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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY EDUARDO DEL BUEY, DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON FOR
SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON FOR
WEDNESDAY, 30 MAY, 2012

SECRETARY-GENERAL ARRIVES IN TURKEY

• The Secretary-General arrived in Istanbul on Wednesday at the start of his trip to Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
• On Thursday, the Secretary-General will take part in a Partners Forum for the Alliance of Civilizations, which is being held at the invitation of the Turkish Prime Minister and which is designed to broaden public and private support for the initiative. He will also have a meeting with his High Representative on the Alliance of Civilizations and the Foreign Ministers of Turkey and Spain, who are the co-chairs of the Forum.
• The Secretary-General will meet with the Prime Minister of Turkey and attend a separate event on sustainable energy linked to the forthcoming Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.
• On Friday, the Secretary-General is expected to co-chair a major international conference on the future of Somalia and hold a range of bilateral meetings with other leaders attending the conference.
• On Saturday, the Secretary-General will travel to Jeddah for meetings with Saudi leaders and to co-chair the second meeting of the Advisory Board of the newly established UN Counter-Terrorism Centre.

SECURITY COUNCIL BRIEFED ON SYRIA

• On Wednesday, in closed consultations, Deputy Joint Special Envoy Jean-Marie Guéhenno and Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous briefed the Security Council on the situation in Syria.
• Mr Guéhenno was due to brief the media in Geneva afterwards.

U.N. AID WORKER RELEASED IN SUDAN AFTER 86 DAYS IN CAPTIVITY

• After 86 days in captivity in the South Darfur region of Sudan, British aid worker Patrick Noonan, who was working for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), has been released and is looking forward to seeing his family.
• Working as a logistician in Nyala, Noonan had been in Sudan for about two years when he was abducted by armed men on the morning of 6 March 2012, along with a Sudanese driver who was released later that same day.
• WFP, along with the United Nation’s Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS), the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), Government of Sudan authorities and the embassy of the United Kingdom had been working on the release in close cooperation with the relevant local authorities in Darfur.

CIVILIAN CASUALTIES IN AFGHANISTAN DROP IN THE FIRST FOUR MONTHS OF 2012

• The number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan has dropped 21 per cent in the first four months of this year, according to a new report by the human rights section of the UN Mission in the country.
• The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Jan Kubiš, said that civilian casualties continue to occur at unacceptable levels.
• He said that the use of landmines and suicide bombers by anti-government forces is unacceptable and that the forces don’t show any improvement in the protection of civilians.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

U.N. MISSION IN D.R.C. HOSTS COMBATANTS: Asked about mutinous soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Deputy Spokesperson said that 11 individuals claiming to be combatants of the M23 armed group were received at the base of the UN mission in the country, known as MONUSCO, in Rugari on 20 May, stating that they had abandoned their positions. They were transferred to a MONUSCO camp for disarmament, demobilization, repatriation, reintegration, and resettlement (DDR/RR) camp in Goma, North Kivu, on 22 May, where they are currently hosted by the mission. The members of the group say that they are Rwandans and that they were recruited in Rwanda for what they believed to be was service with the Rwandan army. Instead, they were sent to the DRC to join the M23. One of the members is believed to be a minor. MONUSCO has informed the DRC Government of the group’s presence in the camp and is awaiting a decision on how the government should like to proceed. The mission has also informed the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of their presence in the camp.

ICC UPHOLDS DECISION TO DROP WAR CRIMES CHARGES AGAINST RWANDAN REBEL LEADER: Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) dismissed on Wednesday the Prosecution9;s appeal against the decision to drop war crimes charges against a Rwandan rebel leader, Callixte Mbarushimana, for his alleged role in deadly fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2009.