Nane, attended the annual interfaith service of commitment to the work of the United Nations at St. Bartholomews Church in Manhattan.

In his remarks, the Secretary-General said the events of last September had put all of our faiths to the test. As a result of the attacks, we needed to reaffirm our respect for each other and for each others beliefs, Annan told the congregation.

After the Church service, he and Nane Annan joined several hundred UN staffers who gathered on the North Lawn for the UN commemoration of the September 11 attacks.

In introducing the Secretary-General, Gillian Sorensen, Assistant Secretary-General for External Relations, said that those gathered were present as a UN family because there is strength in numbers. We come in the hope that our presence here and our work with the UN will defeat the forces of hate and violence.

Speaking to the crowd, which also included many Permanent Representatives, the Secretary-General said that the grief felt one year ago was not only out of solidarity with the United States, but also out of a shared loss, since citizens of more than 90 countries were killed on that day.

Today, he said, we come together as a world community because we were attacked as a world community.

The Secretary-General also took this opportunity to remind the staff and New York that the United Nations is not an isolated enclave separate from the city. We at the United Nations are, in the deepest sense of the word, a part of this community, he said. We are neighbors to all New Yorkers, both as individuals and as an institution.

Also speaking at the ceremony were the President of the General Assembly, Jan Kavan, the Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN, Ambassador John Negroponte, and Rosemary Waters, the President of the Staff Union. Six staff members Joanna Depue, Leo Powell, Gihan Aboulezz, Karen Sholto, Amir Dossal, Margo Kemp also delivered reflections on the days meaning.

This evening, the Secretary-General and his wife will join New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and many foreign dignitaries at a ceremony at Ground Zero organized by the City of New York.

UNITY CAN DEFEAT TERRORISM, ANNAN TELLS SECURITY COUNCIL

This afternoon, the Secretary-General attended the Security Councils high-level meeting on acts of international terrorism, and told the Council delegates that the past year has given us hope that terrorism can be defeated, if the international community summons the will to unite in a broad coalition.

He

said that, as the Security Councils work has shown, the United Nations remains uniquely positioned to serve to serve as the forum for this coalition, and for the development of those steps Governments must now take separately and together to combat terrorism on a global scale.

The Council adopted a presidential statement at the meeting, saying, The threat is real, the challenge is enormous, and the fight against terrorism will be long. The Council also held a minute of silence to mark the occasion.

The meeting was chaired by President Georgi Parvanov of Bulgaria, which holds the presidency of the Council for September. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell also spoke.

UN MISSIONS HOLD CEREMONIES ON FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF ATTACKS

As events to mark the September 11 attacks are held around the world, many UN missions also organized their own commemorative ceremonies.

In Kinshasa, the Secretary-Generals Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Amos Namanga Ngongi, and Deputy Special Representative Lena Sundh attended a memorial service at the Cathedrale du Centenaire, which was also attended by government officials and representative of UN agencies and the diplomatic corps.

In Kosovo, the Secretary-Generals Special Representative, Michael Steiner, spoke to mark the anniversary in an address with Kosovos President, Ibrahim Rugova. Steiner will also speak at a US-sponsored ceremony in Pristina this evening.

In Kabul, UN Spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva read out at a government-sponsored ceremony the Secretary-Generals message marking today, and he added that Afghanistan was one of the countries most directly affected by the events that took place a year ago. He said, May this remembrance here and others, which are happening around the world today, be the inspiration for the people of Afghanistan and the international community to recommit themselves to the task, though long and difficult, of bringing about the political and physical reconstruction of Afghanistan and the well-being of the Afghan people.

ANNAN, IN ANNUAL REPORT, NOTES NEED TO FIGHT TERRORISM

In his annual report on the work of the United Nations, the Secretary-General says that the past year has witnessed extraordinary challenges to security and stability, with the terrorist attacks of last September 11 dramatizing the global threat of terrorism. I firmly believe that the terrorist menace must be suppressed, the Secretary-General says, but States must ensure that counter-terrorist measures do not violate human rights.

In the wake of last years attacks, nations have focused on the challenge of reconstructing weak or collapsed states, like Afghanistan, that can provide fertile breeding grounds for terrorism. At the same time, there has been a sharp escalation of violence and tension in the Middle East, in South Asia and in central Africa.

At the same time, the past year saw signs of progress, as East Timor gained its independence and Sierra Leone held peaceful elections. The entry into force of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the Secretary-General adds, was an unprecedented step forward for world order and justice.

The report notes that over the past year, three conferences held respectively in Doha, Qatar; Monterrey, Mexico; and Johannesburg, South Africa addressed trade, financing for development and sustainable development and outlined steps to help meet the Millennium Development Goals.

The report underscores that no single country has the capacity to cope with the challenges of an interconnected world, from terrorism to refugee movements, and from AIDS to environmental problems. All nations, the Secretary-General says, stand to benefit from the constructive change that multilateralism makes possible.

ICAO: CIVIL AVIATION TO REBOUND, A YEAR AFTER ATTACKS

The International Civil Aviation Organization reported on Tuesday that, after the sharp decline in passenger traffic on airlines following last years September 11 attacks, commercial air traffic has stabilized this year, and traffic should rebound in 2003, mainly because of an overall strengthening of the world economy.

The Organization adds that the drop in demand for air travel last year caused airline companies to suffer a total net loss of some 12 billion dollars in 2001, with related sectors, including trade and tourism, also hurt by the decline. But by 2004, the Organizations forecasts show a robust growth in the number of people flying on the worlds airlines.

WFP, UNICEF ASSIST DISPLACED PERSONS, CHILDREN IN SRI LANKA

The World Food Programme (WFP) has launched a series of urgently needed projects in Sri Lanka, in response to the mass return of internally displaced persons to former conflict areas. A total of 90 projects are planned to start this year to help to restore basic social infrastructure such as roads, irrigation works, schools and health clinics.

WFP says that of the 217,000 people affected by the war, so far, more than 100,000 have returned to their homes.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) today said it was encouraged by the release, over the past few weeks, of 85 child recruits by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelem.

A list of the children was given to the UNICEF representative in Sri Lanka by the head of the Tigers political wing on September 6, and UNICEF staff has interviewed more than 20 children who had been returned to their families. UNICEF is developing an action plan for the social reintegration of children, which will include assistance in returning them to schools and providing vocational training.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

One entity and one individual will be added to the UN list of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and other individuals, groups and entities associated with them. The list is being compiled by the Security Council committee on sanctions against Al-Qaida, Taliban and associates. The entity added is the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, submitted by China, and the individual is Wael Hamza Julaidan, submitted by Saudi Arabia.

In Paris, the Director-General of the UN Scientific, Educational and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), Koichiro Matsuura, presented proposals for dealing with narrowing the digital divide, which is the growing inequality between rich and poor nations in access to new information technologies. On Tuesday, UNESCO announced its 2002 literary prizes. This years winners came from Eritrea, Uganda, Pakistan, Egypt, and Mexico.

This afternoon, Belgium will sign the Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the International Criminal Court that was opened for signature Tuesday.

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