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3 January, 2004
 

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IRAN Earthquake 1

UN Agencies Provide Relief

With Iran's Government reporting heavy casualties from an earthquake which rocked the southeastern part of the country, the United Nations on 26 December dispatched funds and experts to bolster relief efforts.

In New York, a spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the international community to provide immediate backing for efforts to help victims of the massive disaster.

"The United Nations Country Team in Tehran has sent two teams to the affected area," Mr. Annan's spokesman said. "In addition, a United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination team has been dispatched to help coordinate relief efforts."

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is also providing Iran with an initial emergency grant of $90,000.

Registering 6.3 on the Richter scale, the quake struck in and around the town of Bam, in Kerman province. OCHA said the city hospital had collapsed and the injured were being sent to Kerman. Telephone service and water and power supplies have been cut off, while some 60 per cent of the area's houses were destroyed.

The town is famous for its ancient citadel, Arg-e-Bam, which has been registered as a world heritage site by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

* * *

United Nations agencies are rushing tons of relief supplies to Iran to help victims of 26 December earthquake near the city of Bam, where up to 30,000 people may have been killed, 20,000 injured and 70,000 left homeless, according to a preliminary assessment.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has sent over 45 tons of supplies, including health care kits and blankets for the tens of thousands of children affected by the massive disaster.

One relief flight from the agency's global supply centre in Copenhagen was bringing in first aid and health supplies capable of treating 120,000 people; dozens of special obstetric and surgical kits each sufficient to assist in the delivery of 150 babies; 14,000 blankets, including 7,600 for babies; 625,000 water purification tablets; 16 community water tanks with a capacity of 5,000 litres each; three portable generators; and tents, tarpaulin, rope and other shelter supplies. The shipment is valued at approximately $285,000.

The second flight from UNICEF operations in neighbouring Afghanistan brought in 72 emergency health and essential drug kits containing antibiotics, painkillers, syringes, injectables, drips and other equipment to enable health workers on the ground to establish small medical clinics capable of providing minor surgery.

Each kit contains enough supplies to cover the emergency health needs of 10,000 people for up to three months. The consignment also includes winter tents and plastic sheeting. UNICEF also sent one of its senior Afghan health officers to Bam to help coordinate the response on the ground.

Speaking from Kabul, UNICEF's Reza Hossaini recalled how during its own emergencies, Afghanistan had received a great deal of support from its neighbours. "It is only natural that we should be amongst the first to return that support in this time of acute need in Iran."

For its part, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has sent $140,000 worth of aid including 1,000 tents, 10,000 blankets and 3,000 mattresses.

A joint UN assessment team in Bam on 27 December found that up to 90 per cent of all buildings in the city were significantly or totally damaged. With temperatures in the area falling below freezing at night, tents and blankets are essential to provide immediate relief.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) contributed $100,000 for relief and coordination efforts, supplementing $90,000 in cash immediately provided by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are furnishing medical and health supplies.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) pledged support in safeguarding the cultural heritage of Bam, one of Iran's most famous historical sites and home to the 2,000-year-old Arg-e-Bam Citadel. Considered to be the largest earthen structure in the world, the Citadel suffered extensive damage in the quake.

* * *

With United Nations relief agencies having already contributed $500,000 from their emergency funds to help the victims of the massive earthquake in Bam, Iran, a senior UN official said on 30 December more donations are needed to help the ongoing humanitarian operation.

"We badly need cash grants," Rashid Khalikov, Deputy Director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said at a press conference in Geneva.

Mr. Khalikov said the UN is coordinating 34 search and rescue teams in Bam from 30 countries, as well as the relief supplies that are pouring in. "Relief items continue to arrive [at] the airports, both in Bam and Karman, [and they] have been used to capacity, and we are approaching the stage that it is very difficult to accommodate incoming aircraft," he said.

The UN is working with the Government of Iran to identify further needs, Mr. Khalikov added, such as shelter in the form of tents and plastic sheeting, as well as heaters to stave off the freezing temperatures.

According to initial estimates, the earthquake killed 20,000 people, injured 30,000 others and left 70,000 people homeless _ of whom some 40,000 are still living on the streets. The death toll could top 50,000.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) called for nearly $1 million in emergency funds to help children who survived last week's earthquake.

"Tens of thousands of children watched their world crumble around them," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said. "Their needs are vast and urgent _ everything from food, clean water, and shelter from the cold to assistance finding relatives and overcoming the trauma of the experience."

The flash appeal for $990,000 is intended to help UNICEF ensure the availability of clean water and sanitation facilities; provide emergency health kits, essential medicines, basic clinical and obstetric equipment and emergency shelter and blankets; identify children who have been separated from their families and reunite them with surviving relatives; assist with trauma; and establish schools and other safe environments for children.

The agency has already flown in over 400 "school-in-a-box" kits, which each enable teachers to educate up to 80 students in the absence of outside structures. Ensuring ongoing learning is a key way to restore a sense of normalcy among children, and UNICEF pledged to focus its attention on this goal once immediate survival needs are met.

* * *

The United Nations official responsible for internally displaced people on 30 December appealed to the global community to generously aid the survivors of last week's devastating earthquake in Iran and to support long-term efforts to rebuild the country's destroyed communities.

The quake in Bam, which killed, injured or left homeless tens of thousands, "is a most tragic demonstration" of the extent to which natural disasters often require international cooperation to complement national efforts, said Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Representative on internally displaced persons, Francis M. Deng, in a statement released in Geneva.

It is currently estimated that 90 per cent of all homes in Bam were destroyed. Because Iran might not be able to adequately respond, Mr. Deng urged all concerned, including the international community, "to respond generously to the needs of the survivors of this disaster."

He stressed that beyond emergency relief, it is essential to support Iran's efforts to meet the long-term needs of the displaced, providing durable shelter, education, livelihood opportunities, and, eventually, rebuilding their communities.

* * *

With cold night temperatures, inadequate water and sanitation, and insufficient care for the injured posing serious risks for the survivors of Iran's devastating earthquake, the United Nations health agency has appealed for $3.5 million to buy supplies and rehabilitate health facilities to prevent further sickness and deaths.

"The profound tragedy of thousands of people killed has caused emotional and psychological trauma for the tens of thousands of people who have survived," the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Lee Jong-wook, said on 30 December. "It is now imperative to ensure their mental and physical well-being to the fullest extent possible during this fragile period."

 

Security Council Members Strongly Condemn Repeated Attacks In Iraq 2

United Nations Security Council members on 29 December condemned "in the strongest terms" repeated attacks in Iraq against foreign and Iraqi nationals, as well as international and coalition personnel.

In a press statement, the Council President cited a deadly bombing on 27 December against Bulgarian, Thai and other international personnel in Karbala, extending condolences to "the peoples and authorities concerned and to all the victims of the attacks and their families."

The members urged all countries "to fully cooperate in the efforts to find and bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of these attacks," said Ambassador Stefan Tafrov of Bulgaria, which currently holds the Council's rotating presidency.

They also reaffirmed the need to implement fully resolution 1511, which outlined the roles of the UN, the United States-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and the Iraqi Governing Council in international efforts to bring peace and stability to Iraq. The President urged all States to cooperate towards that end.

 

UN Atomic Agency Chief Says Libya Was In Early Stages Of Nuclear Programme 3

After visiting Libya to start verifying its clandestine activities, the head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on 29 December said that Tripoli's nuclear programme was "at an early stage of development." 

Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei, who arrived in Libya on 27 December with a team of technical experts, has begun a detailed process of verification of the North African country's nuclear record. 

Mr. ElBaradei's trip comes on the heels of Libya's recent renunciation of all endeavours to develop weapons of mass destruction and its pledge to fulfill all obligations under international disarmament treaties.

 

Sec-Gen Mourns Those Killed In Benin Aircrash, Including Bangladeshi Peacekeepers 4

Secretary-General has offered condolences to the bereaved families of all those killed in an aircrash earlier last week over Benin, where more than a dozen United Nations peacekeepers were among the dead.

Two Bangladeshi soldiers working for the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and 13 from the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) were on board the Boeing 727, which crashed immediately after take-off near Cotonou on 25 December.

In a statement released by his spokesman, Mr. Annan said he was "deeply saddened" to learn the news of some 130 tragic deaths caused by the doomed flight.

The Secretary-General took the occasion to voice his great appreciation for Bangladesh's "outstanding" contribution to UN peacekeeping operations.

 

Hailing Haiti's Bicentennial, S-G Urges End To Political Impasse 5

As Haiti on 1 January celebrated 200 years of independence, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan lauded the milestone and urged the country to break through its present political deadlock to achieve development.

Mr. Annan congratulated all Haitians, calling the proclamation of the independent Republic of Haiti on 1 January 1804 the "beginning of the end of slavery in the Americas," a spokesman for Mr. Annan said in a statement.

The bicentennial marks "an anniversary of deep significance to all mankind," he said, adding that it also serves as an "ideal" start to the UN International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition.

The Secretary-General voiced hope that Haitians, while recalling the spirit of their forefathers, would find a way to overcome the current political impasse in their country.

"There is a need to build a consensus that allows the goals of good governance, respect for human rights, economic and social recovery, and human and environmental regeneration to be more vigorously pursued," the spokesman said, pledging the UN's full support in the drive to build a better future for all Haitians.

 

UNICEF Pledges To Focus On Child Survival And Other Basic Concerns In 2004 6

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on 31 December pledged to focus its efforts next year on helping the young to survive in a world where they are often caught up in war, ravaged by HIV/AIDS, imperilled by exploitation, and under-serviced by society.

"Each of these issues alone poses heartbreaking challenges for hundreds of millions of children," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said. "Together, they represent a global imperative to do more for children in 2004."

Ms. Bellamy noted that nearly 11 million children die before their fifth birthday each year, and tens of millions more are left with physical and/or mental disabilities _ solely because they lack the essentials to thrive. Measles, malaria and diarrhoea are three of the biggest killers _ yet all are preventable or treatable. 

HIV/AIDS has orphaned 14 million children, 11 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa, she added. By 2010, the number of children in that region who have lost parents to AIDS is expected to have risen to 20 million.

In the last decade alone, she continued, more than 2 million children have died as a direct result of armed conflict, and more than 6 million have been permanently disabled or seriously injured. An estimated 20 million children have been forced to flee their homes and more than 1 million have been orphaned or separated from their families.

Abuse, exploitation and violence extinguish the childhoods of hundreds of millions of children, with 246 million working, 171 million of them in hazardous conditions. Some 1.2 million are trafficked every year, and 2 million, mainly girls, are believed to be exploited through the commercial sex trade. At any given time, over 300,000 child soldiers, some as young as eight, are exploited in armed conflicts in over 30 countries around the world.

Ms. Bellamy also charged that too many governments _ in both rich and poor countries _ fail to recognize that investing in children means investing in the future of their countries.

Education is the single best way to tackle all these problems over the long term, she added. "By making sure that all boys and girls get a basic education, we will not only give them a chance of growing into independent adults who can protect their own health and rights, but we will give the next generation of children a better chance of escaping a life of poverty and hardship," Ms. Bellamy said.

 

In 2003, WFP Helped More People Than Ever In Its 40-Year History 7

After mounting the largest humanitarian aid operation ever with its efforts in Iraq, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in 2003 helped 110 million hungry people worldwide _ a record in the agency's 40-year history.

"We are proud of our achievement in feeding so many of those in need, but we are acutely aware that they represent only a limited proportion of the world's hungry, many of them suffering in silence," WFP Executive Director James T. Morris said on 30 December in Rome.

At the peak of its operations in Iraq, WFP moved 1,000 tons of food an hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, despite enormous obstacles, while at the same time helping to feed 40 million people across Africa, which was enduring one of its worst food disasters in decades. 

Generous contributions were made towards WFP's budget of $4.3 billion this year, but there were significant shortfalls in some operations, leaving the agency without food to meet the urgent needs of the hungry, who tend to be mainly women and children.

Lack of resources forced WFP to reduce rations to 300,000 people in drought-hit Eritrea and countless others across southern Africa. On the other side of the world, 2.2 million people in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will again be deprived of WFP cereal rations this month, a number expected to rise to 3.8 million early in 2004 unless fresh pledges are made urgently.

This year proved conclusively that HIV/AIDS is not only a major cause of hunger, but that hunger accelerates its spread and lethal impact. "The battle against AIDS is a battle against time," Mr. Morris warned, pledging the agency's support in that endeavour.

In sub-Saharan Africa, with 11 million children orphaned by AIDS, "we are working with governments to integrate AIDS prevention into school feeding programmes because AIDS has turned children into parents," he added.

According to a recent report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the global number of chronically hungry has crept back up to almost 800 million people, after decreasing in the early 1990s, and without the political will, the chance of achieving UN's Millennium Development Goal of halving that figure by 2015 is remote.