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 Hua Jiang, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good Afternoon.

**Statement attributable to the Spokesman

The following is a statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on the departure of President Taylor.

“The Secretary-General welcomes the decision of President Charles Taylor to resign office, and expects that he will immediately leave Liberia, as he had promised to do.  The Secretary-General hopes that this development may at last mark the beginning of the end of the long nightmare of the Liberian people; and, with that in mind, he strongly urges all parties in Liberia to observe the ceasefire, and to allow humanitarian assistance to reach the population in all parts of the country.

“He also urges all Member States to give whatever assistance they can to the Liberian people in restoring security and stability, notably by supporting and contributing to the multinational force authorized by the Security Council.

“The Secretary-General notes the progress achieved by the Liberian parties in the negotiations in Accra, and believes that all of them should now make every effort to reach agreement quickly on a process leading to a transitional government which can bring about national reconciliation, and in due course enable the Liberian people to choose a fully representative leadership through free and fair elections.

“He wishes to express his appreciation for the efforts made by African leaders –- notably Presidents Chissano, Kufuor, Mbeki and Obasanjo -– to resolve the crisis.  He particularly thanks President Obasanjo for the timely deployment of Nigerian peacekeeping troops, and the former Nigerian head of State, General Abubakar, for his able facilitation of the Accra talks.  He hopes that the regional leaders will remain closely engaged, and will do whatever they can to maintain stability and help Liberians reach a peaceful resolution of their differences.”

And we have copies available upstairs.

**Liberia

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Liberia, Jacques Klein, is expected to leave tomorrow for the region, where he will meet with regional leaders and other concerned States, as well as UN and other organizations.  Klein says the immediate challenge is to respond to the dire humanitarian consequences of the war.

If security conditions permit, a humanitarian team led by Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Carolyn McAskie is expected to go into Monrovia tomorrow.  An advance humanitarian team is at the Monrovia airport today preparing for the return of the UN Country Team.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that a humanitarian team was able to visit a site for some 17,000 internally displaced persons and that the camps lack clean water supplies, shelter and cooking materials.  Diarrheal diseases are prevalent and there are concerns that mosquito borne disease could also spread quickly.

The airlift by the UN Mission in Sierra Leone from Freetown to Monrovia continues.  Six tons of ammunition, one armoured personnel carrier, one truck and one landrover were flown in today.  No soldiers were airlifted today, because the priority now is to send in supplies and equipment.

**Israel-Lebanon

We put out a statement yesterday, saying that the Secretary-General strongly condemned the shelling of anti-aircraft missiles by Hezbollah into Israel that cost the life of a 16-year-old Israeli and wounded four other civilians in the town of Shlomi.  This represents a serious violation of the “Blue Line” and of the Security Council’s resolutions. 

The Secretary-General extended his sincere condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims.  He is deeply concerned by the current escalation in the area and calls upon all parties involved to fully respect the Blue Line.  He urges all governments that have influence on Hezbollah to deter it from any further actions which could increase the tension in the area.  Meanwhile, he calls upon the Government of Israel to exercise utmost restraint.  We have copies of that statement upstairs.

Today, the Secretary-General’s Personal Representative for Southern Lebanon, Staffan de Mistura, met with Lebanese Foreign Minister Jean Obeid to discuss the serious situation along the Blue Line.  He told reporters afterwards that the United Nations was appealing to all sides to stop a potential escalation, both in anti-aircraft fire from Lebanon and in overflights from Israel.

He noted that both activities are wrong, but added that “they are not equivalent”, since the anti-aircraft fire from Lebanon yesterday resulted in the first civilian victim since Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon three years ago.  We have a press release on his comments upstairs.

**Iraq –- Vieira de Mello

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, returned last night to Baghdad after a two-day visit to Egypt, where he met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.

On Saturday, Vieira de Mello and Maher discussed the UN role in Iraq, the importance of ensuring close links between Iraq and its neighbours and ways in which the region can assist the Iraqi people in their quest for the full restoration of their sovereignty and the rebuilding of their country.

On Sunday, the Special Representative and the Arab League Secretary-General exchanged views on the Iraqi Governing Council.

We have upstairs the transcript of a press conference that Vieira de Mello held Saturday while in Cairo, in which he told the press that he was explaining the role of the Governing Council and why it deserves to be given a chance by Arab nations.

He said that, whatever happens in Iraq, there is a need to organize free, fair and truly democratic elections there sometime in 2004.  He noted that the United Nations already has an electoral team in Iraq, which will soon begin to help the Iraqis prepare for the elections.

**Iraq -- Sevan

Yesterday in the northern Iraqi town of Erbil, Benon Sevan, the Executive Director of the Office of the Iraq Programme, told a group of journalists that, despite the difficulties it had faced, the “oil-for-food” program has been the largest humanitarian program in the history of the United Nations and added that he was proud of what it had achieved.

Asked about the allegations of mismanagement and corruption, he said that, after almost 100 audit reports, both internal and external, nobody has ever been able to prove any misappropriation of funds administered by the United Nations.  Sevan is meeting with the local authorities in northern Iraq, after which he will travel to Baghdad.

**Afghanistan

The UN Mission in Afghanistan said that it had suspended all missions to two border districts in southern Afghanistan following a series of attacks there last week on humanitarian workers and Afghan soldiers.

The areas concerned are in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.  There are also currently no missions to Uruzgan and Zabul or to northern Helmand, except to Lashkar Gah or northern Kandahar. 

Last Tuesday, 10 Afghan staff of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Coordination Humanitarian Assistance were severely beaten by armed men.  On Thursday, 40 suspected terrorists attacked the district commissioner’s office in Dishu district of Helmand, killing six Afghan soldiers and one Afghan staff member of the NGO Mercy Corps who were sleeping there.

We have in the Spokesman’s office copies of the briefing notes from Kabul.

**Security Council

The Security Council has scheduled no consultations or meetings today.

The exchange of letters between the Secretary-General and the Security Council President on the appointment of Alvaro de Soto as the Special Representative for Western Sahara is out today.

**Congo

Yesterday, 250 soldiers from Bangladesh arrived in Bunia in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to expand the contingent of the UN mission there, which must replace the multinational deployed forces on the first of September of this year.

With the arrival of the new troops, the UN Mission, whose mandate recently was extended by the Security Council, currently counts about 730 Bangladeshis in the field.

Today, Special Representative of the Secretary-General William Swing will meet Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala to discuss the situation in the Ituri Region.

**Sudan

Today in Khartoum, UN humanitarian agencies and their NGO partners launched an $8.6 million appeal for humanitarian assistance to Sudan.  The appeal is intended to meet the needs of some 100,000 people in Sudan’s Kassala state and other areas of Sudan affected by severe flooding.

Excessive rainfall in the Eritrean highlands along with localized rains in Kassala state caused the River Gash to burst its banks on 29 July, flooding both the eastern and western parts of Kassala city.

A detailed flood damage assessment was conducted in the area last week, which confirmed 13 deaths and 56 injuries because of the flooding, as well as the total destruction of an estimated 7,515 houses and partial destruction of an additional 6,000 houses.

**Corruption

Major breakthroughs were achieved during the sixth session of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Negotiation of a Convention against Corruption, held in Vienna through last Saturday, including an agreement on the recovery of assets resulting from corruption and on a broad scope of preventive measures.

The Ad Hoc Committee, negotiating the treaty, worked until 4 a.m. on Saturday, before running out of time.  It then decided to meet again on 22 September, in order to settle several elements of the draft that still need to be elaborated before the Convention is submitted to the General Assembly for final approval.  We have more details in a press release from Vienna.

**AIDS

In a statement issued today, Peter Piot, the Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) welcomed the recent decision of the South African Government to provide antiretroviral treatment on a national scale to people living with HIV in the country.  He said the new policy will bring hope for millions of people living with HIV and their families.

In a press release, which we have upstairs, UNAIDS says that South Africa's response to AIDS now enters a critical new phase -- one that is characterized by strong political commitment, a dynamic grass roots movement, more funding, and a scaling up of prevention and treatment programmes.

The United Nations system stands ready to provide support to the South African Government as it develops and implements this initiative.

And that’s all I have got for you.  Any questions?  Yes, please?

Questions and Answers

Question:  Is there any follow up today to the Secretary-General’s statement on Israel?

Deputy Spokesman:  Apart from what…

Question:  …either by the Secretary-General or the mission there, phone calls, communications?

Deputy Spokesman:  Yes.  The last phone call the Secretary-General made to the region was on Saturday.  He called the King or Jordan, discussing Middle East related issues.  And in terms of statements, the latest one was the one we issued yesterday, which I have read to you just now.  Yes, please?

Question:  Is there a precedent of a Secretary-General of the United Nations asking the head of State of a country, no matter how unpopular he is, to leave his country?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, the Secretary-General, as I have said, in his statement, expects that Taylor would leave the country as he has promised to do.  This initiative doesn’t come from the Secretary-General himself.  Mr. Taylor promised the international community that he would leave the country in order to pave the way for a new development; for the ceasefire, for the national reconciliation process.  So, what the Secretary-General expects (Mr. Taylor) to do is what Mr. Taylor has promised to do to the international community.  Yes, please?

Question:  Regarding Mr. Swing in the Congo, he is a former US Ambassador there who used to make a lot of statements against Uganda and Rwanda and there is some indication that he is having a hidden agenda.  He himself, in his statements, said that there is no hidden agenda.  Can you give us some idea of why this accusation is being leveled against him?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, Mr. Swing has a very rich experience working in the region, in Africa.  That’s one of the main reasons that the Secretary-General has made him the Special Representative to the DRC.  And once he has started working for the UN, he will have the UN agenda in mind, nothing else.  Yes, please?

Question:  I still recall that the rebels in Liberia do not wish to see the Vice President take over after Taylor leaves.  Is the Secretary-General concerned about that?

Deputy Spokesman:  I think the Secretary-General says very clearly that once Mr. Taylor leaves the country, he hopes that all the fighting parties in the country would observe the ceasefire and would especially allow humanitarian assistance to reach the population in all parts of the country.  So, he is very much concerned with the humanitarian situation in that country and he also notes that progress has been made in the negotiation in Accra, Ghana.  So, let’s wait and see the result of that negotiation.  I have also said that his Special Representative Jacques Klein is going to the region, so hopefully, once he is in the region, he will have a better sense of what’s going on and we’ll see from there.

Thank you, have a very good afternoon.

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