This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

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