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 today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

**Secretary-General to Washington

The Secretary-General will be leaving shortly for Washington D.C., where he will meet this afternoon with United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, to discuss the United Nations' programmes to fight HIV/AIDS.  He will return to New York later today.

**Human Rights Commission

At this morning's Senior Management Group, Mary Robinson, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, reported on the highlights of the recent session of the Human Rights Commission in Geneva.  In that context, there was also discussion of last week's elections to the Human Rights Commission, which took place in the Economic and Social Council here in New York.

**Security Council

In closed consultations this morning, Hans Haekkerup, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), briefed the Security Council on the latest developments there.

The focus of the briefing is on the legal framework for provisional government and the holding of elections later this year.  Discussions are ongoing. Hans Haekkerup will brief you here in room 226 after the Council meeting.  The Secretary-General also attended the session.

**UNRWA

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is holding an informal meeting of major donors in Amman, Jordan today and tomorrow.

At this meeting, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, Peter Hansen, will issue the fifth progress report of the emergency appeals launched in October of last year, following the start of the current uprising in the Palestinian territories.

In his remarks, the Commissioner-General noted the quick and generous response of the donor community to the emergency appeals.  However, he also noted the continued budget deficit of his agency, which is hampering the long term capabilities of UNRWA to deliver assistance to some 3.8 million Palestinian refugees.  Funds for the emergency appeals cover, among other things, distribution of emergency food aid and cash assistance for families deemed in extreme crisis.

By the end of April, UNRWA had given more that $750,000 to some 2,000 families in Gaza.  Families can qualify for this assistance for a number of

reasons: loss of the primary breadwinner; forced relocation following shelling or bulldozing by Israeli security forces; or lack of funds for utility payments.  In terms of food distribution, from January until the end of March, more than

120,000 families had received emergency food rations.  The full text of the report, as well the Commissioner-General’s talking points, are available upstairs.

**Bosnia

Last night in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, more than a thousand people, mostly Bosnian Muslims, marched peacefully through the streets to protest the recent violence by Bosnian Serb demonstrators near mosques in the towns of Banja Luka and Trebinje.  The march lasted until two or three in the morning.

The United Nations Mission in Bosnia (UNMIB) reports that the march passed without incident and the local police performed their duties effectively.  The Mission says that Bosnia has been quieter over the past 24 hours, although there have been some isolated incidents of tensions between Serbs and Muslims.

**ICTY

The President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Judge Claude Jorda, will travel to Sarajevo to address a conference on Saturday concerning proposals to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Bosnia and Herzegovina.  He is expected to say that the Tribunal could encourage such a body, provided that its work will be complementary to the Tribunal's mandate and not weaken their work.

Meanwhile, the Prosecutor for the Tribunal, Carla Del Ponte, has been in Washington, where she met yesterday with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and other senior officials.  She is expected to come here tomorrow, to meet the Secretary-General and other senior officials.

By the way, in today's weekly press briefing notes from the Tribunal, which are available upstairs, the Tribunal marks the fifth anniversary of its first trial, the case against Dusan Tadic, which began on 7 May, 1996.  Since his trial, 21 other individuals have been tried, and 10 more are currently being tried.

**Deputy Secretary-General in Amman

Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette is travelling to Jordan this afternoon, where, at the invitation of Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdelillah il-Khatib, she will participate in the ministerial meeting of the Human Security Network, to be held in Petra from 11 to 12 May.

The Human Security Network is an informal group of states, committed to working together on human security issues.  States participating in the meeting are to include Austria, Canada, Chile, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Mali, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Switzerland and Thailand.  South Africa will be an observer.

The Deputy Secretary-General will be returning to New York on Sunday and will be back in the office on Monday.

**Oshima Statement -- Red Cross Pilot

Kenzo Oshima, the Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said he was deeply saddened to learn of the death of a Red Cross pilot, who was killed when his plane came under fire during a humanitarian mission in southern Sudan. 

This tragedy, following the brutal killings of six Red Cross workers just two weeks ago near Bunia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, underscores, he said, the dangers faced by humanitarian personnel in delivering assistance to those in need.  Mr. Oshima sent his deepest condolences to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and to the family of the deceased.  He called upon all parties to take measures to ensure the safety and security of humanitarian personnel.

**Sierra Leone

The UN Mission in Sierra Leone, which fielded patrols to the Kono district, is looking into reports of fighting between the Civilian Defense Force (CDF) and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in what appeared to be cease-fire violations. We expect a press release from the Mission shortly, with more details.

**Tajikistan

On the racks today is an exchange of letters between the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council, providing for a one-year extension of the UN peace-building office in Tajikistan, until June 1 2002.

In his letter, the Secretary-General notes the work of his representative for Tajikistan, Ivo Petrov, in facilitating the reconciliation process in the country, and says that the office has focused over the past year in consolidating peace, mobilizing assistance for reconstruction, promoting the rule of law and supporting human rights.

**ESCAP

We have two items from the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

First is an announcement of an upcoming conference at UN University in Tokyo organized jointly by ESCAP and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) entitled “Asia-Pacific Forum on Environmental Governance And Sustainable Development”.  This is part of the activities being organized in the region in preparation of the Rio + 10 Summit scheduled for South Africa in 2002.

The second item is a press release on a recent meeting in Bangkok sponsored by ESCAP, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on the growing problem of arsenic contamination in the water in many Asian countries.

We have more material on those two items in my office, if you're interested.

**POPs

The Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) will be open for signature in Stockholm on the twenty-second and twenty-third of this month.  The convention will ban 12 of the most toxic organic pollutants and the list includes pesticides, industrial chemicals and by-products of combustion.  The Convention will set out control measures covering production, import, export, disposal and use.

In related news, the Food and Agriculture Organization today issued a new report on obsolete pesticides, in collaboration with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.  The report states that more than 500,000 tonnes of old and unused banned or expired pesticides are threatening the health of millions of people around the world.  These figures are five times the original estimate of around 100,000 tonnes and include some of the categories to be banned by the Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.  We have a press releases upstairs.

**Budget

The money's starting to come in again.  We have two more Member States who've made payments in full for their regular budget dues for this year.  Andorra, with a payment of $41,000 plus and Samoa with more than $10,000.  That makes 73 Member States paid in full.

**Signings

This morning, Uganda became the fourth country to sign the International Coffee Agreement for 2001.

**Press Conferences

We've asked Dennis McNamara, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Internally Displaced Persons, to join us at the noon briefing to talk to you about the situation of the internally displaced, particularly in Afghanistan. 

Also in this room, at 1 tomorrow, the mission of Bangladesh is sponsoring a press conference to launch the Billion Mom March, a world-wide mobilization of mothers, grandmothers and mothers-to-be against guns and violence.  Speakers will include Jayantha Dhanapala, Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs.

That's all I have for you.  Yes, Maggie?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  You said that Mary Robinson talked a bit about the election for the Human Rights Commission.  Can you tell us a little bit more about what was said?

Spokesman:  As you know, the meetings of the Senior Management Group (SMG) are confidential and we don't normally even say what was on the agenda.  But the Secretary-General did authorize me to give you a few details.  She reported that there was shock and dismay in Geneva that the United States was not re-elected to the Commission. 

The Secretary-General said that the reaction was similar here in New York.  He observed that the United States had contributed significantly to the work of the Commission since its inception in 1947.  He added that he hopes that the U.S. will remain engaged, even as a non-member, and that it will have the opportunity to return as a member next year.

He further expressed some worry at reports that some members of the U.S. Congress want to punish the Organization for what was essentially a democratic process and, for that matter, one that involved only a fraction of the membership.  He said punishing all 189 member States would be counterproductive, and punishing the bureaucracy would be unfair.

Question:  Does the Secretary-General, during his visit to Washington, have any plans for meetings in connection with tomorrow's votes on United Nations dues and this whole issue?

Spokesman:  No, he will not be touching that issue on this visit.  It's purely to focus on the HIV/AIDS issue.  Yes?

Question:  Is the Security Council still meeting about the legal framework, and will Mr. Haekkerup be here?

Spokesman:  Yes.  You weren't here at the beginning, I guess.  As soon as they're finished, he'll be coming to room 226, unless it's so late that we just arrange for him to go to the stakeout.  But we'd like to bring him here to brief you fully and to take your question about the legal framework.  Ronnie?

Question:  Fred, following up this story about the Congressional reaction, considering the years it took to get the deal that was reached at the end of last year, is there concern that this is a huge set-back?  What's the feeling upstairs about the move to hold the $244 million?

Spokesman:  Well, we only saw the same reports you did this morning.  As I said, the Secretary-General feels that any effort to punish the organization for what was a democratic process that involved action by member States, and for that matter a limited number of member States, would be counterproductive.  So we're hoping that they don't shoot the messenger, as I said a couple of days ago.  We feel that it would be counterproductive to either target the membership or target the bureaucracy for what has happened.

Question:  Is the Secretary-General meeting with Secretary of State Powell in Washington, or is that not happening?

Spokesman:  Let's wait and see.  There was a possibility that the Secretary of State would attend this meeting with the Secretary of Health.  That, I don't think, was finally confirmed.  If it does happen, we'll squawk it.  My deputy, Manuel, will be traveling with the Secretary-General. He'll keep us posted on what's going on down there.  Maggie?

Question:  Will the prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, be available to the press?

Spokesman:  We'll ask if she would come and talk to you, sure.  Okay, thanks very much.

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