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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BRIEFING
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BY MARIE OKABE

DEPUTY
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON

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UN
HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

BAN KI-MOON IS
SET TO EMBARK ON FIVE-NATION AFRICA VISIT

• Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to travel
  early next week to South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the
  Congo, Rwanda and Egypt.
  ��

• It will be his first official visit to South Africa and
  Tanzania where he will hold discussions on national, regional and
  international issues.
  ��

• In South Africa, he will meet with President Kgalema
  Motlanthe, as well as the Ministers for Finance and Environment. The
  Secretary-General is also expected to meet with former President Nelson
  Mandela.
  ��

• In Tanzania, one of the pilot countries for the UN
  reform program on “Delivering as One”, the Secretary-General will hold
  discussions with President Jakaya Kikwete. He will address the diplomatic
  and academic community in Dar es salaam. In Zanzibar he will inaugurate the
  One �山����Office, provided by the government of Zanzibar to house all UN
  agencies.
  ��

• The Secretary-General is also due to fly over the
  receding ice cap of mount Kilimanjaro on his way to Arusha to visit the
  International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
  ��

• In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, his next stop,
  he will meet with President Joseph Kabila, with parliamentarians as well as
  members of civil society. He will then go to Bukavu to visit Panzi Hospital,
  where victims of sexual violence are cared for. In Goma, he will meet with
  members of the �山����peacekeeping mission, MONUC, and with local authorities.��
  He will also visit in Goma the Mugunga camp for people displaced by conflict
  before flying to Rwanda to meet with President Paul Kagame.
  ��

• The Secretary General then plans to travel to Sharm El
  Sheikh, Egypt, where he will participate on 2 March in the “International
  Conference in support of the Palestinian Economy, for the reconstruction of
  Gaza”. The Conference is co-chaired by Egypt and Norway.

��SECURITY COUNCIL TAKES UP THE MIDDLE
EAST

• The �山����Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace
  Process, Robert Serry,
  . He said a number of
  realities have to be squarely addressed if peace is to be advanced.
  ��

• Those include: the severe humanitarian, economic and
  political repercussions of the Gaza crisis; continued Palestinian divisions;
  a new political situation in Israel; the inconclusive results of last year’s
  Israeli-Palestinian negotiations; unmet Roadmap obligations, especially
  regarding settlements; and the freeze in indirect Israeli-Syrian
  negotiations.
  ��

• On Gaza, Serry noted that, one month since unilateral
  ceasefires were declared, a proper ceasefire regime is still not in place.
  As a result, there is an ever-present danger of a return to renewed and more
  devastating violence.
  ��

• He added that a ceasefire regime will only be durable
  if there is broader progress, including: an exchange of Palestinian
  prisoners for the release of Israeli captive Gilad Shalit; continued
  cooperation and action to prevent the re-supply of weapons in Gaza; the full
  implementation of the Agreement on Movement and Access; and Palestinian
  unity. Such steps would also pave the way for the longer term recovery and
  reconstruction of Gaza.
  ��

• Turning to Lebanon, Serry said that country continues
  to enjoy a period of relative stability, but there are also signs of
  increased political tension in the run-up to the parliamentary elections
  there.
  ��

• The Security Council also held closed consultations on
  the Middle East.

BAN KI-NOON DISPATCHES TOP HUMANITARIAN
OFFICIAL TO SRI LANKA

• The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs
  and Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, will travel to Colombo this
  week, at the invitation of the Government of Sri Lanka.
  ��

• During his three-day visit from 19 to 22 February,
  Holmes will discuss and review the humanitarian situation with a wide array
  of representatives from the Government, Member States, the United Nations,
  the International Red Cross, and non-governmental organizations.
  ��

• He will also have the opportunity to meet internally
  displaced persons in the Vavuniya and its vicinity.
  ��

• Mr. Holmes is set to hold a press conference to wrap up
  his visit there.
  ��

• Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund
  grave concerns on the growing number of children reportedly
  being recruited by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The agency
  is also extremely alarmed at the high number of children being injured in
  the fighting in the northern area of Vanni. UNICEF reiterates its call to
  the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE that civilians, especially
  children, must be given every protection from the fighting.

DARFUR:
Under-Secretary-General for Field Support
IS IN SUDAN to ensure mission deployment

• The Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, Susanna
  Malcorra, is currently in Khartoum for a regular tripartite meeting with the
  Government of Sudan and the African Union, as part our efforts to ensure the
  continued deployment of troops and equipment for the AU/�山����Hybrid Operation
  in Darfur (UNAMID).
  ��

• This is the fourth such regular meeting to ensure that
  every effort is made by all parties to speed up the deployment of troops and
  equipment.
  ��

• Meanwhile, senior officials of the United Nations have
  gained assurances from the Deputy Governor of South Darfur for continued
  access to Muhajariya and surrounding localities. The UN’s humanitarian chief
  in Sudan, Ameerah Haq, led the discussions that resulted in commitments to
  see aid programmes reach some 100,000 people.
  ��

• Discussions also broached the need for independent
  humanitarian assessments of population movements, and of requirements for
  other relief, including early recovery assistance.

��HUTU REBEL GROUP TERRORIZING
CIVILIANS IN DR CONGO

• The embattled ethnic Hutu rebel group Forces
  Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR) is
  civilians through systematic looting, abduction, rape and
  murder. That’s according to the �山����Mission in the Democratic Republic of the
  Congo (MONUC).
  ��

• The Mission condemns these “cowardly terror tactics”,
  through which the FDLR is attempting to undermine a joint DRC/Rwanda
  military operation to flush it out of the Congo.
  ��

• A UN-backed disarmament and voluntary repatriation
  programme remains available to FDLR fighters, but most of them have so far
  shunned this opportunity.
  ��

• The FDLR’s assault on civilians also seeks to frustrate
  an eventual restoration of Congolese state authority in northeastern DRC. In
  response, the Mission has maintained civilian-protection teams at
  peacekeepers’ bases, and round-the-clock patrols continue.
  ��

• The Mission and Congolese authorities are also
  collaborating in monitoring the situation and are preparing to beef up their
  engagement in other areas.
  ��

• I John Holmes, the Emergency
  Relief Coordinator and Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs,
  said that the security situation in the eastern and northern provinces of
  the DRC has added another half million people to the internally displaced
  population. Holmes, who recently conducted an assessment mission to the DRC,
  says that despite the overall difficult and unpredictable security
  situation, �山����agencies are working as rapidly as possible to address the
  major humanitarian crisis there.

UNAIDS WELCOMES
BURUNDI’S REJECTION OF LAW TO CRIMINALIZE HOMOSEXUALITY

• UNAIDS today
  the Burundian Senate’s rejection of a draft law that sought to
  criminalize homosexuality in Burundi.
  ��

• Michel Sidibé, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, said
  that, by rejecting the amendment, Senators in Burundi protected the human
  rights of their people and set a standard for other lawmakers around the
  world.
  ��

• According to UNAIDS, criminalizing adult sexual
  behavior and violating the human rights of people living with HIV are
  hampering HIV responses across the world.

����AMAZONIA REGION FACES GROWING
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION

• , prepared in
  part by the U.N. Environment Programme and released today, finds growing
  environmental degradation in the planet’s most extensive forest zone.�� The
  Amazonian ecosystem is being rapidly transformed by changes in land use, the
  exploitation of natural resources, and expanding urbanization.
  ��

• Deforestation has resulted in a 17 percent reduction in
  vegetation cover, and there has also been an increasing loss of biodiversity
  and localized climate change impacts.�� Because of the burning of forests,
  Amazonia is progressively becoming a significant contributor to greenhouse
  gas emissions, the report notes.
  ��

• While efforts are underway on the national level to
  deal with environmental challenges, more needs to be done at the regional
  level, including water management, harmonizing environmental policies, and
  tracking of biodiversity, the report says.

��ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT ON THE ASSESSMENT
OF BEIJING OLYMPICS RELEASED

• UNEP today also released an
  .�� It found that the Games met, if not
  exceeded, many environmental pledges – from reducing air pollution to
  investing US$17 billion in public transport, renewable energies, and other
  environmental projects.
  ��

• The report adds, however, that more could have been
  done to engage with non-governmental organizations and to cut the Olympic
  and Paralympic Games’ carbon footprint.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

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PROPOSALS AGREED UPON AT GENEVA DISCUSSIONS:
The co-Presidents of the fourth round of
-- Johan Verbeke,
the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the �山����Observer
Mission in Georgia, as well as representatives of the European Union and the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) -- wrapped up
their two-day meeting. They noted that participants in the talks had agreed by
consensus on proposals for joint incident prevention and response
mechanisms. The co-Presidents added that those agreed proposals were an
important step in helping to bring stability and security.

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UNITED NATIONS IS AWARE OF REPORTS ON THE
ABDUCTEES OF ENVOY: Asked about reports
that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed to have abducted Special Envoy
for Niger Robert Fowler and his colleagues, the Spokeswoman said that the United
Nations is aware of the reports but has no further comments.

��

SECRETARY-GENERAL SUPPORTS ALL
EFFORTS FOR PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF DISPUTES:
Asked about a dispute between the United Arab Emirates and Iran over islands,
the Spokeswoman said that the Secretary-General supports all efforts at peaceful
resolution of disputes.

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����Office of the
Spokesperson for the Secretary-General
United Nations, S-378
New York, NY 10017
Tel. 212-963-7162
Fax. 212-963-7055