United Nations Daily Highlights, 06-07-26

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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 MARIE OKABE

DEPUTY SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

ANNAN OUTLINES STRATEGY TO END LEBANON CRISIS INVOLVING

IMMEDIATE CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES

Secretary-General Kofi Annan this morning told the participants at the International Conference on Lebanon, taking place in Rome, that we need a cessation of hostilities because we face a grave humanitarian crisis. He called on Hezbollah to stop its deliberate targeting of Israeli population centres and called on Israel to end its bombardments, blockades and ground operations.

The Secretary-General added that a key stipulation for such a halt in fighting would be that the parties must not take advantage of such a pause to conduct offensive operations, redeploy or resupply. An international force has a vital role to play in this scenario.

He also emphasized the need for a political framework so that a cessation of hostilities can be transformed into a longer-term process of enduring peace, and for nations to commit to a strong economic package for Lebanon.

Following the conclusion of the meeting, the Secretary-General and other participants spoke to the press, in which he noted that the participants at the conference endorsed the need for urgent action to stop the hostilities, so that we can move into the longer-term mode and be able to deploy troops.

The Secretary-General intends to follow up on the question of an international force in Lebanon, by having the Department of Peacekeeping Operations convene in New York next week a meeting of potential troop contributors for such a force, while we await the Security Councils decision on this matter.

Asked about involvement by Syria and Iran, the Spokeswoman said that the Secretary-General, in an interview with CNN last week, spoke about the need to bring in those two countries as part of a longer-term solution. He has also reached out far and wide in the region, she said, including his discussions with the nations at the Rome meeting.

THREE, POSSIBLY FOUR, U.N. MILITARY OBSERVERS KILLED

AFTER DIRECT ISRAELI HIT ON U.N. POSITION

Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jane Holl Lute this morning briefed the Security Council in its closed consultations about the killing of at least three unarmed UN military observers, and possibly a fourth, in a direct hit on their position in southern Lebanon yesterday.

Holl Lute said that the four observers were in a long-established and clearly-marked post near the town of Khiam, which came under recurrent incidents of close firing from Israel yesterday afternoon. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reports that, in total, 21 strikes were made within 300 meters of the patrol base.

In a statement issued from Rome yesterday, the Secretary-General said that this coordinated artillery and aerial attack occurred despite personal assurances given to him by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire. Furthermore, General Alain Pellegrini, the UN Force Commander in south Lebanon, had been in repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout the day on Tuesday, stressing the need to protect that particular UN position from attack. The Secretary-General called on the Government of Israel to conduct a full investigation into this very disturbing incident and demanded that any further attack on UN positions and personnel must stop.

Holl Lute, in her briefing to the Council, welcomed Israels call for an investigation, which she said the United Nations believes should be done jointly with the United Nations.

She also noted that in certain circumstances, UNIFIL may need to prepare for a consolidation of its presence to minimize further risk to its personnel.

Security Council members received a draft Presidential Statement about this incident.

In response to questions about the Secretary-Generals response to the strikes, the Spokeswoman noted that the Secretary-General, in his press briefing today, said that he had spoken to the Prime Minister of Israel this morning. The Secretary-General said, He definitely believes it is a mistake. He has undertaken to investigate, and I have suggested we do a joint investigation. And he has expressed his deep sorrow at what happened, and we accept that.

The Secretary-General said that we await the end of the investigations, and added that he was grateful to the Prime Minister for what he has said.

Asked whether the Secretary-General was pulling back from his statement of yesterday, and the idea that the attack was apparently deliberately targeted, Okabe said he was not, and added that we will wait for the results of the investigations.

She added, in reference to the phrase apparently deliberate, that the base came under close attack despite calls and communications made to the Israeli side. She added that the kind of attack that took place implied that someone would have to have targeted the site.

She noted that UNIFIL had been able to dig up the bodies of three of the military observers, and the fourth one was still being sought. The building itself is now rubble.

Asked about the number of strikes, she said there were 21 strikes, including artillery shells and aerial bombs, which included 12 artillery rounds.

Asked what Israels motive would be to deliberately target the UN position, the Spokeswoman declined to speculate on Israels motivation, but she drew attention to the sequence of events that took place at the Khiam post.

Asked about UNIFILs status, the Spokeswoman said that was being discussed in the Security Council. The Secretary-General had recommended a one-month extension of the force. She added that there may be a need to prepare for the consolidation of the unarmed military observers. The details of that consolidation are not yet decided.

Asked why the observers had not been consolidated before, she said it was because the United Nations was given guarantees that they would not be attacked.

She noted, in response to questions about UNIFIL, that the mission has some 2,000 armed personnel and 50 unarmed military observers. The patrol base at Khiam was one of four active bases in existence for almost thirty years, and four observers had been posted there, near the 70-mile-long Blue Line.

The observers were lent out from the UN Truce Supervision Organization but were under UNIFIL command.

Meanwhile, the UNIFIL troops are located in about 40 different areas. The troops serve a mandate under Security Council Resolution 425.

The mandate of the force, she added, would be considered by the Council, and the current mandate expires at the end of July.

The observers at Khiam, she said in response to a question on their activities, were military observers from four different nations, who were part of the UNs eyes and ears for monitoring any violations that might take place.

Asked about contacts with Israel during the shelling, the Spokeswoman said that Force Commander Gen. Alain Pellegrini had made repeated contact with the Israeli authorities, while Holl Lute and Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown had made repeated calls to Israels UN Mission.

Asked whether the Secretary-General believes that the Council should have updated UNIFILs mandate, the Spokeswoman said that he is looking ahead, and had asked the Council to extend the current mandate while he sees what he can do to contribute to an international force that would allow the Lebanese Government to exert its authority through to its borders.

In a further background briefing, a senior UN official later asserted that the post at Khiam was well-marked and well-known, and had been in place for nearly 30 years. The official showed a photograph of the post, painted in white with clear UN markings on its walls.

The official noted that Gen. Pellegrini had communicated the precise coordinates of that post to the IDF in more than one communication that day.

In response to a question about Hezbollah activity in the area, the official said that no Hezbollah activity had been reported there, with the nearest known activity by that group taking place at least five kilometres away.

U.N. HUMANITARIAN CONVOY CARRIES RELIEF SUPPLIES TO SOUTH LEBANON

A UN convoy of ten trucks today

carried food, medicines, sanitation and hygiene supplies, to the port city of Tyre in southern Lebanon. The convoy has arrived in Tyre and begun to distribute aid, following a five-and-a-half hour trip from Beirut.

This is the first UN convoy to the south in what is hoped to become a regular dispatching of humanitarian supplies along safe humanitarian corridors inside Lebanon to the people most affected by the ongoing military hostilities.

The convoy includes 90 metric tonnes of wheat flour procured locally, as well as other essential items.

Meanwhile, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland is in Israel today as part of his mission to the Middle East. Today he visited the city of Haifa, where he witnessed firsthand the effects of shelling by Hezbollah.

He also met the mayor of Haifa, as well as Israels Defense Minister and Foreign Minister, and thanked them for Israels support for humanitarian corridors.

SECURITY COUNCIL CONSIDERS COTE DIVOIRE AND AFGHANISTAN

Following its briefing on Lebanon, the Security Council went into consultations on Cote dIvoire to consider the Secretary-Generals latest report on the UN Mission in that country and other matters.

Briefing the Council are the Secretary-Generals Principal Deputy Special Representative for Cote dIvoire, Abou Moussa, and the High Representative for the elections in Côte d'Ivoire, Gérard Stoudmann.

Then, at 3 p.m., the Council has scheduled a closed meeting on Afghanistan. The Secretary-Generals Special Representative for that country, Tom Koenigs, will brief.

SOMALIA: TRANSITIONAL GOVERNMENT & ISLAMIC COURTS COMMIT TO DIALOGUE

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, yesterday completed a mission to that country, in the course of which he obtained from the Transitional Federal Government and the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts the commitment that they will reconsider resuming the dialogue begun in Khartoum in June.

In Baidoa, Fall held a meeting with the Somali President and other officials and emphasized the need to maintain unity among the Transitional Federal Institutions. In Mogadishu, Fall met with leaders of the Executive Council of the Islamic Courts. He also drove through Mogadishu to assess the state of the Somali capital.

Concluding his mission, Fall announced that a UN team would soon visit Mogadishu to start humanitarian assistance for those in need.

HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES RISE IN D.R. CONGO

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) has issued its latest report on the human rights situation in that country, in which it notes an increase in the number of human rights abuses since the start of the electoral campaign. The Congolese army, the Mission says, is responsible for more than half of the reported 369 cases of abuses. The Mission also notes, with alarm, that not a single presidential candidate to date has addressed human rights issues on the campaign trail.

Meanwhile, the UN Development Programme today issued a press release in which it says that the delivery to the polling stations of the 30 million ballots and other supplies required for Sundays elections will be completed this Friday. And that press release is available upstairs.

SUDAN: INCREASED TRIBAL MILITIA FIGHTING IN SOUTH DARFUR

And the Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, spoke with the press earlier today in Khartoum.

He said that while there has been little fighting in South Darfur between those who did and did not sign the Darfur Peace Agreement, there has been an increase in tribal militia fighting there.

Pronk said these clashes have gotten more violent than in the past due to the increasing availability of weapons.

Pronk will travel to Juba, in Southern Sudan, this coming Sunday to attend the commemoration of the death of John Garang.

Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

United Nations, S-378

New York, NY 10017

Tel. 212-963-7162

Fax. 212-963-7055

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