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, and Sue Markham, Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly.

**Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General

Good afternoon, everyone.  This room has joined the twenty-first century.  We have new cameras that don’t require cameramen.  It’s a little strange to talk to a machine like that, but I’m glad you’re all here.  Thank you for being here.

**Secretary-General’s Travels

I’ll start with the Secretary-General, who is returning to New York.  He should be arriving very shortly.  He’s coming back from Geneva, where he participated in the World Health Assembly after visiting Brussels and Moscow.  This afternoon at four o’clock, he’ll be meeting at his residence with Xanana Gusmão and José Ramos Horta, two East Timorese leaders who have just addressed the open meeting of the Security Council.  There will be a brief photo op at the residence at the beginning of their meeting.

Tomorrow, the Secretary-General will leave New York at the very end of the afternoon.  He will go to Boston.  On Sunday, he will deliver the commencement address at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, which as you know, is just outside Boston.  He intends to focus his speech on the need to take action to deal with climate change, including the role of the agreement on climate change and the Kyoto Protocol.  We hope to be able to make copies of his speech available later in the afternoon, and that will be embargoed until Sunday afternoon at 12:15.

During his stay in the Boston area, the Secretary-General will also be meeting with the United Nations Association of the Greater Boston area, and he will have a brief press encounter at the Fletcher School.  The Secretary-General comes back to New York on Sunday and he should be at Headquarters on Monday.

**Security Council

The Security Council here in New York today is holding an open meeting to discuss the situation in East Timor, in which, as I’ve just mentioned, two East Timorese leaders are participating.  Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hédi Annabi, began the meeting with a briefing on the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), in which he noted the Secretary-General's recent report, which assesses the security situation in East Timor as good.  He noted the progress made in enabling a ballot for a Constituent Assembly to occur by 30 August, as previously anticipated.

He told the Council that the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello, had urged the Indonesian authorities not to place temporal restrictions on the jurisdiction of an ad hoc tribunal that will deal with gross

violations of human rights in East Timor.  At present, that Tribunal will only deal with acts committed after the popular consultation of August 1999.

He was followed in his presentation by the President of the National Council of Timorese Resistance, Xanana Gusmão, who reaffirmed East Timor's commitment to a process of reconciliation, but noted continuing concerns about the situation at the borders, where he said militia groups continue to reign with impunity.

In economic news, he said that East Timor will soon set up a group to work full-time on strategic development planning, which is being supported by the World Bank.  Mr. Guzmão thanked the world for assisting East Timor in maintaining freedom and said, "we will reciprocate with the building of a democratic country."  Also speaking was East Timor's Cabinet Minister in charge of foreign affairs, José Ramos Horta.  The open debate on East Timor is continuing now.  In addition to the 15 Council members, nine non-Council Member States are inscribed so far to speak.

**Security Council Mission to the Great Lakes

Still on Security Council activities, we have news from the Security Council mission that is in the Great Lakes region of Africa.  They began their first day of work in Kinshasa this morning.  After a briefing by the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), the

12 ambassadors met with President Joseph Kabila and Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu for close to two hours. 

In remarks to reporters at the Presidential Palace, Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France, who is leading this mission, said that they had an in-depth discussion which allowed them to have an overview of the problems currently facing the Democratic Republic in particular, and the Great Lakes region in general. 

Mr. Levitte reiterated the Council's welcome of President Kabila's decision to lift the ban on political parties in his country, and said that the Council sees this decision in the context of the inter-Congolese dialogue beginning to take shape.

Jeremy Greenstock of the United Kingdom, who’s a member of the mission, added that what the Council delegation had heard from President Kabila was a clear expression of a will to allow the Congolese people to have their voices heard freely, something that the President said had not happened for over 40 years.  The Council mission then went from Kinshasa to Luanda, Angola, and is scheduled to have a meeting with President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos.  The Ambassadors are expected to head back to Kinshasa for a dinner tonight with President Kabila, President Sam Nujoma of Namibia and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

**Middle East

The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, has been continuing his work in Gaza today.  Just a couple of hours ago, he said in an interview with Reuters that he condemned today's suicide bombing in Netanya, as he condemns all killings of civilians.  Mr. Larsen took the occasion to deplore the high level of violence in Gaza and the West Bank, and he said that the escalation of violence underscores the need for the parties to resume meaningful dialogue.  Earlier this week, Mr. Larsen, while on a visit to the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza as we reported to you, had also deplored what he called the senseless and indiscriminate violence there.

      **Afghanistan

There have been repeated denials of humanitarian access to those in need of assistance in Afghanistan, in particular in Hazarajat.  United Nations staff have been denied permission to go into part of Hazarajat, although fighting has resulted in the displacement of upwards of 60,000 people.  In addition, harassment, arrests, and even physical abuse of humanitarian personnel are on the upswing.  Recently, United Nations and non-governmental organization (NGO) staff have been arrested in both Kabul and Herat.  Both national and international staff have been subjected to harassment.  The Office of the United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan says it is particularly concerned about the harassment and abuse of Afghan national staff. 

Meanwhile, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that heat and poor sanitary conditions continue to exact a heavy toll on the Afghans at the Jalozai site in North-West Pakistan.  The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) say a ceasefire is needed in Afghanistan for the duration of the next round of their polio vaccination campaign, which starts tomorrow.  Further details are available from two press releases and a weekly humanitarian update that we have available in our office.

**Sierra Leone

Moving now to Sierra Leone, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in that country, Oluyemi Adeniji, traveled to the Kambia and Port Loko areas today to witness the start of the disarmament of combatants from the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the pro-Government militia Civil Defence Force (CDF).  There are an estimated 1,000 RUF and 300 CDF combatants in the Kambia area and another 700 CDF in Port Loko.

The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), meanwhile, has established a permanent patrol presence in the heart of RUF-held territory in Koidu in the Kono district in the eastern part of the country.  Some

250 Bangladeshi peacekeepers were deployed there on Wednesday.  We’re expecting a press release from UNAMSIL this afternoon.

**Haiti

I’d like to flag that it’s out on the racks today, a report by the Secretary-General to the General Assembly on developments in Haiti from last November up until the United Nations International Civilian Support Mission ended its mandate on 6 February last year.

In the report, the Secretary-General says he finds it regrettable that various opportunities to reach a political compromise between the ruling Fanmi Lavalas party and the opposition Democratic Convergence were not seized, and that impediments to the resumption of much-needed international assistance remained in place.  He notes concern about lawlessness, and an ever-present fear of an outbreak of major political violence, but adds that those factors have contributed to the growing readiness by civil society to engage in the political crisis.  The international community, he said, should encourage that development.

The Secretary-General received a letter last month from Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, expressing an interest in maintaining the position of a Representative of the Secretary-General in Haiti, with the mandate of facilitating dialogue between the various political actors and promoting peace.  The Secretary-General is consulting with relevant parties on how to respond to that request.  He concludes that the United Nations is committed to continuing to accompany Haiti in its transition to democracy, but that commitment can only bear fruit in a climate of reconciliation and compromise.

**Eritrean Repatriation

More than 3,000 Eritrean refugees have returned from camps in Sudan since the start of a voluntary repatriation on 12 May.  You can read more about this in a UNHCR update on the subject.

**ILO and China

We also have upstairs the full text of a speech by the Director General of the International Labour Office, Juan Somavia.  This is in reference to a Memorandum of Understanding, which he signed yesterday with the Government of China.  The programme aims to strengthen national policies for employment, social dialogue and social protection.  In a speech at the signing ceremony, Mr. Somavia said the Memorandum targets key problems of reform and adjustment faced by China, including the need for labour laws and protection for people during structural adjustments.

**East Timor

On East Timor, though we have the news here on the Council meeting, I’d like to bring to your attention the briefing notes from Dili, which give details on the fifth formal round of talks between the Indonesian Government and UNTAET.  This happened this week in Denpasar, Indonesia, and agreement was reached on the resumption of pension payments to former Indonesian State employees resident in East Timor.  Indonesia also agreed to include reference to a planned severance or compensation fund for former State employees in a Consolidated Appeal for West Timor Refugees to be launched later this year.

**WHO on Polio in Bulgaria

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported the first case of polio in over two years in Bulgaria.  The case was confirmed in a 13-month-old Roma child, and investigation shows the strain to have originated in northern India.  In response, the Bulgarian Ministry of Health began a vaccination campaign in the community at risk and subsequently expanded it to other Roma communities.  WHO says the early detection of the case and rapid response fulfil the requirements of the polio eradication Certification Committee for Europe and illustrates the importance of worldwide vaccination campaigns to the eradication of the disease. 

In associated news, WHO’s Polio Technical Consultative Group reported today that the number of polio-endemic countries had been reduced from 50 to 20 since 1999.  The Group stresses it’s now urgent for eradication to be achieved to ensure that polio-free areas are not re-infected.  Details in our office upstairs.

**UNEP

We also have a press release from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on a study that collected the first hard evidence of the extent of damage to the Fertile Crescent, one of the world’s most important wetlands.  The study is based on historical and new satellite images of the marshlands at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Southern Iraq and extending into Iran, which show that 90 per cent of the marshlands has been lost, mainly due to draining.

This news was unveiled today as UNEP received a gift of some

16,000 satellite images worth $20 million from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).  The images were taken in 1992, the year of the Earth Summit, and in 2000.  UNEP is urging Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey to agree to a recovery programme, and is carrying out an assessment programme to demonstrate how improvements can be made.

**Budget

On budgets today, Palau and St. Vincent and the Grenadines made full payments of more than $10,000 each to the regular budget for this year.  There are now 79 fully paid-up Member States this year.

**The Week Ahead

I won’t take time reading the Week Ahead, but I’ll just remind you that, as on every Friday, we have the week ahead notice in our office.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  On Afghanistan, I take it the harassment of the international aid workers is done by the Taliban.  Has the United Nations Office in Afghanistan confronted the Taliban about these incidents?

Answer:  I have what I have here in my notes.  I suggest you follow up with my colleague Marie, who covers Afghanistan.  We’ll look at this after the briefing.

Question:  Is it known when the Security Council will pick up on the United Kingdom’s initiative on the Iraq sanctions?

Answer:  No, I have nothing on that.  Those are discussions that Council members are having themselves.  We have to continue paying attention to developments in that area to see when the Council will take this matter up.  Of course you know that the next phase of the oil-for-food programme starts in early June.  So one would expect something to happen by then, but we’ll have to see how the Council members will proceed.

**Spokesperson for the General Assembly President

The General Assembly met briefly this morning and adopted a list of more than 220 civil society actors who were seeking accreditation to the General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, which as you know will be held next month.  These are NGOs and other civil society actors who don’t already hold consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and are not members of the

Programme Coordination Board of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).  So this is the final list of the additional NGOs and others who will be able to participate in that session.

Mr. Holkeri, the President of the General Assembly, is currently away, so the acting President presided over the meeting, and that was the ambassador from Bhutan, Ambassador Om Pradhan.

Next week, as I mentioned earlier this week, the General Assembly will be holding informal consultations on the preparations for the expected adoption by the General Assembly Special Session of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS.  The draft Declaration was prepared by the session’s co-facilitators, Permanent Representative Penny Wensley of Australia and Permanent Representative Ibra Deguène Ka of Senegal, and it’s based on informal consultations that began in February.  Unfortunately, these informal consultations are closed, but I will be coming next week to give you any information I can on each day’s sessions.  And we hope that on Monday afternoon we will have a press conference with the two co-facilitators and Peter Piot, the head of UNAIDS, who will be able to give you more details on what to expect next week.

As you know, the special session of the General Assembly aims, through the adoption of this declaration, to galvanize a global commitment to tackle the AIDS crisis.  The declaration is likely to outline specific targets for achieving effective leadership and coordination, for alleviating the social and economic impact of the epidemic, for preventing the spread of the disease, for ensuring the availability of care and support and for mobilizing resources.  I think I mentioned earlier that we have about 20 heads of State and Government who have indicated they will attend and we expect that will increase.

Also, as you know, we have another special session of the General Assembly, before the one on HIV/AIDS, which will be held at the beginning of next month, on Habitat.  We expect to be able to give you a briefing, giving you some details about what this is about.  Next week we’ll be focusing on HIV/AIDS, but the following week we hope to have some details for you on the Habitat session.

**Deputy Spokesman

Any questions?  If not, then have a nice weekend and again, we congratulate UNTV for the new equipment here.  

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