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 Susan Markham, Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly.

Spokesman for the Secretary-General

**Security Council

Good afternoon.  The Security Council is meeting in closed consultations this morning to hear an oral presentation by Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France on the just-completed Security Council mission to the Great Lakes region.

The ambassadors returned very early Saturday morning from the 10-day trip. Their report on that mission is still being finalized.

Also, Benon Sevan, the Director of the Office of the Iraq Programme, will brief the Council on the last 180-day report of the Oil-for-Food Programme.  The Programme is currently on Phase IX which ends on 4 June.

Mr. Sevan will be coming to the stakeout after his briefing of the Council.

This afternoon, the Council will be meeting under the Aria formula to hear from André Heitz, General-Secretary of the Federation of International Civil Servants Associations.  Mr. Heitz will speak to the Council on the issue of staff security.  Tomorrow at 11:15 a.m., Mr. Heitz will hold a press conference in this room.

**Central African Republic

The latest that we hear from Bangui in the Central African Republic is that the capital is calm, but remains volatile with some reports of gunfire, after yesterday’s failed coup attempt.

Yesterday, in the late afternoon, we issued a statement on behalf of the Secretary-General in which he “condemned any attempt to overthrow an elected government by force” and called on “all Central Africans, especially political and other leaders, to respect the democratic institutions of the country and to favour dialogue”.

**Sierra Leone

A report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council on the issue of refugees and internally displaced persons in and around Sierra Leone is out on the racks today.

The Secretary-General says that for the time being conditions for the immediate return of all refugees to Sierra Leone do not exist.  A large part of Sierra Leone remains under the control of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and largely beyond the reach of humanitarian aid and government services.

While recent events in Sierra Leone, he says, may give rise to cautious optimism, the fighting in northern Liberia is intensifying and could lead to a serious political and humanitarian crisis, which has already led to new and increased flows of refugees and displaced persons.

Citing contributions amounting to only 8 per cent of what was requested, the Secretary-General appealed to the international community to make necessary resources available to support the efforts of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other United Nations agencies and programmes, as well as non-governmental organizations, to assist in the protection, relocation and return of refugees and displaced persons.

Meanwhile, the UNHCR announced today that it had completed on Sunday the evacuation of refugees from the insecure Parrot's Beak region of south-western Guinea.  A total of 54,000 refugees have been transferred to safer parts since February.

Also on Sierra Leone, the briefing notes from the United Nations mission there included the mention of the fact that more than 3,300 combatants have been disarmed in a 10-day operation in two districts.  The notes also mentioned the handover of nearly 600 child combatants by the RUF in Makeni.

**Afghanistan

The Office of the United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan, in a statement issued today in Islamabad, Pakistan, says it deplores the interference that the aid community in Afghanistan has increasingly faced in recent weeks, while staff work to alleviate the suffering of the Afghan people.

The statement was issued as United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator Erick de Mul concluded three days of meetings with Taliban representatives in Kabul.

Mr. De Mul was expected to hold a press conference on Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. in Islamabad about his just-concluded mission.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that it would shut down its bakery programme on 15 June if the Taliban doesn’t allow the agency to send Afghan women to conduct a survey to determine the neediest people.

We have the WFP press release, as well as the statement issued by the United Nations Coordinator, which says that the number of Afghans who will have to leave their homes to survive may double in the course of 2001-2002.  At present, about 800,000 Afghans have left their homes.

**West Timor Explosion

At least three people were reportedly killed in West Timor near the border with East Timor, apparently as refugees in the West met with family members from the East.  Three victims of the blast turned up at the United Nations military hospital in the East Timor border town of Balibo and reported that an estimated

25 people were injured in the incident.  The United Nations peacekeepers have, of course, no access to West Timor, and this is all the information that we have at this time.

**Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

The UNHCR says it is increasingly concerned about the plight of civilians caught in fighting between armed forces of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and ethnic Albanian rebels.

The UNHCR says between 5,000 and 10,000 people are believed to be trapped in villages engulfed by fighting in the northern part of the country.  An estimated 18,000 people have so far sought refuge in southern Serbia and Kosovo.

In an effort to thwart the movement of extremists into and out of Kosovo, the United Nations mission has recently promulgated a regulation which limits the legal boundary and border crossing points to 19 designated sites, and may soon make other crossings subject to criminal prosecution.  We have more details on these developments upstairs.

**Signings

There was one signing this morning.  Palau became the ninety-seventh country to sign the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

**Press releases

Few press releases to flag for you today.  First, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today announced the winners of its annual Global 500 Award.  Eighteen individuals and organizations will be honoured at this year’s World Environment Day observances on 5 June.

Next is a press release from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), saying that Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights, will receive the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize for the year 2000.  She receives the prize in recognition of her “great contribution” to the defence of human rights.

Finally, the WFP today began a series of training sessions for contracted truck drivers to raise their awareness of HIV/AIDS.  In its first large-scale initiative to fight the epidemic, the WFP will train 2,300 truck drivers who move relief food from the Port of Djibouti to warehouses and distribution sites within Ethiopia.

That’s all I have.  Anything, before we go to Sue?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Any information with regard to the next report of the Secretary-General on Cyprus?

Spokesman:  No, I don’t have a date on that.  We usually have those dates in advance, so if you check in my Office after the briefing, we’ll see if we can get it for you.  [He later announced the report will be out Friday or Monday.]

Question:  Will the report on the Democratic Republic of the Congo be coming out anytime soon?  And also will Levitte be briefing us?

Spokesman:  I don’t know when that report would be coming out.  I do know that there will be another session on the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the Council tomorrow, a public session.  I think that would be a chance to get a first-hand readout, unless you manage to snare Ambassador Levitte as he comes out of the Council today.  [That report is expected out later today or tomorrow.]

Question:  Any word on when the next round of talks between the Secretary-General and the Iraqi Foreign Minister would take place?

Spokesman:  I’ll see.  He didn’t tell me anything today, so I don’t know whether dates had been set.  I assume that if he had fixed dates, he would have told me, but I’ll double-check for you after the briefing.

Question:  Concerning Albanians who are fighting:  we only hear that these rebels are fighting in Macedonia and we don’t hear the cause and what their demands are.  Can you tell us what their demands are?

Spokesman:  I don’t speak for them, so I can’t tell you why they are fighting.  I can say that international efforts have attempted to get the Albanian population in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia which is a substantial minority, to work with the Government.  Already there’s an Albanian political party –- at least, a principal one -- as part of the Government to address the concerns of the minority.  We’re trying to get that done through the governmental process, not through a guerrilla war in the North.

Question:  How could we find what their demands are?

Spokesman:  I don’t know.  You could look it up in the Internet, or find a spokesman.  I can’t be that spokesman.

Question:  The turnout of American mayors to the special Habitat session next week looks rather disappointing, to say the least.  There are no prominent mayors that I see on the preliminary list. Is there anything the Secretary-General can do to encourage some of these guys to try to come on board?  Mayor Giuliani, as Mayor of the host city, is not on the list of the people who have accepted to attend.

Spokesman:  I have to look at that list, but I don’t think there’s any such thing as a non-prominent mayor.  I’ll check with Gillian Sorensen’s office whether they are disappointed or elated at the numbers.  I don’t know what the numbers are, so let me look into that for you.

Question:  Since we’re doing Habitat, is there any kind of a preliminary schedule for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday?

Spokesman:  I think that’s for Sue.

Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly

As you’re interested in Habitat, let’s start with that.

As you know, on Thursday, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, Head of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, will be here to brief you on the special session next week, which begins on Wednesday and runs for three days.

Before the session starts, there are a number of special events, including an event for Mayors which Michael referred to.  So far, I have a list that's about two weeks old.  So I assume it has changed somewhat.  There are 37 mayors on that list, including from Paris, Bonn, and Athens -– a number of major cities around the world.  They will have their event at 5:30 p.m. next Tuesday, and I’m sure before then we’ll have another list to bring you up to date.

I wanted to draw your attention to the material in the room concerning the special session on Habitat.  I think if you take copies of that you will be very well prepared for Mrs. Tibaijuka’s briefing on Thursday, after the noon briefing.

In the press kit prepared for you, you’ll find some very interesting statistical material and some very up-to-date information about the status of the negotiations.  For instance, you’ll be interested to know that in 1950 New York was the only metropolitan area in the world with over 10 million people.  By 1975, that number had grown to five cities, and New York had been displaced to position number 2.  Currently, there are 19 cities with over 10 million people, and New York is listed number 5.  We expect this trend to continue.  Currently, about half of the world’s population live in cities, so we’re going to be more and more “citified”.  Of course, that’s what the special session will be looking at.

It’ll be adopting a draft declaration called “The Declaration on Cities and Other Human Settlements in the New Millennium".  This has been negotiated at the Prep Comm that was held in Nairobi.  You can find a copy of the text in this document of which copies have been made available there, separately as well.  This is the report of the Prep Comm which, as I said, was held in Nairobi in a number of sessions.

There are still a few areas of square brackets -– maybe five or six -– and in this press document you’ll find an explanation and why they are controversial.  You’ll also see the actual text in the document.

The President of the General Assembly was to meet this morning with the President of the Prep Comm.  That meeting had been delayed until 1:15 this afternoon, because the President was chairing the working group on Africa this morning.  I’ll get to that in a minute.  At the 1:15 meeting there will be a discussion on the organizational aspects of the special session, including the possibility of two days of informal negotiations next week, before the session begins to look at areas remaining in square brackets.  So I’ll know more about that tomorrow.  Then, the President is also going to meet with all the regional groups this afternoon, after his meeting with the Chairman of the Prep Comm to discuss the arrangements.

Apart from the actual Declaration, one of the interesting aspects of the special session, as I have said, is that three days -– Wednesday through Friday -– are being devoted to what is being called the thematic committee.  At this thematic committee, there would be case studies, if you like, or success stories of case studies -– of urban planning and other good practices for urban living provided by 16 different countries.

They will be presented by both governments and civil society and others.  There will also be a committee of the whole which will run at the same time as the plenary.  At the committee of the whole, there will be statements made by civil society panels, including local authorities, non-governmental organizations and others.  Please take note that the meetings will start at 9 o’clock in the morning and will not finish until 7 in the evening.  So, instead of from 10 to 1, it will be from 9 to 1; and instead of from the normal 3 to 6, it will be from 3 to 7, so be prepared.

As I mentioned earlier, there will be some two days of special events ahead of the session.  There is a schedule of events which will be updated as we go along.  There’s a very interesting information note for delegations, copies of which are available in the room and also on the Web site.  At the back of this information note, there’s a schedule of special events, starting from page 17.  You can find those in the room as well.

Before the briefing started, I was asked if we expect some heads of State. Most of the delegations will be at ministerial level, but there’s one Vice-President, I think from Burundi, on the list that I saw last week.  If you have any questions, my colleagues here would be able to answer them.  We expect the spokesman for Mrs. Tibaijuka to be here this afternoon, and he would be available during the week and, of course, next week as well.

So I’ll just go back now to what else is happening today.  The President of the General Assembly this morning chaired the working group on Africa, which is meeting in closed session.  The working group's theme for today and tomorrow is education.  There’s a special issues paper on this theme, introduced by a special coordinator for Africa.  We can make copies for you if you’re interested.  That informal briefing paper was then followed by an interactive panel discussion.  I can give you more details if you wish.

The working group will continue tomorrow, also on the theme of education.  On Thursday and Friday, it will take up the issues of conflict preventions, and post-conflict peace-building.  Again, it will be in the form of an interactive panel, as in the panel on education.

Today at 1 o’clock there is an open meeting on education.  It’s for NGOs and organized with NGOs who will present some of their experiences.  This is a meeting open to the media in Conference Room 3.  There’s a similar event, also open to the media and on conflict prevention.  And that’s for Thursday.

The informal consultations of the General Assembly on the Declaration of Commitments on the HIV/AIDS question continues today.  As you recall, they met on Saturday to look at the new version of the draft commitment.  New copies were circulated on Saturday morning.  They started going through paragraph by paragraph to resolve some of the issues that had been raised in the course of last week.  They were unable to finish on Saturday, so they’re continuing today in Conference Room 1 in closed session.  If they don’t finish today, they’ll continue tomorrow.

Tomorrow, we also expect informal consultations of the preparatory committee for the special session on children which will be held in September, as you know.  Tomorrow through Friday, the preparatory committee will be meeting to look at the revised version of the draft outcome document for that session.  We can provide you with copies of that if you are interested.  And, of course, there’s information on the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Web site for that.

Spokesman:  Any questions for Sue?

Question:  Once the Habitat session gets under way, everything is going to be done publicly, is it?  We are not going to be confronted by things happening behind the scenes?

Spokesperson:  All three committees are open, so you’ll be able to attend any of them.

Question:  What are the three committees?

Spokesperson:  The three are the plenary, which, of course, will be in the General Assembly Hall; the committee of the whole, which I think will be in Conference Room 2; the other one will be the thematic committee.  The three will be meeting simultaneously.

Question:  Have the themes been decided upon?

Spokesperson:  Yes, they have.  There’s quite a list.  There’s a list of   16 countries that are going to make presentations to the thematic committee.  It starts at 11 o’clock on Wednesday morning and runs through Friday morning.  So, Friday morning will only be the plenary, and that will adopt the draft declaration.

Question:  So, these are the success stories?

Spokesperson:  Yes, exactly.

Question:  When are you going to have the list of mayors that actually are coming?  Can we get it like today or tomorrow?

Spokesperson:  As I said, I have this list.  But I got it about a week ago.  It may have been updated.  We can make this available this afternoon, hopefully, as soon as Ms. Tibaijuka's spokesman comes.

I forgot to mention this.  If any of your friends or fellow journalists intend to cover the special session, Conference Room 1 will be made the media centre for next week.  So, there’ll be facilities down there.

Question:  There has been some talk about inexpensive drugs for Africa.  Do you have any idea when those could be expected?

Spokesperson:  It’s up to the governments involved.  It’s up to them to decide when they’re going to make them available.  Some pharmaceutical companies had agreed to make some cheap, generic drugs available.  I will have to check exactly what the situation is.  I believe there are three countries that are already receiving those drugs.

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