DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
| Press Briefing |
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.
Welcome to the 24 news broadcasters from all five continents visiting here today. Nice to have you. Good afternoon. We have a trip to announce.
**Secretary-General’s Trip
The Secretary-General will be going to Abuja, Nigeria, on 26 and 27 April to address the African Summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Related Infectious Diseases. The Summit is organized by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the Nigerian Government, and will be attended by African heads of State, heads of United Nations agencies and private sector executives.
**Security Council
The Security Council is holding consultations this morning on Afghanistan and Burundi. On Afghanistan, Council members were briefed by John Renninger, the Director of the Asia-Pacific Division of the Department of Political Affairs. Then, Kieran Prendergast, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, briefed Council members on recent political developments, and on the security and humanitarian situation in Burundi.
Under other matters, Council members are expected to be briefed by the Mali delegation on the summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that was held this week in Abuja.
**Kosovo
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Kosovo, Hans Haekkerup, joins KFOR in its condemnation of the death of a Russian soldier yesterday afternoon in Kosovo. The KFOR said that the Russian soldier had come under small arms fire from unknown attackers while conducting a boundary-marking operation along the Kosovo-Serbian boundary, north-west of the Kosovo village of Zuja.
The KFOR said today that the Russian soldier was the first KFOR soldier to be deliberately targeted and killed as direct result of hostile action.
**Sierra Leone
The Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), Lieutenant-General Daniel Opande, went to the north central town of Makeni today to meet with the interim leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Issas Sesay. They will be discussing the upcoming deployments to Makeni and Magburaka, as part of the United Nations’ operation to deploy into RUF-controlled areas.
**Rwanda Tribunal
The Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Bernard Muna, has decided not to renew his current one-year contract when it expires on 21 May. Mr. Muna told Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who is visiting the Tribunal's headquarters in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania, that he does not intend to extend his tenure as Deputy Prosecutor, which has lasted for four years. Ms. Del Ponte is beginning a search for his successor; as you know, the Secretary-General appoints the Deputy Prosecutor on the recommendation of the Prosecutor.
Ms. Del Ponte's visit to Arusha, which is to last until the end of this week, includes working-level meetings with Tribunal officials, and follows a visit to Rwanda, where she met on Monday in Kigali with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Mr. Kagame and other senior Rwandan officials reiterated their commitment, made last December, to cooperate with the Tribunal and assist its investigations, including those of members of the former Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the rebel movement which took control of the country in the summer of 1994.
No RPF officials have been indicted by the Prosecutor, although Ms. Del Ponte is proceeding with investigations into allegations that some RPF members may have committed atrocities in Rwanda in 1994.
**Commission on Human Rights
We have a few items from the ongoing session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.
The Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination and Xenophobia, Maurice Glele-Ahanhanzo, will visit Australia at the invitation of the Australian Government from 22 April to 10 May. A press release from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is available upstairs with more details on that trip. This is the first such visit by a Special Rapporteur since last August, when Australia had said it would no longer cooperate with United Nations human rights investigators, claiming it was being singled out for criticism.
Also available upstairs from the Commission is a draft resolution on the situation of human rights in China, introduced last night by the United States, as well as a draft resolution introduced today and co-sponsored by Norway, New Zealand, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Canada on the situation in Chechnya.
We also have copies of the speech delivered to the Commission this morning by Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Mohamed Said Al-Sahaf.
**Prevlaka
The latest report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP) has gone to the Security Council, and we have copies of it available upstairs.
In it, the Secretary-General notes that the Prevlaka peninsula, which is located between Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, remains calm. However, he says, "despite positive indications at the beginning of the year, the parties unfortunately did not take advantage of the prevailing calm to move towards a political settlement of their dispute".
He urged the parties to resume their discussions, and said he intends to explore ways of moving the political process forward before the United Nations Mission's present mandate expires on 15 July.
**Secretary-General on Outer Space
The Secretary-General has issued a message to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight and the twentieth anniversary of the launch of the first United States space shuttle today.
In his message, the Secretary-General notes that "outer space was once seen as a potential source of conflicts. But, happily, it has become a source of cooperation". He says that many scientific achievements in outer space were possible because scientists from different countries worked together, and discusses the many ways that the exploration of outer space has revolutionized life on earth. We put the message on the Web site yesterday, and copies are available in my Office.
**Commission on Sustainable Development
On Monday, the Commission in Sustainable Development will begin its two-week annual session. The main issues will be energy, atmosphere and transport. A two- day dialogue on energy and transport with the private sector and non-governmental organizations will be held on Monday through midday Wednesday. For the rest of the week, some 40 environment ministers will attend the high-level segment. The Chairman, Professor Bedrich Moldan of the Czech Republic, will give a press conference on Friday, 20 April, at 1:30 p.m.
**Press Release
A press release today announces new recommendations issued jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) on the testing of genetically modified organisms. The recommendations aim to protect consumers who suffer from food allergies by making available more information on the ways genetically modified foods can affect those allergies.
**UNCA Announcement
The United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) has asked me to announce that Dr. Ebrahim Samba, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, will meet correspondents on Monday in the morning, 11:30 a.m., in the UNCA Club for a briefing on the situation in the region. Nothing more specific than that.
We have the Week Ahead for you. I won’t read any of the elements. You can pick up copies in my Office. That’s all I have for you before we begin a three-day weekend, by the way.
**Questions and Answers
Question: Do you know the real reason why Mr. Muna does not want to extend his contract?
Spokesman: No. We didn't get an explanation this morning. Maybe he is just tired after four years.
Question: What day did you say the Secretary-General returns from the Africa trip?
Spokesman: Well, 26th, 27th, we didn’t say when he returns. It's just a quick in and out. Check with Manoel of my Office. He will be going with the Secretary-General. I assume it would be something like the 28th that he will be coming back. [It will likely be the 27th or the 28th.]
Question: Yesterday, you mentioned the Secretary-General was going to try to deliver a message to the leaders of China. Was that transmitted? Was there a response? If so, is there going to be contact?
Spokesman: I'll have to double check. I am pretty sure the message was transmitted. I don’t think there was a response, but let me get back to you after the briefing. [We assume it was transmitted by the Ambassador. There was no need for reply.]
Question: There was a Security Council meeting for Macedonia and the result was a presidential announcement. Will there be any resolution on that question?
Spokesman: You'd have to ask the Council that question. I don’t know. We call it the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia here in United Nations circles or FYROM for short, but I don’t know if they expect to do anything else.
Question: Following yesterday's Secretary-General statement on the Middle East situation, is he considering any greater role to try to push towards getting back to the table? It just seems like the will is not there despite all the statements that are coming out. It is pretty much entrenched on both sides. Is he considering any greater role to try to get involved?
Spokesman: I think all he has is the bully pulpit right now and he is using it as best as he can. I don’t think he envisages any fresh role for himself. The security leaders of both the Israelis and the Palestinians did meet in the United States Embassy in Tel Aviv yesterday. That is a good sign, but, of course, yesterday he said that is not enough. I think he'll continue to work quietly to try to nudge both sides to do whatever they can to reduce tensions beyond the meeting of this security mechanism that the United States helped set up.
Question: You said something like the United States has taken China on in human rights last night, was it?
Spokesman: Yes. That was in Geneva. The Commission on Human Rights. The United States put forward a draft resolution for consideration by the Commission as a whole on the subject of China.
Question: Was it something to do with the plane and all that?
Spokesman: No. At least, you'd have to ask the United States what motivated them to do it, but this, I think, has been in the works for some time. I am not aware of any direct link with the airplane incident.
Question: I don’t know if you brought this up last week. I read somewhere. Didn’t the United Nations' human rights investigator on the Middle East or the territories or Israel, Giacomelli. I think, did he resign? Do you know anything about that?
Spokesman: I don’t know. I'll have to check. [Giorgio Giacomelli submitted his resignation on 28 March.]
Question: The meeting Saturday on the sidelines of the CSD related to Kyoto, it is going to be off-site. I believe it is under the auspices of the United Nations. What are the media arrangements for that, specifically for television?
Spokesman: I am not aware, but check with me after the briefing. We'll find out for you. Happy three-day weekend. Yes, one last question in the back? [There will be a photo op.]
Question: What are the prospects for peace in the Congo? Are we likely to get any peace without addressing the security concerns of Rwanda and Uganda? And also, the issue of the Interahamwe, which is alleged to have committed a lot of crimes in Rwanda. Are we likely to get these criminals arrested and brought before the international crimes Tribunal?
Spokesman: I think the people on our side who are dealing with that are well aware of the security concerns of Rwanda and Uganda, and particularly of Rwanda's concerns about the Interahamwe militia that are in the Congo today. So, it is part of a very big package that we are trying to address politically. The agreement though, among the parties, is to pull out all foreign troops and for Congolese government troops also to pull back from their positions with the United Nations monitoring that pull back.
That is the stage that we are at now. We are encouraged by the direction that that is going. All the signs right now are good. We hope that that process will continue and that then the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) can get the inter-Congolese dialogue going again, which will be very important, eventually have elections and lead to, eventually, the stabilization of the Congo, which will, we feel, help to stabilize the whole region.
Question: Can you be more specific about what time last night the United States draft resolution on China was introduced?
Spokesman: No. I don’t have that. If we don't know upstairs, we can call Geneva before the three-day weekend. Six o'clock. We hope someone will pick up the phone. [In fact, it was introduced in the afternoon.]
Question: Do we have a date on the report on the DRC going public?
Spokesman: We announced that it would happen on Monday. You asked can we arrange for a briefing. We have been talking to the Chairwoman of the panel. We haven't yet finalized an arrangement with her to come before you on Monday. She will be briefing the Security Council on the report only on Friday of next week, although the Council will get the report on Monday. We are still talking to her about the timing of her appearance before you, and we've conveyed your interest in
speaking to her on Monday because we assume you'll be writing your stories on Monday.
Question: When we will we get the report?
Spokesman: We will give it to you on Monday. Once, as with all these reports, once we have been told that all Council members have received their copies, then we'll share it with you.
Question: Following on a question regarding the United States draft to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, were there any co-sponsors?
Spokesman: I am just not aware. I just don’t have these details. These things happen in Geneva. We'll see whatever we get. Check with Stephan of my office who deals with Geneva on these matters, and anything he doesn't know, he will try to get out of Geneva for you, but move quickly because they'll be shutting down. [There were none.]
Question: Are there any indications or any time frames which are working towards the dialogue in the DRC?
Spokesman: The inter-Congolese dialogue? That’s really a matter for the parties to decide. I think the Government has said that they want the withdrawal of all foreign troops to take place first before they begin the internal political process. We are encouraging them to move as quickly as possible on all fronts because we think it is important.
Thank you very much.
* *** *