DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
20000622The following is a near-verbatim transcript of todays noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
**Noon Guest
Good afternoon everyone. Our guest today at the briefing will be Pino Arlacchi, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna and Executive Director for the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention. He will be joining us as we approach the end of this briefing.
**Secretary-Generals Travels
Let me start with the Secretary-Generals journey to the Middle East. Early this morning, he had a second meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, to discuss the outstanding issues between Israel and Lebanon, the withdrawal line. Both he and the Prime Minister had stated yesterday that they hoped to resolve this issue in the next day or two. They agreed that senior military officials, accompanied by United Nations peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), would travel to the Blue Line to inspect the remaining areas of contention. By the way, the same type of exercise happened yesterday with the Lebanese experts. So, returning to the Secretary-Generals meeting with the Prime Minister, they also agreed to streamline procedures for reporting alleged violations, and investigating them. The United Nations, the Secretary-General insisted, would make the final determination. The Secretary-General hoped that all outstanding issues would be able to be resolved before he leaves the Middle East by midday tomorrow.
The Secretary-General then travelled to Ramallah in the Palestinian territory to meet with Yasser Arafat, the President of the Palestinian Authority. President Arafat presented the Secretary-General with a medal, the Bethlehem 2000 Award, normally given to visiting heads of State. The Secretary-General briefed Arafat on the latest developments in southern Lebanon, and the two went on to discuss the state of the Middle East peace process. At a press encounter following the meeting, Mr. Arafat said the Palestinians just wanted full implementation of existing agreements, and he concluded by telling the Secretary- General that, we need you, we need your good offices, we need your efforts to move the peace process forward. The Secretary-General responded that the United Nations would continue to support mediation efforts by the United States in any way we can.
The Secretary-General then returned by vehicle to Amman, Jordan, from where he flew to Damascus, Syria, arriving in mid-afternoon. He met with Dr. Bashar Al- Assad, the Secretary-General of the Al-Baath Party, and the Syrian Foreign Minister, Farouk Al-Shara. This evening, he will be attending a working dinner hosted by the Foreign Minister.
Still on the Secretary-General travels, I announced yesterday that after the Middle East, he goes on to Europe. We now have the itinerary available upstairs.
Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 22 June 2000
**Security Council
The Security Council this morning began its work with a briefing in closed consultations by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Bernard Miyet, on recent developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mr. Miyet noted the closure on Tuesday, by the Congolese authorities, of the Kinshasa office of the neutral facilitator of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, former President Ketumile Masire of Botswana. President Laurent Kabila is reported to have ordered the closure, which represents a violation of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement. The United Nations has called on the Congolese Government to resume full cooperation with the neutral facilitator, as called for in Security Council resolution 1304 (2000).
Meanwhile, United Nations military observers have been monitoring the withdrawal of Rwandan and Ugandan forces from Kisangani, both of which have been seen moving to respective positions south and north of the city. However, it is difficult to confirm for now the complete withdrawal of troops given the terrain, which consists largely of dense jungle. One Congolese armed faction has continued to remain in Kisangani. However, although the situation in Kisangani remains tense, its described as improving. Also, the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) has reported restrictions on its observer team's movements in Mbandaka.
Following the discussion in the Council on the Congo, the Security Council will hold closed consultations on the Sudan, to consider a letter from the Sudan dated 1 June regarding sanctions imposed on that country in 1996. That resolution, 1054 of 26 April 1996, called on nations to reduce the number of Sudanese diplomatic personnel in their countries and to restrict travel by Sudanese officials unless the Sudanese Government extradited three men suspected of involvement in the assassination plot against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
**Sierra Leone
For the record, yesterday afternoon the Security Council concluded a private meeting with a six-member ministerial delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with a communiqué in which it noted that Council and ECOWAS committee members condemned the continued detention of United Nations personnel from the Indian contingent by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The two bodies jointly agreed to call for the unconditional release and freedom of movement of all detained or surrounded United Nations personnel. They also declared that the terms of the Lomé Agreement have been flouted by the violation of the ceasefire, the taking of hostages and attacks on the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). They urged that those responsible be brought to justice.
During the day-long private meeting, the ECOWAS delegation, led by Foreign Minister Modibo Sidibe of Mali, was told that the Security Council would soon be considering three draft resolutions on Sierra Leone. Those drafts deal with the UNAMSIL mandate; an embargo on diamonds; and the trial of Foday Sankoh. The overall security situation in Sierra Leone remains quiet but unpredictable. There has been no change in the condition of the 21 Indian peacekeepers detained at Pendembu or of the 222 Indian personnel and 11 military observers surrounded by the RUF at Kailahun. At a press conference today in Freetown, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, said in response to a question on the possible trial of RUF leader Foday Sankoh, that an official from the United Nations Legal Office was in Sierra Leone to assess the situation.
**Kosovo
Yesterday in Kosovo, there was an incident of rioting in which a crowd of Serbs in northern Mitrovica stoned and set fire to United Nations police vehicles and scuffled with police. The riot followed an effort by a United Nations patrol to arrest a group of Serbs who had been throwing stones at police cars in northern Mitrovica. In the incident that followed, United Nations police and members of the Kosovo Force (KFOR) fired warning shots after a crowd of some 300 to 400 Serbs turned violent and torched a United Nations police car. The United Nations police reported that shots were also fired by unidentified persons. The crowd then began to throw stones and set fire to other vehicles, and also moved on to the Albanian enclave in northern Mitrovica.
Ultimately, a total of two police vehicles were completely burned, and three other vehicles were destroyed. Ten other police cars were damaged. Nine United Nations police officers received minor injuries. Calm was restored by yesterday evening. The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is conducting further investigations of the incident.
**Lisbon Meeting on East Timor
In Portugal today, Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for East Timor, opened a two-day donor's meeting in Lisbon. In his speech, Mr. Vieira de Mello explained the humanitarian achievements of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET); the lessons learned and frustrations experienced; and plans for transition from relief to transitional administration.
In talking about lessons learned, Mr. Vieira de Mello said one of the most significant lessons weve learned is that a standard United Nations peacekeeping and peace-building mission, even with a substantive transitional administrative component, is not an ideal structure to undertake the broad and expansive role of government in East Timor. Regarding UNTAETs activities, he noted that UNTAET has been paying subsidies to more than 5,000 East Timorese on temporary contracts, who perform civil service-like functions, and the civil service training academy is now operating.
Employment generation activities for well over 30,000 people have been implemented in all districts through bilateral and multilateral quick-impact activities. He also noted that substantial progress had been made in establishing the rule of law and building a legal system, a judiciary as well as institutions for economic governance. He also pointed out that it is the first time the United Nations has attempted such an ambitious international nation-building effort, and stressed that the international community has "the unique opportunity and the responsibility to get the development of a country right, from the beginning". Copies of his speech are available in our Office.
HIV/AIDS
The fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic in developing countries has been mostly perceived as an urban problem, but the absolute numbers of people living with HIV are actually increasing rapidly in many rural areas. That is stated in the report of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The publication is called Sustainable Agricultural/Rural Development and Vulnerability to the AIDS Epidemic. Both the FAO and UNAIDS called on governments to pay more attention to the real burden of HIV/AIDS on local communities and to ensure that rural development also aims at combating the epidemic. We have a press release available in our Office upstairs.
**International Anti-Drug Day
Also available on the racks today is the text of the Secretary-Generals message on the occasion of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which is Monday, 26 June. We have Pino Arlacchi as our guest today, who will be talking about that
**International Day of Support of Victims of Torture
Also available on the racks is the Secretary-Generals message on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, which will also be observed on Monday, 26 June. In that message, the Secretary-General says, Its not only one of the vilest acts that one human being can inflict on another, it is also among the most insidious of all human rights violations.
**Olympic Day
We also have available in our Office, with copies in English, Spanish and French, a joint message by the Secretary-General and the President of the International Olympic Committee, on the occasion of Olympic Day, which is tomorrow, Friday, 23 June.
**Balkans Press Conference
Id like to announce that tomorrow, following his briefing to the Security Council, Carl Bildt, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Balkans, will hold a press conference in this room.
**UNCA Directory Launch
And finally, UNCA has asked us to let you know that theyll be launching today their millennium edition of their UNCA directory. That will be at 5:30 p.m. in the UNCA Club, and everyone is invited to attend.
**Questions and Answers
Question: Could you tell us what preceded the riots in Mitrovica?
Answer: The only information I have is the one I gave you. Thats the report we got this morning. I dont have more.
Question: I think thats the second half of the information, because maybe Serbs are rioting against further ethnic cleansing. Thats the one Serbian enclave where Serbs still live in Kosovo.
Answer: Thank you.
Question: Do you know where Mr. Masire is right now, the neutral facilitator in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
Answer: No, I do not.
Question: What is the latest development in the Congo? In what form did the United Nations condemn Mr. Kabilas action? Are there documents?
Answer: We acknowledged the violation of the resolution and its been reported to the Council. We are briefing the Council.
Question: Some months ago, the Vice-President of the United States came to us and said some $150 million would be given for AIDS research. What happened to that money? Did we receive it?
Answer: Projects have been funded, and I can present information on those to you.
Question: When does Mr. Miyets replacement arrive here?
Answer: On 1 October.
Question: Where is the Secretary-General on Friday evening?
Answer: He should be in Basel.
Question: What time does he arrive?
Answer: I cant give you that because he will not be on a commercial flight.
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