ROWA Media Update 29 December 2005

ROWA Media Update 29 December 2005

Bahrain must act now to stop the wholesale destruction of marine life, says an environmental activist. Dredging and reclamation is causing irreversible damaging to Bahrain's seas and marine life and threatening fishermen's livelihoods, says Environment Friends Society (EFS) president Khawla Al Muhannadi. Almost all areas in Bahrain are being affected and the results are immediate, with and had a long-term impact on the environment, she said. However, Ms Al Muhannadi remains hopeful that if action is taken now, marine life can re-populate. She said EFS was in the process of collecting data on reclamation and dredging for a report that will be presented to the decision-makers, such as councils and government bodies.

The evaluation committees of the 21st Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources Month contest visited various wilayats to evaluate implemented activities and projects.

UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE

DAILY NEWS

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30 December - The United Nations Secretary-General and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today both expressed deep shock and sadness over a fatal confrontation in Cairo between Egyptian police and Sudanese protesters who have been demanding resettlement to third countries and better living conditions.

“Their deaths are a terrible tragedy that cannot be justified,” a spokesman for Mr. Annan said in a formal statement. High Commissioner Antonio Guterres also said the bloodshed was totally unjustified.

Up to 2,500 Sudanese migrants had been demonstrating in Cairo’s Mostafa Mahmoud Park since 29 September, according to UNHCR.

The spokesman said the Secretary-General expressed “profound regret” that this situation was not resolved peacefully and through dialogue, as UNHCR had strongly urged.

“I am deeply shocked and saddened by the tragic events early today in Cairo,” Mr. Guterres said in Geneva.

Both Mr. Annan and the UNHCR chief extended condolences to those affected by the tragedy.

The situation is complicated by the fact that most of the refugees will not have the option they are demanding, namely resettlement in third countries. That could only occur at the discretion of those States, not UNHCR, the agency’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Pagonis, said in Geneva earlier this month.

At that time, she voiced the agency’s concern about the deteriorating humanitarian and health situation in the park and about the fact that it was becoming a public order issue for the Egyptian authorities.
Annan hails withdrawal of Indonesian troops from Aceh

30 December - United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today welcomed the full withdrawal of Indonesian troops from the strife-torn Aceh province, which has seen nearly 30 years of separatist conflict.

The military pullout came in fulfillment of a peace accord with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed in Helsinki in August.

In a statement released today, the Secretary-General also welcomed the GAM’s handover of its declared arsenal of 840 weapons and the dissolution of its armed wing, also called for by the peace agreement.

The Secretary-General said this historic period of transition “can serve to lay the foundation for a secure and peaceful Aceh.”

The transition was overseen by the Aceh Monitoring Mission, which is comprised of members of the European Union (EU) and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

30 December - With the peacekeeping United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) ending its mandate tomorrow, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today noted its successes and pledged that the UN would remain active in the West African country, helping the Government and people to address the root causes of a brutal civil war and to rebuild national capacity.

“The mission was able to overcome a number of serious political and military challenges to become an effective peacekeeping operation that leaves Sierra Leone much better off today than it was five years ago,” a spokesman for Mr. Annan said in a statement released in New York.

“Its many achievements include the successful disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of more than 75,000 excombatants; playing a central role in the preparation and conduct of the 2002 and 2004 elections; providing critical assistance and training to stand up the country’s security sector; supporting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; assisting the Government in reasserting its control over diamond-mining, and providing protection to the Special Court for Sierra Leone.”

While hailing the people of Sierra Leone for putting their country on the path to economic recovery, the statement cautioned that much remains to be done and called on all Sierra Leoneans to build on the success they have achieved with UNAMSIL’s help.

The Security Council created UNAMSIL in 1999 and imposed an arms embargo against certain prominent civilians as well as a travel ban against both the rebel fighters and the military junta. The mission is considered one of the UN’s most visible successes, having deployed in the wake of a devastating civil conflict that left at least 75,000 people dead and many more maimed.

UNAMSIL’s departure will be followed, starting on Sunday, by the activation of the UN Integrated Office in Sierra Leone (UNIOSIL), which is mandated to support the Government’s efforts to ensure peace and security, consolidate State authority, promote good governance and human rights, address cross-border issues, and advance national recovery as well as economic and social development.
Annan urges truce between Nepal’s Government and Communist rebels

30 December - Voicing serious concern that fighting could escalate in Nepal after the impending expiration of the unilateral ceasefire declared by Comunist rebels, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged a truce with the country’s Government.

The four-month-old ceasefire declared by the Communist party of Nepal (Maoist)(CPN-M) expires on 2 January 2006. In a statement released today by his spokesman, the Secretary-General voiced deep regret that despite numerous appeals, no progress appears to have been made towards a mutually agreed truce between the parties.

“The people of Nepal have benefited from the de-escalation of violence in the last four months and they would bear the brunt of a renewal in fighting,” the statement pointed out. “In the interest of peace and the welfare of civilians throughout the country, the Secretary-General therefore reiterates his strong appeal to the Government of Nepal to reciprocate the ceasefire and to the CPN-M to extend its unilateral ceasefire.”

Mr. Annan also pledged that the UN would assist the parties at their request.
UN envoy to Kosovo says 2006 will likely see wrap up of status process

30 December - The senior United Nations envoy to Kosovo today said the coming year will likely see the end of the process to determine the status of the ethnically divided Serbian province which the world body has administered since 1999.

“The past twelve months, like every year, have had their ups and downs - their triumphs and their tragedies,” said the Special Representative for the Secretary General, Soren Jessen-Petersen, in a New Year’s message. “But they have ended on a high - with the opening of the process to determine the status of Kosovo.”

The international community, in partnership with Kosovo’s institutions, has worked on some of the challenges he noted a year ago – the rule of law, the protection of minorities, freedom of movement, the return of displaced persons and decentralization, said Mr. Jessen-Peterson, a lawyer and journalist by training who has headed the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) since June 2004.

“That there was progress on these issues there can be no doubt – the opening of the status process is itself evidence of that.

But that there could have – and needs to be – more progress is also plain,” he added. “Many of those issues that were priorities a year ago remain priorities today.”

He said the vehicle for achieving progress remains the Standards framework - eight targets that include building democratic institutions, enforcing minority rights, creating a functioning economy and setting up an impartial legal system.

Mr. Jessen-Petersen said the Standards framework, along with economic improvements, would form the core of the international community’s work in Kosovo as the coming year is dominated by the status talks.

In early November, former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari was appointed as Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s special envoy to lead the talks on the future status of Kosovo.

In his statement, Mr. Jessen-Petersen repeated that a sustainable status settlement must be based on the desires of the majority in Kosovo and those desires – peace, stability, security and economic prosperity - must also be ensured for minority communities.

In a report in July, Mr. Jessen-Petersen stressed the need for a stronger commitment by Kosovo’s Albanian leaders to move forward on the return of Serbs who fled their homes during the fighting as well as on the freedom of movement. Kosovo’s Albanians outnumber Serbs and others by 9 to 1. Serbia rejects independence for the province which the UN has run ever since North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid grave rights abuses during ethnic fighting.

The envoy said his hope for Kosovo in the coming year is that everyone can live freely and at ease with their own and each other’s culture, with no reason to fear the future.

“Another hope for Kosovo in 2006, then, must be that it is the year when true political co-operation between all communities becomes a reality,” he said. “These are earnest hopes – and they will be difficult to realize – but in December 2004, twelve months ago – it was equally hard to see Kosovo reaching the point it has achieved today,” he said.
UN food aid agency lauds record 2005 European contributions to fight hunger

30 December - With its latest donation of 4 million euros for Pakistan relief efforts, the European Commission (EC) has provided its largest annual contribution – some 214 million euros – since 1992 to saving lives and feeding the hungry through the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the agency said today.

“2005 has been a year in which the EC's support to WFP continued to grow and has crystallised into a truly exceptional partnership,” said James Morris, Executive Director of the Rome-based agency.

“The EC has always been among WFP's leading donors. Its support has not only been precious in high profile crises such as the tsunami, Niger or the Pakistan earthquake, but also in forgotten emergencies, like Nepal and the Sahrawi refugees in Algeria,” he added.

The EC has been instrumental in helping WFP to alleviate hunger in more than 28 poor countries across the world where hundreds of thousands of people were threatened by starvation during a year of intense man-made and natural catastrophes.

The agency said it particularly appreciates EC aid given to Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia Southern Sudan and Eritrea and other crises that do not make everyday headlines.

30 December - Locust breeding is slow now but is expected to accelerate in the months ahead, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said in a new bulletin on the cropdestroying pests issued today.

Small swarms were present in India and Pakistan in early December, but adults that escaped control operations reached the spring breeding areas in western Pakistan by mid-month, the agency said.

Small-scale breeding continued in western Mauritania and southern Algeria where limited ground control operations were required in both countries. So far, only small-scale breeding has occurred in the Tokar Delta on the Red Sea coast of Sudan, but breeding is expected in the period ahead on both sides of the Red Sea and could commence in northern Mauritania and Western Sahara where good rains fell this month, FAO said.

In Yemen, ecological conditions remained favourable in some places along the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden coastal plains where hoppers and adults were present.

During the forecast period, small-scale breeding will continue in Sudan’s Tokar Delta and on Yemen’s northern Tihama coast.

“Limited breeding could also occur on the Red Sea coast in southeast Egypt where good rains fell in late December and, if more rainfall occurs, on the northern coast in Eritrea and central Tihama coast in Yemen,” the agency predicted.

Hordes of locusts can precipitate food crises by devouring crops, as was the case this year in Niger, where the worst infestation in over a decade combined with drought to leave millions of people threatened with hunger and malnutrition.

FAO and other partners have helped to fund and carry out locust control operations across the affected countries.
Aid workers in Chad persist in helping refugees despite recent clashes – UN agency

30 December - Despite clashes between Chadian forces and armed groups along the Sudanese border in recent weeks, humanitarian workers continue offering aid to refugees living in camps in eastern Chad, home to some 200,000 people who have fled the Darfur region, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said today.

“Humanitarian aid workers are as dedicated as ever: food distribution, education and health services are provided; protection services are ongoing,” the agency said.

Offering a glimpse into the life of a UNHCR community services assistant, the agency profiled Béatrice Danezoune, who helps those who have suffered everything from losing refugee cards to forced marriage, rape and genital mutilation.

The 23-year-old Chadian UNHCR assistant also helps lead workshops for midwives, whom she must inform about the dangers of female genital mutilation (FGM), which they often perform on young female refugees. At a recent gathering, she explained the dangers of mutilation, which can cause severe pain, prolonged bleeding, infection, infertility and sometimes death.

Ms. Danezoune’s presentation on the dangers of the practice was well received, but she said it is difficult to halt genital mutilation. “Although UNHCR and health partners keep sending the message constantly, the traditional practice in Mile and Kounoungou refugee camps is still alive and well,” she said.

Recent figures from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) show that an estimated 3 million girls in sub-Saharan African and the Middle East suffer genital cutting every year.

Communications and Public Information, P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya

Tel: (254-2) 623292/93, Fax: [254-2] 62 3927/623692, Email:cpiinfo@unep.org, http://www.unep.org