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 Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Secretary-General in Geneva

I’ll start with the Secretary-General’s visit to Geneva, where he arrived this morning and, at around noon local time, he addressed the World Health Assembly, which as you know is the annual meeting of the World Health Organization.  This year, 125 Ministers of Health are attending this meeting in Geneva.

The Secretary-General focused his remarks on the fight against HIV/AIDS, which he said needs two things, one, leadership and two resources.  On resources, he sketched out his proposal for the Global AIDS and Health Fund.  First, he said, the Fund would be governed by an independent Board representing all significant stakeholders, including governments of developing nations.  Second, the Secretariat would be kept small.  And third, there would be an Advisory Board made up of the “best international experts”.  Broad policies would be set by the Board, which would use the money to support national programmes and strategies decided by national leaders.  The Board would insist on transparency and accountability to ensure that the money reached the people who need it most.

The Secretary-General stressed that “the Fund must be additional to existing funds and mechanisms, not just a new way of channeling money that is already earmarked for development”.  The Secretary-General’s speech is available in the Spokesman’s office, as are the speeches by Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS).

The Secretary-General then met with both Drs. Brundtland and Piot for a strategy session on the Fund, which he hopes to present in detail to the United Nations General Assembly’s Special Session on AIDS, to be held here in June.

**Secretary-General’s Press Encounter

The Secretary-General then had a brief press encounter.  Asked about the Global Fund, he said that he did not call it a United Nations Fund on purpose “because I want it to attract others to join the fight”.  He said the Fund would be open to donor governments, but also to the private sector, foundations and individuals.  Still on the Fund, the Secretary-General also spoke of his expectations regarding the European Union.  As you’ll recall, when he was in Brussels I reported to you that he met with the Foreign Ministers of all 15 member states of the Union.  So his expectation regarding the European Union is that “they will join the global approach and make contributions to the Fund”.

During the press encounter, the Secretary-General also answered questions on the Iraqi sanctions review process.  In answer to questions, he said "the Council as a whole will have to consider these proposals and take some decisions ...

I do not know how long it will take the Council to act”.  Then he continued, “there are some suggestions that they should conclude their deliberations in time for the extension of the oil-for-food scheme on 6 June, as we enter the

10^th phase."  Phase 10 of the oil-for-food programme, as you know, starts the beginning of June.  And in answer to another question, he said that "any attempt that would ease the impact of sanctions on the population and allow the people to have a normal life is something that we should all support".

After the press encounter, the Secretary-General participated in a luncheon with the Ministers of Health.  The Secretary-General urged the Ministers to raise the political profile of HIV/AIDS by bringing it up in cabinet meetings and urging their Presidents or Prime Ministers to lead this cause.  The Secretary-General is spending the night in Geneva and he will be in New York tomorrow, early afternoon.

**Security Council

The Security Council held consultations this morning on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.  The President of the Council received a letter yesterday from Nasser al-Kidwa of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations, in his capacity as Chair of the Group of Arab States for this month.  Mr. Al-Kidwa conveyed the request of members of the Arab Group for an immediate meeting of the Security Council to discuss the situation in the Palestinian territory.

So during consultations today, Council members discussed that request for about half an hour.  United States representative James Cunningham, the Security Council President for this month, told reporters following the adjournment of the consultations that Council members would take time to reflect on the request before making a decision.  The letter by Mr. Al-Kidwa, by the way, is out on the racks upstairs.

**Security Council Mission to the Great Lakes

Still on the Security Council, we have news of the Security Council mission that is to visit the Great Lakes region of Africa.  Jean-David Levitte of France, who is leading this mission, today welcomed President Joseph Kabila's announcement that he was lifting the ban on political parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  He said, "this sets the stage for positive developments in the days to come.”  When asked by journalists how this announcement would affect the Council's mission, Jeremy Greenstock of the United Kingdom said that the lifting of the ban gives "momentum to what we are doing in pushing, with (former Botswanan) President (Ketumile) Masire, the internal dialogue process together with the disengagement and withdrawal process.  For us it is extremely good news."

The Council mission is leaving South Africa this evening for Kinshasa, where the members are scheduled to meet President Kabila tomorrow.  Earlier today, the mission met with President Masire, the facilitator of the inter-Congolese dialogue.  Mr. Levitte warned that movement on troop withdrawals without parallel movement in the national dialogue could lead to a dangerous situation, where the national armed parties might use force and not political dialogue to solve the problem.

The ambassadors also met with former South African President Nelson Mandela, the facilitator of the Burundi peace process, who told reporters afterwards that he is "optimistic, as always, that we are going to have a humanitarian breakthrough in Burundi".  Mr. Levitte added that the mission "will exert the strongest pressure on the leaders of the two main armed groups, so that they choose peace and not resume fighting and war.  There is no military solution in the country.  Only discussion can bring peace.”  I should also like to mention that the mission, while in South Africa today, also met with President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, and this meeting was in Johannesburg.

**UNHCR in West Africa

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says it is deeply disturbed by Guinea’s continued closure of its southern border with Liberia and its refusal to allow Liberian asylum seekers into the country.  This morning, UNHCR’s Representative in Guinea met with senior officials to express the agency’s growing concern over Guinea’s failure to meet its international obligations under the 1951 Geneva Convention.

A UNHCR team which traveled to two southern border towns over the weekend were told by villagers that scores of Liberian asylum seekers, fleeing renewed violence in Liberia’s Lofa county, had been turned back by Guinean military when they tried to enter the country.  Hundreds of others had reportedly gathered on the Liberian side of the border waiting to be let through.  UNHCR is caring for over 80,000 Liberian refugees in Guinea.

**Sierra Leone

Meanwhile, the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) today said that the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group has reported new ceasefire violations by the pro-Government militia Civil Defence Forces in two villages on 14 and 15 May in the RUF-controlled Kono district.  UNAMSIL force commander Lieutenant-General Daniel Opande was told of the reported allegations by RUF interim leader Issa Sesay.  Meanwhile, senior UNAMSIL officials traveled to Kambia to sensitize local RUF representatives about the upcoming disarmament process agreed upon in Freetown on Tuesday.

**Kosovo

Some 100 ethnic Albanians have given themselves up to Kosovo Force (KFOR) troops in Kosovo a day after KFOR offered amnesty to ethnic Albanian rebels if they laid down their arms and surrendered in Kosovo.  Today’s briefing notes from Pristina also contain a detailed breakdown of the new arrivals of displaced persons into Kosovo from the Presevo Valley area in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which we reported to you yesterday.

UNHCR says it remains extremely concerned about the possible humanitarian consequences that could result from an expeditious return of Serbian forces to the buffer zone.  As you know, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has given permission for the controlled return of Yugoslav forces to enter the last part, or Sector B, of the Ground Safety Zone, beginning 24 May.

**East Timor

Moving now to East Timor, the appointment of the two East Timorese Electoral Commissioners was announced today in Dili.  As you recall, yesterday we announced that three international Commissioners, plus these two East Timorese, will comprise the total of five members of the Electoral Commission.

Jacinta Correia, a judge in the Appellate Court of Dili and a founder of the East Timor Women’s Network, and Armindo Maia, the rector of the University of East Timor, were appointed to the Independent Electoral Commission.  The two new Commissioners, along with the two international Commissioners who arrived in Dili yesterday, held an informal meeting with Chief Electoral Officer Carlos Valenzuela today.  More details are available in the briefing notes from Dili, which we have in our office.

**Compensation Commission

And in Geneva today, the United Nations Compensation Commission, dealing with claims concerning Iraq, made available payments totaling more than

$760 million to 16 Governments for distribution to 311 successful claimants.  The Commission's work, you'll recall, concerns awarding payments for damages incurred during the Gulf War of 1990-91.  Today's payment brings the overall amount of compensation made available by the Commission to more than $12 billion.  Funds to pay the awards are drawn from the United Nations Compensation Fund, which receives up to 30 per cent of the revenue generated by the export of Iraqi oil and petroleum products.  A press release from the Commission is available in our office and gives you more details.

**Budget

Today, two more Member States paid their 2001 regular budget contributions in full.  Mauritius made a payment of more than $113,000 and Saudi Arabia a payment of more than $5.7 million, bringing the number of fully paid up states to 77.

**Signings

On 14 May, Cape Verde deposited the instrument of ratification, becoming the 114th party to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction.

**Press Releases from UNHCR and FAO

We have a press release from UNHCR on the outflow of the hill tribe people from Vietnam into Cambodia.  We have another from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announcing that an agreement between the Community of Sahel-Saharian States and the FAO was signed in Rome today.  The agreement falls within the framework of the Organization’s Special Programme for Food Security and will cover the assessment of natural resources, rural development, desertification control and environmental protection.

**DPI World Chronicle Screening

Finally, I have an announcement by the Department of Public Information (DPI) that the World Chronicle Programme with Marjorie Newman-Williams, Director of Communications at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), will be shown this afternoon at 3:30 on in-house television channels three or 31.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Now that Russia has given its blessing to the Secretary-General’s bid for a second term, do you think the process might be expedited so it doesn’t

hang over –- not that there’s any great question any more, of course -– but that it doesn’t hang over the coming Assembly?

Answer:  Michael, this is not a process that the Secretariat will lead.  It’s a Member State process.  You know four of the five Permanent Members of the Security Council have expressed their support.  But I would not be in a position to answer your question.  It would be a process that is led by Member States.

Question:  Who is the one who has not?

Answer:  The United Kingdom.  Any other questions?  All right, have a nice afternoon.

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