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

**Spokesman for the Secretary-General

Good afternoon.  I see we’re all-remote now on camera.

**Secretary-General on Middle East

On his way into the building this morning, in response to a question, the Secretary-General said that he thought there were elements in the Mitchell Report, which came out officially today, that would allow the Israelis and the Palestinians to step back, move towards a ceasefire, agree on confidence-building measures and eventually return to the negotiating table.  "I hope this opportunity will not be wasted," he said.  Referring to the violence in the region, he said, "It's a real tragedy."

Asked about the Arab nations' decision over the weekend to freeze all ties with Israel, the Secretary-General commented, "It's not going to make a settlement easier."  He added, however, that he was encouraged that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had indicated he would remain engaged and he said he trusted that Jordan's King Abdullah would also stay involved.  "The group that met at Sharm-el-Sheikh," he said, "has stayed in touch throughout this crisis, trying to find a way of pushing the process forward."

At the request of the Security Council, the Secretary-General has agreed to brief Council Members on the Middle East tomorrow.  We may have a more formal statement on the Mitchell Commission later today.

**Security Council

On the Council, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hedi Annabi, briefed the Security Council this morning in closed consultations on his mission to Sierra Leone and recent developments there.  According to the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), more than 1,000 ex-fighters from the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the pro-Government militia, Civil Defence Force (CDF), have disarmed since the process started in Kambia and Port Loko districts on Friday.  UNAMSIL noted that the RUF brigade commander led a group to the disarmament center in Kambia.

UNAMSIL also reported shells were fired from Guinea in the town of Rokupr in the Kambia district on Friday while the RUF fighters were disarming.  On Saturday, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, went to Conakry with Sierra Leone President Tejan Kabbah to discuss the bombardment.  Guinean authorities said the incident was due to a communication gap and that immediate steps would be taken to prevent a recurrence.  Press releases on the two developments are available in my office.

      **Security Council Mission to the Great Lakes

The Security Council mission to the Great Lakes region of Africa issued a statement today at the end of its visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo before leaving for Lusaka, Zambia.  In the statement, the mission noted it was "the first time since the outbreak of the conflict (that) a solution seems to be in sight in the Democratic Republic of the Congo."  The statement not only touches upon the military issues by fully supporting the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement and calling on all parties to respect it, but also underscores the importance of economic revival as a vital component of a return to peace.

During a press conference before departing Kinshasa, Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France, who is heading the mission, announced the creation of funding for 40 small development projects where the United Nations Organizational Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) has a presence in the country.  We have the full statement available to you upstairs, and we have a note on the mission’s activities over the weekend and today, which will be finished shortly.  We’re transcribing a report that we got by phone.

**Secretary-General’s Address at Tufts University

The Secretary-General yesterday delivered the commencement address at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts, where he told the graduates that global warming may be the greatest challenge their generation will have to face.  In his speech, copies of which are available in my office, the Secretary-General said the world's leading climatologists have sifted the evidence and have concluded that "climate change is occurring, that human activities are among the main contributing factors, and that we cannot wait any longer to take action."

He added, "contrary to popular belief, we do not face a choice between economy and ecology."  In fact, he said, the opposite is true, and that economic growth will not be sustained unless resources are protected.

Speaking to reporters afterward, the Secretary-General was asked about United States President George W. Bush's policy on climate change, and he said he had the impression that the United States was willing to talk to others on the issue, and that the door was not completely shut.  The test will come in July, he said, when climate change negotiations resume in Bonn.  We have copies of the transcript of that press encounter in my office.  The Secretary-General also spoke briefly to the United Nations Association of the Greater Boston area before he returned to New York yesterday afternoon.

**Rwanda Tribunal

Over the weekend, Tanzanian authorities, acting at the request of Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, arrested an Investigator for that Tribunal's defence team.  He is still in the custody of the Tanzanian authorities, pending a formal handover to the Tribunal.

The Investigator had been travelling on a Congolese passport under the name of Sammy Bahati Weza, but the Tribunal says he is actually Simeon Nshamihigo, who worked as a deputy prosecutor in Cyangugu Prefecture during the 1994 genocide.  Recently, he had been working on the defence team of a Rwandan defendant from Cyangugu, Samuel Imanishinwe.  The Tribunal, in a press release that is available upstairs, notes that defence investigators are not staff members of the Tribunal but independent contractors recruited by defence attorneys.  Their fees are part of the legal aid package provided by the Tribunal for indigent accused persons.

**Afghanistan

As of today in Afghanistan, the United Nations political presence is limited to Kabul and Faizabad after the Taliban shut down four other United Nations political offices in Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat, Jalalabad and Kandahar, in line with its 20 May deadline for their closure.  The office of the United Nations Special Mission in Afghanistan (UNSMA) will continue to operate in Kabul, as will the Secretary-General’s Personal Representative for Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell, to continue the work of the United Nations there.

The closure order does not apply to the United Nations humanitarian presence, but as you recall, we mentioned to you on Friday that the assistance community is facing increasing obstacles from the Taliban in carrying out their work in Afghanistan.  The World Food Programme, meanwhile, said it started distributing food supplies to more than 70,000 poor Afghans, who have been living in a squalid camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, for the past five months.

**Conference on Least Developed Countries

The Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries concluded yesterday in Brussels, Belgium, with the adoption of a political declaration in which the 193 Governments that participated committed themselves to the eradication of poverty in the world's poorest countries.  The Brussels Declaration says that a "transparent, non-discriminatory and rules-based" multilateral trading system is essential for the least developed countries to reap the benefits of globalization, and added that the accession of those countries to the World Trade Organization should be encouraged and facilitated.

The Governments committed themselves to advancing the "development dimension of trade" at the next World Trade Organization meetings, to be held this November in Doha, Qatar.  They also committed themselves to seizing the opportunity to mobilize resources for development and to reverse the declining trend of official development assistance.  A full press release on the Conference's conclusion is out on the racks, and can also be found on the Web site of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (www.unctad.org).

**Lebanon

This morning in Beirut, Lebanon's Ministry of Defence, in cooperation with the United Nations, began a two-day high-level workshop for demining Lebanon, starting with southern Lebanon, and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud attended the opening session.  Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean Marie Guéhenno, who is visiting several United Nations peacekeeping operations in the Middle East this week, attended the conference, and noted the importance to the United Nations of dealing with the mine problem in Lebanon.

Steffan de Mistura, the Secretary-General's Personal Representative for Southern Lebanon, also addressed the workshop and said that a follow-up mechanism would be necessary to pursue the demining of the south.  We have a press release in my office, or we will have shortly.

      **World Conference against Racism

The Second Preparatory Committee Meeting for the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance began today in Geneva.  In addressing the meeting, Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that progress on drafting the final declaration has been slow, but there was still time to look for common ground.  She urged the delegates not to get stuck on details.  “The challenge which faces us over the next weeks,” she said, “is to identify the areas of consensus and rationalize them into agreed text.”  We have the full text in my office.

**East Timor

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative in East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, met for the second time with leaders of political parties, and that happened on Saturday.  The parties agreed to participate in the civic education campaign being conducted by the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).  A third meeting is scheduled for 31 May, and we have the Briefing Notes from Dili.

**Signings

In signings today, there were two.  Croatia deposited the instrument of ratification to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, becoming the thirty-second party to do so.  Also this morning, the Cook Islands became the ninety-sixth signatory to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity.  The Cook Islands are a self-governing territory of New Zealand.

**Press Releases from Vienna and WHO

On press releases, we have one from Vienna saying that the seventy-first session of the International Narcotics Control Board began today in Vienna.  Each year, the Board singles out one issue of major focus, and this year the thirteen members will discuss advances in modern technology, especially in telecommunications and how this impacts drug law enforcement.

Then in a press release from the World Health Organization (WHO), we have news that 54 countries will participate in an extensive international nuclear emergency exercise starting tomorrow.  The exercise will involve a simulated incident at a fictitious site with possible environmental impact and the participants will have to decide on measures to protect the public, based on actual weather conditions at the time of the exercise.

**Press Conferences

Two press conferences, one this afternoon and one tomorrow.  This afternoon at 2:30 in this room, Ambassador Penny Wensley of Australia and Ambassador Ka of Senegal, the co-facilitators of the preparatory process for the General Assembly’s special session on HIV-AIDS, will talk to you about the informal consultations in preparation for that special session.  They’ll be joined by Peter Piot, the

Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).  The special session, as you know, will take place next month, from 25 to 27 June.

And then tomorrow in the morning, Ibrahim Gambari, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Africa, is scheduled to brief the Security Council in closed consultations on the subject of Angola.  And we’ve asked him to come to this room to talk to you following that briefing.  We’ll make an announcement over the public address system when that’s about to happen.

**Spokesperson for the General Assembly President

Just to remind you that this morning the General Assembly met in closed session for the beginning of its week-long informal on preparations for the special session on HIV/AIDS.  This is the final informal session to be held before the special session next month.  Before delegations was a document, which is the draft declaration of commitment on HIV/AIDS -- which is called “global crisis, global action.”  The meeting will conclude on Friday. 

In the meantime, they’re going through the document paragraph by paragraph.  It contains concrete targets for the international community in a number of specific areas, including prevention, care, support, treatment, reducing vulnerability, alleviating the economic and social impact of AIDS, and other issues.  There is a press release available here, and probably upstairs, that gives you more details.

Chairing this morning’s meeting was Ambassador Ka of Senegal and Dr. Peter Piot also spoke.  Both of them, of course, will be at the press conference this afternoon with the other co-facilitator, Ambassador Penny Wensley, as Fred mentioned.  Dr. Piot noted the interest being generated by the preparations for the special session, and he said this really far exceeded their expectations, and therefore, the international community must meet these expectations, these quite raised expectations in civil society.  He noted that the special session would be held in the month of the twentieth anniversary of the discovery of AIDS in the United States, which was on 5 June 20 years ago.

The work programme this week for the informal session includes night meetings, including one tonight, which will be a dialogue between the delegations and civil society members.  I believe this is an open meeting, unlike all the other sessions, which are closed, and it will be in conference room one, starting at 7 p.m. and concluding at 10 p.m.

Turning to the schedule of the General Assembly President, as I mentioned on Friday, he’s away at the moment and will be returning today.  He spoke at a seminar in Finland earlier today on girls’ education.  This was held in follow-up of the Millennium Summit and in preparation for the special session on children, which will be held, as you know, in September.  The President’s speech at the seminar in Finland on the importance of girls’ education, is available upstairs and also on his website.  Thank you.

Question:  Any indication that the General Assembly will take up the question of the Middle East?

Answer:  No, I have no information.  You mean the special session?  No, I have nothing yet.