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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY MARIE OKABE
DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON
UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Thursday, May 8, 2008
MYANMAR: BAN KI-MOON URGES FOCUS ON EMERGENCY RESPONSE EFFORTS
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, deeply concerned
about the welfare of the people of Myanmar at this time of national
tragedy, has taken note of the Government’s decision to proceed with
the constitutional referendum on 10 May, while postponing it in some of
the areas most affected by the cyclone.
Due to the scope of the disaster facing Myanmar today, however, the Secretary-General believes that it may be prudent to focus instead on mobilizing all available resources and capacity for the emergency response efforts.
AGENCIES STEP UP RELIEF EFFORTS IN MYANMAR, AS WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME SENDS IN FIRST SHIPMENT FROM ABROAD BY AIR
The World Food Programme has been able to
deliver seven tons of high-energy biscuits by air into Myanmar today,
via a Thai Airways commercial cargo flight. More than half of the
shipment has already been dispatched to Labutta, one of the worst
affected areas in the Irrawaddy delta, while the remainder will be
distributed in Yangon tomorrow.
Meanwhile, a flight
chartered by WFP and carrying humanitarian supplies donated by the
Italian Government, also arrived in Yangon
today.
[Another flight with 20 tons of
high-energy-biscuits and medical kits is expected to arrive in Yangon
shortly.]
WFP has also dispatched nearly 35 tons of rice
from existing in-country stocks to affected areas, bringing the total
amount of food distributed so far to 156 tons.
UNICEF, for its part, is sending in family
health kits with medicine for 155,000 people, as well as water
purification tablets, oral rehydration salts, tarpaulins, mosquito
nets, jerry cans and cooking and cleaning supplies. Additional
staff and supplies are on the way.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Development Programme
(UNDP), while not a relief agency, is the only UN programme located in
the Ayeyarwaddy (Irrawaddy) Delta, and it has sent rotating teams of
national staff to four affected townships to make disaster assessments,
deliver small relief items and provide support to the population UNDP
serves.
Asked whether there would be a discussion in the
Security Council of Myanmar, the Spokeswoman noted that Council members
were discussing whether to have a briefing on that subject.
Asked about the Secretary-General’s contacts
with Senior General Than Shwe, Okabe noted that the Secretary-General
was trying to reach him by phone.
She noted, in response to a question about assistance to Myanmar by other countries, including China and India, that Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes had made clear that we are working with all parties to provide assistance. That is standard practice, she added.
INTENSE DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS ON BOLIVIA WELCOMED
The Secretary-General is closely following
political developments in Bolivia. He welcomes the intense
diplomatic work carried out by the Organization of American States
(OAS), as well as by countries of the Group of Friends of Bolivia
(Argentina, Brazil and Colombia) and other members of the international
community.
The Secretary-General welcomes the call for dialogue made by the OAS in its resolution of 3 May and urges all political and social actors to seek a consensus on the pressing issues affecting the Bolivian people.
MARTIN
LUTHER KING JR. REMAINS
UNSURPASSED ADVOCATE OF UNITED NATIONS VALUES
The Secretary-General is in Atlanta today. He
is currently at the Governor’s Mansion with Georgia Governor Sonny
Perdue. He should be addressing the press there in a few minutes, and
we’ll have the transcript of that encounter later this afternoon.
This morning he joined Atlanta Mayor Shirley
Franklin in viewing the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Collection at the
Robert W. Woodruff Library. He viewed documents underlining the deep
relationship between the civil rights leader and the UN – including
correspondence between Dr. King and former UN Under-Secretary-General
for Political Affairs, Ralph Bunche.
The Secretary-General said Dr. King remains an
unsurpassed advocate of all the UN stands for: peace, economic and
social justice, and human rights. He said we can be inspired by him as
we pursue our overriding mission today to build a better world in the
21st century.
Since global health is one of the Secretary-General’s key priorities for 2008 and beyond, he will visit this afternoon the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which works with the World Health Organization on many issues. He will also meet President Jimmy Carter at the Carter Center tonight, in advance of his meeting there tomorrow on global health.
SECURITY COUNCIL IS BRIEFED ON DEVELOPMENTS IN LEBANON
The Security
Council today heard in an open meeting from Terje Roed-Larsen, the
Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Implementation of Resolution
1559, about the latest developments in Lebanon and the
Secretary-General’s recent report
on it.
Roed-Larsen said that Lebanon has continued to
experience a severe political crisis, centered particularly on the
failure to elect a President.
He noted recent incidents of unrest, including
the blocking yesterday of roads leading to Beirut’s international
airport by Hezbollah and scuffles between supporters of the Government
and the opposition. So far, two people were reported killed from the
clashes and 10 injured. Today, Roed-Larsen said, a very tense calm has
returned to the capital, but several roads remain closed.
Roed-Larsen stressed that the full disarmament
of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias is in the best interest of
regional stability. He reiterated the Secretary-General’s deep concern
that a Presidential election still has not taken place.
The Council then went into consultations on Lebanon.
ATTACK ON FOOD CONVOY IN SOMALIA IS CONDEMNED
The World Food Programme has condemned in the
strongest terms the killing of a WFP-contracted truck driver who was
shot yesterday at a checkpoint in central Somalia.
The driver was part of a WFP food convoy,
which was stopped by militiamen who demanded money
before opening fire, gravely injuring the driver, who later succumbed
to his wounds at a local hospital. He was the second WFP-contracted
driver to be killed on the job this year in Somalia.
WFP says the convoy’s load of 275 tonnes of food was not stolen during the incident.
LEVEL OF SECURITY SATISFACTORY IN CHAD AMID INFLUX OF REFUGEES
While road banditry remains a serious concern
in southern Chad, the UN Mission in Chad and the Central African
Republic (MINURCAT) says that it is satisfied that a good level of
security is prevailing there amid an influx of refugees from the
neighboring Central African Republic.
The refugees are arriving from the border town
of Gore where local officials on Monday welcomed a UN delegation led by
the Secretary-General’s Special Representative Victor Angelo.
The delegation also included WFP, UNICEF and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) which estimates the total number of refugees in Chad at some 296,000. Of that, some 53,000 are Central Africans while the rest are Sudanese.
AFGHANISTAN,
IRAN AND PAKISTAN AGREE TO COOPERATE
TO STEM FLOW OF DRUGS FROM AFGHANISTAN
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime says that a
meeting involving officials from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan has
concluded with an agreement on ways to strengthen border cooperation
among those three countries in order to stem the flow of drugs from Afghanistan.
The meeting is part of the Triangular
Initiative brokered by the Office on Drugs and Crime to improve
trans-border cooperation to fight drugs and crime.
The Office’s Executive Director, Antonio Maria Costa, was in Tehran, where he met with senior officials. He stressed the need to ensure that ways to facilitate trade are not exploited by smugglers of drugs and weapons.
GLOBAL CARBON MARKET DOUBLES LAST YEAR TO $64 BILLION
The global carbon market more than doubled
last year – to $64 billion. That’s according to a new report from
the World Bank, which says that some segments even tripled in value.
However, the report found a levelling off of
clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in developing
countries.
The report warns of a “demand gap” sometime
this year – when buyers realize that there is not enough time to fulfil
their Kyoto Protocol commitments with new projects, but demand from a
post-2012 market (under a still to be concluded climate change
agreement) won’t have kicked in.
The report also warns of procedural delays in the CDM approval cycle; more than two out of three projects have not yet been processed, the World Bank says.
ALARMING DECLINE OF MIGRATORY BIRDS IS REPORTED
The U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) is
warning about an alarming decline in the number of migratory birds
along the world’s major flyways.
UNEP cites one study showing a 75 per cent
decline in migratory shorebirds flying between East Asia and Australia
over the last 25 years.
The exact reasons for this are complex, and
they also vary regionally, as well as from species to species, but one
culprit could be a loss of habitats to agricultural, urban and
industrial development, UNEP says. As a result, birds have fewer
places to stop and rest when they migrate.
Meanwhile, rising temperatures are resulting in expanding deserts, more frequent storms, and rising sea levels, which threaten tidal and wetland areas.
*The guest at the noon briefing was John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, who briefed on the humanitarian situation in Myanmar and UN assistance efforts in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.
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