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

**Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General

Good afternoon.  Not very late today, only five minutes.  And we just got news from Cairo.

**Secretary-General’s Trip to the Middle East

The Secretary-General left London this morning, and flew to Cairo, where he arrived about 40 minutes ago, at 4:10 local time.  This evening, he and his delegation are expected to meet with Amre Moussa, the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States.  That meeting will be followed by a private dinner with the Secretary-General and Mr. Moussa.  So there you see a slight change already in the programme we gave out to you yesterday.  At the airport in Cairo, the Secretary-General had a brief encounter with the Foreign Minister of Jordan, Abdul Ilah

El-Khatib, who was also transiting through the airport.

Also at the airport, the Secretary-General had an encounter with journalists.  He told them, "There is a real international alliance for peace working on this issue -- the Americans, the European Union, the Russian Federation, the Arab leaders and the United Nations, are all agreed that we should push for full implementation of the Mitchell plan.  There has been too much suffering in this region,” he continued, “too much suffering for Palestinians and Israelis who have lost many loved ones for us not to try to end this tragedy.  We should do whatever we can to bring the tragedy to an end.  I hope my visit to this region will help move the process in the right direction."

In answer to a question, which was about the window of opportunity the Secretary-General had referred to earlier, the Secretary-General said, "I think we have a fleeting moment, a fleeting opportunity which we much seize and seize promptly, and I hope the parties see it this way, otherwise we may lose an opportunity."

The full transcript of this encounter at the airport is available at the United Nations Web site, on the Spokesman page, as well as in hard copy in the Spokesman’s Office.

**Security Council

Here in New York, the Security Council is meeting in closed consultations. Council members are discussing the eighth report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), which, as you recall, we briefed you on yesterday.

Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hedi Annabi introduced the report to the Council.  A draft resolution was introduced.

Tomorrow, a public meeting on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is scheduled. Jean-Marie Guehenno, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, as well as the Foreign Minister of the DRC, Leonard She Okitundu, are expected to speak.

Also scheduled tomorrow is a vote on a draft resolution resulting from the report of the Council’s Working Group on Peacekeeping Operations.

Finally on the Council, Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury of Bangladesh, Council President, will brief you here at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday on the Council’s mission to Kosovo.  It is the first Council mission in which all members are participating and the first to be led by a Council President.

**Iraq Oil-for-Food Programme

According to the weekly update of the Iraq Programme, Iraq continues its suspension of oil exports under the United Nations oil-for-food programme.

In the week ending 8 June, 7.2 million barrels of oil were lifted at an average of 1.02 million barrels a day, raising an estimated €205 million in revenue, at current prices.

Since the beginning of the oil-for-food programme on 10 December 1996, Iraqi oil exports have totaled approximately 2,500 million barrels for an estimated revenue of $38.6 billion and €6.7 billion.

The total value of contracts placed on hold by the Security Council's

661 sanctions committee increased slightly to $3.04 billion.  Of the total value, $2.6 billion were for humanitarian supplies, while $428 million were for oil industry spare parts and equipment.

The full text of the OIP weekly update is available upstairs.  There were too many numbers here.  I suggest, if you are interested, do take the text because it will be clearer.

**Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo

Moving to Europe:  Thousands of ethnic Albanians are continuing to flee from the fighting in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), according to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).  UNHCR just informed us that, by 3 p.m. local time, some 2,000 Albanians had crossed into Kosovo.

Yesterday, UNHCR estimated that 5,300 people passed through the main border crossing at Blace on their way to Kosovo.  Many of the new arrivals on Monday were people coming from the FYROM capital, Skopje, and its outskirts, and they cited the threat of a military confrontation in the immediate vicinity of Skopje as a reason for their departure.

UNHCR reports that an overwhelming majority of those crossing the border are women and children.  Since last Friday, the agency says, nearly 18,000 people have left FYROM for Kosovo, with the vast majority being accommodated with host families after they arrive.

More details are available in the briefing notes from UNHCR which we have in our office.

**Burundi

Moving now to Africa:  The United Nations Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ross Mountain, at the conclusion of a three-day mission to Burundi, said that the internally displaced population in that country, estimated at more than 500,000, is in urgent need of increased assistance.

“Burundi is facing one of the most acute problems of population displacement in Africa today,” he said.

According to a press release issued by the Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs in Burundi, the country remains one of the most under-funded of all humanitarian emergency appeals.  Only 15 per cent of the $102 million requested for 2001 has been received.

For more information, please check the note we have in our office.

**Sierra Leone

Still on Africa:  The United Nations mission in Sierra Leone announced that disarmament of combatants in Lunsar is expected to begin today.  Over

1,500 Revolutionary United Front (RUF) combatants are expected to enter the process.

Meanwhile, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General,

Oluyemi Adeniji, appealed to the donor community to “respond generously” to the Government of Sierra Leone’s request for financial assistance for the full completion of disarmament, at the meeting in Paris of the Sierra Leone Multi-donor Trust Fund, organized by the World Bank.

The Office of the UNHCR reports it was able for the first time last week to evacuate 130 Liberian and Guinean refugees from an area of Sierra Leone controlled by RUF rebels.  The group, which had been in Kailahun, eastern Sierra Leone, was taken to a Government-controlled area where they can receive urgently needed assistance.

The mission was the first of a series of similar humanitarian missions, which will be carried out to assess the situation of Sierra Leonean returnees, Liberian refugees and Guinean nationals in these RUF-controlled areas.

**Haiti

Moving now to the Americas:  I have a statement attributable to the Spokesman.  It is on the Secretary-General’s report to the call by the Organization of American States (OAS) for all Haitians to commit themselves to resolve the current political crisis in the country.  Here is the statement:

“The Secretary-General has followed with deep interest the political situation in Haiti, since the closure of the International Civilian Support Mission in Haiti and the submission of his final report.  He was encouraged by the mission to Haiti of the OAS and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which recently reported its findings to the 31st General Assembly of the OAS in San Jose, Costa Rica.

“The Secretary-General notes that, based on that mission's report, and in consideration of President Aristide's recent initiatives, the OAS has adopted a resolution calling upon all Haitians to commit themselves to resolve the current political crisis.

“The Secretary-General fully supports this call and all other efforts by the Organization of American States and the Caribbean Community, which aim to strengthen democracy and respect for human rights in Haiti.”

**East Timor

I also have another statement here on the appointment of the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in East Timor.  The statement -- I am just going to read a portion of it -- says:

“The Secretary-General has decided to appoint Dennis McNamara as his Deputy Special Representative for East Timor.  McNamara will take over from Jean-Christian Cady, who will be leaving at the end of June.

“McNamara, a national of New Zealand, is currently United Nations Special Coordinator on Internal Displacement, and has worked for 25 years with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).”

Still on East Timor:  The Secretary-General's Special Representative in East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, has signed today a notification setting the date of elections for East Timor's Constituent Assembly, a vote to take place on

30 August.  The campaign period is to begin on 15 July.

Also on the notes we got from Dili today, which are available in our office, you will have a status report on the registration of political parties; so far,

13 parties have submitted registration applications to East Timor's Independent Electoral Commission, and eight have currently been registered.

In another political development, Vieira de Mello over the weekend called the decision to dissolve the umbrella organization, the National Council for Timorese Resistance, "a politically courageous, wise and timely one."  The Transitional Administration will do its utmost, he added, to assist the group's members as they enter civil service.

**Central African Republic

The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Central African Republic, General Amadou Toumani Touré, is in the capital, Bangui, where he will be meeting with representatives of United Nations agencies and later with President Patassé.

We will keep you updated on any further developments as we receive them this afternoon.

**Press Releases

We have a few press releases to announce:

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warns in a press release that by 2050, up to 80 per cent of the Arctic will be affected if industrialization continues at the current rate.

In another press release, the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that many developing countries will not make the targets set by the United Nations for reductions in maternal mortality.  Latest figures show that maternal mortality claims the lives of 515,000 women a year, 99 per cent of them in developing countries. 

I have here a note from the Department of Public Information (DPI), asking to inform you that the background note on the United Nations Political and Peacebuilding Missions in English and in French is now available.  There are currently 13 such missions with approximately 600 international and local personnel.

Copies of this note are available on the United Nations Web site as well as in the Spokesman’s office.

Finally, before I tell you about press conferences, to bring to your attention that tomorrow afternoon, at 1:45 p.m. in Conference Room 1, Nane Annan will deliver a speech on behalf of the Secretary-General to honour the legacy of Raphael Lemkin, a man who was instrumental in drafting the Genocide Convention. The event is organized by the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights and supported by the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs.  It will mark the 50^th anniversary of the coming onto force of the Convention.

**Press Conferences

And finally, press conferences.  Today at 12:45, soon after this briefing, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)is sponsoring the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, who will discuss the Global Report on the Use of Child Soldiers.  Speakers are to include Rory Mungoven, the Coalition’s coordinator,

Jo Becker, Children’s Rights Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch, and Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone.

Do you have any questions before we move to Sue?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Do you have any information on the condition of the truce between Macedonia and the Albanians?

Deputy Spokesman:  I heard this morning that it was holding, but you should contact directly the Mission of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on that.

Question:  Do you have any information on the talk between the Secretary-General and President Mubarak of Egypt?

Deputy Spokesman:  It will happen tomorrow.

Question:  There has been a lot of noise about children in armed conflicts. Today there was a panel in Conference Room 4 in which panellists and NGOs had access, but not the press.  What kind of policy is that?

Deputy Spokesman:  I am not familiar with the organization of the event.  You put a complaint on the record. I will follow up on it.

Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly:  It was an open meeting, so you should have been able to go.  There is a special press area.  I

will follow up on that.  [Following the briefing it was announced that accredited media could have access to the panel in that conference room.]

**Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly

**Plenary

This morning the plenary of the General Assembly met to elect 27 judges of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.  There are 51 candidates since 13 dropped out from the original list of 64 that was issued yesterday.  We can give you an updated list.  Unfortunately, because of delays in the beginning of the meeting, we don’t have any results to give you.  In fact, there was an hour’s delay as a result of the withdrawal of the candidates to enable the Secretariat to prepare a new ballot paper.

When the meeting resumed, the President of the Assembly remarked that this delay showed the need to introduce new technology to enable the Assembly to conduct elections in a speedy fashion.  He said that this issue was being taken up by his office in the context of enhancing the effectiveness of the Assembly and he asked for the support of member States in this.  His statement was applauded by delegates who had waited one hour to get new ballot papers.  As soon as the results come we will share them with you.

**Preparatory Committee of the Special Session on Children

Also today, the third session of the Preparatory Committee for the General Assembly Special Session on Children continued.  This morning there was a panel discussion on children and armed conflict, which concluded just before the briefing.  There is another one, currently ongoing, on the commercial sexual exploitation of children.  I was going to remark that, since these are open, I would encourage you to go to see for yourself what is going on.  After the briefing, I will go down and make sure that, if any journalist is interested in attending, you can get in.

This afternoon, the Preparatory Committee will continue its discussion of the Secretary-General’s report and the outcome document that the Assembly is expected to adopt, called “A World Fit for Children”.  This discussion will continue through Friday.

There are, of course, copies of the draft document available on the UNICEF Web site, and they are upstairs as well.  That is all I have.  Thank you.

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