United Nations Daily Highlights, 05-04-15

United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPOKESMAN'S NOON

BRIEFING

BY

FRED ECKHARD

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Friday, April 15, 2005

ANNAN DISMAYED BY DEATH OF PEACEKEEPER IN HAITI

Secretary-General Kofi Annan

learned with great dismay and sadness of the death of one member of the

United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) yesterday, the third combat fatality sustained since the missions deployment in June 2004.

At about 4:15 p.m. yesterday, while supervising the setting up of a checkpoint in the shantytown of Cité Soleil in Port-au-Prince, MINUSTAH troops came under fire from unidentified gunmen. During this attack, a UN soldier from the Philippines was shot and later died from his injuries.

The Secretary-General shares the indignation

expressed yesterday in Haiti by Security Council members, and vigorously condemns all violence against UN personnel.

The Secretary-General expresses his sincere condolences to the soldiers family, the Philippine contingent and the Government of the Philippines, and reiterates MINUSTAHs resolve to continue to work towards the establishment of a peaceful environment in Haiti.

HAITI: SECURITY COUNCIL ATTENDS MEMORIAL CEREMONY

FOR FALLEN PEACEKEEPER

A ceremony originally scheduled to honour the Philippine contingents completion of 6 months of service to the

UN Mission was held to honour the peacekeeper, who was also from the Philippines.

The 15 members of the Security Council, on a mission in Haiti, issued a press statement condemning with the utmost vigor both this despicable act committed against a peacekeeper and continued violence against MINUSTAH,. Council members expressed their solidarity with the inhabitants of Cité Soleil who face violence and intimidation by armed groups.

The Security Council also attended the memorial service. Lauro Baja, the Philippines Permanent Representative, in addition to expressing great sorrow over his countrymans death, praised the peacekeepers for their courage, calling them the best ambassadors of goodwill. He was accompanied by the Secretary-Generals Special Representative in Haiti, Juan Valdes, among others.

This morning, the Security Council mission held private meetings with Haitian political and civil society leaders and representatives. And it is now splitting into two groups, with one being flown to the city of Cap Haitien, and the other to Gonaives.

The mission will hold an end-of-visit press conference tomorrow, before returning to New York.

ANNAN TO MEET WORLD BANK, I.M.F. OFFICIALS IN WASHINGTON

On Saturday, the Secretary-General is scheduled to be in Washington, D.C., to attend a working dinner of the International Monetary and Financial Committee of the

World Bank and the

International Monetary Fund.

The Secretary-General will be delivering remarks at the dinner. He is expected to tell the audience of international finance officials that their development agenda fits into, and has a better chance of being adopted as part of, the broader agenda that he has put before member states for this Septembers summit.

The Secretary-General will be back in the office on Monday.

INT'L ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY LETTER TRANSMITTED TO SECURITY COUNCIL

Satellite imagery reveals significant dismantling and removal activities at 37 Iraqi sites linked to Saddam Husseins clandestine nuclear programme since his fall two years ago, but without on-site inspections no conclusions can be drawn, the International Atomic Energy Agency says in a letter transmitted to the Security Council.

In the course of this assessment, IAEA also focussed on areas where destroyed equipment from the former nuclear programme had bee stored or discarded, says the agencys Director-General, Mohamed ElBaradei in the letter that is out as a Council document today. Satellite imagery has indicated that at least one site containing buried contaminated rubble has been extensively excavated."

The above assessments, however, need to be followed up through verification in Iraq in order for the Agency to draw conclusions, he adds

ECOSOC TO HOST MEETING ON FOREIGN AID

On Monday, the

UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) will

host a full day meeting with finance and development ministers, central bankers and Executive Directors of the Bretton Woods institutions, who will be departing from the weekend Spring Meeting of the

World Bank and the

International Monetary Fund, as well as with representatives of

UNCTAD and the WTO.

The Monday meeting constitutes a key opportunity for finance decision makers to consider foreign aid outlays in a multilateral and inter-institutional context, prior to the Summit taking place at the UN in September.

In a document released today, the Secretary-General repeated his call for rapid increases in official development assistance and measures to front load aid, as a means to meet the

Millennium Development Goals set at the year-2000 Millennium Summit.

The full range of areas covered by the 2002 International Conference on Financing for Development trade, aid, investment, debt, international financial systems and mobilization of resources in the developing countries will be under discussion during Mondays plenary meeting and at informal roundtable discussions.

DISARMAMENT TALKS TO RESUME TOMORROW IN COTE D'IVOIRE

A Togolese peacekeeper was last night stabbed seven times by unidentified assailants and was admitted to a hospital in Abidjan. His condition is said to be stable. The incident took place near headquarters of the UN Mission in Cote d'Ivoire. UN military police are carrying out an investigation.

A meeting on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reinsertion (DDR) is scheduled to resume tomorrow in the central town of Bouaké. This follows the DDR meeting yesterday between the armed forces of Côte dIvoire (FANCI) and the Forces Nouvelles (FN) convened in line with the recent meeting of main parties to the Ivorian conflict in Pretoria, South Africa.

UN teams, meanwhile, carried out arms inspections at the San Pedro airport today.

HEAD OF REFUGEE AGENCY TO VISIT SUDAN

The Acting High Commissioner for Refugees Wendy Chamberlin leaves Sunday on a five-day mission to Sudan and Chad following this week's Oslodonor's conference on Sudan.

The continuing insecurity and massive displacement in the Darfur region make it one of the most difficult protection environments that the

UN Refugee Agency faces anywhere.

The two-year conflict has uprooted over 2 million people -- 1.8 million of them displaced within Darfur and 200,000 others now across the border in our camps in neighboring Chad.

VOLUNTEERS KILLED BY LIGHTNING WHILE WORKING TO PREVENT

MARBURG VICTIMS IN ANGOLA

A senior UN official in Angola expresses deep sorrow at the deaths of the young social mobilisation volunteers

hit by a lightning yesterday in the province of Uige while providing much needed information and advice on the Marburg virus to the population at risk.

The young volunteers, killed by a lightning, were part of a social mobilization team in charge of distributing leaflets about the hemorrhagic fever in Uige. The team was visiting a school in a neighbourhood in the outskirts of the city to ensure that the youngest are aware of the deadly epidemic.

W.F.P. EXTREMELY CONCERNED ABOUT SITUATION IN COLOMBIA

The World Food Programme reports that it is extremely concerned about the humanitarian situation in the region of Bojaya in

Colombia. Constant clashes between illegal armed groups have caused significant displacement of population in the past few weeks.

Also, some 4,000 indigenous people along two principal rivers are at risk of becoming displaced because of the insecurity and presence of irregular armed groups on their land.

TWO-THIRDS OF ERITREAN POPULATION RELYING ON FOOD AID

The

World Food Programme also

reports that it has revised and extended its emergency operation in

Eritrea, now that five successive years of inadequate rainfall have led to two-thirds of the population relying almost entirely on food aid for survival.

The revised $75 million operation aims to help 840,000 people suffering from drought. Thats 240,000 more than the original nine-month project, which ended last month. The original operation appealed for $50 million, but finished up with a 37 percent shortfall.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

TOP INDIAN ACTOR SIGNS ON AS UNICEF GOODWILL AMBASSADOR: The Executive Director of the

UN Childrens Fund, Carol Bellamy,

welcomed acclaimed Indian film star Amitabh Bachchan into the agencys team of international Goodwill Ambassadors yesterday evening. Bachchan's special areas of focus will be polio eradication and HIV/AIDS, and he will draw attention to those issues through field visits and public appearances.

EXPERT MEETING ON ILLICIT DRUG TRADING ON THE INTERNET: An expert group meeting on illicit trade of controlled drugs through the internet, organized by the

International Narcotics Control Board, was

held in Vienna from 11 to 13 April. The meeting showed that the complexity of the problem is much greater than anticipated, and that serious national and international efforts are urgently required to counteract the trade.

U.N. FLAG AT HALF MAST: The UN flag is flying at half mast today in observance of the official mourning for His Serene Highness Prince Rainier of Monaco, whose funeral is being held today.

THE WEEK AHEAD AT THE UNITED NATIONS

Saturday, April 16, 2005

On Saturday, the Secretary-General is scheduled to be in Washington, D.C., to attend a working dinner of the International Monetary and Financial Committee of the

World Bank and the

International Monetary Fund.

Monday, April 18

The Security Council has scheduled at noon a meeting on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

On Monday, the

UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) will

host a full day meeting with finance and development ministers, central bankers and Executive Directors of the Bretton Woods institutions, who will be departing from the weekend Spring Meeting of the

World Bank and the

International Monetary Fund, as well as with representatives of

UNCTAD and the WTO.

At 3:30 p.m., Germanys Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, will hold a press conference on Germanys contribution to the high-level segment of Economic and Social Council and the Millennium Development Goals.

Tuesday, April 19

The Security Council has scheduled consultations on Iraq and Kuwait. The monthly working lunch with the Secretary-General is also on the programme.

Wednesday, April 20

The Security Council has scheduled an open briefing on the work of the Councils mission to Haiti, led by Ambassador Ronaldo Sardenberg of Brazil.

Thursday, April 21

The Security Council has scheduled an open meeting, followed by consultations, on the Middle East.

A private Security Council meeting with troop contributing countries of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) is also on the agenda.

At 12:45, Mikhail Gorbachev, President of Green Cross International, Prince Willem-Alexander (The Netherlands), and Ambassador John Ashe (Antigua and Barbuda) Chairman of the 13th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, will hold a press conference on water and sanitation.

Friday, April 22

The Security Council has scheduled a public meeting on Cote d'Ivoire.

The guest at the noon briefing is Ambassador John Ashe (Antigua and Barbuda), Chairman of the 13th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, who will brief on the outcomes of the session.

Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

United Nations, S-378

New York, NY 10017

Tel. 212-963-7162 - press/media only

Fax. 212-963-7055

All other inquiries to be addressed to (212) 963-4475 or by e-mail to: inquiries@un.org

United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article