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Posted 8:20 AM
by Mary
ISRAEL VIOLATES CEASEFIRE (MaximsNews.com, U.N.)
UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com UN/ - 19 August 2006 - The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about a violation by the Israeli side of the cessation of hostilities as laid out in Security Council resolution 1701.
The incident involved an Israeli raid in eastern Lebanon on Saturday.
According to UNIFIL, there have also been several air violations by Israeli military aircraft.
All such violations of Security Council resolution 1701 endanger the fragile calm that was reached after much negotiation and undermine the authority of the Government of Lebanon. The Secretary-General further calls on all parties to respect strictly the arms embargo, exercise maximum restraint, avoid provocative actions and display responsibility in implementing resolution 1701.
The Secretary-General has today spoken to the Prime Ministers of Israel and Lebanon about this matter.
He has further instructed that daily reports of compliance on the cessation of hostilities by the parties should be provided to the Security Council.
New York, 19 August 2006 ~~~
MaximsNews WORLD CRISIS REPORT
Friday, 18 August 2006 (from: U.N. NOON PRESS BRIEFING)
U.N. APPEALS TO EUROPE TO STRENGTHEN POTENTIAL COMMITMENTS TO EXPANDED LEBANON FORCE
The Deputy Secretary-General appealed today for Europe to harden up potential troop commitments so that the expanded UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has the right balance of forces to deploy to be legitimate and politically effective.
Speaking with the press this morning, he said that Finland, Italy and Germany had already given indications that they would be in a position to contribute although details in some cases had yet to be finalized.
He also appealed to Member States to provide “force enablers” for the expanded UNIFIL – i.e. units such as logistics, medical and engineering units – which would help open up roads for the transport of humanitarian relief, as well as allow the deployment of UN troops to take up their monitoring role on the ground.
In response to a question, the Deputy Secretary-General said there would be more meetings to follow up on possible troop commitments – as is normal practice.
In response to another question, the Deputy Secretary-General said that the Secretary-General’s report to the Security Council on would be finalized later today, and it will describe progress on the political, humanitarian and peacekeeping fronts.
Asked how many countries have committed to sending troops to the new, enhanced UN interim Force in Lebanon, the Spokesman said that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations would have further bilateral meetings with potential troop contributing countries before drawing a final list. However, yesterday’s meeting with the potential troops contributing countries, resulted in firm troop commitments by Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Nepal and indications of commitment by Finland, Germany Italy and the United Kingdom.
Asked how many troops the UN needs for the new UNIFIL, Dujarric said that in order to do its work the UN would like to have all 15,000 troops as mandated by Security Council Resolution 1701. He said that the UN was working toward obtaining an immediate 3500 troops within 10 days to make sure that the cessation of hostilities, which has been holding well, continues to hold.
Asked if, in the view of the UN, Israel’s approval was mandatory to allow peacekeeping troops deployment by contributing countries, the Spokesman said the UN was responsible for determining who gets deployed. He added that for the military and political effectiveness of the deployment, the UN would like to see a force that represents its ideals by combining European and Moslem forces in addition to being up to the task at hand. He noted that an African contingent was already active in UNIFIL.
CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES STILL HOLDING IN MIDDLE EAST, U.N. MISSION CONFIRMS
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reports that the cessation of hostilities was generally maintained and there were no significant incidents or breaches of the agreement.
The Israeli Army continued to withdraw from Lebanese territory, and Lebanese troops deployed further south of the Litani River in the areas vacated by the IDF. The UN Force, which controls the buffer zone to the south between the IDF and the Lebanese Army, is closely coordinating and monitoring these operations. The UN Force says these operations will continue along the plan and timeline adopted at a trilateral meeting of the Force Commander with senior representatives of the Lebanese and Israeli Armies.
The UNIFIL Chinese de-mining team, meanwhile, carried out operations to clear unexploded ordnance in the area of Al-Qantarah. UNIFIL also provided water and food to villages of Ayta Achaab and Al Bustan as large numbers of internally displaced people returned to their villages in the UNIFIL area of operation.
LEBANON STILL IN NEED OF FUEL AND WATER
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that four UN humanitarian convoys were dispatched today with supplies from the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO) the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), and the UN refugee agency. Two additional convoys – which will carry urgently needed bottled water from UNICEF and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) – are scheduled to leave on Saturday.
Meanwhile, a UN assessment mission, which visited 10 major population centers in the area of Tyre, found that, apart from two large bomb craters, roads are mainly intact. Nevertheless, there is still an urgent need for fuel – for generators, cooking and water pumps.
The mission that assessed the Sidon area found that fuel and clean drinking water are urgently needed. Electricity is still being rationed there, which is affecting the water supply.
LEBANON CONFLICT HAS HUMANITARIAN CONSEQUENCES FOR GAZA
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reports that nearly 300 containers with emergency food for Gaza are stuck on ships in the port of Ashdod, Israel. That backlog is connected to the large scale redirection of goods from Haifa to Ashdod as a result of the Lebanon conflict. Currently, some 830,000 people rely on UNRWA's Gaza food distributions.
Meanwhile, the UNRWA School at Rafah is still providing shelter for 340 internally displaced Palestinians who fled Israeli shelling in southern Gaza.
For its part, UNICEF has secured vaccines for Palestinian children through 2007, as well as education supplies for its back-to-school campaign. UNICEF has also provided 8 generators and 5 water tankers to its humanitarian partners in Gaza, and stepped up its mine-awareness education and psychosocial assistance programmes
Posted 8:36 PM
by Mary
UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com UN/ - 11 August 2006 - In a unanimous vote tonight, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution that calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities to be followed by the deployment of Lebanese troops and a greatly expanded United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon while the Israeli forces leave the region.
Kofi Annan has carried out weeks of intensive diplomacy calling for Hizbollah to stop all attacks on Israel immediately and for Israel to end “all offensive military operations.”
The Security Council supported a simultaneous deployment of a U.N. force, with an enhanced mandate, equipment and scope of operation along with the deployment of 15,000 troops across southern Lebanon as Israel withdraws behind the Blue Line “at the earliest.”
An expanded U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) will also monitor the cessation of hostilities, help to ensure humanitarian access to civilians and the safe return of displaced persons, and support the Lebanese armed forces as they deploy in the south and enforce their responsibilities under the resolution.
The Council may make further enhancements to UNIFIL’s mandate in the future.
In order “to help secure a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution to the conflict,” the Security Council urged Israel and Lebanon to work towards these goals while respecting several principles, including:
1. Respect for the Blue Line;
2. Ensuring the area between the Blue Line and the Litani river in southern Lebanon is free of any armed personnel and weapons other than those of the Lebanese armed forces and UNIFIL; and
3. Full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, as well as resolutions 1559 and 1680, that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon.
The Security Resolution stressed the importance of not just ending the violence, but ending the causes that gave rise to the current crisis, including “the unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers.”
Further, it said, “mindful of the sensitivity of the issue of prisoners,” encouraged efforts aimed at settling the issue of the hundreds of Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel.
Council members also emphasized how vital it is that the Lebanese Government is able to extend its authority across all of the country’s territory through the deployment of its armed forces.
The Council urged other Member States to contribute to an expanded UNIFIL force and welcomed financial and humanitarian aid to the people of Lebanon from the International Community and help for the thousands of displaced people.
The Secretary-General was asked to introduce further proposals in the next month on issues, including the delineation of Lebanon’s border and the Shebaa farms area.
In Lebanon and northern Israel, more than 1,000 people, nearly all of them civilians, have been killed, while many more were injured and about one fourth of Lebanon’s population have been forced to flee their homes.
Posted 9:09 PM
by Mary
Gaza crisis "as bad as Lebanon": United Nations
The United Nations has called on world leaders not to forget the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying it is at least as serious as that in southern Lebanon.
More than 140 people have been killed during Israel's operations there over the past month, many of them civilians. Delivery of food and other essential items has been reduced to a trickle.
Thirty aid agencies have backed the United Nations' appeal, with one charity speaking of a sense among aid agencies that Gaza's population was being terrorised.
Care International told the BBC that Western nations had failed to put pressure on Israel to rein in its actions and that attention was being focused on Lebanon at the expense of the situation in the Gaza Strip.
According to the UN, Israel fires around 150 shells into the tiny territory every day in a bid to stop Palestinian militants who fire an average of 10 rockets across the border.
Israel says it needs to target civilian areas because that is where militants base themselves but aid organisations say Gaza's population of 1.4 million is living in perpetual fear.
Regular air strikes
Several nights a week the noise of Israeli helicopters vibrates over Gaza followed by the sudden explosion of air strikes.
Israel has begun dropping leaflets and leaving telephone messages warning residents not to stay near militant homes but aid organisations say such measures leave people terrified and with nowhere safe to go.
The UN is currently sheltering 1,000 people in schools in Gaza. Many others have moved in with relations. Aid agencies are also calling on Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Some 150 trucks carrying food and essential supplies are currently crossing the border each day but according to Care International this is only just enough to stop the population from starving.
It says to keep people from being hungry and to restore food security Israel needs to increase this to 400.
Since Israel bombed the power station, homes are often without clean water or electricity. Health officials say they are worried about the possible spread of disease.
(Radio New Zealand)
