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 Marie Okabe, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

**Update on Secretary-General’s Shoulder Operation

The Secretary-General is undergoing an operation today to repair a shoulder injury.  He has said that he hopes to be able to go home later in the day.

**Middle East

The Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO), Alvaro de Soto, condemns today’s targeted killings of Palestinian militants in the West Bank and Gaza.  Without prejudice to Israel’s right to legitimate and proportional self-defence, UNSCO reiterates the United Nations’ consistent and vocal opposition to extrajudicial killings.

The restraint that Israel has observed, by and large, in the last few months, has been noted.  It is hoped that, at a time when the Palestinian Authority is clearly moving to enforce law and order, Israel, and all other parties, will refrain from activities that might contribute to a further escalation of the situation.

Earlier today, Alvaro de Soto also condemned yesterday’s Qassam rocket fire, which killed an Israeli woman and left others wounded.  The incident illustrated once again the imperative and urgency of ensuring security and ending violence.

**Secretary-General Appointments

I have two appointments to announce, the first is:  the Secretary-General has decided to appoint António Monteiro of Portugal as the High Representative for the Elections in Côte d’Ivoire.  Mr. Monteiro is a former Portuguese Foreign Minister and he has served as Portugal’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.  We have a full bio note on Mr. Monteiro upstairs.

For the second appointment, the Secretary-General has informed the Security Council of his intention to appoint Mr. Alan Doss of the United Kingdom as his Special Representative for Liberia to replace Mr. Jacques Klein.  The Council is expected to respond within the next couple of days.

Mr. Doss has had a long and distinguished career with the United Nations.  He is currently serving as Principal Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Côte d’Ivoire.  We have copies of Mr. Doss’ bio upstairs, as well.

**Security Council

There are no meetings or consultations of the Security Council scheduled today.

Yesterday afternoon, following its consultations on Somalia, the Council adopted a presidential statement, expressing its concern at recent disagreements and increased tensions among Somali leaders.  The Council said it stands ready to consider in due course a request by the African Union’s Peace and Security Council for an authorization of an exemption on the arms embargo imposed against Somalia.

Afterward, Council President Adamantios Vassilakis of Greece read out a statement to the press, welcoming the inauguration of the presidency of the new Government of National Unity in Sudan on 9 July.  We have both of those documents upstairs.

**UNAIDS

Turning to Monday in the Security Council, Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), will brief the Security Council and release a report on progress made in implementing a Security Council resolution on the subject.  That resolution, which was adopted five years ago, called on the UN and MemberStates to develop effective AIDS education, prevention, testing and treatment strategies for peacekeepers.

With the resolution’s adoption, the Council recognized that AIDS could threaten stability and security, and UNAIDS began working closely with the United Nations’ peacekeeping department to integrate HIV care and prevention into all peacekeeping missions.  UNAIDS has also signed partnership agreements with defence ministries in more than 80 countries to address AIDS among their uniformed services.

Following Monday’s Security Council meeting, Mr. Piot will go to the stakeout to take your questions.  And we have a media advisory upstairs with more information.

**Haiti

The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti has issued a communiqué condemning as “brutal and vile” the murder of Haitian journalist Jacques Roche, whose body was found Thursday.  The Mission said the attack was also an assault on the freedom of expression and a crime against the entire Haitian society. The full text is upstairs in French.

**MONUC Update

Turning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at a rate of 130,000 a day, the voter registration process in the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa, has this week passed the 2 million mark.  We do hope to have a briefing in due course by our Peacekeeping Department on the electoral assistance process, which will be the largest ever UN-assisted mission.  DRC has an electorate of an estimated 28 million. 

Meanwhile, also in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, our peacekeepers conducted yesterday further operations in the Kivus, that’s in the east, the purpose being to widen the zone of influence of the UN force there, to flush out armed groups from the area, and to enhance the confidence of the local population in the peacekeepers.

**Iran

On Iran, five senior experts who report on human rights today expressed their profound concern at the alleged continued refusal by Iranian authorities to provide the imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji with appropriate medical attention for his severe asthma.

The medical centre at Evin prison is reportedly not equipped to treat his asthma, they say in a joint statement, and Ganji’s health has deteriorated.  The human rights experts urge the Iranian authorities to take all necessary measures to provide Ganji with adequate conditions of detention, including the necessary medical attention as required by his condition.  There is a press release with more details upstairs.

**WFP – Togo

Turning now to Togo, the World Food Programme (WFP) today appealed for   $3 million to feed 66,500 people who were displaced by the recent political turmoil in that country.  So far, WFP has managed to borrow enough funds from its other operations.  But now food stocks are running low, and there is no sign of the refugees returning home, it says.

The food aid would go to Togolese refugees in Benin and Ghana, internally displaced people within Togo itself, and local communities that are hosting those displaced.  We have a press release on that upstairs, as well.

**Small Arms

Here at UN Headquarters, today is the last day of a week-long meeting on the UN Programme of Action to stop the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.  Nearly 80 States participated in the meeting, which was chaired by Ambassador Pasi Patokallio of Finland, and submitted detailed reports on progress made in the implementation of the Programme of Action.

In addition, a working group presented the meeting with a politically binding international instrument to enable States to identify and trace illegal small arms and light weapons.  That instrument will now go before the General Assembly during its upcoming session.

**General Assembly

We have several announcements from the General Assembly flagging some events of the next few days.

The General Assembly is scheduled to hold a plenary meeting on Monday at  3 p.m. to discuss the draft proposal submitted by the African Union on Security Council Reform.  General Assembly President Jean Ping is scheduled to meet with the G4 foreign ministers on Sunday morning at 11 o’clock in his office.  This will be a closed meeting, but photo opportunities will be allowed at the beginning of that meeting.

Then, Mr. Ping will travel to Gabon during part of next week.  He will be away starting on Tuesday and will be back on Friday, 22 July, the day he plans to submit to the General Assembly a revised draft outcome document for the September Summit.

Finally, on the Capital Master Plan, the Fifth Committee held informal closed consultations this morning, I understand, from 10 to 11 a.m. So that just finished up a short while ago, and if you have any more questions we do have someone from the General Assembly’s Spokesman’s Office here.

**UNESCO

And just in time for your summer holiday plans, the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, has placed seven new sites on its World Heritage List.  The sites range from cool fjords in west Norway to 244 tropical islands in Mexico.  Other sites on the new list are in South Africa, Egypt, Japan, Thailand and Panama.

UNESCO also extended two sites already on the list:  India’s Valley of the FlowersNational Park and uninhabited islands off the coast of Scotland.

**The Week Ahead

We have the week ahead at the United Nations for your planning purposes.

On Monday, 18 July at 11:15 a.m., UNIFEM will hold a press conference to highlight women’s role in preventing and resolving conflict at the local and regional levels.  That will be on the eve of a global civil society conference on conflict prevention, taking place at the UN from 19 to 21 July.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Can we count on you to come up with an announcement this afternoon about the Secretary-General, the operation, if indeed he is going home, just so we get some account from you and don’t pester you the whole day for it?

Deputy Spokesperson:  Absolutely.

Question:  Do you think the Secretary-General is going to be away, or at least out of the office, for at least a week or so?

Deputy Spokesperson:  I think we should count on him recovering for at least days into next week.  I can’t tell you exactly when he will be back.  I don’t have word yet on how the operation went.  But we also know that he had hoped to be home by this afternoon.  So, we will let you know.

Question:  The G4 ambassadors said yesterday that they would like to meet with the Secretary-General either on Sunday or Monday.  Is that a possibility that is being looked at by the Secretary-General’s office?

Deputy Spokesperson:  At this point, I don’t think he is intending to see anybody over the weekend.

Question:  With regards to the Alliance for Civilization initiative announced yesterday, there was a stipulation which says some funds would be raised.  How does the Secretary-General intend to get Member States to donate to that fund?

Deputy Spokesperson:  As of now, I don’t have very many details on the trust fund.  I know that there is nothing in it now.  As you know, we just launched the initiative yesterday and, as the press release mentioned, there will be more of a formal session in the fall when the Spanish and Turkish representatives here will be talking about it.  But I will try to find out what the detailed mechanisms are, if needed, to gather funds for that.

Question:  Does Mr. Ping have any meetings scheduled with the representatives or members of the united for consensus group?

Deputy Spokesperson:  Maybe you should address the question to Freh (Frehiwot Bekele), who is from the Spokesman’s Office from the General Assembly, after this.

If there are no other questions, have a great weekend.

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