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 Marie Okabe, Associate Spokesperson for Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Good afternoon.

**Guest at Noon

We have as a guest today, Ambassador Luis Gallegos of Ecuador, the Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Convention to promote the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities.  He will brief you on the outcome of the Committee’s fourth session, which ends today, and at which much progress has been made.  Don MacKay, Ambassador of New Zealand and the Committee Coordinator, may also be joining us for the briefing, if he is finished in time.

**Statement on Russian Hostage Situation

I have a statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

“The Secretary-General has been following closely the tragic developments regarding the situation of the hostages in Beslan, Russian Federation.  He was horrified to learn that a large number of children and others have lost their lives or were injured during the last few hours.  The Secretary-General reiterates his condemnation of all terrorist acts.”

**UNICEF Statement

We also have a statement from Carol Bellamy, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director.

“The Beslan siege represents a new and discouraging low –- children used as hostages and denied food and water for three terrifying days, she says.  It is unacceptable, incomprehensible, senseless.  And the tragedy is that this episode is just the latest in a rising tide of violence aimed at children.  It is time to take stock, to take a long hard look at our world and how it is treating children.”

We have the complete statement of Carol Bellamy upstairs in the Spokesman’s Office.

**Sudan

Turning to Sudan:  The Sudanese parties to the Abuja political talks have started discussions on security issues -– that’s the second main item on the agenda of the current round of those talks.

Discussions are still at the preliminary stage.  The African Union mediation is trying to assist the parties to focus the discussions on substantive issues.  It invited the parties to submit written proposals.

As for the humanitarian protocol, on which the parties agreed yesterday, its signature is still pending.  The two rebel groups insisted that they will sign the protocol only after discussions on security conclude.

**Sudan-Humanitarian

On the humanitarian side, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports that displaced persons and returnees from Chad in three villages in Darfur have told UNHCR workers they are afraid to go more than a few kilometres outside of the settlements because of continuing insecurity.  While they indicated that there has been a slight improvement, they reported ongoing incidents such as livestock theft, physical assault, rape, killings and attacks on villages by the Janjaweed militia.

Some of the community leaders reported that, because of the continued incidents, even those who have recently returned from Chad are considering fleeing again across the border.  You can read more about this in the briefing notes from UNHCR today.

**Security Council

Here, at the Security Council, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hedi Annabi, briefed the Security Council in closed consultations on Ituri, in the north-eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  As you’ll recall, a report recording human rights abuses which occurred in Ituri from January 2002 to December 2003, was released last month.

The Council also has Burundi on its agenda.  Hedi Annabi is briefing Council members on the preliminary findings of a human rights investigation into last month’s attack in Gatumba, Burundi.

**Security Council-Lebanon

And then yesterday evening, the Security Council adopted resolution 1559, which underlines the importance of free and fair elections according to Lebanese constitutional rules.  The text, which was adopted with 9 votes in favour and 6 abstentions, also calls for all remaining foreign troops to leave Lebanon.

**International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has dispatched a team of inspectors to the Republic of Korea to investigate all relevant aspects of its declaration to the IAEA that it had enriched nuclear material.

On August 23, the Republic of Korea informed the IAEA that it had enriched nuclear material in experiments that had not been declared to the Agency.  The Republic of Korea informed the IAEA that these experiments had been on a laboratory scale and involved the production of only milligram quantities of enriched uranium.  It added that these activities were carried out without the Government’s knowledge at a nuclear site in Korea in 2000, and that the activities had been terminated.

The IAEA inspectors will report to Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei upon their return to Vienna early next week.  The Director-General will inform the Board of Governors of the IAEA’s initial findings at the next meeting of the Board, which begins on 13 September.

We have a press release with more information on that.

**Western Sahara

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Western Sahara, Alvaro de Soto, will be received by H.M. King Mohammed VI and senior Moroccan officials on 6-7 September 2004.  He will be received by the leadership of the Frente POLISARIO on 12 September 2004.  He is in contact with the Governments of Algeria and Mauritania regarding visits to Algiers and Nouakchott soon thereafter.

This will be Mr. de Soto’s first round of consultations with the parties and neighbouring countries since the enlargement of his responsibilities following the resignation of James Baker III, last June, as the Secretary-General’s personal envoy.

The Secretary-General is due to report to the Council in October 2004.  The mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, known as MINURSO, expires at the end of that month.

**Statement on Malaysia

I was just given a statement on Malaysia.

“The Secretary-General warmly welcomes the decision of the Malaysian Federal Court to release Mr. Anwar Ibrahim, former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, from jail.  He hopes that Mr. Anwar will recover his health soon by receiving long-awaited medical treatment.”

**Northern Uganda

Turning back to issues in Africa:  On northern Uganda, speaking to reporters upon his return from northern Uganda, where he visited camps housing internally displaced persons, the Director of the United Nations Internal Displacement Division, Dennis McNamara, expressed concern over “this neglected long term humanitarian crisis”.

With 1.6 million displaced people spread over dozens of locations, McNamara noted in a press encounter in Nairobi that this represented a number larger than Darfur and that the camps in northern Uganda are “as desperate looking as in Darfur”.

Roads and bridges are collapsing under food convoys, and the situation for women and children is particularly alarming, he said.

According to McNamara, “the United Nations needs to strengthen its role, its presence and its capacity but unless we are properly funded, we won’t be there to do what we should do”.

Despite some political progress, he also underlined that there was “no effective civilian management” of these camps in northern Uganda and that only the military exerted control over the region.  “There is no functioning of the rule of law”, he told reporters in Nairobi.

**WHO-Bird Flu

The World Health Organization (WHO) is investigating reports that avian influenza, or bird flu, has now jumped the species barrier to infect cats.  WHO will specifically be looking to see if infected cats play any role in the human disease.

The comments were made at a press briefing in Geneva today, and follow a report published today in Science magazine which claimed that cats could be infected.  This is an extraordinary finding because it was thought cats couldn’t be infected with bird flu.  The report follows the recent confirmation that bird flu had infected pigs in China.  The disease killed 23 people in Asia this year, and led to the death or culling of millions of birds.

**OCHA-Swaziland

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that a UNICEF study has found that up to 60 per cent of infants in Swaziland are likely to incur brain damage due to vitamin deficiencies.  Specifically, deficiencies in vitamin A can lead to problems such as stunted growth and greater susceptibility to infection.  We have a press release with more on that.

**UNICEF-China Vitamins

And also on the subject of vitamins:  UNICEF says China has made extraordinary progress in reducing the damage caused by vitamin and mineral deficiency, but needs to do more to help the 250 million people still suffering from the effects of vitamin deficiencies.  There’s a release of a report on that topic.

**Millennium Report

The Secretary-General’s annual report on implementation of the Millennium Declaration will be released this coming Tuesday morning.  The Department of Public Information will issue two press releases on the report, highlighting the swelling demand for United Nations peacekeeping missions, as well as progress on the Millennium Development Goals.

The Secretary-General’s report, the press releases and DPI background materials will be under embargo until 12 noonNew York time on Tuesday.  The materials will be available, as I said, on Tuesday morning.

**Week Ahead

We have for you upstairs the Week Ahead at the United Nations to help your planning for next week.

And as you know, Monday is a US holiday, and the UN Headquarters in New York will be closed.

And that’s all I have for you.  If there are no questions, I hope everybody has a great three-day weekend.

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