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.

I apologize to you for the delay.  I was getting last minute guidance.

**Noon Guest

With me today is Dennis McNamara, whom you all know.  He’s the United Nations Special Coordinator on Internal Displacement and he will talk to you today about a number of issues, but I think principally Afghanistan.

**Secretary-General

The Secretary-General is leaving New York this evening for another trip to Washington, D.C. 

At the invitation of President George W. Bush, the Secretary-General and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria will meet tomorrow morning at the White House to discuss the issue of AIDS and the global fund that the Secretary-General has proposed.  There will be a short press availability, we’re told, after the meeting.

The meeting tomorrow follows the discussions the Secretary-General had yesterday with Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson.  Thompson said that AIDS was an issue of major concern to President Bush. 

Yesterday’s meeting, which was held at Secretary Thompson’s office in Washington, focused exclusively on AIDS and the Secretary-General’s call to action, in particular his proposal for a global fund to raise an additional seven to 10 billion dollars per year to fight the AIDS epidemic worldwide.

The two Secretaries, who chair a United States task force on AIDS, said that they plan to work closely with the international community on this issue.

The Secretary-General will fly back to New York immediately after leaving the White House meeting.  Then, upon arrival here in New York, he’ll hold his monthly luncheon with members of the Security Council.

And since I mentioned the Council, let me remind you that there are no meetings of the Council scheduled for today.

**DRC

A 118-strong military contingent from Morocco arrived earlier today in Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The deployment brings to more than 1,300 the total number of troops on the ground there now.  They are deployed as well in Kalemie, Kananga, Mbandaka and Kisangani.

There are also close to 500 military observers in the Congo.

**Sierra Leone

The Force Commander for the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), Lt. Gen. Daniel Opande, conducted a patrol yesterday to several northern towns, including the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) stronghold of Kambia near the border with Guinea.

Hundreds of people gathered at the local town to welcome him.  Opande held discussions with local RUF representatives, who appealed to the force commander to deploy peacekeepers there without further delay.

Senior UN officials discussed the outcome of the Abuja cease-fire review meeting which we reported to you last week.  The review included an agreement for the RUF to withdraw from Kambia and to permit deployment of the Sierra Leone army there.

We have a press release from Freetown with more details.

**UNRWA

At the conclusion of the two-day informal meeting of donors, Peter Hansen, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reiterated his call for an increased participation of Arab countries in support of his agency’s budget.

Currently, Arab countries contribute 2% of UNRWA’s budget and the Commissioner-General is appealing to them to raise that to 7.8%.

Also during the meeting, which took place in Amman, Jordan, the representative of Canada announced that his country was increasing its contributions to UNRWA by ten million dollars.

The full text of the press release concerning this meeting is available in my office.

**Kosovo

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that there have been no major crossings of refugees from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia into Kosovo (FYROM) for the past two days. Yesterday, a little more than 300 people were reported to cross into Kosovo from FYROM, where shelling had continued throughout the day.

Since the latest round of fighting started in FYROM on 3 May, more than 8,000 people have left the country, with the majority leaving from the rural areas around Kumanovo, with many leaving as a precautionary measure.

Eric Morris, UNHCR's Special Envoy in the region, said the agency remains extremely concerned about the well-being of the civilian population and about reports on the difficulties they face coming across the border.  UNHCR encourages all parties to allow freedom of movement for all those who are fleeing across the border for safety.

We have further details from Kosovo, if you’re interested.

**Press Releases

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns, in a new report, that HIV/AIDS deaths in Africa will reduce the labor force in some countries by up to 26 percent by the year 2020.  The report, prepared for the 27^th Session of the Committee on World Food Security, estimates that 16 million agricultural workers are likely to die in the 27 worst affected African countries during that period.  The report recommends assistance from donor countries in reducing the effect of HIV/AIDS on food security and a review of laws and practices to ensure the livelihood of widows and orphans.

We have a press release on that upstairs.

In other news, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced today that the Government of the Indian State of Gujarat and the UN system are organizing an international conference on "Sustainable Recovery and Vulnerability Reduction".  That will take place on Saturday.  The conference will focus attention on the need for long-term reconstruction and rehabilitation following the devastating earthquake in Gujarat last January.  UNDP plans to help put in place an improved system for dealing with future disasters at the national and regional levels in India.

And we also have a press release from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia on their 21^st Session, which opened today in Beirut.

**Press Conferences

At 1:00 in this room, the Billion Mom March will be launched by Under Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala, among others.

Then at 2:00, at your request, Carla Del Ponte, the Prosecutor for the International Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, will give you an update and take your questions on the work of the Tribunals.

**Arlacchi

Finally, I would like to correct certain inaccuracies in a Financial Times article of yesterday on Pino Arlacchi, the head of the United Nations Office in Vienna.

The Assistant Secretary-General post mentioned in that article was already in the budget process and was in no way linked to the Internal Oversight exercise now underway.  That post was recommended by the Secretary-General because of the breadth and diversity of the programme in Vienna.  A similar recommendation was made for the Humanitarian Affairs Department, here in New York, for the same reasons.

If approved, this new Assistant Secretary-General in Vienna would report through Mr. Arlacchi, not directly to the Secretary-General as the FT reported.

There were a number of other inaccuracies in the article, including one saying that Mr. Arlacchi was a longtime member of the Italian Communist Party.  Mr. Arlacchi tells us that he was never a member of that party.

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

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Is there any concern that the movement to freeze the dues money, in the United States Congress, might keep the Congress from giving any more money to the United Nations, whether it’s for AIDS or anything else?

Spokesman:  I think there’s a strong domestic constituency in support of action to combat AIDS.  I think the U.S. constituency is strongly inter-linked with the international movement to fight the disease, and I think it was clear yesterday -- I hope it will be even clearer tomorrow -- that the U.S. President strongly supports this effort.  I don’t think that a vote in the Economic and Social Council will interfere in this U.S. effort.  I think most members of Congress will see the importance of this issue.    

Question:  Did Secretary-General Annan have any conversations at all on the issue of the amendment that’s going to be voted on today?

Spokesman:  To my knowledge, there was not a word spoken.  In his meeting with the two Secretaries, it did not come up at all.  So to my knowledge, no.  Yesterday was purely a day for the discussion of the Secretary-General’s call for action against AIDS. 

Question:  It looks like the vote is going to take place today, and not in the United Nations’ favor.  Is that considered by the Secretary-General to be a foregone conclusion?

Spokesman:  We only know what we’ve been reading in the papers, and to a certain extent what we’ve been getting from our United Nations office in Washington.  But, as I understand it, the legislation that is now under consideration in the House would free up the $582 million, but would put a hold on the third tranche, of $244 million, I think it is, which is another year down the line.  The condition for the release of that money would be that the United States is re-elected to the Human Rights Commission.  If there’s time for that vote to come up, a year from now, we’re a little less concerned than we would be if there were conditions attached to the $582 million.

As we’ve told you, Joseph Connor, the Under-Secretary-General for Management, has been promising troop-contributing countries to United Nations peacekeeping that we would pay them what we owe them.  All $582 million are going directly to troop contributors to peacekeeping.  So we have a lot of eager candidates awaiting that money and I think there would be a very negative reaction if it didn’t arrive.  Michael?

Question:  The Secretary-General is proposing a great deal of money for the AIDS fund.  How does he propose that the money be employed, bearing in mind that many of the affected countries do not have the infrastructure to deliver the therapies that the money would presumably be able to buy?

Spokesman:  I’m not sure that the setting-in-place of the infrastructure isn't part of the larger plan.  The fund is not expected to hold the seven to ten billion dollars additional that the Secretary-General is asking for.  That’s the amount that he would be calling on all Governments to spend over and above what

they’re currently spending, in order to seriously address the issue.  So it will be partly a matter of national policies, as to how to address this acknowledged problem of lack of infrastructure.  But I think it is acknowledged; everyone sees it’s there and realizes it has to be dealt with.  Yes?

Question:  Of the seven to ten billion dollars for AIDS, how much is the Secretary-General seeking from the United States Government?  Does he have a number in mind?

Spokesman:  He does not.

Okay. Dennis, welcome to the briefing.

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