Dieser Internet-Auftritt kann nach dem Tod des Webmasters, Peter Strutynski, bis auf Weiteres nicht aktualisiert werden. Er steht jedoch weiterhin als Archiv mit Beiträgen aus den Jahren 1996 – 2015 zur Verfügung.

UN-Hilfe-Chef Jan Egeland fordert einen "humanitären Waffenstillstand" / UN aid chief calls for "humanitarian truce"

Jan Egeland berichtet dem UN-Sicherheitsrat von der "tödlichen und schrecklichen Zerstörung" im Libanon / Jan Egeland is briefing the Security Council on the "deadly and horrific destruction" in Lebanon

Am 28. Juli 2006 richtete der UN-Untergeneralsekretär für Humanitäre Angelegenheiten und Nothilfekoordination, Jan Egeland, einen dringenden Appell an Israel und die Hisbollah, die Waffen für mindestens drei Tage ruhen zu lassen, um allen Kindern, Verletzten und älteren Menschen die Gelegenheit zu geben, die umkämpften Gebiete zu verlassen.
Der Appell blieb genauso wirkungslos wie alle früheren Aufforderungen - insbesondere an Israel - die Kampfhandlungen zu beenden und in Verhandlungen einzutreten. Im UN-Sicherheitsrat blockieren die USA seit Tagen das Zustandekommen einer u.a. von Frankreich geforderten Resolution. Israel scheint entschlossen, den Feldzug gegen die Hisbollah im Libanon und gegen Hamas im Gazastreifen so lange fortzusetzen, bis seine Kriegsziele erfüllt sind:

1. die Freilassung der beiden von der Hisbollah entführten Soldaten,
2. das Ende des Raketenbeschusses auf Israel und
3. die Umsetzung der UN-Resolution 1559 (2004) für die Entwaffnung der Hisbollah.

Im Folgenden dokumentieren wir (in englischer Sprache) drei Pressemeldungen der Vereinten Nationen, die sich

1. mit der dramatischen humanitären Situation im Libanon befassen (Text 1),
2. eine Untersuchung des israelischen Angriffs auf UN-Mitarbeiter verlangen, so wie es eine Erklärung des UN-Sicherheitsrats vom 27. Juli fordert (Text 2), und
3. ein Treffen von potenziell beteiligten Staaten an einer Frieden stabilisierenden UN-Blauhelmtruppe für Montag, den 31. Juli ankündigen (Text 3). In diesem letzten Text sagt Kofi Annan, die Vereinten Nationen würden eine unabhängige Untersuchung des Angriffs auf UN-Mitarbeiter auch ohne Zustimmung Israels durchführen. ("Mr. Annan said that whether or not the Israelis agree to a joint investigation into the incident, the UN would conduct its own probe. 'In any event, it is important that a thorough investigation be conducted and the reports be made public,' he said.")

Im Kasten außerdem ein paar biografische Angaben zur Person von Jan Egeland.

UN aid chief calls for ‘humanitarian truce’ to help Middle East’s children and wounded

28 July 2006 – The top United Nations aid official today made an urgent appeal for a “humanitarian truce” lasting at least three days between Israel and Hezbollah to allow children, the wounded and the elderly to escape the fighting and food, medicine and other emergency supplies to get through to the conflict zones.

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland, who has returned to UN Headquarters in New York from a six-day visit to Lebanon, northern Israel and the Gaza Strip, made his appeal while briefing the Security Council on the deadly and horrific destruction in the region.

“We need at least 72 hours of tranquilities for the sake of the children of Lebanon and northern Israel who, I believe, we all agree are the innocent victims of this escalating conflict,” he told the 15-member body.

“Civilians must be protected at any cost. If there are many more dead children in a conflict than armed men, there is something fundamentally wrong, not only with how the armed men behave and where they hide, but also with the way the response is being conducted.”

He said humanitarian workers were doing all they could to alleviate the suffering but he acknowledged that “aid in itself is not the solution,” and repeated Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s call for an immediate cessation of hostilities, followed by a ceasefire agreement, the deployment of a security force and a political settlement.

In a detailed briefing to the Council, he spoke of the dozens dying every day in Lebanon and said the Health Ministry now puts the civilian death toll at more than 600, adding that “the majority are women and children.” He also outlined the “devastating impact” of the conflict on the civilian population of northern Israel, where hundreds of thousands live in constant fear caused by daily Hezbollah rocket attacks.

Mr. Egeland highlighted the “armed conflict and deepening social and economic crisis in Gaza, and the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole,” saying that 150 people have been killed – a quarter of them children – since the present conflict broke out in June.

Speaking specifically of the Israeli attack on the power plant in Gaza, he said every single transformer had been destroyed, leaving private households, hospitals and water pumps with only three to four hours of electricity supply per day, but this was often “not synchronized with the few hours during which water is being supplied.”

Further on the humanitarian front regarding assistance to Lebanon, two more aid convoys left for the devastated south of the country today, a UN spokesman told reporters. The convoys, organized in cooperation between the world body and the non-governmental organization (NGO) Médecins Sans Frontières, were sent to Sidon and Jezzine, carrying essentials including food, blankets and shelter materials.

More convoys are planned for the following days, but the availability and rising prices of fuel are issues of growing concern, said the spokesman, noting that fuel prices have increased by 60 per cent because of the conflict.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has also started a humanitarian cargo airlift, which will take temporary warehouses and generators to the region. But as the situation in Lebanon deteriorates, with one in five Lebanese homeless and hostilities continuing, agencies are racing against time.

“There are women and children who face a daily threat not only of shelling and injury, but of having less and less food and water to sustain them. We have no time to waste in reaching them,” warned Amer Daoudi, Emergency Coordinator for the WFP operation in Lebanon. “A greater catastrophe is in the making if we don’t assist people soon.”

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported it is still waiting at the Syrian border with 500 tonnes of emergency relief supplies for more than 20,000 people, although it expects to get access to Lebanon early next week.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that $15 million has so far been received in pledges for the $149 million flash appeal for Lebanon that was launched on Monday, adding that a further $5 million will be made available through the world body’s Central Emergency Response Fund.

Source: www.un.org

Security Council calls for comprehensive Israeli inquiry into killing of UN peacekeepers

Presidential statement on Lebanon

27 July 2006 – Voicing its shock and distress at the Israeli Defence Forces’ (IDF) killing of four unarmed United Nations military observers in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, the Security Council today called on the Israeli Government to conduct a full investigation.

In a statement read out by Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sablière of France, its President for July, the 15-member Council stressed that “Israel and all concerned parties must comply fully with their obligations” under international humanitarian law on the protection of UN and associated personnel, and ensure that UN staff are not the object of attack.

Extending its deepest condolences to the families of the victims, the Council offered its sympathies to the governments of Austria, Canada, China and Finland, the nationalities of the fallen military observers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The Council also expressed “deep concern for Lebanese and Israeli civilian casualties and sufferings, the destruction of civil infrastructure and the rising number” of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Lebanon.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has already condemned the attack, while accepting an expression of sorrow from Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and proposing a joint UN-Israeli investigation into the killings.

The Council statement called on Israel to “conduct a comprehensive inquiry” and take into account any material gathered by the UN, and publish its results as soon as possible.

Three of the military observers, who were stationed at a long-standing UNIFIL post near the Lebanese town of Khiyam, have been confirmed dead, while the body of the fourth observer has not yet been recovered. The peacekeepers were killed when their post was struck in a direct hit by the IDF early on Tuesday evening, despite repeated requests during the afternoon from UNIFIL officials to Israel to protect that particular post from attack.

Meanwhile, in a statement today UNIFIL reported that in the past 24 hours there have been three incidents of firing close to UN positions from the Israeli side, while Hezbollah is reported to have fired from the vicinity of four UN positions.

More than 600 civilians from the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura and neighbouring villages have been sheltering inside UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura in recent days, but most have now been given a humanitarian escort to the city of Tyre.

Source: www.un.org

Annan calls for ‘concrete, practical steps’ to resolve crisis in Middle East

28 July 2006 – Announcing plans for a meeting on Monday of potential troop contributors to a United Nations stabilization force in southern Lebanon, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today it was time for “concrete, practical steps” to end the hostilities in the region and protect civilians from further attack.

Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Annan said Monday’s meeting would be preliminary because there is no Security Council mandate yet for such a force and Member States will not commit troops until they know the scope of that mandate.

But the Secretary-General said it was time for the international community “to really be action-oriented” to solve the crisis in the Middle East, where hundreds of Lebanese and Israeli civilians have been killed in the past fortnight, and hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have been displaced from their homes.

“We’ve gone beyond statements and exhortations,” he said. “We’re looking for concrete, practical steps to take action.”

Mr. Annan, who attended a Security Council briefing yesterday by Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland on the situation in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Gaza Strip, said Council members shared his concern that urgent steps are required.

He said that any measures devised by the international community must, above all, emphasize Lebanese sovereignty so that the country’s people can “take charge of their territory and their destiny.”

The Lebanese “need to find a way of disarming Hezbollah and creating a situation where there will be one authority and one gun, and extend the authority through the territory. And this is where the international community needs to work with them and give them the support, the space, by deploying the stabilization force.”

But he added that other countries in the region, such as Syria, should be brought into discussions about tackling the crisis.

“If we’re going to be able to resolve this issue, not only do we need to work with the Government of Lebanon, but we should encourage those who have influence to bring that influence to bear… That should not diminish from the authority of the Lebanese Government.”

In regard to the Israeli attack that killed four UN military observers on Tuesday, Mr. Annan said that whether or not the Israelis agree to a joint investigation into the incident, the UN would conduct its own probe. “In any event, it is important that a thorough investigation be conducted and the reports be made public,” he said.

Source: www.un.org


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