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
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
Good afternoon.
**Middle East
Concerning the situation in the Middle East, the Secretary-General has been on the phone since this morning with leaders in the region and beyond. We will not have any statements from him until he's been able to establish for himself what exactly took place, as the result of these conversations.
As you know, on Saturday afternoon, Hizbollah personnel crossed the Blue Line into the Sheba Farms and fired at an Israeli tank. One Israeli soldier was killed and three injured. The Israeli Defense Forces retaliated immediately by hitting Hizbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
Late Sunday night, Israeli air force jets hit a Syrian radar installation in eastern Lebanon, killing three Syrian military.
Following Saturday’s attack, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for southern Lebanon, Steffan di Mistura, met with Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. That was at the request of the Secretary-General. Following the meeting, he issued a statement, characterizing the attack as a “clear infringement of resolution 425”, adding that the Blue Line had been “trespassed in a violent way”.
This morning, following the Israeli air strike, di Mistura held another meeting with a high-ranking Lebanese official, Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud. In a statement released afterwards, di Mistura said: “I had expressed yesterday the serious concern of the Secretary-General on the violent action which had taken place on Saturday across the Blue Line into the Sheba Farms. Today, the UN is equally very concerned by the Israeli Defense Forces’ escalatory response, which is also a violation of the Blue Line.” He added: “It is crucial that all parties concerned exercise at this stage maximum restraint in order to avoid any spiral of violence.”
Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East, Terje-Roed Larsen, met with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. He also met with the Jordanian Foreign Minister, Abdel Ilah al-Khatib, who is in Israel to officially present the joint Jordanian-Egyptian peace initiative. During the meeting, Larsen commended the Minister, on behalf of the United Nations, for his timely and constructive initiative.
**DRC - Report
Out today as a Security Council document is the report by the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The chair of the five-member Panel, Safiatou Ba-N’daw has just briefed you in this room.
The 56-page report, which will be discussed by the Security Council on Friday, concludes that the illegal exploitation of the mineral and forest resources of the Congo is taking place at an alarming rate, and offers a series of recommendations to the Council for consideration.
**DRC – Peace Process
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kamel Morjane, is meeting with ambassadors of the permanent members of the Security Council in Kinshasa today, a day after a group of 120 Moroccan peacekeepers were prevented from landing in Kisangani by the rebel group Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD). Morjane also met today with President Joseph Kabila.
**Slave Ship
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has set up a receiving centre in Cotonou, Benin, in collaboration with the Government and local non-governmental organizations, to receive the children aboard a vessel which has been allegedly transporting them as slaves. All UNICEF offices in the area are on alert, and UNICEF has got the agreement of the Government of Equatorial Guinea to allow the boat to dock, should it come ashore in that country.
An unknown number of children are reported to be aboard this vessel, which left Benin two weeks ago. Authorities in both Gabon and Cameroon turned the ship away and the ship has not been heard from in the last four days.
**Security Council
No Security Council meetings are scheduled for today. Tomorrow, the Council is expected to hold consultations to discuss the Secretary-General’s report on the protection of civilians in armed conflicts. A Secretariat update is also expected tomorrow on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
**ICTY
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia today welcomed the arrest by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)’s Stabilization Force (SFOR) yesterday of Dragan Obrenovic, a Bosnian Serb charged with crimes connected to the 1995 massacre in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica.
Carla Del Ponte, the Tribunal's Prosecutor, said that Obrenovic's detention, which is the first performed by the NATO troops since June 2000, is a welcome resumption of SFOR's assistance. Obrenovic was seized by SFOR soldiers yesterday and then transferred to the Tribunal's detention unit later in the day at The Hague, Netherlands. A date for his initial appearance before the Tribunal will be set in the coming days.
His indictment, signed by Del Ponte on 23 March, charges him with five counts of complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war. The indictment alleges that Obrenovic, as Deputy Commander of the Zvornik Brigade, participated in the detention and summary execution of more than 5,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica. We have a Tribunal press release on that.
**East Timor
Upon returning from West Timor, Indonesia, the Chief of Staff of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), N. Parameswaran, said today in Dili that “the main concern of the refugees who want to return is their personal security, and we were able to assure them that East Timor is stable and safe”. He added that “there were indications that some of the refugees had been instructed to ask questions of a political nature and question the result of the popular consultation”.
The Chief of Staff and staff from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), as well as UN civilian, military, and police personnel, visited refugee camps in West Timor last week. They were accompanied by the Indonesian military commander in the region, Major General William da Costa.
The visit, intended to hold a dialogue with the East Timorese refugees and inform them of the actual situation in East Timor, was described as very successful. Thousands of posters, brochures and other information materials were distributed among the refugees. The Chief of Staff also met with the Bishops of Kupang and Atambua, as well as pro-autonomy leaders.
To date, some 180,000 refugees have returned to East Timor; up to 100,000 are estimated to remain in West Timor. More details can be found in the Dili briefing.
**Angola
The Secretary-General's latest report on the work of the United Nations Office in Angola, covering events in that country since last October, is out on the racks today, and describes the continuation of fighting in many parts of Angola and a serious humanitarian situation there.
The report notes that the armed conflict in Angola has continued unabated, leaving much of the country insecure and displacing a reported 2.86 million people. At the same time, the Secretary-General welcomes the Angolan Government's reaffirmation of the Lusaka Protocol and its recent positive measures towards enhancing the peace effort.
The Secretary-General's Adviser for Special Assignments in Africa, Ibrahim Gambari, is continuing his consultations with the Angolan Government and other Member States on how the United Nations can help the peace process, and he will visit Angola in early May. Meanwhile, the Secretary-General recommends that the Security Council extend the mandate of the UN Office by another six months, until 15 October.
**Oceans
The Secretary-General's report to the General Assembly on oceans and the law of the sea is out today, and highlights the problems caused by over-fishing and the decline of the worldwide catch of fish. As competition for scarce resources continues unabated, the report says, the peaceful order of the oceans established by the Convention on the Law of the Sea may be threatened. The report also notes the expansion of the total world fleet of ships, the ageing of fishing vessels, and the increase in piracy and armed robbery committed at sea.
**Press Releases
A few press releases to flag for you today. The Commission on Sustainable Development begins its ninth annual session today, focusing on how to meet the world's increasing energy needs while protecting the environment. The two-week meeting, which concludes on the twenty-seventh of this month, includes informal consultations on the Kyoto Protocol on Saturday and the ministerial segment from 18 to 20 April. We have more information in a press release.
We have a press release from the Office of the United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan announcing National Immunization Days in Afghanistan from 17 to
19 April. The UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) have secured the agreement of the warring factions to respect a ceasefire and permit some
27,000 vaccinators and volunteers, as well as 6,000 supervisors, to carry out immunization of more than 5.l7 million children.
And finally, we have information from the Commission on Sustainable Development on a candlelight ceremony to honour United Nations staff who have lost their lives in the line of duty. The ceremony will take place tomorrow afternoon in Conference Room 3, and we have handouts with more information.
**DPI Announcement
Finally, the Department of Public Information (DPI) has asked me to announce that Zepherin Diabre, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Associate Administrator, will be joined by Jeffrey Sachs, the Harvard economist and Chair of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, and Dr. Ebrahim Samba, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, to report to the Economic and Social Council on "Health and Economics in Africa". Correspondents are invited to attend the session, which will take place in the ECOSOC Chamber from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. That's tomorrow. For more information, you can contact Laufey Love of the DPI on extension 3507.
That's all I have for you. Any questions, or are you all exhausted by the Congo report? David?
**Questions and Answers
Question: How is this blockage of peacekeepers in the Congo being characterized? Does it seem like just a hiccup, or is it the prelude to a bigger problem in this mission?
Spokesman: Well, we're hoping it's not a prelude to a bigger problem. We thought we had sorted out our disagreements, if you will, with this rebel group, which had asked us to investigate some government troop violations in the Kasai province, and then were unhappy with the speed with which we carried out that investigation. We tried to explain to them that getting the peacekeeping force deployed would certainly help us carry out future investigations more quickly. With that, we sent the plane in. But apparently they were not satisfied, so they refused it the right to land. We're trying to sort that out now. We hope it's just a hiccup. Yes?
Question: Do you have details on the mandate of this particular detachment of troops, what they were going to be doing in Kisangani?
Spokesman: Kisangani is one of the four bases from which the monitors will operate. The troops are there to provide a secure base from which the monitors can operate. Is there another question? Joe?
Question: I have a question about the member of the staff in Kosovo -- I think he was an information officer -- accused of genocide. Have you made any statement on this yet?
Spokesman: No, I think we had some information on that. He wasn't an information officer, he was a computer specialist and he was suspected of having informed the Interahamwe of the location of Tutsi members of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) working in Rwanda at the time of the genocide. He was working for the UNDP at that time. He slipped out of the net and then, I think, when he applied for a job in Kosovo, he falsified the application, not saying he had ever worked for the United Nations before. So we didn't pick up his name until, eventually, the investigators asked for him to be arrested. So, he has now been arrested, and we are looking for the legal basis, now, for an extradition to Rwanda.
Question: He also worked in Angola, I understand.
Spokesman: He worked in Rwanda, then -– I think you're right -– Angola, and then Kosovo.
Question: He used his real name throughout all this process?
Spokesman: As far as I know, he did.
Question: At what time did the UN know that he was suspected in involvement in betraying UN employees?
Spokesman: If you would check with me after the briefing, I may have more information in my Office. Yes? [He later said that the UNDP let him go in 1999 when allegation first surfaced of his involvement in the genocides.]
Question: The boat that is carrying hundreds of children from Africa belongs to which country?
Spokesman: I'm not sure. I'm not sure that we are the source of this information in any case. There have only been media reports that these children were sold by their families to become farm workers or servants. There was a businessman who was the intermediary. The press reports say that an international arrest warrant has been issued for the businessman responsible. As we said, Gabon and Cameroon both refused the return of the ship, and we haven't heard from it since. So it's either somewhere up or down the West African coast or it's put into a port, unreported. But we're trying to arrange for the safe return of these children to their parents. Lee?
Question: Do we know where the ships are registered?
Spokesman: I'm afraid I really don't have any more information than I've given you, and what I've given you was really on the basis of press reports rather than United Nations information. The gentleman in the front row?
Question: Steve Gutterman of the AP. So you don't know where the ship is? You said there was an agreement with Equatorial Guinea to ...
Spokesman: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is now making arrangements for the eventual safe return of the ship, if it is found and if it wants to go into a port pre-announced. But I think the concern is that they feel that that they've violated the law in selling these children into slavery and they may try to put in at a port unannounced. Yes?
Question: Any news on when the elections will be taking place in Kosovo?
Spokesman: We don't have a specific date. We've had a number of comments that we've reported in recent weeks, I think, of the intention to hold the elections by the end of this year. I don't think a specific date has been mentioned beyond that.
Question: Are they working on that?
Spokesman: Oh, yes. They are trying to establish the legal framework in which these elections can take place. The hope is they can happen before the end of the year. Yes?
Question: On the Congo report. As a rule, are these funded by the Secretariat budget, or by Member States or direct contributions?
Spokesman: Let me double-check. I assume it has come out of the regular budget and had not been budgeted as a separate line item, but would have been done through the Secretary-General. But let me double-check for you and confirm that after the briefing. [He later said that the study had been added as a separate line item in the regular budget.]
Thank you very much.
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