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 Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
**Secretary-General Meets President Putin in Moscow
Good afternoon, sorry for the longer than usual delay but I was getting information from Moscow and I’ll start with that. The Secretary-General arrived in Moscow from Brussels this afternoon, and shortly afterward met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for an in-depth discussion of the Balkans, the Middle East, and Iraq. The meeting was warm and friendly. It lasted for almost an hour and a half. The President said that Russia adhered to the founding principles of the United Nations and that he would like to see the organization strengthened.
The Secretary-General raised the issue of the Balkans and urged a regional approach in the search for stability there. They exchanged detailed views on the future of Kosovo. They then touched on the current situation in Chechnya. On the Middle East, they explored efforts to find a basis for the resumption of the peace process. The Secretary-General briefed the President on his efforts to break the impasse between Iraq and the Security Council. Finally, he thanked the Russian Federation for its contributions to United Nations peacekeeping, in particular for the helicopter units serving in Sierra Leone.
After that meeting, the Secretary-General had a press encounter. We do not have a transcript yet. As soon as we get it, we’ll announce it. This evening, the Secretary-General is scheduled to have a working dinner with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
The Secretary-General's wife Nane Annan this afternoon participated in a debate on violence against women. The debate was organized by the Syostry Centre, an independent charity set up in 1994 to assist victims of sexual assault in Russia.
**Secretary-General’s Evening in Brussels
Yesterday evening, still in Brussels, the Secretary-General had a working dinner with Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the European Union. That was to discuss cooperation between the United Nations and the European Union. Before that meeting, the Secretary-General had a press encounter. We just received the transcript, which is now available in the Spokesman’s office.
**Addition to Secretary-General’s Schedule
I would like to announce an addition to the Secretary-General’s programme that we told you about before he started on this week-long visit to Brussels and Moscow. After leaving Moscow tomorrow evening, the Secretary-General will go to Geneva, where on Thursday he will address the World Health Assembly, which as you know is the annual meeting of the World Health Organization. He will address the Assembly on Thursday, and he will also have a working luncheon with the Ministers of Health. This is the fifty-fourth World Health Assembly and it began yesterday in Geneva. It is attended by Ministers of Health and it’s scheduled to close on 22 May.
**Spokesman’s Statement on Kosovo
I now have a statement attributable to the Spokesman and it is on Kosovo. It’s a little bit long:
“The Secretary General welcomes the conclusion of the Constitutional Framework for Provisional Self-Government in Kosovo and commends the consultative and inclusive manner in which this important document was elaborated. The Secretary-General believes that there are adequate guarantees built into the Constitutional Framework to protect the rights and interests of all of Kosovo’s communities. Underlining the importance of inclusive Provisional Self-Government, the Secretary-General strongly encourages all communities to participate in the electoral process and the interim institutions that will flow from these. In particular, the Secretary-General calls on the Kosovo Serb community to register and participate in the elections.
“The Secretary-General believes it is now time to move forward the political agenda in Kosovo. He supports the holding of Kosovo-wide elections this year in the hope that these will help consolidate democracy and show that the future of Kosovo lies in the peaceful pursuit of the political process, not in acts of violence and extremism. This is a major step forward for the people of Kosovo. The Secretary-General encourages the local leadership to seize this opportunity to advance the interests of Kosovo in a peaceful and democratic manner.”
**Balkans
Still on the Balkans, more than 1,000 ethnic Albanians have fled to Kosovo from southern Serbia’s volatile Presevo area amid new clashes between ethnic Albanian separatists and Serbian security forces, reports the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). UNHCR says it has urged the Yugoslav and the Serbian authorities, and the area’s ethnic Albanian leaders, to show maximum restraint ahead of a planned handover by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), of parts of the Presevo area to Yugoslav forces on 24 May. UNHCR previously called for caution on any changes in the status of the Presevo area. It insisted that a number of confidence-building measures, including a multi-ethnic police force, be in place before the area is handed over to the Yugoslav army to avoid possible adverse humanitarian consequences.
**Security Council on Ethiopia-Eritrea
Here in New York, the Security Council is meeting in consultations on Ethiopia-Eritrea with a view to holding a formal meeting on the subject. In fact, I believe that as I was coming downstairs, they had just adjourned consultations. They are probably about to start a formal meeting. Council members heard a briefing by the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guéhenno. As you recall, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Ethiopia and Eritrea, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, briefed the Council last week. Today, the Council is discussing a draft presidential statement.
As you recall, Resolution 1298 of 17 May 2000 placed an arms embargo on Ethiopia and Eritrea for 12 months. The embargo could be renewed by the Council, but unlike previous sanctions regimes, the renewal would require the positive vote of the Council. Meanwhile, on the ground, the Office of the UNHCR reports that Eritrean refugees are registering for repatriation from Sudan after a first UNHCR convoy took more than 900 refugees home to Eritrea on Saturday. That convoy marked the start of a major repatriation operation organized by UNHCR and the governments of Sudan and Eritrea for the return of 174,000 refugees to Eritrea from neighbouring Sudan.
**Secretary-General on Mitchell Committee Report
Yesterday afternoon, the Spokesman’s office put out a statement concerning the report of the Sharm el-Sheikh Fact Finding Committee led by former United States Senator George Mitchell, a copy of which the Secretary-General had received two weeks ago. The Secretary-General congratulated Senator Mitchell and the Committee members for having produced a fair and balanced analysis of the causes of the present crisis.
The Secretary-General has also written to United States President George Bush to express his appreciation for the Committee's emphasis on the need for a halt to all settlement activity; to support the call for maximum effort to control violence in all its forms; and to stress the economic and social crisis facing the Palestinian people.
The statement concludes, "The Secretary-General believes that full implementation of the report's recommendations could, in conjunction with the Jordanian-Egyptian initiative, help build a bridge back to negotiations towards a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East on the basis of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338." The Secretary-General also wrote to Senator Mitchell, thanking him and the Committee for their work.
**Iraq Programme
On Iraq, according to the weekly update from the Office of the Iraq Programme, the volume of Iraqi oil exports under the United Nations oil-for-food programme remained almost constant in the week from 5 to 11 May, and it remained at the level of 14.5 million barrels. At the rate of just over two million barrels a day, the week’s total oil exports generated an estimated €377 million (euros) in revenue at current prices.
There was a sudden jump of almost $200 million in the value of contracts placed on hold by the Security Council’s 661 Sanctions Committee last week, with the total now standing at $3.7 billion. A single contract in the electricity sector valued at $147.5 million, which was put on hold, contributed to the overall increase. The full text of the weekly update is available upstairs.
**Sierra Leone
As a follow-up to the 2 May Abuja meeting to review the Sierra Leone ceasefire, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) sent a delegation to Freetown to meet today with the Government, under the chairmanship of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), to discuss a firm timetable for disarmament. That meeting began at 10 a.m. and we are expecting to receive an update later in the day.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that the RUF has handed over a total of 116 ex-child combatants to the relief agency Caritas Makeni, UNICEF's implementing partner for child protection in the Northern Province. The RUF had pledged to hand over up to 400 child combatants.
**East Timor
And in East Timor today, the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) announced that some 346,000 people -- or more than 42 per cent of the estimated population of East Timor -- have been registered by the Mission's Civilian Registration Unit. About 13,000 East Timorese are being registered each day. You’ll find details in today’s briefing notes from Dili, available in our office. The briefing notes also include details on the bilateral talks being held today in Denpasar between UNTAET officials and Indonesian authorities, on issues ranging from the refugee situation in West Timor to maritime relations. The talks are scheduled to end tomorrow.
**Somali Refugees
Thousands of Somali refugees living in Djibouti are receiving training in mine awareness and safety measures in a project implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) so that they can be prepared to deal with mines when they return home. Ten Somali refugees will provide training on mine awareness to more than 20,000 refugees living in two camps in southern Djibouti. The presence of mines in parts of Somalia has impeded the return of some 145,000 Somalis living in Djibouti and Ethiopia. We have more details in a press release available upstairs.
**International Day of Families
Today is International Day of Families and the theme for this year’s observance is “Families and Volunteers: Building Social Cohesion”. In a message to mark the Day, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, “The ideals of reciprocity, service, and solidarity are embodied in the spirit of volunteerism and are at the heart of any healthy family.” He went on to say that families and volunteers will continue to be core components of a successful community. The full text of the message is available in a press release on the racks.
**Budget
On budget, today we have two more Member States making full payments of regular budget contributions for the year 2001. Lebanon has made a payment of more than $124,000 and Spain has paid more than $26 million. We now have
75 Member States paid in full.
**Press Releases from FAO, UNICEF and WHO
I’m reaching the end of the briefing. Just to flag to you, we have a press release from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on a proposal to set up a $98 million fund to help the world’s least developed countries (LDCs) improve the quality and safety of their food supply. This was the proposal FAO made yesterday at the Least Developed Countries conference in Brussels.
Also in Brussels today, UNICEF issued a report, “Poverty and Children: Lessons of the 90s for Least Developed Countries”. The report says the well-being of children in LDCs is threatened by poor education, malnutrition and exposure to disease and conflict. We also have three other press releases. They’re all from the World Health Organization and all of them are available in our office upstairs.
**Signings
Finally, signings. Mauritania has acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The relevant documents were received by the Treaty Section on 10 May, when Mauritania became the 169th party to the Convention.
**Headquarters Security Incident
Actually, I have a last note here that this morning at 10:15, just outside the gates to the visitors' entrance, a group of people began an unscheduled demonstration concerning the United States naval exercises at Vieques in Puerto Rico. At the same time, eight people demonstrated on the same issue inside the gates at the plaza area outside the visitors' entrance.
United Nations Security responded by taking the eight demonstrators outside the gates and then closing the gates. The New York Police Department then asked the demonstrators to disperse, but they refused to do so. The New York police responded by arresting several of the demonstrators. Once the matter was finished, United Nations Security re-opened the gates at about 11:15 this morning.
**Questions and Answers
Question: Did I understand correctly that the United States has to agree on Security Council resolutions 242 and 338?
Answer: No, no. What I said was, I quoted the statement we made available yesterday, attributable to the Spokesman, with the Secretary-General’s reactions to the Mitchell report. Then at the end of that statement, the Secretary-General said, or rather I said, that the Secretary-General believes that the “full implementation of the report’s recommendations could, in conjunction with the Jordanian-Egyptian initiative, help build a bridge back to negotiations towards a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East, on the basis of United Nations Security Council resolutions 224 and 338”.
Question: Would you be so kind as to tell us what was in the letter a couple of days ago that Russian Minister Ivanov sent the Secretary-General?
Answer: I don’t know. I’ll have to check what letter this is. It’s the first time I’ve heard about this letter.
Question: Thanks. I have a second question. I have information that Dan Everts, Chief for Kosovo of the European Organization for Security and Cooperation, is coming towards the end of this week to Headquarters. Do you know why?
Answer: No, I’ll have to check. It’s possible. They’re part of the mission there. I’ll look into it and let you know.
Question: You mentioned that the Secretary-General and President Putin touched on Chechnya. Can you be a little more specific? There’s a Human Rights Watch report out today that sounds pretty specific with regard to human rights allegations. Secondly, did the question of a second term come up?
Answer: To my knowledge, the issue of a second term did not come up. Secondly, the human rights issue did come up. The Secretary-General urged the President to allow the visit of the human rights Rapporteur.
Question: Is the Secretary-General getting a lot of media coverage in Russia?
Answer: I didn’t ask this question. We’ll have to ask Fred. He just arrived a few hours ago.
Question: Is there any information on the impasse between Iraq and the Security Council?
Answer: No, the Secretary-General’s the one who briefed the President on his own efforts to break the impasse between Iraq and the Security Council. As you know, the Secretary-General has been with this file for quite some time. But I have no further details to share with you now.
Question: Do you know when the delegation is expected to come?
Answer: I don’t think we have a date yet. As you know, it was to be this month of May. It has been delayed by about a month, but we don’t have a precise date yet.
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