DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

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

**Secretary-General Leaves Amman; Arrives in Zurich

The Secretary-General left Amman, Jordan, this morning and arrived a few hours ago in Zurich, Switzerland.  Last night, in the margins of the Arab League Summit in Amman, he met for 45 minutes with the President of Syria, Bashar Al-Assad.  They discussed the Summit itself, the Middle East peace process, including the Syrian track, the situation in Lebanon and the question of Iraq. After a dinner hosted by Jordan's King Abdullah II, the Secretary-General met with the Defence Minister of Saudi Arabia, His Royal Highness Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz.

This evening in Zurich, the Secretary-General is expected to address some 2,000 members of the Swiss business community.  His message, in short, will be,  "A global market requires global corporate citizenship".  You can get embargoed copies of the full speech in my Office.

After that, he will attend a dinner hosted by Credit Suisse, a large Swiss-based banking firm that is also a participant in the Global Compact.  About

60 business leaders will attend that dinner, and the Secretary-General will respond to their questions.  Tomorrow morning, he will leave by train for the Swiss capital, Bern, to begin an official visit.

**Somalia

Late last night in Mogadishu, two of the six UN international staff who had been abducted earlier on Tuesday -- Jonathan Veitch of the United Kingdom and Sheldon Yett of the United States, both of whom work for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) -- were released.  Also released with them were a Somali staff member of UNICEF and four staff members of Médecins sans frontières (MSF): two Spanish, one French and one Somali national.

The three UNICEF staff members and four MSF staff members had been part of a group that was seized following an attack Tuesday morning by a Somali militia group on the MSF compound in north Mogadishu.  The United Nations staff were part of a joint UNICEF-World Health Organization (WHO) effort to immunize Somali children against polio and cholera.

Four United Nations international staff members remain abducted, including two UK nationals, one French and one Belgian.  They are believed to be held by a faction led by Musa Sudi Yalahow.  The United Nations has been in contact with Musa Sudi, and has appealed to all parties to help release its staff as soon as possible.

**Security Council

At about 11 o’clock last night, the Security Council voted on a draft resolution on the establishment of a United Nations observer force to protect

Palestinian civilians.  It was sponsored by the seven Non-Aligned Movement members of the Council.  Though the resolution did get nine votes in favour, it was rejected as a result of the veto cast by United States.

France, Ireland, Norway, and the United Kingdom abstained; Ukraine decided not to participate in the vote.  Council members voted on the draft resolution sponsored by the Non-Aligned Movement after no agreement was reached on a compromise text that Council members had been working on since last week.

The Council has not scheduled any meeting for today, you’ll be glad to know. Although we do not yet have tomorrow’s programme, indications are that they will be discussing Guinea-Bissau, Bougainville and Somalia. 

**Kosovo

The United Nations Mission in Kosovo informed us today that the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Hans Haekkerup, visited Skopje, the capital of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), yesterday, where he met with Javier Solana, the European Union's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy.  Mr. Haekkerup and Mr. Solana stressed the need for a political solution in FYROM, and the Special Representative also brought up the problem of the closing of the border crossings between FYROM and Kosovo.

Those border crossings remain closed to all non-United Nations and non-Kosovo Force vehicles.  The Mission reports that essential drugs and other supplies have been arriving in Kosovo through alternate routes, but fuel supplies are running low.  Yesterday, in response to the fuel shortages, the United Nations Mission began to ration its own use of fuel.

Mr. Haekkerup expects to return to Skopje on Friday, when he intends to meet with senior FYROM government authorities on recent tensions, the border-crossing issue and other matters of mutual concern.

**Bosnia and Herzegovina

In Sarajevo today, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Julian Harston, and the Commissioner of the United Nations International Police Task Force, Vincent Coeurderoy, met with a visiting ministerial delegation from the European Union to discuss the United Nations Mission's efforts to deal with illegal migration and human trafficking.

The United Nations officials said that the best way to tackle human trafficking, smuggling and related corruption is to complete the establishment of Bosnia's State Border Service as soon as possible.  The establishment of the State Border Service is well under way, with the Service now controlling approximately 62 per cent of the country’s 1,666-kilometre border.  The Service is expected to be in full control of Bosnia's borders by next year, when it will employ approximately 2,700 personnel.

**East Timor

Late this afternoon Dili time, Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao sent a letter to the Special Representative of the Secretary General, Sergio Vieira de Mello, informing him of his resignation as Speaker of the East Timor National Council. Asked in Dili for reactions, Mr. Vieira de Mello said he had not yet spoken with Mr. Gusmao and, therefore, had no reactions at this time.

Also today in Dili, Mr. Vieira de Mello met a group of former pro-Indonesia East Timorese leaders, who arrived in East Timor for a two-day visit.  They will meet the East Timorese leadership and civil society representatives to further the reconciliation process.  The visit, the first since September 1999 for some members of the delegation, follows the last reconciliation meeting held in Surabaya, Indonesia, last December.

Mr. Vieira de Mello laid out the United Nations Mission’s position that all refugees are welcome to return, but that there will be no amnesty for crimes committed in 1999 and that suspects will face the East Timorese justice system, namely, the Special Panel for Serious Crimes.  More details are available in the briefing note from Dili, which you can get in my Office.

**Guatemala

The United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala –- MINUGUA -– is launching later today their verification report on Guatemalan women and the exercise of their civil and political rights.  The report notes that women in Guatemala exercise their rights in conditions of inequality due to discrimination, lack of resources, long working hours, which include house chores, and low level of education. 

Though weak, the participation of women, the report says, has succeeded in some positive action, such as those in the field of health, access to land, anti-violence, and gender-sensitive legislation.  The report and its summary are available in Spanish only.  Copies embargoed until 7 p.m. tonight, and you can get them upstairs.

**United Nations Development Programme

Mark Malloch Brown, the Administrator for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), is travelling to the Netherlands, where he will meet with the Dutch Minister for International Cooperation, Eveline Herfkens, in The Hague tomorrow. He will then travel to Switzerland, where on Friday he will be the keynote speaker at a meeting of Special Representatives of the Secretary-General, held in Mont-Pelerin, which the Secretary-General will also attend.

**Signings

At about this time, Argentina will become the forty-first country to sign the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. Yesterday afternoon, China deposited an instrument of ratification to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, becoming the  148th country to ratify the Covenant. 

That is all I have for you.  Any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  On Somalia, in the communication with the faction that is responsible for the abduction of the United Nations and other international folks, was there any reason given as to why they released two and held on to the others. And in what conditions are those being held, being held?

Spokesman:  No, we do not have any information like that.  Those that were released, that is the United Nations staff that were released, are being brought to Nairobi.  I think they should have arrived by now.  So we hope that once we get a chance to speak to them, we will get a better sense of what the situation is back in Mogadishu with those who are still being held.  We are hopeful that the release of the remaining four can take place soon.

Question:  Would you characterize this communication as a negotiation?

Spokesman:  No, I don’t think so.  I mean negotiation over what?  Please release our people?  No, we are talking to them and everyone else about getting them released unharmed and unconditionally.

Question:  What was the purpose of the meeting between the Secretary-General and the Saudi Defence Minister?

Spokesman:  He had wanted to speak with the Saudi delegation.  They had tried, I think, earlier in the day and had failed.  I don’t think there is any particular significance to the fact that it was the Defence Minister.  He is also the Deputy Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, so it was for a general review of primarily Middle East subjects.

Question:  Aside from the list of topics in the meeting with Bashar and Arafat, was there any read out on the mood, any outcome of prospects on the Syria track, movement in the Middle East peace process, etc.?

Spokesman:  I didn’t get any of those nuanced details from the meeting.  The read-out I got is pretty much what I have just given you.

Question:  With Somalia, will there be a freeze on United Nations people going in there now?  Do you think that United Nations is in extra danger?

Spokesman:  As I mentioned yesterday, we did what we thought was a thorough security assessment before sending these people in.  I think, clearly, this incident will lead to a fresh assessment.  I can’t predict what the outcome will be, but I can assure you we will be taking a fresh look at the security situation in Mogadishu.

Question:  In terms of negotiation, in the contact that we’ve had with the faction, have they indicated why these people have been taken?  What their reasons are?

Spokesman:  No.  I mean, we suspect that it might have had something to do with clan warfare -- with the relations between the warlords and the transitional government.  I mean these are some of the things that we speculate about but we don’t really know.

Question:  Mr. Annan met with Iraqi Vice-President Izzat Ibrahim and, during his speech, he mentioned that new meetings would be held in May with the Iraqis. Does this mean that there is some sort of positive gesture by Iraq and that some solution could happen to this deadlock?

Spokesman:  I think that it is too early to predict how this current exchange will come out.  When they met for the first time in February, the intention was to break the deadlock between Iraq and the Security Council.  The Secretary-General agreed to be a go-between and get unrestricted talks under way. At the end of those meetings in February, they agreed that they would probably meet again in late April, early May.

I suspect at this meeting in Amman, they decided on specific dates in early May.  Although, I don’t think that we are ready to announce them yet.  So, it is still the beginning of a process and we can always hope that it will end well, but we are not in a position to predict that it will.

Question:  Also, in his speech, he mentioned that Iraq must comply with the United Nations resolutions and allow the inspectors to return to Baghdad.  Has any thing been said about the United Nations’ willingness to compromise?  Is there anything that the United Nations might give back to Iraq in exchange for allowing the inspectors to head back to Baghdad?

Spokesman:  Well, the Secretary-General doesn’t want to get into a bargaining position.  Basically, the Security Council’s position is well known and it’s laid out in the relevant resolutions, and that has to be the Secretary-General’s bottom line.

If Iraq indicates any willingness to resume cooperation with the Council, the Secretary-General will go back to the Council and say, here’s what they are saying.  Whether that could eventually result in some kind of indirect exchange between the two, to work out some modus vivendi, or what that would be, I can’t predict.  It is still too early in the process.

Thank you very much.

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