DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Burundi

Good afternoon. I am going to start with a statement attributable to the Spokesman. It is on Burundi.

The Secretary-General learned with great distress of the murderous attacks committed on 28 and 29 August by rebels in Burundi on the capital city of Bujumbura and which were directed against civilians in Mutanga North and Musaga. As a result, many innocent civilians, including women and children, were killed and property destroyed. The Secretary-General strongly condemns these acts and reiterates his call on the rebels to end all attacks against civilians and abide by international humanitarian and human rights norms.

**East Timor

I have received a number of queries this morning on the reports of deaths of United Nations staff in East Timor. I would like to tell you that we cannot confirm any death of United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) staff in East Timor other than the one that we announced yesterday: Joel Lopez Gomes, murdered on Monday. We do have reports of two staff that are not accounted for. We are also checking on that.

This morning UNAMET Chief Civilian Police Alan Mills went to Atsabe, the town where Mr. Gomes was killed on Monday. He found a very tense situation where other UNAMET local staff were besieged by the militia. Mr. Mills was able to negotiate the departure of all the local staff in Atsabe.

On a more positive note, I’d like to bring to your attention that this morning in Dili there was a briefing by Carina Perelli, the Head of the United Nations Electoral Assistance Unit, the same one who briefed you a few weeks ago here. She announced that the provisional figure of voter turn out is 98.6 per cent.

We have the transcript of the Dili briefing for you upstairs, and you will see that in the briefing there is a reference to the first meeting of the Consultative Commission. That first meeting indeed took place this afternoon in Dili, formally launching the commission. Not all members participated and those who were abroad were represented by alternates. The rules for the Commission are that the members may be represented by alternates on a meeting-by- meeting basis. As you recall, this Commission has 10 members that are named by the pro-integration side and 10 that are named by the pro-independence side. Both sides made some last-minute changes in their composition. Unfortunately we had communication problems with Dili today, but we expect to have the final confirmed names later in the afternoon, which we will share with you.

**Kosovo

The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, traveled to Mitrovica today to swear in judges.

In total, Kouchner swore in seven judges. Two are Serbian and five Albanian. He also swore in two prosecutors for the District Court of Mitrovica, one Serb and one Albanian. This brings to 31 the number of judges that the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has sworn in so far, along with seven prosecutors.

In the swearing-in ceremony, the newly appointed judges read their oath of office in their respective languages. Kouchner said "the text of the oath reminds us of the important adherence of the judiciary to two fundamental principles: Upholding the law and non-discrimination". He said those two principles would be the main pillar of Kosovo's judiciary.

From the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), we have an update on shelter in the province. The agency has a plan to deliver shelter kits that will cover 380,000 people. An additional 160,000 people will be helped by other donations of kits, prefabricated shelters and repairs. A further 300,000 people will have to find accommodations with host families. Support for host families has begun and additional programmes are under consideration. Contingency measures are also being developed in case additional capacity is needed when the winter comes.

You can read more on that in the shelter update which we have available in our office. We also have, upon request, available for you Kouchner’s remarks, the oath of office and the names of judges and prosecutors sworn in today.

**Liberia

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 5,000 Sierra Leoneans have left camps in Liberia's Lofa County after recent insecurity there prompted aid agencies in three towns to evacuate. The agencies left behind vehicles and warehouses which were subsequently looted.

A UNHCR mission which went to the area found the Sierra Leoneans in decent physical condition, but there is still concern about continuing tension and humanitarian access to the zone.

Other missions will be carried out to canvas the forested area and encourage Sierra Leoneans to move to an existing camp in Cape Mount County.

More on that you have available in the UNHCR briefing notes, which are in our office upstairs.

And finally I wish to inform you that tomorrow, Wednesday 1 September, there will be a press conference here in this room with Dr. Nafis Sadik, the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund. This will be on UNFPA’s activities in Kosovo.

Are there any questions?

**Question and Answer Session

Question: What is the status of the ballot boxes?

Deputy Spokesman: All ballot boxes are safe and well in Dili.

Question: What is the next step?

Deputy Spokesman: What they call the reconciliation of all boxes, and following that the actual counting of the ballots. And I suppose your next question is: when will they finish the counting of the ballots? We continue with what we have told you a few days ago that we’ll try to do it as fast as possible, but probably it will take up to a week. Let’s hope that tomorrow or Thursday we will be able to give you something more concrete, so that those of you in the United States can plan your long weekend.

Question: Where will the results be announced?

Deputy Spokesman: The idea is to have it announced both in New York and in Dili. Probably simultaneously, we are working that out. It is a bit complicated because of the time difference, but we are looking into that.

Question: Not before Monday?

Deputy Spokesman: I prefer not to make any guesses now. Let’s see if tomorrow or Thursday I can give you something more concrete.

Question: You’ve probably heard reports from East Timor that militias are blocking roads, seizing airplane tickets from people who want to leave, and the police apparently are standing there with there arms crossed. What is UNAMET doing to control that situation? Are there any conversations with Australian or United States officials about contingency plans to send in troops if the situation gets any further out of hand?

Deputy Spokesman: Yesterday I was asked the same question on the media reports of these sorts of plans by certain countries, in particular the two that you mentioned. I don’t think there has been any official discussion on that. I haven’t seen anything on that. I have seen only media reports on it. I think it is never too much to repeat something we always say: It is the responsibility of the Indonesian authorities to maintain law and order, to maintain security of not only East Timorese but also of anyone in the territory, be it international observers, national observers, the media, United Nations staff.. The responsibility for maintenance of law and order is inscribed in the 5 May Agreements, which is an international agreement and therefore a responsibility of Indonesia before the international community. They have repeatedly said they would maintain this law and order and they have this commitment.

Now, on the current situation: unfortunately we had difficulties to communicate with Dili – technical problems – but we were able to have some contact with them right before I was coming here. The word I had was that indeed there is a lot of militia around, but I did not have any report on formal blockades, or even check points, at the airport as we have seen in some media reports.

Question: Do you know if Mr. Mills was able to determine anything about the incident in Atsabe, or was he there before the incident occurred?

Deputy Spokesman: You mean the incident where the colleague was killed? He went there exactly to follow up on that. When we announced the killing yesterday, I think we mentioned that there would be a mission going there early Tuesday morning, and that is what he did for that purpose. I don’t have any report on that side of this mission. My best guess at this point is that he was faced with such a tense situation, where local staff was under threat, that it became, I guess, his priority at this point to negotiate for the departure of the local staff who were under threat.

Question: Who is responsible for the search for the two people who are missing?

Deputy Spokesman: The Indonesian police are conducting an investigation on these episodes. We are following up with them on that.

Question: Now that Phase II has started, can you tell us about the further deployment of military liaisons and extra police?

Deputy Spokesman: 32 new Military Liaison officers have arrived and 15 new Civilian Police have arrived. As you know, the Military Liaison officers contingent is currently 50, and the Security Council authorized its expansion to 300. Of these, 32 have arrived. We have a number of commitments from countries for new Military Liaison officers, but we are still waiting to hear from other countries on their commitments for this expansion of the Military Liaison officers contingent. The same thing is true for the Civilian Police contingent: we do have a number of commitments, yet others are needed from other nations in order to reach the new size of up to 460.

Question: What number of commitments do you have?

Deputy Spokesman: I don’t have very firm figures. In the case of the military, of the 250 extra, from 50 to 300, we have already about 200 committed. With the police we have about 180 commitments, I understand.

Question: Are there any plans to brief the Security Council?

Deputy Spokesman: The Council was briefed yesterday. I don’t know of any requests for a new briefing in the coming days.

Question: Did the Police Chief go to this tense area with the Indonesian Security Forces? Where were they in all of this?

Deputy Spokesman: I don’t know. Certainly they were there, that is my best guess, but I don’t have details for you. The reports have not come in yet.

Question: There are reports that an Australian election observer says that three United Nations staffers died. Is he referring to the two that are missing?

Deputy Spokesman: No idea. I don’t know where this person has gotten his or her information.

Question: Did the Electoral Commission already make a judgement about the electoral procedures?

Deputy Spokesman: No. I don’t have a date for that, but I think they will do that around the time of the announcement of the results of the ballot.

Question: Have you any sense that the Indonesians put the militias on a leash yesterday and unleashed them again today? Is there a change of atmosphere on that?

Deputy Spokesman: No, I don’t have any reading on that.

If you don’t have any more questions, I have just received a statement attributable to the Spokesman. It is on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Secretary-General welcomes the signing of the Lusaka ceasefire agreement on the Democratic Republic of the Congo by the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie (RCD), which took place in Lusaka today.

The signing of the Agreement by the RCD, the Mouvement Liberation Congolais (MLC) and all governments concerned should clear the way for the timely implementation for the ceasefire agreement, enhance the peace and security of the region and facilitate the long-awaited international support towards national recovery.

The Secretary-General underlines the importance of ensuring the provision of food aid and the reestablishment of essential services such as health, safe water and education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He calls on all Government officials and rebel representatives to ensure safe and unhindered access for all United Nations and related personnel throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He also calls upon the donor community to respond generously to the humanitarian interagency appeal and resource mobilization for the peacekeeping and related efforts.

The Secretary-General commends the efforts of President Frederick Chiluba and all the other leaders concerned for the efforts they continue to make to peacefully resolve the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He reiterates his call on all belligerents to honour their commitment to implement the ceasefire and facilitate the early commencement of the national dialogue on the political future of the country. The Secretary- General stresses the readiness of the United Nations to continue to work closely with the regional countries and the Organization of African Unity in the common effort to bring a negotiated settlement of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

This is all I have for you today. Thank you so much. Have a pleasant afternoon.

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