HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY FRED ECKHARD
SPOKESMAN FOR THE
SECRETARY-GENERAL
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Wednesday,
September 8, 2004
ANNAN MARKS DEVELOPMENT
OF LATIN AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
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 Secretary-General Kofi
Annan gave to participants at 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.
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.
On
Tuesday 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.
ANNAN
CONCERNED ABOUT FATE OF HOSTAGES IN IRAQ
In response to a
question about the two Italian hostages seized in Iraq,
the Spokesman said the Secretary-General
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, for the fundamental principals of human
rights and dignity.
ANNAN
WELCOMES PROGRESS ON INDIA-PAKISTAN ISSUES
In a statement issued after the noon
briefing, the Secretary-General
welcomed the outcome of the weekend meeting between the External Affairs
Minister of India, K. Natwar Singh, and the Foreign Minister of Pakistan,
Khurshid Mohammed Kasuri, which reviewed the process of the composite
dialogue between the two countries and took important decisions arising from
the dialogue.
He also welcomed the
announcement that President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh will meet on the sidelines of the General Assembly in New York later
this month.
He is heartened that
the two sides continue to make steady progress towards resolving outstanding
issues and improving their bilateral relations. The Secretary-General
attaches great importance to the success of these efforts, which would have
a highly salutary effect not only on the lives of the peoples of the two
countries but also on regional and global stability.
Once again, he
encourages the leaders of India and Pakistan to pursue these efforts with
patience and a spirit of compromise in addressing the various issues,
including the question of Jammu and Kashmir. The Secretary-General remains
at their disposal to assist in any useful manner.
UNMOVIC WORKS ON COMPENDIUM OF IRAQI
WEAPONS PROGRAM
The
Security Council met in closed
consultations this morning to hear from Demetrius Perricos, the Acting
Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq, better known as UNMOVIC.
Perricos 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 scrap yards in Jordan, Turkey and
the Netherlands. A significant number of items related to Iraqi SA-2
missiles were found in Jordan.
UNMOVIC
staff also continue to work on the compendium of the previous Iraqi
regime’s chemical and biological munitions program. A summary of this
compendium was released as part of the latest UNMOVIC report.
On Tuesday afternoon,
the Security Council held
consultations in which France circulated a draft resolution concerning the
expansion of the UN 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 DR Congo, and warned that the possibility of
further deterioration cannot be ruled out, given the speech with which
events are unfolding.
In the letter, he
proposed that the Council take an urgent decision to deploy emergency
reinforcements to the UN 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.
SECURITY COUNCIL TO DISCUSS SUDAN ON
THURSDAY;
DARFUR POLITICAL TALKS FOCUS ON SECURITY ISSUES
The
Security Council has scheduled consultations on Sudan
for Thursday afternoon.
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 the new text to them. 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.
UNICEF
and 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.
The
UN 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 percent of the reported cases come
from Darfur.
UNRWA HANDS OVER NEW HOMES TO FAMILIES
IN GAZA
The
UN Relief and Works Agency for
Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (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 Commissioner-General Peter
Hansen from reaching Rafah.
The
project, which cost $2.6 million, was funded by donations from Norway,
Italy, and the United States.
ANNAN APPOINTS NEW
REPRESENTATIVE FOR GUINEA-BISSAU
Available 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.
ANNAN APPOINTS NEW DEPUTY
REPRESENTATIVE FOR COTE D’IVOIRE
The Secretary-General
has named Abdoulaye Mar Dieye of Senegal as his Deputy Special
Representative for Cote
d’Ivoire.
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 program in the country.
Today, September 8th,
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, 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% by
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.”
The
UN’s 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 UN 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 needs for 10,000 people.
The
UN 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 Postal Administration after it had been incurring
losses since 1994, reaching $3.46 million over the 2000-2001 biennium. On
top of that, at the last session of the General Assembly, one delegate had
proposed that it be closed down.
The
proposal was defeated following assurances from UNPA 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.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
SUICIDE IS LARGELY PREVENTABLE: 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. The World
Health Organization is calling
for more attention on the issue and global action, ahead of World Suicide
Prevention Day this Friday.
UN FORCE COMMANDERS REVIEW PEACEKEEPING
OPERATIONS:
The UN
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
16
senior military officers – including several force commanders – are attending,
from a wide range of missions.
IRAQ REPRESENTATIVE
LIKELY TO SPEAK TO PRESS NEXT WEEK: The
Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq,
Ashraf Qazi, will not be the guest at the Thursday noon briefing, as was
previously scheduled. Instead, Qazi will speak to the press, most likely at the
Security Council stakeout, following his briefing to Council members on Tuesday,
September 14.
Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General
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