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.

**Liberia

UN humanitarian agencies continued to scale up their operations in the war-ravaged Liberian capital.

Severe food, water, and health-care shortages still beset the city’s roughly 450,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), as well as the communities who host them.  All UN offices in Monrovia are currently occupied by IDPs seeking shelter.  UN agencies and their non-governmental organization partners are able to deliver potable water to all of the IDP sites that are accessible.

UN agencies also conducted assessments of humanitarian needs, as another flight carrying humanitarian personnel and supplies arrived at Roberts Airport today.  All heads of UN humanitarian agencies for Liberia are now in the country.  Humanitarian agencies expect that a World Food Programme ship laden with emergency food supplies will be able to dock in Monrovia on Friday.

UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Carolyn McAskie, met with the Force Commander of the Peacekeeping contingent of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Liberia.  She stressed the need for security for IDP camps and people travelling the 40-kilometre stretch of road between Monrovia and Robertsfield Airport.

Meanwhile, outside Monrovia, there were reports of new displacement from around Buchanan, the scene of fighting between Government and Movement for a Democratic Liberia (MODEL) rebels.  Humanitarian agencies continue to be unable to access more than two thirds of Liberian territory.  The airlift of equipment for the peacekeeping force on the ground from Freetown by the UN Mission in Sierra Leone continued today with three Landrovers, one crane and two trucks being sent to Monrovia.

**Côte d’Ivoire

The Secretary-General’s report to the Security Council on Côte d'Ivoire is out on the racks today.  In it, the Secretary-General notes encouraging progress in the six months since the signing of the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement.

He, however, says, “The road ahead is long, and the peace process is fraught with pitfalls and contradictions that have to be surmounted.”  He goes on to say that “the Government has taken significant steps towards implementing the Marcoussis Agreement, but all parties have yet to demonstrate their full commitment to the Agreement”.

He notes that the presence of the French Licorne and ECOWAS forces remains indispensable if the prevailing stability is to be sustained, but expresses deep concern about the financial difficulties that the ECOWAS forces continue to face and appeals to Member States to urgently provide the requisite financial assistance.

The Secretary-General also expresses his concern about armed Liberian elements reportedly operating in western Côte d’Ivoire, saying that these elements constitute an immediate and a long-term threat to the efforts to stabilize both Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia.  He says he feels greatly encouraged about the ongoing efforts of ECOWAS and the Security Council to resolve the conflict in Liberia, which has been the primary source of instability in the subregion.  The Security Council is scheduled to take up the report on 20 August.

**Security Council

The Security Council, in an open meeting this morning, unanimously adopted Resolution 1499, extending the mandate of the Expert Panel on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo until 31 October 2003.

The Council then went into consultations on Afghanistan.  The Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Lakhdar Brahimi, updated the Council on the constitutional process and elections preparations.  Brahimi will speak to the press at the Council stakeout at the end of consultations on Afghanistan.

The Council will also receive a briefing, under other matters, by Hedi Annabi, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, on the incident over the weekend on the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon.

**Kosovo

The UN Mission in Kosovo informed us that, early this afternoon in the village of Gorazdevac in the Pec region, a group of Kosovo Serb teenagers who were swimming in a river were fired upon by unknown suspects.  At this time, the Mission has received confirmation that two teenagers are dead and four others injured.

In addition, a Kosovo Albanian female was wounded, apparently by a group of Kosovo Serbs, after the shooting incident.  Efforts are being made to treat the injured teenagers at Pec or to airlift them to Mitrovica Hospital.  A massive search for the shooters is now under way.

**Iraq

Today in Baghdad, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, gave a press briefing and expressed his hopes that the Governing Council will appoint members to tour the region and hold a dialogue with the Arab League and its members, and that it also appoint interim ministers soon.  As soon as those ministers are appointed, he said, the United Nations will be in a better position to provide assistance to Iraqi ministries.

In response to a question about Security Council activity, Vieira de Mello said he understood that a resolution was possible that would mention the establishment of the Governing Council and authorize the Secretary-General to establish an integrated UN assistance mission in Iraq.  He said such a resolution might be adopted in the coming days, although, he added, “You know the Security Council is its own master.”  We have the transcript of that press briefing upstairs.

**Middle East

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has issued a special report on the barrier being constructed by Israel in parts of the West Bank, based on field visits to examine the effects of the barrier on the livelihoods of local residents, with special emphasis on registered refugees, in the districts of Tulkarem, Qalqilya and Jenin, where sections of the fence have already been built.

The report examines the impact that the barrier’s construction has had on restricting the freedom of movement of refugees living in those areas, and it says that the barrier will seal the end of Palestinian migrant labour in Israel, while also isolating affected communities from each other, compounding acute unemployment and poverty levels.

Although refugees will not necessarily suffer more than the general population from the effects of the barrier, the resultant decline in living standards will increase humanitarian needs and inevitably add to the Agency’s caseload.  The report is available on the Agency’s Web site.

**Secretary-General’s Visit to Finland

The Secretary-General will meet with the President of Finland, Tarja Halonen, on Friday, 15 August, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., local time, at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki.  Following that meeting, the Secretary-General will participate in a press conference from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.  The Spokesman’s Office will try to provide a transcript of that press conference as soon as it is available.

**WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) today published a report on a WHO International Expert Panel for the termination of the use of antibiotic growth promoters in animal food production, particularly with reference to swine and broiler chicken.

The report supported WHO’s earlier recommendations that nations should phase out the widespread use of antibiotic growth promoters in animal food production, saying that the move will help preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics for medicine.  This report is available online on WHO’s Web site.

**Human Rights

The UN Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights just adopted unanimously a resolution on the responsibilities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises with regard to human rights.  The resolution requests that governments and other parties provide information to a working group of the Sub-commission that deals with transnational corporations, concerning the possible negative impact of the activities of such corporations and other business enterprises on human rights.

That’s all I have got for you.  I guess we’re not going to get any questions?  So, have a very good afternoon then.

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