By NNN-KUNA
Vienna : The office of the United Nations Register of Damage Caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has recently been set up in the UN headquarters in Vienna.
Speaking to KUNA, the bureau’s media department director, Nasra Hasan, said Vladimir Goryayev was appointed executive director of the office, which groups more than 20 employees.
She noted that the UN General Assembly approved an annual budget of 2.3 million euro for the office in 2006, adding that the office had finished placing its regulatory and legal framework for a databank on those who sustained damage from the construction of the wall and follow-up of their claims.
On his part, Goryayev refused to give any details on the nature of the work carried out at the office nor the mechanism for filing complaints.
Meanwhile, a source told KUNA that the office would only be issuing statements from time to time and was not authorized to speak to the press at present, noting that it was a technical body and not a political one.
The UN General Assembly had approved in 2004 the Palestinian proposal for taking the issue of the separating wall to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. This was approved by 90 countries, while 74 abstained — including the European bloc and Russia. Eight countries rejected the proposal — the US and Australia among them.