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UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE
DAILY NEWS
5 March, 2007
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CôTE D’IVOIRE: BAN KI-MOON HAILS RIVAL PARTIES’ ACCORD, CALLS FOR FULL IMPLEMENTATION
Welcoming the signing of an agreement between rival leaders in Côte d’Ivoire, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on the parties to implement “in full and in good faith” the accord in the West African country that has been divided between the Government-controlled south and the rebel-held north since 2002.
“The Secretary-General is especially pleased to note that the agreement addresses the key issues that had blocked progress on identification of the population, disarmament, reform and restructuring of the armed forces, restoration of State authority throughout the country, reunification of the country and the preparation of the voters list, in order to ensure credible, free and fair elections,” a statement issued by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said.
The talks between President Laurent Gbagbo, whose forces control the south of a country that was the world’s top cocoa producer, and Forces Nouvelles Secretary-General Guillaume Soro, who holds the north, were held in Ouagadougou, capital of neighbouring Burkina Faso, and Mr. Ban commended Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaoré for “his effective facilitation role.”
The Secretary-General “assures him and the Ivorian leaders of the commitment and readiness of the United Nations to assist in the implementation of the agreement,” the statement said.
Mr. Ban noted that the Ouagadougou agreement builds upon Security Council resolution 1721 of last November that underlined previous agreements calling for free, open, fair and transparent elections by 31 October this year at the latest.
“The Secretary-General stresses that this agreement was drawn up by the Ivorian leaders themselves, which places on them a special responsibility to implement it in full and in good faith,” the statement concluded. “He looks forward to further discussions with President Compaoré and the Ivorian leaders on details of the provisions of the agreement and the role the United Nations is expected to play.”
The UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) has nearly 9,000 total uniformed personnel in the country, including 7,850 troops and nearly, 1,000 police with a mandate to monitor the cessation of hostilities and movements of armed groups, help in disarmament and dismantling of militias and contribute to the security of the operations of identification of the population and registration of voters.
The mandate also includes reform of the security sector, monitoring an arms embargo, providing humanitarian assistance, facilitating the re-establishment by the Government of the authority of the State throughout Côte d’Ivoire, and support for the organization of open, free, fair and transparent elections.
* * *
UN OFFICIALS PRESS FOR URGENT ACTION TO END HUMAN TRAFFICKING, A ‘MODERN-DAY SLAVE TRADE’
United Nations officials today called for increased efforts – by Governments, civil society, law enforcement agencies, the private sector and international organizations including the UN – to curb human trafficking, especially in women and girls.
Although this year marks the bicentennial of the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, “the fact that there are forms of slavery in our world today should fill us all with shame,” Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told delegates from around the world who converged at UN Headquarters in New York to attend the International Conference on Trafficking in Women and Girls. “As an African woman, I would add that it also fills me with rage.”
She advocated increased cooperation among Governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the media, among other groups, to halt trafficking, prosecute those guilty of perpetrating such crimes and to protect victims.
Ms. Migiro also urged States to join the Global Initiative to fight Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery, a new UN program which will be launched later this year in Vienna. “We must act together to stop a crime in our midst that deprives countless victims of their liberty, dignity and human rights.”
Citing trafficking’s global scope, General Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa said that it impacts millions of people, particularly those in poor countries, and is a multi-billion dollar industry that lines the pockets of organized crime.
“I cannot imagine a more terrible crime than the sale of women and children to be exploited and abused by others,” Sheikha Haya told the Conference’s participants.
She lauded strengthened international legal instruments, such as the 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking, Especially Women and Children, which entered into force on 25 December 2003, and said that such agreements must be applied effectively.
Also, Sheikha Haya suggested a “bottom-up approach” to curtail human trafficking, including awareness-raising campaigns at the local-level, having vulnerable groups join in discussions on finding solutions to the problem and improving local economies to prevent “risky migration practices.”
In a related development, the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today that enhanced measures, including improving educational opportunities and enlisting the help of men and boys, are necessary to combat enduring discrimination and violence against girls.
“It is long past time that countries, cultures and communities everywhere accept that it is in their own best interests to treat girls and women as equals,” UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman said on the occasion of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, currently in its 51st Session in New York.
Despite progress, millions of girls are not receiving adequate educations, exploited for their labour, trafficked and exposed to diseases such as HIV/AIDS, she added. “Common sense and economics alike tell us that a society cannot possibly marginalize half its population and expect positive outcomes.”
* * *
UN ENVOY IN TIMOR-LESTE SAYS TIMORESE FUGITIVE RESPONSIBLE FOR VIOLENCE, CALLS FOR CALM
The United Nations envoy in Timor-Leste has said fugitive Timorese Major Alfredo Reinado and his followers, who are accused of involvement in last year’s deadly violence that rocked the tiny nation, bear ultimate responsibility for the weekend military operation launched against them by the International Security Forces (ISF) because they rejected the Government’s terms of surrender.
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General Atul Khare, head of the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT), has also repeated his call for calm after gangs burnt tyres and fought UN Police on Sunday in the capital Dili, while two vehicles were set on fire in a ministry compound in Gleno-Ermera.
Timorese President Xanana Gusmão had asked for the ISF operation against Maj. Reinado after he ransacked several border police posts late last month, stealing weapons and other equipment, and because he had shown “very clearly that he does not respect the State or its institutions”.
“UNMIT regrets that the efforts to ensure a peaceful judicial path have not been successful, and would like to stress that it is Reinado’s disregard for the laws of Timor-Leste and the wellbeing of its population that have brought us to this point,” Mr. Khare told reporters yesterday, referring to the ISF operations in Same, south of Dili.
“I would like to once more appeal to the people of Timor-Leste to cooperate with the police and the ISF to maintain peace and calm. At the same time, UN Police, along with the PNTL (National Police of Timor-Leste) and assisted as required by the ISF, will continue to take strong actions against all those who indulge in violence or otherwise flout the laws of this country.”
Late last year the UN Independent Special Commission of Inquiry for Timor-Leste, set up to look into the deadly violence that erupted in May and April, found amongst other things that Maj. Reinado and his group were reasonably suspected of committing crimes against life and person during the fighting.
The crisis, attributed to differences between eastern and western regions, erupted in late April with the firing of 600 striking soldiers, a third of the armed forces. Ensuing violence claimed at least 37 lives and drove 155,000 people, 15 per cent of the total population, from their homes.
The Security Council created UNMIT in August 2006 to help restore order after the violence, especially in the run-up to this year’s elections, the first round of which is schedule for 9 April. These will be the first polls held in the tiny nation since it gained independence from Indonesia in 2002.
* * *
TOP UN MANAGEMENT OFFICIAL OUTLINES PRIORITIES, STRESSES HIGHEST STANDARDS OF INTEGRITY
Describing the United Nations Department of Management as the “backbone” of the world body, the top UN management official today outlined her priorities for the coming year, namely implementing reforms to improve the organization’s efficiency and accountability, as she also stressed the need to maintain the highest standards of integrity.
Under-Secretary-General for Management Alicia Bárcena, who has now been in the post for two months, also told reporters that 98 per cent of those UN staff required to disclose their financial assets under the Ethics Office’s Financial Disclosure Programme have already done so, while the remaining two per cent would have their contracts terminated if they failed to comply. This initiative is also aimed at greater accountability.
“The Member States have given us a big amount of tasks already since last year…they approved quite a lot of reforms and that’s why one of the main things that we have to do is implement them. So the major focus of my work at least for this year will be basically implementation,” said Ms. Bárcena at UN Headquarters in New York.
“And one of these priorities…is how do we keep the highest possible standards of integrity, ethics, transparency, conduct in this organization, that’s the number one priority for everyone and for that we have to do so many things, from the internal justice system that we are discussing now…the other element of this implementation of the reform is all the area of accountability…how do we become better in terms of accountability?”
She emphasized the importance of the Ethics Office, noting also its training role, and also added that new senior managers who come to the UN – including herself – will have to sign an agreement with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, outlining their commitments and roles so that people can measure their performances. She said these would also be made public.
Submitting timely budgets and budget proposals is also key for her Department, she said, while also highlighting progress made on the Capital Master Plan, which is aimed at renovating the world body's New York Headquarters, buildings that for the most part were completed in the early 1950s.
Turning to human resources management reforms, she stressed the priority of improving the “administration of justice,” noting that the system currently operating was designed in 1945 for 1,000 or so people, but now there are 55,000 staff. Ms. Bárcena also spoke about the Secretary-General’s emphasis on staff mobility, adding her Department was looking into this.
“We know that there are two elements that we need to ensure good mobility, and that is, the conditions of service have to be more or less homogenous so people can really move from one place to the other. And of course, the harmonization of contracts, and that’s a problem that we still have and we hope the Member States will make good decisions…[on this] in the General Assembly.”
Further, she said her Department was working closely to assist in the debate with Member States regarding the realignment of peacekeeping operations as proposed by Mr. Ban, and it was also close to hiring a chief to head the information technology office at the UN.
* * *
NEW UN HUMANITARIAN CHIEF SET TO VISIT SUDAN, OTHER ‘CRITICAL AREAS’ IN AFRICA
The top United Nations humanitarian official, whose tenure began on 1 March, said today that he is eager to see first-hand the dire humanitarian situation in western Sudan, as well as visit Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR), which are both hosting refugees who have fled the war-torn Darfur region.
“I want to get onto the ground soon to see for myself what is happening in some of the critical areas,” John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told reporters in his first press briefing since taking office.
In the region, the problems regarding the safety of the displaced as well as of humanitarian workers “are increasing and unacceptable and the problems of access, if anything, are worsening,” he added.
To this end, Mr. Holmes, who now heads the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), is currently in discussions with the authorities of the three countries regarding a trip scheduled for 20-31 March, during which he hopes to meet with Government officials, humanitarian workers and those living in camps.
In his new position, Mr. Holmes will wear “three separate hats,” each with “various goals.”
In his capacity as the Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, he said that he believes he will play a significant advocacy role to emphasize such issues as the significance of access in humanitarian relief, highlighting neglected crises and the sexual violence in conflict.
As the Emergency Relief Coordinator, he hopes to build upon reforms and innovations initiated in recent years, such as the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which helps countries cope with underfunded emergencies.
Finally, of the International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction which he will lead, Mr. Holmes noted that he wants to increase the public’s awareness that “money spent on prevention is a better investment than money spent on response after [a disaster].”
The new Under-Secretary-General, who replaces Norway’s Jan Egeland, also described what he believes will be his dual approach to his position. “What I will try to do is combine a certain amount of quiet diplomacy if necessary… but also I will have absolutely no hesitation of speaking up in a striking and passionate way.”
Aside from Sudan, Chad and the CAR, other countries high on his agency’s agenda are Somalia, where OCHA hopes to increase its activities in the south and centre of the country, Uganda, where the government is currently in talks with the rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and Mozambique, which has been ravaged by both floods and a tropical cyclone.
Mr. Holmes also mentioned Iraq as a country whose humanitarian situation OCHA is closely monitoring. Approximately 1.8 million Iraqis have been internally displaced, while the same number of Iraqi refugees now reside outside the country’s borders. OCHA is opening an office in Amman, Jordan, to help coordinate humanitarian efforts to assist the refugees.
Mr. Holmes, a veteran diplomat from the United Kingdom, most recently served as his country’s ambassador to France prior to assuming his current position at the UN. In his career with the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, he has covered and been posted in many regions, including the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America. In 1999, he was awarded a knighthood, largely for the role he played in the Northern Ireland peace process and the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
* * *
UNESCO LAUNCHES HIV/AIDS EDUCATION KIT IN NEPAL TO COMBAT EPIDEMIC
With almost 100,000 people in impoverished Nepal living with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today launched an awareness and prevention kit aimed at halting the spread of the disease, particularly among the under 40 age group, which are the most at risk.
“Prevention is the only way to limit the spread of HIV and education is the foundation for developing the behaviours that can reduce risk and vulnerability: it can promote awareness; empower individuals to make free and informed decisions; and develop attitudes and competencies that reduce risky behaviour,” UNESCO said.
The HIV and AIDS situation in Nepal has been categorized as a “concentrated epidemic,” which is spreading rapidly amongst its most-at-risk groups, the agency added. More than 70,250 people in the adult population (15-49 years) are estimated to be living with the HIV virus, while the largest number of HIV positive cases in the last 18 months was reported among 15-24 and 30-39 year olds.
To build upon its other efforts towards HIV prevention, the UNESCO office in Kathmandu has adapted an advocacy toolkit that was first developed in 2002 in Thailand, to the Nepali context. The toolkits, which will be supplied to the Ministry of Education, was pre-tested in a two day workshop in November 2006 followed by further training last December.
The kit includes comprehensive information on the nature and transmission of HIV and AIDS, HIV prevalence in the world and Asia, the impact of the pandemic on educational systems, the need for preventive and life skills education and ways to facilitate the latter, and information on international treaties and commitments relating to HIV, AIDS and education.
Fourteen countries in the Asia-Pacific region have so far adapted and launched the 2002 advocacy toolkit.
* * *
BAHRAIN’S PRIME MINISTER AWARDED UN CITATION FOR EFFORTS TO HELP URBAN POOR
Bahrain’s Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al Khalifa today won a United Nations award for his efforts in improving the lot of the urban poor.
The UN Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, which is mandated to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all, gave Sheikh Khalifa the 2006 Special Citation of the Habitat Scroll of Honour Award for his “impressive efforts in lifting the living standards of all Bahrainis through an active focus on poverty alleviation and modernization while preserving the cultural heritage” of his country.
“UN-HABITAT applauds your efforts to place the urban poor at the centre of the modernization strategy for the Kingdom of Bahrain,” agency Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka said in a lettered delivered by a delegation in Manama, the capital.
She praised Bahrain’s effort under Sheikh Khalifa’s leadership to increase the supply of housing units for citizens with very low incomes since 1971.
“UN-HABITAT further appreciates your commitment to participatory urban governance, in particular your role in introducing directly-elected municipal councils and promoting citizen participation in decision making for the planning and management of cities,” she said.
She expressed the hope that “this laudable achievement would inspire other countries in the region and beyond to benefit from the experience of the Kingdom of Bahrain.”
The Special Citation is bestowed on individuals who have shown extraordinary commitment to the improvement of conditions of people living and working in poverty.
* * *
SECRETARY-GENERAL’S EMISSARY MEETS WITH SAUDI KING
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s special advisor on efforts to consolidate peace and pursue political, economic and social development in Iraq met with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah over the weekend for talks that focused on a range of regional issues as well as the country’s relations with the United Nations.
Ibrahim Gambari, the former head of the UN Department for Political Affairs who was named Special Advisor on the International Compact with Iraq and Other Political Issues just last Friday, delivered a message from the Secretary-General to the king during the meeting in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, yesterday.
Mr. Gambari has since spoken with Mr. Ban by phone and will fully brief him on all his discussions upon his return to New York. While in Saudi Arabia he will continue contacts with senior government officials and will travel to Jeddah later in the week to meet with the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
The Compact was launched last July in an effort to end the killings and bring stability to Iraq and then Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that without greater global support, the violence-torn country would fail to attain peace.
* * *
BETTER HAND HYGIENE COULD CUT MOUNTING TOLL OF HEALTH CARE-LINKED INFECTIONS – UN
With some 1.4 million people suffering from health care-associated infections at any given time, United Nations health officials are urging Latin America and Caribbean countries to join a global effort to improve hand hygiene and related practices in hospitals and care facilities to help reduce the growing number of deaths and illnesses.
“There are effective strategies to improve hand hygiene and other basic practices that, if implemented by PAHO/WHO [UN Pan American Health Organization and UN World Health Organization] member countries, will save lives and reduce the largely preventable burden of health care-associated infections,” WHO World Alliance for Patient Safety Chairman Liam Donaldson told a regional workshop today.
The workshop – Clean Care is Safer Care – in San José, Costa Rica, was convened to develop a regional strategy for reducing health care-associated infections, also called nosocomial infections, in the region through better hand hygiene and other improvements in infection-control practices, clinical procedures and surveillance. Participants include experts on infection prevention and control from 21 countries.
Most research on such infections has been carried out in developed countries, and less is known about the problem in the developing world. But data from Mexico indicate some 450,000 cases of health care-associated infection annually, causing 32 deaths per 100,000.
In one Guatemalan hospital, the cost of 116 reported cases of a single health care-associated pneumonial infection in one year was estimated at more than $200,000, or 160 times the cost of care for the same number of uninfected patients.
“Basic good practices of infection control still remain the most important thing for reducing health care-associated infections, and the first thing among those basics is hand hygiene,” the leader of the Alliance’s Global Patient Safety Challenge Didier Pittet said. “Most bacteria are carried by patients, and the most common way they are transmitted is by hands.
“Medical schools may not teach enough about it, but it is also a problem of health care systems. Overloaded doctors and nurses have to deal with too many patients at once and don’t have time to wash their hands. The solution can be as simple as always having alcohol hand rub at the point of care.”
Costa Rica is one of 22 countries that have signed on to the First Global Patient Safety Challenge since it was launched by WHO in 2005. With the theme “Clean Care is Safer Care,” the Global Challenge promotes improvements in blood safety, injection practices, water and sanitation, safety of clinical procedures and hand hygiene.
The workshop will provide feedback on a set of WHO recommendations on hand hygiene, adapting the guidelines to the needs of health care facilities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
* * *
AFGHANISTAN: UN MISSION CALLS FOR CALM AFTER DEADLY CLASH THAT REPORTEDLY KILLED CIVILIANS
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) today called for calm after yesterday’s suicide bombing and shooting on a highway in the east of the country in which civilians are reported to have been killed and injured after a United States convoy was ambushed.
“UNAMA is deeply saddened at the wounding and loss of life that has been reported,” mission spokesman Adrian Edwards said. “We would like to appeal to everyone for calm so that the events can be properly looked into and understood.
“With any incident like this it’s imperative that the truth about what has happened come out so that lessons can be learned, victims helped, and reoccurrence prevented. UNAMA is seeking proper verification and we hope to make public our findings in due course,” he added.
The incident took place on the Torkham-Jalalabad road, near the main eastern city of Jalalabad.
* * *
DR CONGO: UN ENVOY ON CHILDREN IN CONFLICT ON MISSION TO PROTECT YOUNGSTERS
The top United Nations envoy on children and armed conflict is currently on a six-day mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to ensure greater protection for youngsters in the immediate post-conflict phase and peace consolidation process as the vast country emerges from years of civil war and factional fighting.
Special Representative Radhika Coomaraswamy will pay particular attention to the issues of children associated with armed groups, sexual violence and impunity.
“The UN Special Representative will have a constructive dialogue with the Government on these important issues,” her office said in a statement, noting that she will meet with relevant non state parties, civil society, non-government organizations (NGOs) and children affected by conflict “in the effort to address grave violations against children.”
Ms. Coomaraswamy is to visit the eastern regions of Ituri, North and South Kivu. Just last month the UN mission in the DRC (MONUC) warned that child soldiers being demobilized from former rebel groups in North Kivu were being pressured to conceal their age and civil status so that they can be enrolled in newly integrated army units.
“For MONUC and the whole international community, children should be at school to receive an education in peace and life, and certainly not in arms, war and death,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Didier Rancher said then.
The issue of children and armed conflict is a major UN concern, and last month the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the French Government co-hosted a conference in Paris at which 59 countries, including the DRC, committed themselves to putting an end to the unlawful recruitment and use of children in armed conflicts wherever they occur.
MONUC has overseen the DRC’s transition from a six-year civil war that cost 4 million lives in fighting and attendant hunger and disease, widely considered the most lethal conflict in the world since World War II, to gradual stabilization, culminating in the first democratic elections in over four decades last year, the largest and most complex polls the UN has ever helped to organize.
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SWORDS INTO PLOUGHSHARES, OR MORTARS INTO FOOTBALLS: UN USES SPORT AS TOOL FOR PEACE
Giving a modern twist to the biblical injunction to beat swords into ploughshares, the United Nations is urging Liberians to replace mortars with footballs in an innovative Sports for Peace programme to promote reconciliation and development in the formerly strife-torn West African country.
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf gave the inaugural kick-off at a soccer game over the weekend in the Antoinette Tubman Stadium in Monrovia, the capital, launching a five-week-long UN-supported programme in football, kickball and volleyball to be held throughout Liberia’s 15 counties.
“In sport, I learn to win without thinking I am the best; I learn to lose without thinking it is the end,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace Adolf Ogi told thousands of people at the ceremony, stressing sport’s message as an essential tool for creating peace, national reconciliation and harmony. “I learn to respect the opponent and the rules; I learn to accept the decision of the referee.”
It was a message underlined by Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf. “The participation of all Liberians is necessary for the peace and development of the nation,” she said, recalling how during the country’s 14-year civil war, sporting activities, especially football matches involving the Liberian national team, the Lone Star, brought sudden voluntary ceasefires between the warring factions.
Sport as an instrument for peace and social development can enhance the efforts of the Government in restoring the hope and dignity of the people of Liberia, she added.
Mr. Ban’s Special Representative for Liberia Alan Doss noted that sport can keep people, especially youth, out of trouble and expressed the hope that the effective participation of Liberian youth in sporting activities would help end the cycle of violence in the West African sub-region.
In a lecture at the University of Liberia, Sports as a Vehicle for Peace and Development, Mr. Ogi, a former President of Switzerland, called sport a cost-effective tool for peace and development that could be used by governments of developing countries as a key part of their national development strategies.
He told the students to use sport as a tool kit of life, stressing that that every Liberian girl and boy should have the opportunity to make mistakes on the field of sport so as to feel how to react under the pressure of defeat, adding, “This lesson of sport helps us to fit well into society.”
Through the assistance of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Liberian authorities and the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) recently received a container-load of sporting goods and equipment valued at over $76,000 for the programme.
In another development, a 19-member delegation of the Executive Boards of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN World Food Programme (WFP) and UN Population Fund (UNFPA) ended a week-long visit to Liberia aimed at highlighting how the world body can contribute to the transition of nations from post-conflict to reconstruction, recovery and development.
UNMIL, with more than 15,000 soldiers and police, already helped to oversee the country’s emergence from civil war in 2003, culminating in Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf’s election in November 2005.
* * *
UN REFUGEE CHIEF PRAISES ARAB STATES FOR GENEROSITY, URGES MORE AID FOR FLEEING IRAQIS
Praising Arab states for their traditional generosity toward displaced people, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR) António Guterres has urged them to take a more active role in his agency’s work and called for international solidarity in easing the plight of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis fleeing conflict in their homeland.
“Looking back through history, the most direct line between tradition and contemporary refugee law is found in Islam,” Mr. Guterres told the League of Arab States' (LAS) Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Cairo yesterday, noting that the majority of today’s refugees around the world are Muslims.
“From its very beginnings, from the Holy Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet, Islamic law has considered the question of asylum at length and has given the asylum seeker (Al mustamin) prominence, dignity and respect. A community’s moral duty and behaviour always included how it responded to appeals for asylum,” he said.
The current refugee crisis in Iraq has placed an enormous burden on nearby host countries, particularly Jordan and Syria which together host some 1.75 million Iraqis, Mr. Guterres noted, calling it “the biggest displacement crisis in the Middle East since the dramatic events” of Israel’s independence in 1948, forcing one in eight Iraqis from their homes.
“Some 1.8 million Iraqis are currently displaced internally and up to 2 million others have fled the country,” he said. “Last year alone, we estimate that nearly 500,000 Iraqis moved to other areas inside the country.”
With up to 50,000 Iraqis still fleeing their homes inside the country each month, the impact of the crisis was felt first and foremost by the victims themselves. “But two neighbouring countries, Jordan and Syria, have shouldered the heaviest share of the humanitarian burden, with more than 1 million Iraqis now in Syria and up to 750,000 in Jordan,” he added.
“It is important to recognize the extreme generosity of Jordan and Syria, to a large extent left to face the crisis on their own through the lack of effective support from the international community. And here I have no problem recognizing that UNHCR itself has not done enough,” he declared.
He noted that UNHCR was already scaling up its activities in Iraq and the surrounding region, but its humanitarian efforts were still “a drop in the ocean” and could only deal with the symptoms “as a nurse deals with the visible signs of an illness.” Until the political side finds a cure, humanitarians “must go on treating the symptoms,” neighbouring countries must continue offering refuge, and the international community must do more to share the burden.
Calling for a clear, global commitment, he said UNHCR was convening an international conference on the humanitarian needs of Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons in Geneva on 17-18 April.
Mr. Guterres, who was today wrapping up a three-day visit to Egypt, also expressed concern about rising intolerance, racism and xenophobia in many parts of the world, including misperceptions about Islam that can negatively affect Muslim refugees in need of international protection.
“Even in the most developed societies, we see the re-emergence of racism, xenophobia and that brand of populism which always tries to generate confusion in public opinion between refugees, migrants and even terrorists,” he said. “Let us be perfectly clear: refugees are not terrorists, they are the first victims of terror.
“The same attitudes have generated widespread misperceptions about Islam, of which Muslim refugees have so frequently been the victims. This is something that we at UNHCR cannot accept. It is our duty to respond, to fight those attitudes and to bring out the truth,” he added.
* * *
AFTER RECORD AFGHAN CROP IN 2006, OPIUM PRODUCTION COULD RISE YET AGAIN, UN REPORTS
Opium production in Afghanistan, a $3-billion-a-year trade accounting for more than 90 per cent of the world’s illegal output, could rise again this year after a nearly 60 per cent increase in 2006, due to the ousted Taliban using the trade in the raw material for heroin to fund their war, according to a new United Nations survey released today.
“In the south, the vicious circle of drugs funding terrorism and terrorists supporting drug traffickers is stronger than ever,” UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said, noting “a pronounced divide” between the war-torn south and the more stable centre and north.
“In other words, opium cultivation in the south of the country is less a narcotic issue and more a matter of insurgency, so it is vital to fight them both together,” he added.
UNODC’s Afghanistan Opium Winter Assessment, drafted together with the Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics, highlights the regional divisions, suggesting that cultivation is likely to decrease in seven of the country's 34 provinces, with no change expected in six. Another six are opium-free and likely to remain so but increases are expected in the remaining 15, mainly in the south, east and west.
On balance, the increase in the south may be greater than the decline elsewhere, causing a possible further rise in the country’s aggregate supply, but the survey also notes that a strong eradication campaign is underway and this could have an impact on the situation in some provinces, including in the south.
“The trend towards more and more provinces in Afghanistan cultivating opium may be broken,” Mr. Costa said. “We are witnessing divergent trends. This is a moderately good sign.”
The survey, conducted in December and January, shows a clear link between poor security conditions and opium poppy cultivation in the southern provinces. While only 20 per cent of farmers in areas with good security grow opium, 80 per cent do so in areas where security is poor.
Significant decreases in cultivation are expected in the centre and the north from projects providing farmers with incentives to switch to licit livelihoods, with only 6 per cent of villages that have received external aid such as medical care, schools, roads, electricity or irrigation engaged in opium cultivation. “Farmers are speaking loud and clear. They respond to real incentives to stop growing opium,” Mr. Costa said.
“It is possible to claw Afghanistan back into legality province by province, as was done in Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, all of which were once characterized by large scale opium cultivation,” he added.
But he voiced concern that only 1 per cent of the $100 million available through the projects such as the Good Performance Initiative and Counter-Narcotics Trust Fund had so far been disbursed. “This money is vital for the future of Afghanistan. I appeal to both the national and international bureaucracies to get it moving,” he said.
A record 165,000 hectares were under opium poppy cultivation in 2006, an increase of 59 per cent compared to 2005, mainly due to large-scale cultivation in the southern province of Helmand. Further increases there and in Uruzgan and Kandahar provinces, are likely this year. In all cases, permanent Taliban settlements have provided sanctuary for cultivation, heroin processing and trafficking to Pakistan and Iran. The revenue received in return is used to fund Taliban activities.
The Survey shows that 80 per cent of farmers in poppy-growing areas in the south are involved in cultivation. Nationally, the proportion is only 13 per cent. The high price is the main reason given by farmers for growing opium, especially when there is little risk of their crops being eradicated.
“At the moment, none of Afghanistan’s legitimate agricultural products can match the income available from opium poppy, which is estimated at $4,900 per hectare, about 10 times the income from licit crops,” Mr. Costa stressed. “We need to change the risk/reward balance for farmers, increasing both the attractiveness of licit activity and the retribution for not complying with the law.”
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UN ATOMIC WATCHDOG AGENCY REPORTS STALEMATE OVER IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAMME
Lacking “the necessary level of transparency and cooperation,” the United Nations atomic watchdog agency reiterated yet again today that it could not provide assurances that Iran’s nuclear programme is solely for the peaceful purpose of generating energy and not for producing nuclear bombs.
“The current situation remains somewhat of a stalemate,” UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei told the agency’s Board of Governors in presenting his latest report on Iran’s nuclear programme, noting that the case was in a class of its own because of Tehran’s two decades of undeclared activities in breach of its obligations under Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“The Agency has been able to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran. However, we continue to be unable to reconstruct fully the history of Iran’s nuclear programme and some of its components, because we have not been provided with the necessary level of transparency and cooperation on the part of Iran,” he said.
“We have not seen concrete proof of the diversion of nuclear material, nor the industrial capacity to produce weapon-usable nuclear material, which is an important consideration in assessing the risk. However, quite a few uncertainties still remain about He termed Iran’s insistence on linking its readiness to resolve IAEA concerns to actions by the Security Council, which has already imposed sanctions and is considering further experiments, procurements and other activities relevant to our understanding of the scope and nature of Iran’s programme. This renders the Agency unable to provide the required assurance about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme,” he added.
measures “difficult to understand,” and called for the resumption of negotiations between Tehran and all relevant parties.
“I remain convinced that only through and durable solution be attained to the Iranian nuclear question and other issues related to it,” he said. negotiation can a comprehensive
Iran insists its programme is purely for energy production but many other countries maintain it is for making weapons, and in December the Council imposed limited sanctions and called on Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment. In the IAEA report, Mr. ElBaradei noted that despite this Iran had continued enrichment, which can produce fuel for generating electricity or, at a much higher level, making nuclear bombs.
It was the discovery in 2003 of Iran’s hidden activities that gave rise to the current crisis, as Mr. ElBaradei stressed today. “The IAEA’s confidence about the nature of Iran’s programme has been shaken because of two decades of undeclared activities,” he said.
“This confidence will only be restored when Iran takes the long overdue decision to explain and answer all the Agency’s questions and concerns about its past nuclear activities in an open and transparent manner. Until that time, the Agency will have no option but to reserve its judgment about Iran’s nuclear programme, and as a result the international community will continue to express concern.”
Mr. ElBaradei painted a more positive picture on another area of major IAEA concern, the nuclear programme of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), noting the DPRK’s agreement at diplomatic talks in Beijing last month to shut down and eventually abandon its Yongbyon nuclear facility.
The agreement envisions the return of IAEA personnel to conduct necessary monitoring and verification after they were ordered out four years ago when the DPRK withdrew from the NPT. The DPRK also invited Mr. ElBaradei to visit.
“I welcome the Beijing agreement, and the invitation to visit the DPRK, as positive steps towards the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and towards the normalization of the DPRK’s relationship with the Agency,” he said.
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