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.
Hi. I want you to know I did my jury duty Thursday and Friday last week. They rejected me as a juror.
**African Summit on HIV/AIDS
The Secretary-General travelled over the weekend, heading for Abuja, Nigeria, where he will attend the African Summit on HIV/AIDS that will take place there Wednesday through Friday of this week. He overnighted in London. Today he is headed for his home country of Ghana for a personal visit, and he’ll go on to Abuja Wednesday morning.
**Summit of the Americas
Thirty-four leaders from the Western Hemisphere yesterday signed a summit agreement in Quebec, Canada, endorsing, among other things, a goal for reducing poverty that was first advanced by the United Nations’ Millennium Summit last fall. We welcome the commitment of the Summit of the Americas to halve the number of people living in poverty by the year 2015.
**United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Three locally-hired staff of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) appeared before a Kenyan court today. The three Kenyans had been arrested last Thursday and charged with extorting funds from refugees seeking resettlement and threatening UNHCR and United States Embassy officials.
The three appeared before the Chief Magistrate’s court in Nairobi during which charges against them were read. They pleaded “not guilty” to all charges. The judge requested until 11 a.m. tomorrow to consider the defence lawyer’s request for bond to be posted and the prosecutor’s objection to that request.
**Afghanistan
The Secretary-General’s Report on Afghanistan is out as a General Assembly and Security Council document today. In the report, which is scheduled to be discussed by the Security Council on Thursday of this week, the Secretary-General says that the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan has reached alarming proportions. He warns that conditions are liable to deteriorate further. He states that it should not be forgotten that the international community, having failed to remain engaged in Afghanistan, bears a large share of responsibility for the current plight. He urged donor states to contribute more. Over $250 million is required but only $85 million has been made available.
He says that while sanctions are not responsible for the current crisis, they have permeated the Afghan political discourse, being blamed by the Taliban
for the deteriorating situation. The Taliban has also used the sanctions as an argument to suspend participation in the United Nations-sponsored dialogue process agreed upon on 2 November.
Also on sanctions, the Secretary-General says that while effective and timely sanctions can prove useful in modifying the behaviour of certain errant regimes, they cannot be an end in themselves or a substitute for a comprehensive policy. He urges the international community to set clear objectives and develop a strategy to achieve them.
He concludes that the outlook for the next few months remains bleak.
**Security Council
This morning, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette opened the Security Council public meeting on the protection of civilians in armed conflict by saying that the protection of civilians must become a regular and central aspect of United Nations peace operations.
Noting the Secretary-General's recent report on this subject, Fréchette mentioned three priorities: the criminal prosecution of violations of international criminal law; the question of access to vulnerable populations; and the separation of civilians from armed elements in refugee camps and similar settlements.
The Secretary-General's new report offered 14 recommendations for the Security Council to consider, which are in addition to 40 recommendations included in a previous report on the protection of civilians that came out in September 1999.
Also speaking was High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, who said that tackling impunity at all stages of a conflict is essential to ensure that human rights standards are maintained. She noted that fact-finding missions can be useful in investigating human rights during armed conflicts, and also mentioned the role of human rights field officers.
Robinson also pointed out that the Secretary-General's report said that "corporate royalties have continued to fuel wars," and she said the United Nations has a role to play in promoting responsible behaviour by businesses in conflict zones.
We have copies of both those speeches in my office.
The public meeting is continuing right now with input from Member States, and it is expected to go on into the afternoon.
Tomorrow, the Council will have a private meeting to hear the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Georgia, Dieter Boden, and it has also scheduled consultations to consider the Secretary-General's latest report on Prevlaka.
**Middle East
This morning in Ramallah, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Terje Roed Larsen, met with Yasser Arafat, the President of the Palestinian Authority. The meeting, which was described as constructive, is part of the on-going work of the United Nations Special Coordinator.
While in Ramallah, Larsen also met with other senior Palestinian officials: Abu Mazen, Secretary-General of the Palestinian Liberation Organization; and Abu Alaa, the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Tonight Larsen is in Amman to see Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdelillah Al-Khatib, and Tuesday morning, he will travel to Damascus, Syria, to discuss the current situation with Farouk Al-Shara, the Foreign Minister.
Larsen’s regional political and diplomatic efforts are undertaken amid the dangerous new situation resulting from the recent renewed violence, including actions on different fronts. He has warned that the situation is close to a point where the violence threatens to spin out of control. The events of last week and of today have widespread regional implications, he said.
At the same time, Mr. Larsen noted that there are grounds for optimism and that it is possible to make progress. He said, “We must all ensure that the talking continues. No one can afford a regional conflict.”
**Committee on Exercise of Inalienable Rights of Palestinian People
On the racks today is a letter addressed to the Secretary-General from the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Ambassador Ibra Deguene Ka of Sénégal.
In the letter, the Committee draws to the attention of the Secretary-General the “dangerously rapid escalation in the past several days of military actions taken by the Israeli Defence Forces in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem.”
The Committee also urges the Secretary-General to “again intensify contacts with all the parties concerned in order to help bring the crisis to an end and restart the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.”
**Kosovo
The United Nations Mission in Kosovo reports that its work at tax collection centres in northern Kosovo was interrupted again today, as Kosovo Serbs protested the tax collection efforts in Mitrovica.
The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Kosovo, Hans Haekkerup, met this afternoon with Momcilo Trajkovic, the representative of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's Government Committee on Kosovo, to explain at length the difference between the taxes being collected by the United Nations and customs taxes. The United Nations taxes are sales tax and excise tax, designed to provide revenue for Kosovo's consolidated budget -- there are no customs imposed on goods travelling through the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
We have further details in today's briefing notes from Pristina.
Last Friday, United Nations police arrested a suspect in connection with last week's car bomb explosion in Pristina. Today, the police confirmed that the suspect is carrying a German passport, but no further details have been released at this stage. The United Nations investigation of the explosion is continuing.
**East Timor
Jose Ramos Horta today resigned from East Timor's National Council and returned to his previous post as Cabinet Minister for Foreign Affairs. Ramos Horta made the decision to return to his former post after the elections in the National Council on 9 April, in which Manuel Carrascalão became the Council's speaker after he and Ramos Horta tied on the first ballot.
In departing the National Council, Ramos Horta appealed to all East Timorese to support the presence of the United Nations in East Timor, noting that a United Nations role had been sought in East Timor during the 24-year independence struggle.
We have further notes in my office.
**International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia
On the racks today is a letter from the Secretary-General to the Security Council, transmitting the names of 60 candidates, submitted by Member States, for the 27 posts of "ad litem" judges, who are to serve for short-term periods on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
The Council is to consider the nominations and then transmit to the General Assembly a list of not fewer than 54 candidates, from which the Assembly would elect the 27 ad litem judges, who would serve for a non-renewable term of four years. The addition of the ad litem judges is designed to expedite the work of the Tribunal.
**United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
This past Saturday, Jan Pronk, chair of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC), gave a press briefing after an informal meeting with senior officials from 40 key countries, including 25 Environment Ministers. The meeting was held to take stock of the political situation since the suspension of negotiations in The Hague last November.
All countries at the meeting overwhelmingly supported resumed negotiations in Bonn in July, and a more inclusive, open-ended meeting may be held within a month in Sweden.
For more information you can contact Klomjit Chandrapanya, who is spokesman for climate change here in New York, on extension 9495.
**Mrs. Annan
Today in Istanbul, Turkey, Nane Annan, the Secretary-General’s wife, participated in the regional launch of "Say Yes For Children". That is a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) campaign.
In a speech she delivered to over 5000 people, she said: “When a baby is born, you can see the universe reflected in his or her clear eyes. For some, each breath will be an affirmation of the right to grow up free and strong, for others each breath will confirm their loss of possibilities.”
She added: “We are meeting today to give every child the right to dream, to grow up without fear and with a sense of dignity.”
Copies of her speech are available in my office.
**Press Releases
One press release to highlight for you today. It is from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). They are warning that tuberculosis cases in Africa can double over the next decade as a consequence of the spread of HIV/AIDS. Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, said that both TB and HIV should be addressed together and that reducing the transmission of HIV would reduce the TB epidemic.
**Secretary-General in Nickelodeon
And finally, the Secretary-General appears in the May issue of Nickelodeon magazine for children, an exclusive interview, and in it I found something new about him. He said that as a schoolboy, he had the nickname "demo". During that highly politicized time in Ghana's history, when it was going through the transition to independence, he apparently was always talking about democracy. And as there were two Annans in the school at the time, they called him Annan Demo, for democracy. Pick up the May issue of Nickelodeon if you are interested.
That is all I have for you.
**Questions and Answers
Question: Does the Secretary-General share Mr. Larsen’s view that there are grounds for optimism, and can you say what those grounds are?
Spokesman: There continues to be, as there were on Saturday of this weekend, contacts between security officials of the Palestinians and the Israelis. I think he feels as long as these contacts continue there is a chance that some agreement could be reached on restoring security, and eventually re-starting political dialogue. As you know, the Secretary-General has for a long time been urging that these security contacts continue.
Question: Does the fact that the Secretary-General gave an exclusive interview to Nickelodeon mean that the rest of us can get exclusive interviews as well during the next month?
Spokesman: As you know, we do have a long list of you waiting to interview him. In this case, I think he saw it as an opportunity to speak to young people, and he didn’t want to pass up on that.
Question: Do you expect additional arrests in Kenya, as the Secretary-General has said he would get to the bottom of this whole extortion situation? Are there any other investigations going on?
Spokesman: I think that the investigation by the Internal Oversight Office (OIOS) here at the United Nations is continuing. Barbara Dixon, the Head of Investigations for that office, is in Nairobi today. I think that nothing has changed: they intend to get to the bottom of it. I don’t know whether we will see other arrests or indictments, but we are working very closely with the Kenyan police.
Until we know all the details about this extortion scheme . . . or maybe I shouldn’t characterize it, seeing it is now in the court. But the allegations are a matter of record as of today, concerning the threats that these three are alleged to have made against the head of the UNHCR Regional Office in Kenya and two officials in the United States Embassy, one of whom is the Ambassador, and the money that they took from the refugees seeking resettlement. Those are the allegations. We’ll see what the court does with it.
Question: Is there any involvement of the United Nations in the process of Montenegro seeking independence from the former Yugoslavia?
Spokesman: No, that is considered an internal matter of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Question: Could you tell us what the Secretary-General is hoping to get out of the Abuja Summit?
Spokesman: That is contained in his speech, which is still being finalized. We’ll see if we can give you an embargoed copy of the speech before it is delivered. I don’t want to give you the contents of the speech before it is delivered, in case I give away any news value it might have.
Question: Would there be any chance of getting the Deputy Secretary-General down here tomorrow, so that we can do a set-up story from here for the Wednesday meeting?
Spokesman: I’ll be glad to ask her to see if we can arrange that.
Question: What are the prospects now for getting aid for Afghanistan to where it is needed? What is the situation on the ground like for aid?
Spokesman: UNHCR continues to try to get a significant amount of supplies into the camps in Pakistan, as well as to get additional funds to increase the aid to the displaced people inside of Afghanistan. They don’t have the money they need. They are not satisfied with their relief efforts to date. I think they are feeling overwhelmed, frankly. Anything further, you might ask the UNHCR office here. They will fill in the details for you.
Question: When you had to do your jury duty, were you asked where you worked, and if so, did that get you on or off jury duty?
Spokesman: I think it got me off. Standard procedure is that all prospective jurors are asked basic questions about where they work and where members of their household work. And I told them. The judge for the defence found me unacceptable as a juror.
Question: What kind of case was it?
Spokesman: I don’t think I am allowed to say.
Thank you very much.
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