AMBASSADOR SICHAN SIV'S BRASILIA MEETINGS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 BRASILIA 002129

SIPDIS

USUN FOR JOHN DANILOVICH
STATE FOR USUN/W - MARY SUE CONAWAY
NSC FOR DEMPSEY, CRUZ
SOUTHCOM FOR POLAD

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL ECON PHUM KDEM AORC SOCI BR UNGA UN
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR SICHAN SIV'S BRASILIA MEETINGS

REFS: (A) Brasilia 1835 (B) USUN 1593 (C) State 152009


SUMMARY
--------------

1. (SBU) Brazilian Foreign Ministry officials assured
Ambassador Siv that Brazil will wholeheartedly back the USG
TIP agenda item at the 59th UNGA, but sounded more
ambivalent on the four other U.S. UNGA initiatives (Ref C).
To Ambassador Siv's suggestion that UNHCR has become a
group mingling "the good, the bad, and the ugly" of which
Sudan, Zimbabwe and Cuba have no right to be members,
Foreign Ministry Chief of Staff Patriota courteously
demurred that individual nations "including Brazil" display
their own good, bad and ugly aspects, and that Libya's
positive evolution shows that engagement, not
ostracism/expulsion, is the wise course. The Foreign-
Ministry expert on President Lula's global anti-
hunger/poverty project stressed that the aim of Lula's
September 20 UN event is not to win endorsement of any
particular text or design, but rather to raise the profile
of world attention to the subject and gain a follow-up
mandate to identify mechanisms that can be pursued
multilaterally, to make development flows more stable,
predictable, and sustainable. END SUMMARY.


2. (U) In Brasilia August 19, U.S. Representative to the
U.N. Economic and Social Council Ambassador Sichan Siv
discussed USG initiatives for the 59th UN General Assembly
in an office meeting with Minister Maria Luiza Veotti, head
of the GOB's MFA Human Rights and Social Issues Department,
and over lunch hosted by Ambassador Danilovich with Foreign
Minister Amorim's chief-of-staff Antonio Patriota and
special advisor on President Lula's global hunger/poverty
relief initiative Maria Nazareth Farani Azevedo. In both
meetings, Ambassador Siv detailed the USG's five main UNGA
initiatives: Advancing Economic Freedom; Combating
Trafficking in Persons; Promoting Democracy; Banning Human
Cloning; and Reducing Middle East Resolutions (Ref C).


3. (SBU) Formerly based at the Brazilian UN Mission and
less than two weeks in her new job, Minister Veotti was
brief and general in most responses, readily volunteering
that she was not yet conversant with details on all five
items. On economic freedom, she said President Lula
supports and has been active in implementing Monterrey
Consensus principles and international cooperation to
underpin economic freedom. She noted the record of GoB
support for and participation in the Community of
Democracies, but also tentative reservations about the idea
of forming a democracy caucus in the UN, wondering whether
that might upset the balance with which traditional UN
groups work and introduce new polarity. She outlined GOB
efforts to combat TIP and noted that the Foreign Ministry
has formed a special unit to deal with the subject. About
the Middle East, she reiterated that the GOB supports a
balanced approach that addresses human rights without
ignoring issues of terrorism. Finally, Minister Veotti
noted that the GOB endorses human cloning for medical but
not for reproductive reasons, and that a separate office
has the Foreign-Ministry lead on the issue.


4. (U) A propos the TIP issue, Ambassador Danilovich took
the occasion to mention that A/S Maura Harty is shortly due
to visit Brazil. Ambassador Siv observed that in various
nations there are many arrests of traffickers-in-persons
but that subsequent prosecution was ineffective. Does
Brazil have a central coordinator for this sphere? Veotti
confirmed that the National Ministry of Justice was the
authorized agent.


5. (SBU) Ambassador Danilovich hosted a subsequent lunch
for Ambassador Siv attended by Foreign Minister Amorim's
Chief of Staff Antonio Patriota and Special Advisor on
President Lula's global hunger/poverty relief initiative
Maria Nazareth Farani Azevedo. With Ambassador Siv making
the same exposition of the UNGA agenda points, Ambassador
Patriota gave ready, meticulous overviews of those issues
and others, as below.

-- Middle East: Ambassador Patriota registered the USG
concerns about reducing the volume of motions, often
repetitive and unconstructive, on the Middle East at the
UNGA. He said Brazil is interested in trying to help "put
hope back into the peace process," and noted that the MRE
has just appointed, for the first time in Brazil's
diplomatic history, a special roving envoy to the Middle
East. In addition, Brazil now has a seated diplomat in
Ramallah, Ambassador Bernardo Brito, a seasoned senior
official known for "doing a good job in tough places,"
Patriota said. An MRE diplomat at the Minister-Counselor
level is also now based in Amman, covering Iraq. Patriota
further noted a recent meeting in which Norway's Foreign
Minister and FM Amorim discussed working together on the
Middle East, with reference to the early promise of the
Oslo agreement and the potential synergy of "a small but
developed nation working closely with a large, developing
country" on some initiatives. Brazil is proceeding with
its previous plans for a meeting in Brazil, probably in
April 2005, of Arab nations, with a focus on economic and
commercial issues, Patriota said. He acknowledged the
potential for political polemics and anti-Israeli
diatribes, but said the GOB would work hard to discourage
and minimize such rhetoric. The GOB is considering
inviting Iraq, he added.

-- Africa: In response to an appeal by Ambassador Siv for
Brazilian support in helping ameliorate instability and
poverty in Bissau, Minister Maria Nazareth Farani outlined
a new Brazil-India-South Africa joint initiative there,
aimed at technical and financial assistance to build
productivity especially in agriculture. The initiative is
the first of a series for Africa that Brazil is discussing
with South Africa and India. While relatively modest in
scope, the project signals Brazil's concern about the
extreme misery and restive military in the Portuguese-
speaking country, Patriota added.

-- Haiti: Patriota had just returned from accompanying FM
Amorim and President Lula to Haiti and the Dominican
Republic, and he expressed glowing satisfaction with the
success and symbolism of the previous day's famous soccer
match between Brazil and Haiti, attended by Lula and his
retinue. The game was symbolic of the "genuine affinity
and dialogue" between Haitians and Brazilians that is
helping facilitate MINUSTAH's work, he said. He further
noted that feelings within Brazil had been mixed with
regard to Brazil's leadership of MINUSTAH, with criticisms
of the mission having come from the far-left of Lula's
ruling PT party. The success thus far of Brazil's PKO
effort has "vindicated" the position adopted by Lula and
Amorim that Brazil had a responsibility to help if it
could.
-- UNHRC and democracy initiatives: Patriota respectfully
demurred at Ambassador Siv's characterization of UNHRC
having deteriorated into a collection of "the good, the bad
and the ugly," with some infamous rights violators now
using member status in the forum to torpedo resolutions and
actions against them. Patriota said the GOB took the view
that there is good, bad and ugly in each nation, "including
Brazil," and that efforts should be made to rehabilitate,
not just confront. He noted Libya as an example of a
nation that had transformed from pariah status to
collaborator with the world community. Brazil would
continue to oppose single-country resolutions and wants to
explore mechanisms for broad "objective" reporting on
problem areas by the UN.

-- Human cloning: Patriota noted that Brazil currently has
"some differences" with the U.S. and said the issue is
still not ripe for comprehensive discussion. (Note: Brazil
officially opposes reproductive cloning but would consider
leaving an avenue for therapeutic cloning. However,
domestic legislation currently in Brazil's Congress could
change GOB policy to that of blanket prohibition. End
Note.)


6. (SBU) Regarding Brazil's global hunger/poverty
initiative, Farani stressed that President Lula's September
20 New York event aims not for any final endorsement either
of the text that Lula will present or of any specific
financing or other mechanism. Rather, the GoB aspiration
is to raise the profile of world attention to this sphere
and establish a follow-up mandate to identify mechanisms
that can be followed multilaterally. "There are enough
resources (for aid),but (they are) not being devoted to
development... Getting this on the agenda could mean a
healthy increase in attention. we are trying to discuss
mechanisms that exist already and are doable... We're aware
of the positions you have on certain issues," Farani said,
without explicitly citing international taxation. The
ultimate need is for resources to be stable, predictable
and in greater volumes so as to allow for a solid
development strategy - rather than the present "ad hoc and
at times arbitrary funding" that impedes development from
being predictable or sustainable, in Farani's words.


7. (U) By the GoB's latest count, fifty-one countries,
forty-eight to be represented by heads of state, and twelve
international agencies will attend Lula's September 20
announcement, Farani said. Confirmed interest is so great,
she went on, that the GoB organizers are having to think of
a new format, since there will be, e.g., no possibility for
every head of state to make an individual presentation, as
originally projected.


8. (U) Aside from these meetings, Ambassador Siv during
his Brasilia sojourn gave an interview to national daily
'Estado de Sao Paulo' which printed an article the next
day, and attended with Ambassador Danilovich a GoB memorial
service for Brazilian-born UN diplomat Sergio De Mello on
the anniversary of the Baghdad bombing that took the lives
of de Mello and 21 other UN workers. Rio daily 'O Globo'
printed Ambassador Siv's personal tribute to de Mello, his
former colleague in Cambodian refugee resettlement in the
early 1990s, in the form of an August 20 OpEd.

DANILOVICH