DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Hua Jiang, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

First of all, welcome to the group of African journalists.  Welcome to the United Nations.  Sorry for being a little bit late.  We were waiting for a note from Vienna.

**Secretary-General in Vienna

The Secretary-General arrived today in Vienna, and he immediately met with the key members of his delegation to discuss the next round of talks with the delegation headed by Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, which begin tomorrow at 10 a.m.  They reviewed the principal items on their agenda for those talks: Iraqi concerns regarding implementation of Security Council resolutions on Iraq; the return of UN inspectors to Iraq; and the return of the Kuwaiti national archives.

Those participating in the preparatory discussions were Hans Blix, the Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (or UNMOVIC); Mohammed ElBaradei, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency; Legal Counsel Hans Corell; and Yuli Vorontsov, the High-Level Coordinator dealing with missing persons and property.

The talks are expected to last two days, with a plenary session on Thursday morning, expert level talks on Thursday afternoon -- which will continue on Friday -- and a concluding plenary on Friday afternoon.  In addition to his discussions with the senior delegation members, the Secretary-General will also hold two other meetings this afternoon.

First, he will talk with his Special Advisor on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, for an assessment of the ongoing talks between the leaders of the island’s two communities.  We have just received the transcript of comments de Soto made at Larnaca Airport before he left Cyprus.  After that, he will meet with his former Special Representative for Kosovo, Hans Haekkerup.  He has also been in touch with New York concerning the Security Council’s deliberations on Bosnia and Herzegovina.

**Security Council

The Security Council began this morning by holding a private meeting to hear from the Secretary-General’s Representative and head of the UN Political Office for Somalia, Winston Tubman.

Tubman presented to the Council the Secretary-General’s latest report on Somalia –- which we flagged for you last week -- and updated them on the latest developments in the country.  That presentation was followed by a question-and-answer period.  Further consultations on Somalia are expected to take place next Tuesday, 9 July.

At 11:30, Council members then adjourned to the consultations room to resume their discussions on the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  That Mission’s mandate is set to expire at midnight tonight.

**Liberia

The following is a statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General:

“The Secretary-General remains profoundly concerned over the heavy toll the continuing fighting in Liberia is taking on civilians and the threat it poses to the stability of other countries in the region, particularly Sierra Leone.

“Since fighting intensified last month, some 17,000 Liberians and 8,000 Sierra Leonean refugees have fled into Sierra Leone. 

“The exact number and conditions of tens of thousands of civilians displaced within Liberia remain unknown because humanitarian agencies do not have access to conflict zones where vulnerable populations are living in extremely precarious conditions.

“The movement and effectiveness of humanitarian agencies are further disrupted by the harassment of humanitarian workers and looting of humanitarian organizations’ assets and supplies.

“The Secretary-General urges the dissident forces and the Government of Liberia to allow humanitarian workers safe and unhindered access to affected populations.  He calls upon the Governments of neighbouring States to cooperate in this endeavour. 

“Further, the Secretary-General reiterates his call upon the international community to provide humanitarian agencies with the resources necessary to respond to the vital needs of the rising number of Liberians who have been displaced both within and outside their country’s borders.

**Sierra Leone

In a related note, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone issued a press release today on the just-completed visit to Kailahun in the eastern part of the country by the head of the mission, Oluyemi Adeniji, and the Force Commander, Lieutenant General Daniel Opande.  The Chief of Mission and the Force Commander were briefed by local UN peacekeepers on the arrival in the Kailahun district of large numbers of Sierra Leonean returnees and Liberian refugees and the effect on the areas already limited resources.  The full press release is available upstairs.

**Middle East

As you know, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Terje Roed Larsen, attended a Quartet meeting yesterday afternoon in London.  Roed Larsen, along with United States, Russian and European Union representatives, discussed security, the political horizon and reform.

**Prevlaka

The Secretary-General, in his latest report on the UN Mission in Prevlaka, which is out on the racks today, says he is encouraged by the progress made by the parties towards resolving their dispute over Prevlaka, a peninsula located between Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

He writes, “I hope that the good progress achieved so far will continue and that the parties will be able to agree in the foreseeable future on a transitional border-crossing regime”.  Such an agreement, he adds, would allow the UN Mission to withdraw.  Until then, he says, he recommends that the Mission be continued for a further three months, until 15 October.  The Mission’s current mandate ends on 15 July, and the Security Council is expected to discuss it towards the end of next week.

**Human Rights

The UN Special Rapporteur dealing with the independence of judges and lawyers, Dato Param Comaraswamy, has been invited to conduct a fact-finding mission to Indonesia, which is to last from 15 to 25 July.  He will examine all issues relating to the functioning of Indonesia’s legal system, and hopes that his mission will contribute to Indonesia’s efforts towards a greater realization of civil and political rights and the more effective functioning of its judicial and legal systems.  He will report back to the Commission on Human Rights on this matter next April.  We have a press release with more details.

**UNDP

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) today announced the launch of the 2002 UNDP Awards for Human Development, six separate awards designed to recognize advances in pushing forward the concept of human development.

Among the awards, which are to be conferred in December, will be the Mahbub ul Haq Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Development, named after the founder of the global Human Development Report.  That award will be presented to a world leader who has most successfully put human development at the heart of the political agenda.  UNDP is putting out a press release today with more information.

**Anti-corruption

Steps towards improving inter-agency efforts at the United Nations and other organizations to battle corruption were discussed in a meeting that took place on Monday and Tuesday in Vienna, at which participants from a variety of UN and other bodies concluded that the UN and its agencies must be at the forefront of the battle against fraud and corruption.  The participants saw the need to enhance coordination on dealing with corruption and to elaborate a UN anti-corruption strategy.  We have a press release from Vienna with more information.

**Press Releases

This month’s Bulletin of the World Health Organization (WHO) has a report on the coping mechanisms of underpaid health staff in developing countries.  The report says public health doctors in some developing countries earn, at best, 20 per cent of the earnings of their colleagues in private practice, and those in rural areas suffer additional hardships.  We have a press release with more details and the Bulletin can be found on the WHO Web site.

We also have a joint press release from WHO and UNAIDS, embargoed until tomorrow, on a new package of interventions designed to reduce HIV infections by 64 per cent by 2010.

**Signing

We have one treaty being signed today.  This morning, Panama deposited their instrument of ratification for the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, becoming the 40^th party to the Convention.

**Press Conferences

And following this briefing at 12:30 –- I think we’ve already got our guest here -– Stephen Lewis, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for HIV/AIDS in Africa.  He will address the two recently released HIV/AIDS reports and their relation to the G-8 meeting after this briefing.

That’s all I’ve got for you.  Any questions before we go to our guest?

**Questions and Answers:

Question:  Do you think today the Security Council will find a way to resolve the crisis of the Bosnia peacekeeping mission?

Deputy Spokesperson:  Well, as you know, the Security Council is meeting in consultations on the mission’s future there.  And, as the consultations are still going on, and I expect we’re going to have a long day on that, I am not certainly going to pre-empt what the Security Council is going to decide.  Robert?

Question:  You said that the Secretary-General has been in contact with New York over these deliberations.  Does that mean with the Secretariat, or has he spoken to Council members?

Deputy Spokesperson:  He has been in touch with Council members.  I don’t think I am authorized to give you more than that, but he’s been in touch.

Question:  Is the matter of sanctions on Iraq on the agenda with the Iraqi delegation?

Deputy Spokesperson:  Well, sanctions on Iraq… You mean whether the Iraqi side will raise that issue?

Question:  Yeah.

Deputy Spokesperson:  As far as we have learned, the Iraqis have put forward a fairly broad agenda.  But the Secretary-General has been trying to focus on the major issues, which is the return of the UN inspectors to Iraq.

Question:  Do you have anything on Alvaro de Soto and the Secretary-General?

Deputy Spokesperson:  Oh, I haven’t got any details on that, I am afraid.  Yes please?

Question:  Why is it that the UN pays more attention to political issues and violence instead of economic and social issues in Africa?

Deputy Spokesperson:  I don’t think that’s a fair statement.  You know that we have been trying very hard to not only try to prevent conflicts in the country, but we’re also doing quite a lot in terms of humanitarian aid.  And also the Secretary-General has been appealing to the international community to provide more aid to help the countries and the recent example is that the Secretary-General participated in the G-8 meeting in Canada and Africa was, as I am sure you know, that is one of the issues discussed there. 

All right then.

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