Top UN humanitarian official to visit Russia, including IDP camps in Caucasus

The top United Nations humanitarian and emergency relief official heads this weekend to the Russian Federation, where he is slated to tour camps for displaced persons in the northern Caucasus and meet the presidents of Chechnya and Ingushetia.

During the five-day visit beginning on Sunday, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland will meet in Moscow with the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Galina Karelova, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, the Minister of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters, Sergei Shoigu, and other officials.

Mr. Egeland will also discuss with the Russian Government the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion 17 years ago in Ukraine - an event that devastated the lives and health of many people for generations to come. From Moscow, he will visit Ukraine and Belarus, which also continues to suffer the effects of the Chernobyl disaster.

In a report last October on the international effort to mitigate the consequences of the disaster, Secretary-General Kofi Annan described the situation in and around Chernobyl and the contaminated areas of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine as difficult.

"More needs to be done to secure donor support in a systematic way," he wrote. "United Nations country teams are talking to donors in their respective countries, but this work needs to be invigorated and coordinated."

Mr. Egeland is Mr. Annan's principal adviser on humanitarian issues and is responsible for coordination of relief efforts in response to natural and man-made disasters.