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

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.

**Secretary-General’s Travels

In Durban, South Africa, the Secretary-General today attended the inaugural session of the Assembly of heads of State and government of the new African Union, which replaces the Organization of African Unity.

The birth of the African Union was celebrated in a three-hour extravaganza at a stadium for 2,000 people, complete with a flyover, parachute landings, performances by Zulu dancers in traditional dress carrying spears and shields, and the launch of the Union’s theme song –- called “Unity Afrika.”

The Secretary-General watched as the presidents of the African Union walked into the stadium behind their national flags and heard the crowd give a huge welcome to former South African President Nelson Mandela.  The crowd, which waved miniature flags of the member States, also roared when the Senegalese and South African soccer teams were brought in.

This afternoon, he will continue his busy schedule of bilateral meetings with the leaders gathered for the summit.  He met first with Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa.  Later, he also met with the presidents of Djibouti, Togo, Nigeria, Somalia and Equatorial Guinea, as well as with the Prime Minister of Guinea and the secretary-general of the Commonwealth.

Also this afternoon, he witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).  The heads of these two agencies –- respectively, James Morris and Ruud Lubbers -– signed a memorandum strengthening their cooperation in providing food aid to refugees and returnees, which could help benefit some

20 million refugees around the world, more than a third of them in Africa.

Although the Secretary-General’s scheduled press conference for today, which I mentioned yesterday, was dropped because of his busy schedule, he and the other officials present for the UNHCR-WFP signing took some questions from the press about the humanitarian situations in Angola, Zimbabwe and southern Africa in general.  We hope we will have the transcript later.

Later tonight, the Secretary-General will meet with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Joseph Kabila to discuss the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[The Spokesman’s Office announced later that the Secretary-General’s meeting with Presidents Kagame and Kabila was being hosted by South African President Thabo Mbeki.]

**Security Council

The Security Council is meeting in closed consultations this morning to hear a briefing from the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto.

Mr. de Soto updated the Council members on face to face talks between His Excellency Glafcos Clerides, the Greek Cypriot leader, and His Excellency Rauf Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot leader.

Council members then discussed the situation in Somalia. 

**Middle East Seminar

The question of peace in the Middle East will be the subject of an international media seminar organized by the UN’s Department of Public Information and Communication on July 17th and 18th in Copenhagen.

This meeting, which is being co-hosted by the Danish Foreign Ministry, will bring together present and former policy makers from the Middle East -- including Israel and the Palestinian Authority -- the European Union as well as senior UN officials and representatives of the world media.

The keynote address will be delivered by the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Terje Roed-Larsen.  Other participants will include, among others, Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Authority’s Minister for Planning and International cooperation, Yossi Beilin, former Israeli Justice Minister, and the European Union’s Middle East Envoy, Miguel Moratinos.

Participants will discuss the issues that continue to divide Israelis and Palestinians and the role of third parties, especially the United Nations, in restoring confidence and building trust.

A press release with more information is available upstairs.

**Iraq Update

Figures released by the Office of the Iraq Programme in its weekly update show that in the week ending 5 July, Iraq exported 6.3 million barrels of oil -– which is down from the previous week’s total.

Those 6.3 million barrels netted an estimated $150 million in revenue.

Owing to a revenue shortfall, 1,074 humanitarian supply contracts, worth about $2.2 billion, while approved by the United Nations, are currently lacking in funds and cannot be further processed.  Almost all the sectors of the programme continue to be affected by this shortfall in funds to some degree.

The full text of the OIP weekly update is available upstairs.

**OIC

This morning in Vienna, the Director-General of the UN Office there, Antonio Maria Costa, delivered a message on behalf of the Secretary-General to the General Meeting of the UN and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

“The United Nations and the OIC,” the Secretary-General said in his message, “share a commitment to tolerance, equality, the peaceful resolution of conflict and the promotion of economic and social development, and we have worked closely together to foster these universal principles.”

This meeting will discuss, among other issues, refugees, the environment and education.  Delegates will also review cooperation in the political realm, in particular the Middle East and Afghanistan.

This is the eighth General Meeting of the two organizations, which is held every two years.

The full text of the Secretary-General’s message is available upstairs.

**Refugee News

High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers is in Durban, South Africa, attending the Organization of African Unity summit.  Today he called for the inclusion of refugees, returnees and host countries in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, also called NEPAD.

He is also scheduled to meet today with Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, the current president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).  Lubbers is expected to seek more support from ECOWAS in resolving the latest fighting in Liberia.  Yesterday, he met with the Foreign Minister of Sierra Leone, Momadou Koroma, seeking that country’s assistance in securing the release of five nurses abducted from a refugee camp north-west of Monrovia three weeks ago.

The UNHCR Office in Monrovia has reported an increase in the number of Sierra Leonean refugees asking for help in returning to Sierra Leone.  More than 2,000 have registered so far and are awaiting return.  UNHCR is making arrangements to transport the refugees back to Sierra Leone by sea, as the main road from Monrovia remains blocked.  The first boat trips could begin as early as next week.

**ICTY

A Bosnian Serb suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity will make his first appearance before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia tomorrow, after having being detained over the weekend by the stabilization force in Bratunac and transferred to The Hague yesterday.

The suspect, whose name is Miroslav Deronjic, stands accused of killing Bosnian Muslims in the spring of 1992, and of ordering an attack on the village of Glogovac, which was burned to the ground.  We put out a press release with more details.

**Peacekeeping Medals

This afternoon, another 682 Dag Hammarskjöld Medals will be presented to representatives of 44 Member States.  The Medals are presented posthumously to members of UN peacekeeping missions who have lost their lives.

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno, will present each representative with the Medal for their country’s first peacekeeping fatality and the rest will be transferred to the Permanent Mission following the ceremony.

We have a list of the countries available upstairs.

**Press Releases

We have a couple of press releases to highlight for you today.

The first is from the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona where the World Health Organization and the International AIDS Society today launched new international guidelines for lowering the technical barriers to the treatment of AIDS in resource-poor settings.  The new guidelines simplify the complex anti-retroviral treatment so that it can be used in situations where there are no highly trained medical staff or sophisticated laboratories.

An estimated 6 million people living with HIV/AIDS need access to equitable support and care, including anti-retrovirals, which currently fewer than 5 per cent can access.  WHO believes the new system could benefit up to 3 million people in the developing world by the year 2005, 10 times the number that now have access to the treatment.

Our second press release comes from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which is seeking $27 million to help in the rebuilding of Afghanistan’s education system.  UNESCO and the Afghan Government have compiled a series of projects to present to donors. 

We have both press releases upstairs.

So that’s all from me.  Any questions?  All right then, have a nice afternoon, thank you.

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