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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPOKESMAN'S NOON
BRIEFING


BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

UN HEADQUARTERS,  NEW YORK

Tuesday, August 2, 2005

 ANNAN ENVOY TO ATTEND GARANG BURIAL
CEREMONY IN SOUTHERN SUDAN

  • The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan,
    Jan Pronk, will attend the burial ceremony of Vice President John Garang
    scheduled to take place in Juba in southern Sudan on Saturday, August 6.
     

  • The

    UN Mission in Sudan
    , meanwhile, reports that violence continued today in
    various parts of Khartoum and its outskirts. In one incident, southern
    Sudanese from squatter and displaced persons’ areas in the outskirts of
    Khartoum attacked a market, which they looted.
     

  • In another area in the outskirts of Khartoum, northerners
    attacked a school and reportedly killed six or seven people, including
    children, according to the UN mission. The southerners, the mission says,
    reportedly retaliated and killed an Imam from the same area.
     

  • A 12-hour curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. remains in effect
    in Khartoum.
     

  • In southern Sudan, the situation is reported to be calm.
     

  • In response to a question, the
    Spokesman said that Pronk was in close contact with the Sudanese Government
    about the recent violence. He said that the United Nations hopes that these
    are isolated events and that calm will quickly return to Khartoum and its
    environs.

 SECURITY COUNCIL BEGINS WORK UNDER
JAPANESE LEADERSHIP

  • The

    Security Council
    this morning held consultations to adopt its program of
    work for August, in its first meeting under Japan’s Security Council
    Presidency. Japanese Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, the Council President, spoke to
    reporters about the Council’s work over the coming month.
     

  • Also in this morning’s consultations, Council members
    received a briefing from Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations
    Jean Marie Guéhenno on

    Sudan
    , including the weekend death of Garang.
     

  • Council members then went into a formal meeting to adopt
    a

    Presidential Statement
    on Sudan, in which the Council expressed its
    profound regret over Garang’s death. It called on all Sudanese to honor his
    memory by restoring peace and calm throughout Sudan.
     

  • Council President Oshima preceded that meeting by
    expressing Council members’ regret over the death of King Fahd of Saudi
    Arabia.

 IRAN CONFIRMS IT WILL RESUME URANIUM
CONVERSION

  • The

    International Atomic Energy Agency
    (IAEA) confirmed that it received a
    note verbale from Iran yesterday, saying that Iran has decided to resume its
    uranium conversion activities at Isfahan.
     

  • The Agency, in a letter it wrote in response,

    informed
    Iran that, in order to implement effective safeguards at Iran’s
    uranium conversion facility, it would need to install additional surveillance
    equipment, as well as to verify the nuclear material in question. The IAEA
    further said that it was in the process of preparing the necessary equipment,
    which it would be installing sometime next week.
     

  • The Agency told Iran that it is essential that Iran
    refrain from removing its seals and moving any nuclear material until the
    surveillance equipment is installed and the IAEA has verified the material.
     

  • Asked about the
    Secretary-General’s views about the situation, the Spokesman said that the
    Secretary-General urges restraint and patience on the part of the Iranian
    authorities. He believes that they should wait for the latest proposal from
    the three European States --  France, the United Kingdom and Germany --
    before making any attempts to restart their nuclear activities, Dujarric said.
     

  • In his dealings with the three
    European Union countries, the Secretary-General is convinced that they are
    constructively engaged in the search for a solution and therefore encourages
    Iranian authorities to continue to work with them. The Secretary-General, he
    said, supports the process between the EU-3 and Iran.

 U.N. ENVOY WINDS UP TALKS WITH SOMALIA'S
PRESIDENT, PRIME MINISTER

  • The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for
    Somalia,

    Francois Lonseny Fall
    , returned to Nairobi yesterday after talks in Jowhar
    with President Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi of the
    Transitional Federal Government.
     

  • Security permitting, Fall plans to visit Mogadishu later
    this week for discussions with the Speaker of Parliament, MPs and Cabinet
    Ministers, as well as civil society groups there.
     

  • Yesterday’s meeting in Jowhar focused on three key
    issues: the seat of the transitional Federal Institutions, security and
    reconciliation. At a joint press conference following the meeting, Prime
    Minister Gedi expressed the Government’s willingness to work with the United
    Nations and in particular with Fall on resolving the current difficulties.

  MORE THAN 3 MILLION VOTERS REGISTERED
IN D.R. CONGO  

  • At 5:30 pm on Sunday, 31 July, the voter registration
    process closed in Kinshasa, the capital of

    Democratic Republic of Congo
    .  More than 2.9 million Kinshasa residents
    registered, out of an estimated 3.5 million potential voters. 
     

  • Meanwhile, registration has been continuing for the past
    week in the western province of Bas-Congo and in northeastern Orientale
    Province. By Sunday, 230,000 people had registered there.
     

  • Registration centers are scheduled to open next Sunday in
    southeastern Katanga province and in the Central, Eastern and Western Kasai
    provinces.
     

  • The elections will be the largest ever supported by the
    United Nations. The polls are to usher in the Democratic Republic of the
    Congo’s first democratic government in some 40 years, and are to replace the
    current transitional power-sharing administration.

UNITED NATIONS
HELPS UZBEK REFUGEES IN ROMANIA

  • The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
    (UNHCR)

    reports
     that a team of specialists has arrived in Romania to help
    organize the resettlement of some 439 Uzbek refugees who arrived last Friday
    from Kyrgyzstan. The agency is also negotiating for the release of 15 others
    who are still in the Kyrgyz city of Osh.
     

  • And, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise
    Arbour, issued a statement praising Romania for hosting the refugees on a
    temporary basis, while they are awaiting resettlement. Arbour called the
    gesture “generous and courageous,” particularly since the country is
    recovering from disastrous flooding.
     

  • Asked who will take in the
    Uzbek refugees, the Spokesman said that was a matter that UNHCR was working on
    right now.

 U.N. FOOD AGENCY SAYS NIGER CRISIS
APPEAL UNHEEDED

  • The UN Food and Agriculture Organization today

    renewed
    its call for emergency assistance to drought victims in Niger.
     

  • The FAO said the appeal it made in May had gone largely
    unheeded. The agency so far has received about an eighth of the money it
    requested. Some 2.5 million people are at risk, FAO said.
     

  • Also in Niger, the UN Children’s Fund

    reports
    that it has begun a training program for local health workers. The
    World Health Organization

    says
    it is working on programs for children suffering from malnutrition.

 URGENT FOOD SUPPORT NEEDED FOR SOUTHERN
AFRICA

  • In addition to Niger, several countries in southern
    Africa are entering a critical phase in their chronic food insecurity
    situation. That’s the finding of recent assessments by the Food and
    Agriculture Organization (FAO),
    World Food Programme (WFP),
    and the Southern Africa Development Community.
     

  • The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),
    reports that urgent support is needed for the affected countries, which
    include Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Zambia. 

 ANNAN REPORTS ON SIERRA LEONE INTEGRATED
OFFICE PROJECT

  • The Secretary-General’s addendum to his

    report
    to the Security Council on the

    UN Mission in Sierra Leone
    is out on the racks today. In it, the
    Secretary-General outlines his recommendations for the proposed integrated UN
    office in that country, and his ideas for security arrangements for the
    Special Court there. 
     

  • The integrated office, which would be established when
    the UN peacekeeping mission ends its work in Sierra Leone at the end of this
    year, would be headed by an Executive Representative, who would also serve as
    a UN Resident Coordinator.
     

  • The Security Council has scheduled consultations on
    Sierra Leone for August 10.

GENERAL
ASSEMBLY CONTINUES WORK ON SUMMIT DRAFT

  • The

    General Assembly
    is continuing today its informal consultations on the
    revised draft outcome document on UN
    reform
    for the September summit.
     

  • General Assembly President Jean Ping plans to submit to
    Member Sates a second revised version of the draft outcome document later in
    the week, on Friday.
     

  • Following the drawing of lots by the Secretary-General
    yesterday afternoon, Thailand will occupy the first front row seat in the
    General Assembly Hall during the 60th session of the Assembly.

 OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

SECRETARY-GENERAL’S SHOULDER
HEALING NORMALLY:
Asked about the
Secretary-General’s health following his shoulder surgery last month, if he
would need further surgery, the Spokesman said that the Secretary-General had
said everything was fine. It is only normal, the Spokesman added, that his arm
would still be in a sling at this point.

ANNAN LOOKING FORWARD TO
WORKING WITH U.S. ENVOY:
Asked about the
Secretary-General’s meeting today with John Bolton, the Spokesman said that the
Secretary-General had received Bolton’s credentials.  “We look forward to
working with him,” Dujarric added.

   Office
of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General
United Nations, S-378
New York, NY 10017
Tel. 212-963-7162 - press/media only
Fax. 212-963-7055

All other inquiries to be addressed to (212) 963-4475 or by e-mail to: inquiries@un.org


 



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