United Nations Daily Highlights, 04-08-05

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

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY DENISE COOK

ASSOCIATE SPOKESWOMAN FOR THE

SECRETARY-GENERAL

OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Thursday, August 5, 2004

AGREEMENT REACHED ON DISARMAMENT PROCESS IN DARFUR

From Sudan, the Secretary-Generals Special Representative, Jan Pronk, has reported that he and the Sudanese Foreign Minister, Mustafa Ismail, reached agreement last night on detailed steps to be taken in the next 30 days to begin to disarm the Janjaweed and other outlaw groups, improve security in Darfur and address the humanitarian crisis.

The text of the agreement must now be cleared by the Sudanese Cabinet.

After wrapping up the second meeting of the Joint Implementation Mechanism, Pronk said this morning that if the text of the agreement was agreed upon by the Sudanese cabinet as a whole and if that text was implemented, then he was very hopeful that the Security Council would come to the conclusion that there was indeed substantial progress and that there was no need to consider further action.

With respect to the situation of the internally displaced persons in Darfur, Pronk said Khartoum had lifted restrictions on humanitarian access to the camps. He noted that the international community should make full use of this opportunity by coming in with more planes and trucks carrying food and medication.

Asked for details of the agreement between Pronk and the Sudanese Foreign Minister, the Spokeswoman said that the United Nations could not provide specifics yet, since the agreement was not final until it had been cleared by the Sudanese Cabinet.

She said that the clock was ticking to comply with the Security Council resolution, and added she would imagine action fairly soon.

Asked about Pronks travels, the Spokeswoman said he had arrived on Sunday and had co-chaired the second meeting of the Joint Implementation Mechanism, to consider steps on how to implement the requirements of the Security Council resolution. She expected that Pronk was staying on in Sudan.

ABOUT 1,000 FAMILIES DISPLACED BY FIGHTING IN SOUTH DARFUR

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that in South Darfur, Sudan, around the Ed Daein area, heavy tribal fighting has reportedly caused the displacement of approximately 1,000 families.

Reports of banditry have also been received from areas southwest of Nyala.

OCHA and UNICEF, the UN Childrens Fund, are discussing with Sudanese authorities the Government plans to relocate internally displaced persons to different camps in South Darfur, with the humanitarian agencies stressing that the internally displaced persons (IDPs) should be involved in the decision-making process.

In West Darfur, Sudanese authorities informed OCHA of plans to return IDPs in Garsilla to six locations, each of which would be equipped with 100 police officers. They also invited IDP leaders to see some of the locations.

Humanitarian agencies have continued to note that relocation or return of IDPs to their areas of origin does not seem plausible at this time, given the precarious security situation.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme has announced that food was distributed to 941 thousand IDPs in July. That represents 94 percent of its target of one million persons for July.

In North Darfur, the World Health Organization is spraying the camps of Zam Zam and Abu Shouk to control malarial mosquitoes and UNICEF has started to distribute mosquito nets.

ANNAN SENDS UN TEAM TO ADDIS ABABA TO DISCUSS SUDAN FORCE

Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in comments he made to the press following Wednesdays Security Council consultations, talked about his briefing to the Council on Cote dIvoire and Sudan.

On Sudan, he said that General Abdulsalami Abubakar, the former Nigerian President, had visited Darfur and Chad and reported to the African heads of state in Accra on his trip, as a result of which the leaders believed that 300 African Union troops for Darfur may be insufficient.

He said that if the African Union is going to deploy a much larger force, it would need the support of the international community, as well as assistance in command and control and logistics.

Consequently, the Secretary-General has decided to send a UN team, led by Military Adviser Patrick Cammaert, to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss how to assist in restructuring the African Union force. The team left last night.

The Secretary-General said of the Sudanese Government, They should be able to take steps to calm the situation, to stop the attacks, to protect the people, and continue the disarmament.

RED CROSS REGISTERED NEWCOMERS FROM SUDANS MESHTEL CAMP

Regarding the fate of internally displaced Sudanese who were relocated from the Meshtel camp to the Abu Shouk camp the evening before the Secretary-General visited Meshtel, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Rescue Committee completed their registration of the people who came from Meshtel to Abu Shouk by late last week.

Those agencies registered between 4,000 and 5,000 new arrivals, after a delay to determine who wanted to remain in the Abu Shouk camp and to distinguish who the new arrivals were.

The newly-registered people from Meshtel missed the regular food distribution at Abu Shouk because of the delays in the registration process. The World Food Programme is planning to distribute food to the new arrivals before the next regular food distribution in the camp.

COUNCIL URGES ALL PARTIES TO IMPLEMENT ACCRA AGREEMENT

The Security Council issued a Presidential Statement today, in which it urged all Ivorian parties which signed the Accra Agreement to implement, in good faith, without delays or preconditions, the obligations they have undertaken as part of the agreement.

In particular, the Council called upon them to uphold the commitments so that incontestable elections can be held, as agreed, before the end of 2005.

The Secretary-General on Wednesday said the agreement reached on Cote dIvoire in Accra, Ghana, last week is an opportunity for the Ivorian leaders to come together and work for the sake of their nation and their people.

LIMITED BUT ENCOURAGING PROGRESS IN KOSOVO SINCE MARCH

The period since the March violence in Kosovo has seen limited but encouraging progress, Hédi Annabi, the Assistant-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told the Security Council today at its open meeting on the UN Mission there.

Annabi noted that the overall security situation has been calm and stable, with few significant security incidents, none of which have been attributed to extremist minorities.

Annabi said Kosovos leaders and population face an uphill challenge in ethnic reconciliation, the strengthening of democratic institutions and the creation of a democratic and tolerant Kosovo.

He added that while ultimate responsibility in these areas lies with Kosovos people, international support and engagement remains indispensable.

WFP APPEALS FOR $82 MILLION TO HELP KENYAN DROUGHT VICTIMS

The World Food Programme has launched an emergency appeal for $82 million for immediate food assistance to 2.3 million people affected by drought in Kenya.

The announcement follows a presidential appeal for international emergency help, until at least the end of January next year, for people struggling with food shortages.

If rains are poor later in the year, an additional one million people will require food assistance in 2005, bringing the total needing food aid in Kenya in 2005 to 3.3 million.

The situation is dire, with m12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;mso-ascii-font-family:"Times New Roman"; any people are missing out on meals to preserve food stocks and children skipping school to help their parents in the hunt for food. Wild animals are also leaving their game-park homes because of a shortage of water and are damaging vital crops.

UN MISSION HEAD CONDEMNS KILLING OF AFGHAN NGO WORKERS

The head of the UN Mission in Afghanistan, Jean Arnault, today expressed his condolences to the families and friends of two Afghans, working for the Malteser non-governmental organization, who were killed in an ambush attack on Wednesday.

Arnault condemned the attack, saying that violence against aid workers is unacceptable.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

UN ENVOY FOR IRAQ SCHEDULED TO ARRIVE MID-AUGUST: Asked when Special Representative for Iraq Ashraf Jehangir Qazi would arrive in that country, the Spokeswoman noted that the Secretary-General on Wednesday said that he expected that Qazi and a small team would be there before the National Conference, scheduled for the middle of August.

UNRWA STAFF RELOCATED TEMPORARILY TO AMMAN: Asked about the decision to relocate temporarily some international staff of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from Gaza to Amman, Jordan, the Spokeswoman later said that 17 international staff had been relocated temporarily to Amman. Also, 19 international staff earlier had been moved into Jerusalem, with nine international staff remaining in Gaza.

RADIO ONUCI TO BROADCAST IN ABIDJAN: At a ceremony in Abidjan today, Ivorian radio station officials and the United Nations signed an agreement that would allow the UN Missions radio station, ONUCI FM, to be broadcast on an FM frequency covering greater Abidjan. Next Monday, the UN Mission will launch ONUCI FM, and it hopes the station will be on the air that day.

BANGLADESH WILL NEED A YEAR TO RECOVER FROM FLOODS: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says Bangladesh will need at least a year to recover from the massive damage caused by the recent floods. UNDP says tens of millions of Bangladeshis now face grave food insecurity, waterborne diseases, a badly mangled infrastructure and extremely poor prospects for the next rice crop. The UN is preparing a comprehensive plan to help Bangladesh recover, and it expects to present the plan next week to donors for funding.

WFP WELCOMES JAPANESE DONATION FOR NORTH KOREA: The World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed the Japanese Governments donation of some $40 million to help millions of people in North Korea. WFP says the donation comes at a critical point for its work there while it had hoped to feed 6.5 million people, a severe fund shortage had forced it to cut back dramatically. In July, it was able to provide food to only 1.8 million of the most vulnerable women, children, and the elderly.

WFP PUBLISHES INTERACTIVE HUNGER MAP: The World Food Programme (WFP) has published an interactive map plotting the location of the worlds hungriest people in real-time. WFPs Hunger Map can be found on the agencys website. It charts the geography of hunger hotspots around the world by allowing visitors to navigate to the frontlines of the agencys global fight against hunger.

LOCUST SWARMS CONTINUE TO ARRIVE IN WEST AFRICA: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that while the locust problem is lessening in Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, large swarms continue to arrive in West African countries. FAO is urging donor countries to provide additional funds to support massive national control operations, as many affected countries do not have sufficient resources to control swarms and avoid serious crop losses this summer. Aircraft, pesticides, vehicles and technical support are lacking in all affected countries.

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