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

Following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good Afternoon.

**Visiting Journalists

A special welcome to our guests from Tanzania and Kazakhstan.  Is that right?  Welcome.

**Guest at Noon

I would also like to welcome to the briefing Mary Chamie, who is Chief of the Demographic and Social Statistics Branch in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and she will be here to talk about the latest census statistics from Iraq dating from 1997.

**Liberia

On Liberia, Carolyn McAskie, the UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, is traveling today on a mission to strengthen UN relief efforts in Liberia.  When security conditions allow, she will travel into Monrovia to meet with representatives of UN agencies, humanitarian NGOs and donor governments to discuss how best to respond to urgent humanitarian needs in the country.

The UN Security Coordinator’s Office has dispatched a security assessment mission to Monrovia today.

On the peacekeeping front, the Nigerian battalion, which is the vanguard West African peacekeeping force in Liberia being deployed by the UN Mission in Sierra Leone, yesterday patrolled the Monrovia city centre to an overwhelmingly warm reception from the community.

Today, the Sierra Leone Mission airlifted 120 more Nigerian soldiers to Monrovia, bringing to nearly 90 per cent the deployment of the first Nigerian battalion of some 770 troops.  In addition, two armoured personnel carriers (APCs), four land rovers, one water tanker, a truck, three tons of ammunition and rations were sent into Monrovia today.

**Liberia

Also on Liberia, the Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan today submitted an emergency report to the Commission on Human Rights on Liberia, which says that more than 250,000 persons have lost their lives in the conflict in that country since it began.  More than 1.3 million people have been uprooted from their homes.

Using the best available data from the UN system and humanitarian agencies, the report says that several hundreds more people have lost their lives, and civilians have been deliberately targeted, since fighting resumed in Monrovia on 24 June.  The report also records widespread torture, rape and the abduction of children.  We have a press release, as well as copies of the report available upstairs.

**Security Council

The Security Council this morning is holding a closed meeting, followed by consultations, to talk with the Prosecutor of the two International Tribunals, Carla Del Ponte.

In the closed meeting, Carla Del Ponte shared her experiences with the members of the Security Council, as they discussed the possibility of splitting the prosecution of those two tribunals.  She told reporters afterward that she was pleased to be given the opportunity to speak to Council members and would await their decision.

**Statement attributable to the Spokesman:  Lebanon -- Israel

The following statement concerns the Middle East, attributable to the Spokesman.

“The Secretary-General is very concerned at the exchanges of fire across the Blue Line in Southern Lebanon, initiated from Lebanese territory, which have been reported today.  The Shab’a Farms area has been quiet for some months and the Secretary-General urges the parties involved to avoid further actions which will increase the tensions in this sensitive and volatile area.”

**Latin America

The Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC) says that the economy for Latin America and the Caribbean will grow by 1.5 per cent this year, a modest recovery from the 0.6 per cent drop it faced in 2002, but per capita gross domestic product will remain flat this year, at a level that is 2 per cent below what it was in 1997.

The Commission, in its annual Economic Survey, says that for

2003, Argentina will head the growth ranking, with an increase by 5.5 per cent in economic growth, while Venezuela will post the lowest rate, of negative

13 per cent.

The survey, released yesterday in Santiago, Chile, adds that the region’s labour situation is expected to improve modestly this year, but the overall number of unemployed will reach 13.6 million people, with poor employment outlooks in Brazil and Mexico.  A press release on the racks has more details.

**UNICEF/WFP

The World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) signed a new agreement yesterday to strengthen their cooperation in reducing child malnutrition in Latin American and the Caribbean.

The two agencies -- who have a long history of working together to help children throughout the region -- will strengthen their joint response to emergencies, provide nutritional support for young children and their mothers, monitor and assess progress, and improve the livelihoods of the poorest families, particularly in countries where the challenge is the greatest.  There is a press release on that.

**Indigenous

Tomorrow is the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, and the Secretary-General, in a message available upstairs, says that the human family is a tapestry of enormous beauty and diversity, and the world’s indigenous peoples are a rich and integral part of that tapestry.  The protection and promotion of their rights and cultures, he says, is of fundamental importance to all States and all peoples.

**Colombia -- Humanitarian

On the same subject, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees today says it is deeply concerned about the effect that Colombia's internal strife is having on the country's indigenous people.  UNHCR is urging all parties concerned to respect the rights of indigenous people and to stop discriminating against them.

**Sudan floods

UN agencies and their non-governmental organization (NGO) partners are responding to needs created by heavy flooding in north-western Sudan.  Floodwaters from the River Gash have swept through the town of Kassala in north-western Sudan, some 280 kilometres north-west of the capital, Khartoum, and left two thirds of its 500,000 inhabitants homeless.

SG’s Holidays

It’s August and it’s holiday time.  And so, beginning this weekend, the Secretary-General will begin taking three weeks of annual leave.  I’m sure you will join me in wishing him a peaceful and a restful break.

**The Week Ahead at the United Nations

And we have the Week Ahead to help you cover the United Nations during the course of next week, and I’ll take any questions you have before we go to Mary Chamie.

Okay, Mary, over to you.  What do you have for us in the way of statistics?

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