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

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

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of the noon briefing by Marie Okabe, Associate Spokeswoman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon. I’m sorry I’m a little late.  The Spokesman and the Deputy Spokesman are away today, so I’m filling in.

**Guest at Noon

We will be joined today by Jacques Diouf, the Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), who will be coming from a high-level panel discussion, which he is co-hosting this morning on “Agriculture and Sustainable Food Security in Africa: Meeting Basic Needs”.  He’ll talk to you about that discussion, and FAO’s commitment to fight hunger and poverty in Africa.

**International Committee of Red Cross

I have a statement, attributable to the Spokesman, on the incident involving the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) workers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Secretary-General was greatly distressed to learn of the brutal murders yesterday of six humanitarian workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross on the road between Djugu and Fataki in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, some 40 miles north of Bunia.  The four national and two international ICRC staff were on their way to deliver medicines to a health centre in the area.

This tragic incident underscores the dangers facing relief organizations, whose operating principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality are once again being so willfully flouted.  The Secretary-General extends his deepest condolences to the ICRC and to the families of the victims.

The Secretary-General reiterates his urgent appeal to all parties in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to ensure full and secure access to vulnerable populations. 

The Secretary-General also calls upon the responsible authorities to investigate this vicious attack and bring those responsible to justice.

The Security Council will have a minute of silence at the opening of the public meeting in memory of those killed.

**Security Council

The Security Council this morning began its consultations with a short briefing on Angola by Ibrahim Gambari, the Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Africa, on UNITA activities in the Uige province of Angola.

The Council then had discussions on the Secretary-General’s report on the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and decided to move into a formal meeting after consultations to vote on a resolution.  If

adopted, the resolution will extend the Mission’s mandate by two months until 30 June.

The Security Council is also expected to hold a formal meeting to vote on forwarding a list of more than 60 judges to the General Assembly, paving the way for the Assembly to elect 27 of those judges to sit on cases before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.  The candidacies of the new judges, called "ad litem" judges, were forwarded to the Council by the Secretary-General this week.

We mentioned that after the consultations they will have a moment of silence on the attack in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Prior to the discussion, they did have a briefing by Hedi Annabi, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, on that incident.

They also had a discussion on the panel on the exploitation of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

At the end of this morning’s consultations, the Council’s President, Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, has set aside an hour for a discussion on the Council’s working methods and procedures.

**Security Council Mission

Also on the Democratic Republic of the Congo: out on the racks today is a letter from the President of the Security Council to the Secretary-General giving him the agreed terms of reference for the Council’s mission to the Great Lakes region of Africa.

The mission will monitor the progress made by the parties in adopting the provisions of Security Council resolution 1341 regarding the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which includes, among other items:  respect for the cease-fire, cooperation with the United Nations peacekeeping mission on the ground, as well as the disengagement of forces to agreed positions.  The mission will also encourage the parties to commit themselves to the next steps in the peace process.

In addition, in agreement with the Facilitator of the Burundi peace process, Nelson Mandela, the mission will also meet with the parties to the Arusha agreement to support the peace process and the work of the facilitator.

The mission will take place during the second half of next month.  The exact itinerary has yet to be worked out.  My colleague, Stéphane Dujarric, will accompany the members of the Security Council as the mission’s spokesman, and you should talk to him if you are interested in going along.

**Secretary-General in Abuja, Nigeria

The Secretary-General is wrapping up his trip to Abuja, Nigeria, as the African Summit on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Infectious Diseases concluded today with the signing of a declaration by the African heads of State gathered for the meeting, calling for an expanded effort to combat AIDS.

Yesterday, following his address to that Summit, the Secretary-General told reporters at a press conference he gave that, although AIDS is not only an African problem, "If we do not win here in Africa, we are not going to win it anywhere else".

On the issue of drug pricing, he said it was important to get medication to treat AIDS available to poor countries while at the same time improving health systems and dealing with prevention and education.  He said that "we will see, in my judgement, a much more understanding application of agreements and acceptance that generic medication can be produced where it is going to save lives".

We have a transcript of that press conference available upstairs.

The Secretary-General in the morning, that is this morning, had internal meetings and reviewed a number of world situations.  Later in the morning, he had a meeting with non-governmental organizations actively involved in the fight against AIDS.

Following that meeting, the Secretary-General left for Lagos on a private visit, where he also met with United Nations personnel working in Nigeria.

The Secretary-General is departing Abuja this evening, and will be arriving in New York tomorrow.  As you know, we mentioned yesterday, at 4 p.m. tomorrow at his residence here, the Secretary-General will be meeting with Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri of Lebanon.

**Comoros

We have another statement attributable to the Spokesman today:

The Secretary-General has been closely following developments in the Comoros since the signing, on 17 February, of the Framework Agreement for Reconciliation.  He is concerned by the decision of the Anjouanese Party to suspend its participation in the follow-up mechanism put in place by the Agreement and calls on it to reconsider its decision.  He also appeals to all the parties in the Comoros to adhere to all the provisions of the Agreement and to comply with its implementation timetable.

The agreement represents a unique opportunity to promote national reconciliation in the Comoros and to preserve its territorial integrity.  The Secretary-General commends the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and its partners for the important role they played in facilitating the signing of the Agreement and the efforts they are making to ensure its implementation.  He reiterates the readiness of the United Nations to contribute to the reconstruction of the Comoros and the promotion of its democratic institutions, including assistance for the forthcoming elections.

**International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

An Anglican bishop who had worked in the Rwandan prefecture of Gitarama has been charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) with four counts of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity, one day after he was arrested in Nairobi.

Samuel Musabyimana was transferred yesterday by the Kenyan authorities to the Rwanda Tribunal's detention facilities in Arusha, Tanzania.  Prosecutor Carla del Ponte expressed her satisfaction with the arrest, and the Tribunal's registrar, Adama Dieng, said that Kenya's cooperation bodes well for the Tribunal's work.

This indictment accuses Musabyimana of stating publicly in May 1994 that the end had arrived for the Tutsi minority, and alleges that he paid militias who carried out killings of Tutsis who had taken refuge in Gitarama.

We have further information in a press release from the Tribunal upstairs in the Spokesman’s Office.

**East Timor

The registration of political parties that are to participate in the elections for East Timor's Constituent Assembly on 30 August will take place between 7 May and 24 June, the United Nations Mission in East Timor says.  Registered parties can create coalitions of two or more parties in order to submit a common list of candidates.

Meanwhile, the Mission's Civil Registry Unit has registered more than 196,000 people as of yesterday, in its effort to establish a register of all the people living in East Timor.

We have more details in the briefing notes from Dili.

**Afghanistan

Dennis McNamara, Special Coordinator for Internal Displacement, said today that the biggest concern in Afghanistan was “to respond to the immediate needs of the displaced while ensuring assistance is also provided to the impoverished population who remain in their villages”.  His remarks were made at a press conference in Geneva following his mission to Afghanistan.

We have a press release and highlights of that press conference available for you upstairs.

**Press Releases

In other press releases, we have Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).  He has welcomed the decision by the Commission on Human Rights to recognize that everyone has a right to live in a world free from toxic pollution and environmental degradation.

In another release, the Regional Symposium on Children, which concluded today, urged Arab countries to reinforce policies ensuring children’s development and welfare. 

The World Food Programme (WFP) today launched a $3 million appeal to provide emergency food aid for more than 700,000 drought victims in Eritrea.  And also on Eritrea, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees announced the launch of an information programme paving the way for the repatriation of Eritrean refugees from camps in eastern Sudan.

**Signings

This morning, Gabon became the fiftieth country to sign the Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations.

And we have available for you our weekly feature: “The Week Ahead at the United Nations”.  I don’t think I’ll go into it now since Mr. Diouf has joined us

and we probably want to get to him as quickly as possible.  Do you have any questions for me?

**Questions and Answers:

Question: Is the list of judges from the Security Council available?

Associate Spokeswoman: Why don’t you go up to our office, where you can pick up the list.

Question: Is a follow-up press conference scheduled for the Secretary-General’s arrival at Headquarters?

Associate Spokeswoman: We haven’t scheduled a follow-up press conference, but he usually talks to reporters when he walks into Headquarters on his first day back for work. I don’t know if the Secretary-General is due for a press conference, but I’ll check into that.

Question: Is there any media availability organized for Shimon Peres’ visit on Monday?

Associate Spokeswoman: I believe there is a press conference that he is organizing on Monday following his visit here.  We can give you details on that as soon as it has been confirmed.  It will probably be at the end of the work day on Monday.

If you have no other questions, we’ll now turn to Mr. Diouf.

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