Secretary-General

Noon briefing of 8 July 2005

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPOKESMAN'S NOON BRIEFING

BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Friday, 8 July 2005

G-8 SUMMIT COULD BE THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF MASS POVERTY, ANNAN HOPES

  • As he left the Group of Eight Summit in Gleneagles today, the Secretary-General congratulated Tony Blair and his fellow G8 leaders on what they have done for Africa. The leaders carried the hopes of the people around the world who wanted progress towards reducing poverty in Africa, and today they got it.

  • He noted the promise to double aid to Africa by 2010, as well as welcome progress on debt cancellation. Further, the African leaders at the G8 summit reaffirmed their commitment to good governance, democracy and the fight against corruption.

  • The Secretary-General said he had hoped that G8 leaders might have committed themselves to a clear, unambiguous date to end export subsidies. But he added that this is the beginning, not the end, for the people and the leaders who made today’s success possible.

  • He concluded, “I hope Gleneagles will be remembered as the beginning of something very big, perhaps even the beginning of the end of mass poverty.”

  • Prior to departing from Gleneagles, Scotland, the Secretary-General participated in the Group of Eight’s meeting on Africa, in which he joined the leaders of Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, the African Union, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

  • On the sidelines of the summit this morning, he met with two of the musicians who had participated in the Live 8 conference that had focused on Africa’s needs -- Bob Geldof and Bono -- as well as with film director Richard Curtis.

ANNAN HEADS TO SUDAN FOR INAUGURATION OF NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT

  • The Secretary-General is now traveling to Khartoum, where tomorrow he will speak at the ceremony inaugurating the Government of National Unity in Sudan.

  • The Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that there were some security incidents this morning in West Darfur, in several camps for internally displaced persons.

  • The agency says that as people were lining up to be registered for food distribution, groups of young men armed with sticks and stones began attacking aid workers. As a result, UNHCR -- as well as the World Food Programme, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and all non-governmental organizations -- withdrew from most of the camps in the area.

  • UNHCR says that some of its teams were escorted back to West Darfur’s capital, El Geneina, by African Union forces. Some minor injuries and damage to vehicles were reported.

BOLIVIA: AGREEMENTS ON ELECTIONS SEEN AS ENCOURAGING

  • The Secretary-General is greatly encouraged by the agreements reached by Bolivia’s Parliament this week to hold elections for President, Vice-President, Parliament and Prefectos (Regional Governors) in December 2005, followed by a referendum on regional autonomy and elections for a Constituent Assembly in July 2006.

  • He is also heartened that the majority of Bolivia’s political forces have worked together to find a democratic solution to the political impasse in the country.

  • The United Nations remains committed to sending assistance to Bolivia in carrying out these important elections. An Electoral Needs Assessment Mission from the Department of Political Affairs will be visiting Bolivia in the coming days at the invitation of Bolivia’s National Electoral Council.

  • In this regard, electoral assistance was one of the recommendations made by Under-Secretary-General for Social and Economic Affairs, José Antonio Ocampo, as a result of his recent visit to Bolivia on the Secretary-General’s behalf.

ANNAN CONDEMNS MURDER OF EGYPTIAN ENVOY TO IRAQ; SECURITY COUNCIL CONSIDERS THE MATTER

  • The Security Council is expected to hold consultations at 3:00 this afternoon, to consider a draft Presidential Statement on the murder of the senior Egyptian envoy in Iraq, Ihab al-Sharif. The Council is then expected to go into a formal meeting to adopt that Presidential Statement.

  • The Secretary-General, in a statement issued yesterday condemned in the strongest terms those who planned and executed this callous act, which no cause can justify. He hopes that the Iraqi authorities will do everything possible to apprehend those responsible and to bring them to justice.

  • Such acts perpetrated by a few will not deter the commitment and resolve of the United Nations and the international community to help the Iraqi people in their transition towards a peaceful, democratic and prosperous Iraq.

  • The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, today also condemned the murder, saying it violated every tenet of Islam and of civilized behavior.

  • The Spokesman, in response to a question, said the United Nations had no way to keep track of the number of people killed in Iraq.

HUMAN SETTLEMENT ENVOY LEAVES ZIMBABWE

  • In Zimbabwe, Anna Tibaijuka, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Human Settlement Issues, met this morning with President Mugabe on the last day of her visit there. She thanked him for providing her team with free access throughout the country.

  • Tibaijuka has been assessing the impact of a housing demolition program, and will make a report to the Secretary-General.

  • Today Tibaijuka announced that, in her capacity as Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-Habitat, she will appoint a Habitat program manager to be part of the UN country team in Zimbabwe. The new appointee will help with effective, inclusive, urban planning and management.

  • Tibaijuka leaves Harare Saturday morning.

D.R. CONGO: MILLIONTH VOTER REGISTERED

  • Yesterday, Mamitsho Ngodia Mvita, a female law student at the University of Kinshasa, became the one millionth person to register to vote in the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

  • Registration began on 20 June, and by now, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has opened 946 registration offices. The UN and international community are providing logistical assistance to the IEC for elections, which are due to take place later this year.

  • Next Tuesday, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, William Swing, will be in Brussels to participate in an EU-hosted donors conference on financing for the electoral process.

U.N. OFFICIALS HOPE FOR FREE & FAIR ELECTIONS IN KYRGYZSTAN THIS WEEKEND

  • United Nations officials today expressed hopes for a free, fair and transparent election in Kyrgyzstan this Sunday, emphasizing the importance of peaceful democratic transition not just for Kyrgyzstan, but for all of Central Asia.

  • “Kyrgyzstan is at a turning point,” said Jerzy Skuratowicz, the UN Resident Coordinator in Kyrgyzstan. “There is an urgent need to bring stability to the country and to strengthen national institutions through free and fair elections.”

  • The presidential elections of 10 July were organized in just three months, following the resignation of former President Akaev in April.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REP. REFUGEES SUCCESSFULLY RELOCATED IN CHAD

  • Earlier, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was pushing for the relocation of 10,000 refugees from the Central African Republic to less remote areas of Chad before the onset of the rainy season.

  • UNHCR announced today that Chadian officials have now agreed to the agency’s relocation request, and that the refugees will now be moved to an existing camp in the southern town of Gore. The agency has bolstered its Gore office.

  • But UNHCR has also reported that flooding is already beginning to obstruct movement in the region.

EMERGENCY TEAMS READY FOR DEPLOYMENT TO HURRICANE-HIT CARIBBEAN

  • Regarding Hurricane Dennis, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination Teams are on alert and on standby for possible deployment to the Caribbean.

  • Last month, OCHA, in conjunction with the UN Mission in Haiti, the UN Country Team and Government authorities, conducted two simulation exercises to prepare in part for natural disaster evacuations.

  • Thus far, in the hurricane’s wake, some 1,000 persons in Haiti have been evacuated to temporary shelters.

  • Asked about the UN effort to assist Haiti, the Spokesman said the United Nations mainly provided small coordination teams to help with emergency response, as it had done following the Indian Ocean tsunami last December. In Haiti, he noted, the United Nations had the added advantage of having a peacekeeping mission with its own assets already deployed on the ground.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

NO SUBSTANCE TO ALLEGATIONS AGAINST U.N. PROCUREMENT OFFICIAL: Asked about allegations that had been made against an official in the UN procurement department, the Spokesman said that Under-Secretary-General for Management, Christopher Burnham, had asked the Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) to look into the matter vigorously. These allegations first came up about three weeks ago, and OIOS reported back to him today that there was no substance to them.

U.N. ADVISER TO VISIT NEPAL: The Special Adviser of the Secretary-General, Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, will visit Nepal from 10 to 15 July 2005. As part of the Secretary-General's ongoing effort to help find a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Nepal, Mr. Brahimi will meet, among others, His Majesty the King, senior government officials, leaders of political parties and a cross-section of representatives of Nepalese society.

MORE FUNDING NEEDED TO ACHIEVE MDGs: The level of funding for agriculture and rural development must be increased, if the first Millennium Development Goal of reducing by half the percentage of poor and hungry people in the world is to be met by 2015, three Rome-based UN agencies said today. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Programme argue that direct food assistance and agriculture have been suffering from lack of adequate funding.

** The guests at the noon briefing were Nobuyasu Abe, Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, and Ambassador Pasi Patokallio of Finland, the President-Designate of the Second Biennial Meeting on the Illicit Trade of Small Arms and Light Weapons.

THE WEEK AHEAD AT THE UNITED NATIONS

Saturday, July 9

The Secretary-General is expected to speak at the ceremony inaugurating the Sudanese Government of National Unity in Khartoum.

Sunday, July 10

A three-member UN delegation led by Special Adviser Lakhdar Brahimi will arrive in Nepal.

Monday, July 11

UN Chef de Cabinet Mark Malloch Brown will speak on the Secretary-General’s behalf at the 10th anniversary of the massacre in Srebrenica.

The Security Council has scheduled consultations on the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The guest at the noon briefing will be the humanitarian coordinator for the Central African Republic, Stan Nkwain.

A donors’ meeting is taking place in Brussels for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, William Swing, will attend.

Tuesday, July 12

The Security Council has scheduled a debate on the Council’s role in humanitarian crises.

Wednesday, July 13

The Security Council has scheduled consultations on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Council members also expect to have their monthly luncheon with the Secretary-General.

Thursday, July 14

The Security Council has scheduled consultations on Somalia.