United Nations Daily Highlights, 03-11-18

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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

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

SECRETARY-GENERAL LAUNCHES $3 BILLION HUMANITARIAN APPEAL

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today launched the annual consolidated humanitarian appeal, calling for $3 billion dollars to cover the needs of tens of millions of people in 21 countries.

These are real people with real needs, the Secretary-General said. He added that the money is not charity, and that the victims of manmade and natural disasters have the right to the fulfilment of their basic needs.

Wealthy nations, he said, understand their responsibilities to help people in need and uphold peoples rights. He added that they also perceive assistance to those in need as an investment in security. A world where, amid increasing global prosperity, millions still leave in desperate conditions, will not be a world at peace, the Secretary-General said.

Funding levels for different countries have varied, the Secretary-General told his audience. Iraqs needs were reached over 90 percent, an amount close to $2 billion dollars, while appeals for Liberia and Burundi only received about a quarter of what was needed. We must do better, he said.

Also speaking at todays ceremony were, among others, the UNs chief humanitarian officer, Jan Egeland, and the head of the UN Development Programme, Mark Malloch Brown.

The Humanitarian Appeal for 2004 is a product of the Consolidated Appeals Process, a UN-led mechanism created a decade ago by the General Assembly to ensure strategic and coordinated humanitarian responses to crises. The appeal is managed by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the benefit of the UN humanitarian agencies, and non-governmental and Red Cross partner organizations.

UN REFUGEE AGENCY WITHDRAWS 30 STAFF FROM AFGHAN BORDER AREAS

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees announced today the temporary suspension of the agencys assistance to Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan. That decision follows the murder on Sunday of UNHCR staff member Bettina Goislard in the southeastern Afghan city of Ghazni.

Filippo Grandi, UNHCRs chief of mission for Afghanistan, said that the agency would temporarily reduce its staff in eastern and southern Afghanistan, withdrawing 30 international staff from the border area and closing refugee reception centers in the provinces of Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost and Kandahar. UNHCR will review the situation after two weeks.

He added, If reconstruction of the country is to continue, Governments must consider more seriously helping Afghanistan achieve security and stability. We cannot do this alone. This murder tragically proved it.

Members of the Security Council issued a press statement Monday afternoon on Afghanistan, saying that the weekend murder of the UNHCR worker was a cowardly act by those who wish to undermine the efforts of the international community to assist the Afghan people in creating a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. Council members called on the Afghan authorities to make every effort to bring to justice the perpetrators of this crime.

Asked why operations were being suspended in several Afghan provinces, the Spokesman said, in one word: security. He said that the direct threat against international aid workers was a new problem, noting that Goislard was shot at close range. In response, he said, the United Nations would hold back and reassess how to go forward.

SECURITY COUNCIL HOLDS PRIVATE MEETING ON GUINEA BISSAU

The Security Council this morning held a private meeting on Guinea Bissau, at which the Secretary-General was present, to open the session.

In addition to President Henrique Perreira Rosa of Guinea Bissau, the President of the Economic and Social Council, Guatemalan Ambassador Gert Rosenthal, the Representative of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Nana Akufo Addo, and Henrique Valle, representative of the Community of Portuguese-speaking countries, briefed Council members.

David Stephen, the Representative of the Secretary-General in Guinea Bissau, was also scheduled to speak at the meeting chaired by Foreign Minister Joao Bernardo de Miranda of Angola, which holds this month's Council Presidency.

[After a closed-door meeting, President Rosa told journalists that he appealed to the Security Council to help his West African country pay its civil servants the salaries owed them and assist his transitional government in preparing peaceful elections.]

In other business, on Monday afternoon, Security Council members received during consultations a revised draft resolution on the Middle East road map.

YUGOSLAVIA TRIBUNAL INDICTS CROATIAN SERB LEADER

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Monday confirmed the indictment of Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic, whom it accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Tribunal says that Babic helped to remove forcibly, deport or kill virtually the entire non-Serb population of Croatias Krajina region.

Judge Theodor Meron, of the United States, was re-elected Monday as the President of the Tribunal, while Judge Fausto Pocar of Italy was re-elected as his Vice President.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

U.N. NOTES RAISED EXPECTATIONS FOR PEACE IN SUDAN: The latest humanitarian update on Sudan says that current optimism for a peace agreement between the Government and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement/Army has raised expectations of the people of the Sudan, and has made support to the Sudan more important than ever. The update notes that the humanitarian appeal for the Sudan will be launched in Brussels on Wednesday. It requests more than $450 million targeting more than 3.5 million Sudanese.

UN ENVOY FOR WESTERN SAHARA VISITS ALGIERS: Alvaro de Soto, the Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Western Sahara, continues his initial round of consultations with the parties and neighboring Governments. He is in Algiers, having met the leadership of the POLISARIO Front in Rabouni on Sunday. He met the Algerian Delegate for Foreign Affairs, Abdelkader Messahel, this morning. De Soto hopes to visit Nouakchott, Mauritania, next week.

UNICEF RECEIVES $10 MILLION GATES FOUNDATION GRANT: UNICEF has received a $10 million dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fight maternal and neonatal tetanus, a major killer of newborns and their mothers. In the poorest and most remote areas of the world, this disease kills an estimated 230,000 mothers and babies annually. The vaccine to eliminate these needless deaths costs just $1.20 per woman.

U.N. BUDGET: The United States made a large payment today to the UN regular budget, amounting to nearly $182 million. That amount is enough to cover their arrears for prior years and to include a partial payment for this years dues.