DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

**Briefing Guest John Ruggie

Our guest today is John Ruggie, Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser to the Secretary-General, who will make an announcement concerning the next steps in the Secretary-General's plan for a Global Compact with corporations, unions and private groups. Hello, John, come right up.

In that connection, the United Nations issued internal guidelines today governing its relations with the business community. These were deemed necessary as United Nations contact with corporations has increased dramatically, particularly in the context of the Global Compact. These guidelines provide a useable framework to guide the Organization's dealings with the private sector.

We have copies of them at the side of this room as well as in my office.

**Security Council

This morning, the Secretary-General opened a Security Council public meeting on the prevention of armed conflicts. He said, "Prevention is multidimensional. It is not just a matter of putting in place mechanisms such as early warning, diplomacy, disarmament, preventive deployment or sanctions -- necessary though all these may be. Effective prevention has to address the structural faults that predispose a society to conflict."

Twenty-nine countries have signed up to speak during the meeting chaired by Jamaican Foreign Minister Paul Robertson.

The Council is expected to adopt the longest-ever presidential statement. I understand it's seven pages single-spaced; if you want to know, the previous longest statement was issued on the “Agenda for Peace”, which was about five pages.

**Diamonds

The five-member panel named last week to monitor the implementation of sanctions against UNITA, including a ban on diamonds from UNITA-controlled areas in Angola, is holding its first organizational meeting at UN Headquarters today.

Meanwhile, Canadian Ambassador Robert Fowler, the chairman of the Angola sanctions committee who attended the just-concluded World Diamond Congress in Antwerp, Belgium, is expected to brief the Council possibly as early as

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tomorrow, and we hope to have him talk to you as soon as he finishes briefing the Council.

The Secretary-General, in his address to the Council this morning, praised Council-imposed diamond bans, saying that he hoped that the diamond bans will from now on be more strictly enforced, and that dealers will respond by cleaning up their business. He added, "Greed may be one of the driving forces behind some of today's armed conflicts, but we are not helpless in confronting it."

**UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) today called on the Group of Eight wealthy countries attending the Okinawa Summit to show resolve and leadership on AIDS by radically stepping up their spending to fight the disease.

"Rich countries can rewrite the history of the epidemic by taking a decisive stand against AIDS and committing more resources to fighting it", said Dr. Peter Piot, the Executive Director of UNAIDS.

The call comes in the aftermath of the 13th International AIDS Conference held last week in South Africa and the resolution adopted this week by the Security Council reiterating its concern about the spread of HIV/AIDS and drawing attention to the risk posed by an unchecked epidemic to stability and security.

We have a press release with more details.

**Afghanistan

Erick de Mul, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan, has returned to Islamabad from Kabul -- there was a question on that yesterday. Mr. de Mul traveled to Kabul in an attempt to reverse a Taliban edict banning Afghan women from working with the United Nations and non-governmental organizations. During his stay, he had meetings with the Council of Ministers on Sunday and Monday. Not all of the relevant Ministers were present. At a meeting held early Thursday, the Taliban asked for more time to provide a firm answer on the issue.

De Mul asked the Taliban to provide him with an answer in one week's time.

He will meet with his United Nations colleagues Friday -- that's tomorrow -- to consult with them regarding the latest developments, and he is prepared to return to Kabul for more discussions.

To recap, de Mul had traveled last week to Kandahar where he had received positive signals from the Taliban foreign minister. He traveled then to Kabul to discuss the issue further with the Ministry of Planning, which had issued the edict.

We are very concerned about the edict's impact on the delivery of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan.

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**Mitrovica

In Mitrovica, in Kosovo, the 24-year-old Serb, whose arrest on Monday had sparked three nights of disturbances, has been released by authorities.

Dalibor Vukovic appeared in front of an Albanian judge this morning and charges of robbery and arson were presented against him by an international prosecutor. Having no previous criminal record and after promising to report to any subsequent hearing, he was freed on his own recognizance.

Full UNMIK police patrols have now resumed in northern Mitrovica.

**Iraq Programme

We have a note from the Iraq Programme saying, among other things, that the Secretary-General has now received the Distribution Plan for Phase Eight of the “Oil-for-Food” Programme. The plan arrived on the weekend; the annexes came in yesterday. The plan proposes spending just over $7 billion on the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people, including $600 million on the oil sector.

You can get that and additional details in my office.

**Togo Inquiry

You'll recall that on 7 June we announced the establishment of a Joint United Nations-Organization of African Unity (OAU) Commission of Inquiry on alleged human rights violations in Togo. Following that announcement, one of the members of the Commission, Amadou Ould-Abdallah of Mauritania, withdrew. He will now be replaced, it was announced today, by Issaka Souna of Niger, who joins Mahamat Hassan Abakar of Chad and Paulo Sergio Pinheiro of Brazil.

The three-member Commission will hold its first meeting in Geneva from the 31st of July to the 4th of August, when it will adopt its plan of work.

**Millennium Exhibit

Today at 6:30 in the evening, in the Visitor's Lobby of this building, the Secretary-General will officially open "Our World in the Year 2000: The United Nations Millennium Art Exhibition". Open to the public until the 28th of August, the exhibit showcases 130 winning and selected paintings from the Winsor and Newton Worldwide Millennium Painting Competition, the largest international art competition ever held. And that is in aid of the United Nations Chidren's Fund (UNICEF).

Members of the Press are invited to attend a media event at 4:30, during which you will have an opportunity to meet and interview some of the artists, including the winner of the competition, who is Ramon Piaguaje, a Secoyan Indian from Ecuador.

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The Secretary-General's remarks, as well as a background note on the Exhibit, are available in our office. For further information, you can contact Valerie Hampton-Mason on extension 5150.

**Miscellaneous

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees today issued an appeal for $8.4 million for its emergency assistance programme for 300,000 people forced from their homes by civil strife in three provinces of Angola -- Uige, Zaire and Luanda. You can pick up a press release for more details.

Journalists are invited to an informal briefing, in connection with the Economic and Social Council's Humanitarian Segment, that's today from 1:15 to 2:45 in Conference Room 6, on the use of space technology in the response to natural disasters.

And then tomorrow morning at 9, in the Delegates Dining Room, the World Health Organization will hold a breakfast briefing on "Tobacco Control -- the social and economic factors". That will be chaired by the Ambassador of Japan, Kiyotaka Akasaka. Journalists who are interested should reserve a seat at the breakfast table with Soon-Young Yoon, extension 3902.

**Budget Matters

Lebanon became the 102nd Member State to be paid in full for its year 2000 dues for the regular budget. That was a check for $168,000.

**Reminder

And a reminder that at 12:30, or as soon as John finishes, Carolyn McAskie, the Deputy Relief Coordinator, will be joined by Paul Grossrieder, Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross, to launch the report "Humanitarian Action in the 21st Century".

That's what I have for you, any questions before we go to John?

**Questions and Answers

Question: About the Angola sanctions, you said it was a first-ever meeting. Is that meeting here?

Spokesperson: Yes this is the panel to implement the UNITA sanctions, it's holding its first organizational meeting at United Nations Headquarters today.

Question: Do you know what time?

Spokesperson: No, it's not in this note. But we can find out for you and let you know. Any other questions?

Question: Just curious -- on that UNAIDS thing that you read, asking for $3 billion, it comes one day after the United States is considering $1 billion,

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in huge stories on the front page, for subsidizing drug companies, and other things, and it doesn't even mention it.

Spokesperson: I don't know. I don't monitor all of their press releases. I don’t know if they welcome the plan or whether it's not firm enough yet in terms of the United States bureaucratic process. But I'm sure once that billion dollars from the United States is firm it will be warmly welcomed by UNAIDS.

Okay, John, welcome.

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