DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY 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.

**Secretary-General in Mexico

Efforts to make Latin America’s societies more democratic will also help to make them more developed and more stable.  That was the message that the Secretary-General gave to participants in the “International Seminar on Democracy, Politics and the State”, which opened in Mexico City this morning.

In his statement, the Secretary-General said Latin Americans were steadily building their democracies, but democracy had still not responded to the aspirations of the region’s poor.  Citizens, he said, have to feel confident that their vote will translate into improvements in their daily lives.

We have copies of that speech upstairs.

Following the opening of the Seminar, the Secretary-General is meeting with the press, before going on to meet members of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.

Last night, upon his arrival in Mexico City, the Secretary-General met President Vicente Fox and Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez at Los Pinos Presidential Palace.  Among the issues they discussed were Mexico’s contribution to multilateralism, its role in training Iraqi electoral commissioners and its support of the peace process in Colombia.

They also discussed the Eminent Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, the state of democracy in Latin America and the fight against poverty and HIV/AIDS.

**Security Council

This morning, the Security Council is meeting in closed consultations -- in fact, I understand they just concluded those consultations, where they heard from Demetrius Pericos, the Acting Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq, better known as UNMOVIC.

Pericos presented to Council members its eighteenth quarterly report.  Over the last quarter, UNMOVIC teams have continued to investigate the discovery of Iraqi weapons-related items found in scrapyards in Jordan, Turkey and the Netherlands.  A significant number of items related to Iraqi SA-2 missiles were found in Jordan.

UNMOVIC staff also continues to work on the compendium of the previous Iraqi regime’s chemical and biological munitions programme.  A summary of this compendium was released as part of this latest UNMOVIC report.

We’ve just learned that the Security Council has scheduled consultations on Sudan for tomorrow afternoon.

**Security Council -- Tuesday

Yesterday afternoon, the Council held consultations in which France circulated a draft resolution concerning the expansion of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

That move came after the Secretary-General, in a letter to the President of the Security Council, said he was extremely concerned at the volatile security environment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and warned that the possibility of further deterioration cannot be ruled out, given the speed with which events are unfolding.

In the letter, which is out on the racks today, he proposed that the Council take an urgent decision to deploy emergency reinforcements to the United Nations Mission.  Such reinforcements would consist of two additional infantry battalions and four attack helicopters.

Council discussions on the draft resolution responding to that request are continuing at the expert level.

**Sudan

The African Union mediation, together with the United Nations and other partners, prepared a revised draft protocol on security issues and presented it to the parties to the political talks on the Darfur crisis taking place in Abuja, Nigeria.

The mediation is meeting separately with the parties to introduce to them the new text.

The mediation is hoping to convene a plenary meeting with the parties in order to move forward towards what could be a viable text for all concerned.

The weekly briefing notes from our mission in Khartoum also contain an update on the African Union monitoring activities.

The notes also provide an update on humanitarian operations in Darfur, including missions to follow up on reports of large numbers of internally displaced persons due to recent insecurities.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a measles vaccination campaign in rebel-controlled territory in north Darfur as part of an effort to reach some 500,000 children who could not be vaccinated during previous campaign in July.

And the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reports that it is in the process of finalizing a countrywide data collection on Fistula, one of the most devastating pregnancy related complications in Sudan.  UNFPA preliminary estimates show that around 40 per cent of the reported cases come from Darfur.

**UNRWA

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, known as UNRWA, today handed over 103 new homes to families from Rafah refugee camp.

Their homes had been destroyed by the Israeli military during the ongoing Intifada.  The Agency has also opened a new school to serve these families.

Today’s official ceremony could not take place due to Israeli closures within the Gaza Strip, which prevented UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, Peter Hansen, from reaching Rafah.

This project, which cost $2.6 million, was funded by donations from Norway, Italy, and the United States.

We have more information in a press release upstairs.

**Guinea-Bissau

Out on the racks today is an exchange of letters between the Secretary-General and the Security Council regarding the appointment of a new Representative in Guinea-Bissau.

The new senior official in Guinea-Bissau is João Bernardo Honwana of Mozambique, former Chief of the Conventional Arms Branch in the Department of Disarmament Affairs.  He succeeds David Stephen, who retired in April.

A brief bio note of the new Representative is available in my office.

**Côte d’Ivoire

The Secretary-General has named Abdoulaye Mar Dieye of Senegal as his Deputy Special Representative for Côte d’Ivoire.  Mr. Mar Dieye will work under Special Representative Albert Tevoedjre and will be in charge of humanitarian affairs and development, as well as the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programme in the country.

We have a press release, in French, with more details, including biographical information on Mr. Mar Dieye.

**Hurricane Ivan

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is monitoring the progress of hurricane Ivan, the latest storm to threaten the Caribbean and parts of the United States.

A five-person United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination team is being pre-positioned in Jamaica, which is on the storm’s path.

In Haiti, which is also expected to be in Ivan’s path, the World Health Organization and the Pan-American Health Organization have placed four emergency kits in the southern part of the country.  Each of those kits covers basic medical needs for 10,000 people.

**DPKO Heads of Military Conference

The United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations is hosting a conference for the heads of the military components of peacekeeping missions.  

The aim of the three-day conference is to review the latest developments in peacekeeping, and sixteen senior military officers -- including several force commanders -- are attending, from a wide range of missions.

We have upstairs a list of those attending, and there may be an opportunity for those of you who are interested in speaking with some of them.  Please get in touch with Ari Gaitanis of my office if you have interest in that.

**WHO -- Suicide

Suicide is a huge but largely preventable public health problem.  It causes almost half of all violent deaths and results in almost one million fatalities every year, as well as economic costs in the billions of dollars.

With that in mind, WHO is calling for more attention on the issue and global action, ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day this Friday.

WHO says there’s an urgent need for coordinated and intensified global action to prevent suicides, adding that it’s estimated that fatalities could rise to 1.5 million by the year 2020.

We have more on this in a WHO press release in my office.

**Literacy Day

Today, 8 September, is International Literacy Day.  The theme of this year’s commemorations is “gender and literacy”.  In this second year of the United Nations Literacy Decade, more than 500 million women make up the majority of adult illiterates around the world, while girls constitute the majority of children who are not in school.

In a message that is out today, the Secretary-General says that there is no time to lose if we are to translate into reality the Millennium Development Goal of increasing the world’s literacy rate by 50 per cent by the year 2015.

“The cost of building a literate society is relatively low”, he says, “compared with the cost of failure, in terms of prosperity, health, security and justice”.

**Special Representative of Secretary-General for Iraq

A programming note:  Yesterday we had told you that the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, would be our guest at the Noon Briefing tomorrow.  Unfortunately, that will not happen.

Instead, Mr. Qazi will speak to the press, most likely at the Security Council stakeout, following his briefing to Council members on Tuesday, 14 September.

**United Nations Postal Administration Profits

Finally, on financial matters:  The United Nations Postal Administration has posted a net profit of $706,434 for the first six months of this year -- and it expects to maintain or improve on this in the future as more new products are introduced.

This is a big turn-around for the UNPA when you consider that it had been incurring losses from 1994, reaching $3.46 million over the two-year budget period, 2000-2001.

On top of that, at the last session of the General Assembly, one delegate had proposed that the Postal Administration be closed down.

The proposal was defeated following assurances from the Postal Administration and the Department of Management that UNPA could be restructured into profitability.

It did this by lowering operational costs and introducing new marketing initiatives, such as the personalized stamp facility which some of you may have seen in the visitor’s lobby.

Some on that positive note, I’ll take your questions.  Yes, Laura.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Does the Secretary-General have anything to say about the two Italians who were taken hostage in Iraq yesterday. 

Spokesman:  He is extremely concerned about the fate of all civilians held hostage in Iraq and reiterates his call for their immediate and unconditional release.  The abductions of two French journalists and two Italian humanitarian aid workers and their Iraqi colleagues are but the latest incidents in a tragic pattern of violations committed against innocent civilians in Iraq.  The Secretary-General appeals for respect, at all times, of the fundamental principles of humanitarian law.

Thank you very much. See you tomorrow.

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