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 Stéphane Dujarric, Associate Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Good afternoon.

**Sudan Update

Starting with Sudan, in Khartoum today, Jan Pronk, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, and his Deputy, Manuel Aranda Da Silva, held a press conference prior to tomorrow’s departure of the Joint Implementation Mechanism verification mission to Darfur.

Mr. Pronk indicated the positive political steps being taken by the Government of Sudan, but reiterated his concern regarding the situation on the ground in Darfur, particularly in terms of security for the internally displaced persons (IDPs).  He spoke of the need for a political solution to the Darfur crisis to be pursued by the Government and the rebel movements, as well as the need for the Government to achieve a substantial and verifiable improvement of the security situation in the selected areas.

His Deputy, Mr. Aranda da Silva, briefed the media on the revised UN Appeal for the Sudan for the remainder of 2004, which was officially issued today simultaneously in Khartoum and Geneva.  He indicated that a total of $434 million is still required to respond to the Sudan's most urgent humanitarian needs through the end of the year.  We have more information on that upstairs.

Yesterday, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Tuliameni Kalomoh, briefed the Security Council in closed consultations on the situation in Darfur.  Following the consultations, Council members issued a press statement in which they expressed strong support for the leading role of the African Union in addressing the humanitarian crisis.  They also welcomed the resumption of the talks taking place in Abuja, and urged all parties to work together to end the violence and resolve the issues that would relieve the ongoing humanitarian suffering in Darfur.  Members also expressed appreciation for the work of Special Representative Pronk and said they looked forward to his briefing the Council on 2 September.

**UN Iraq Envoy Ends First Country Visit

Turning to Iraq, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, left that country today, ending his first visit to Iraq.  He is going to meet with officials from UN agencies in Geneva, before going to New York to meet senior UN officials here early next month.  Deputy Special RepresentativeRossMountain will take over as the senior UN official in Iraq until Mr. Qazi returns.

**Secretary-General Appoints New Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Secretary-General is pleased to announce the appointment today of Ms. Mehr Khan Williams as the new Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

Ms. Khan Williams has worked for the United Nations since 1976.  She has held senior management positions in New York, Florence and Bangkok with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and has also served as Acting Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Sydney.  She currently serves as a Special Advisor to Carole Bellamy, the head of UNICEF.

In addition to those senior management positions with the UN, Ms. Khan Williams has written extensively on development and human rights issues for the international media outlets.  Ms. Khan Williams was born in India in 1945 and is a national of Pakistan and her full biography is available upstairs. 

**Security Council

Turning to the Security Council’s work for today, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Jean Arnault, this morning briefed Council members in an open meeting on the preparations for that country’s October election.  He said that the overall results of voter registration was good, with 10.5 million Afghans registered, but added that there remained imbalances in some areas in southern Afghanistan, which has been most affected by insecurity.

Mr. Arnault said that the United Nations is reasonably confident that groups like the Taliban will not be able to undermine the electoral process at the national level, but is concerned that violence could cause some Afghans to stay away from polling sites in the south and elsewhere.  He stated his belief that an election that meets popular expectations is within reach.  We have copies of his statement upstairs.

Mr. Arnault began his presentation to the Council by expressing his condolences for the people who died when two Russian airplanes went down after departing Moscow last night.

This afternoon, Council members will hold closed consultations on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).  They will receive a briefing from Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean Marie Guéhenno on the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC).

**Haiti Update

On Haiti, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government of Haiti have signed an agreement with the Organization of American States (OAS) to help reinforce the democratic process in that country.  The UNDP says the agreement -- which pledges presidential, parliamentary and local elections -- was signed yesterday and the funds will go into a trust fund set up by the UN to finance the elections.  Already, $9 million in U.S. aid has been made available to help cover costs.  The aid will be spent on training elections personnel, creating a new voter registration system and setting up an electronic voting system.

Also on Haiti, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that the humanitarian situation in the country remains “complex, structural and multidimensional”.  It adds that the country isn’t prepared to adequately respond to natural disasters because of reasons which include chronic poverty and environmental degradation.

The OCHA recently coordinated a rapid assessment to the north-west following reports that the current harvest, due in September, could fail in some areas.  The OCHA team noted that coping mechanisms were exhausted and that rural populations and other vulnerable groups had already seen their meagre reserves reduced.

In addition, the OCHA says that the World Food Programme (WFP) has received less than half of its required $7.9 million -- which means that any disaster during the current cyclonic period could exhaust the current scarce resources.

**Liberia

From Liberia, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reports that Liberian refugees who have begun to return home are facing difficulties, given the destruction, lack of opportunity and insecurity in parts of the country.  The UNHCR Representative in Liberia says that the majority of returning Liberians “are ending up in a camp situation in their own country, as conditions are still not conducive for a return in safety and dignity”.

Also on Liberia, we have upstairs a press release from the UN Panel of Experts for Liberia, which is currently conducting its first monitoring and assessment visits to parts of the country.  That visit is to conclude on Friday, and panel members will return to Liberia from early September until early November, and will submit the final panel report to the Security Council this December.

And that’s it from me.  Are there any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  In Mr. Arnault’s briefing to the Security Council, he mentions that 10.5 million people had been registered to vote in Afghanistan, but he doesn’t say what percentage of the overall eligible voting population that figure represents.  Is there any way we can get some more information?

Associate Spokesman:  I’ll get you those full figures.

[Shortly after the Briefing, the Spokesman’s Office announced that the 10.5 million registered voters in Afghanistan represented 90 per cent of the country’s eligible voting population.]

Question:  The UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) has given its analysis of what African Union troops could do in Darfur.  This analysis is said to be part of what (Nigerian President Olusegun) Obasanjo is following at the talks under way in Abuja.  Can we get some more details on this?

Associate Spokesman:  Sure. I will try to get you some more information on that.

Question:  Mr. Arnault indicated that a few of the measures aimed at improving security for UN staff in Afghanistan would require “modest cost”.  Is the UN very concerned about the security of the staff there?  Is the Organization taking maximum effort to prevent any violence against its staff?

Associate Spokesman:  The UN is always concerned about the security of its staff.  For Afghanistan, the security situation varies from province to province.  So the issues are being looked daily at the provincial level and upgrades are being made on the management level along with effective redeployment of resources on the ground.  This is an issue we are examining carefully and we will continue to follow it closely.

Question:  Will it be possible for (the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Ashraf Jehangir) Qazi to talk to us when he gets back to New York?

Associate Spokesman:  Yes.  In fact, for once, we’re somewhat ahead of you.  We have put in a request to his Office to see if he can come to the noon briefing at some point while he is in New York, and we are actively pursuing that request for you. 

Thank you very much.

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