DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERALl

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.

Good afternoon.

**SG Addresses OAU Summit

The Secretary-General addressed the thirty-seventh Summit of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) this morning in Lusaka, Zambia.  The Summit is intended to transform the OAU into an African Union, which, the Secretary-General said, will set the continent as a whole "on a firm path to peace and development."

"This historic effort," he went on, "will require leadership, courage and a willingness to depart from the ways of the past, if it is to do for Africa what the European Union has done for Europe".

The text of the Secretary-General's statement is available in my office.

This morning, the Secretary-General attended a breakfast meeting hosted by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.  That was on the subject of HIV/AIDS, a topic to which the Secretary-General devoted a substantial segment of his address.

He is intending to hold a series of bilateral meetings while he is in Lusaka.  He already met with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.  In the afternoon, he brought together for about an hour the Presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Paul Kagame and Joseph Kabila, respectively. Earlier, he had met with the Ghanaian President John Kufuor.  He just now has finished the meeting with the President of Somalia, and should be in a meeting with the President of the Côte d'Ivoire; and later today he will meet with Yasser Arafat, the President of the Palestinian Authority.

And also he expects to see the former President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, before attending a state banquet hosted by the current Zambian President, Frederick Chiluba.

On his arrival in Lusaka yesterday, he had a private meeting with Nelson Mandela to review peace efforts in Burundi.

Saturday was the fortieth anniversary of the death of Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld who died in a plane crash over Ndola, Zambia in 1961.  In a statement read on his behalf by K.Y. Amoako, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, the Secretary-General welcomed the creation of a living memorial to Hammarskjöld; and we have the text of that statement in my office.

**Small Arms

The Small Arms Conference opened this morning here at Headquarters.  Addressing the delegates, the Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Fréchette, noted

that “small arms are linked to bigger issues, such as peace and security, human rights, drug trafficking and money laundering.”  They can sustain conflict, erode the authority of legitimate but weak governments, and undermine respect for international humanitarian law and the rule of law, she added.

Fréchette said that the fight against illegal arms trade raises many complex questions and emphasized that we “must distinguish between licit and illicit trade,” taking into account “national sovereignty, the responsibilities of states to provide security and the right of States to self-defence”.

She indicated three areas where immediate progress is possible to reduce weapons already in circulation and to prevent future accumulation.  The first is laws and regulation, noting that “we still lack a framework of binding norms and standards to eliminate the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.”  The other areas are greater international cooperation and practical disarmament measures.

Also speaking at the opening session, the President of the General Assembly, Harri Holkeri noted that the holding of the Small Arms Conference reflects the collective awareness of the severity of the problems associated with this illicit trade, as well as the determination to solve them with a programme of action to be concluded at this Conference.

He added that the Small Arms Conference is an important part of the follow-up to the Millennium Summit and called for resolve in turning the commitments of the Summit Declaration into reality.

The opening of the Conference coincides with International Small Arms Destruction Day.  In a message on the Day, the Secretary-General said that “there are estimated to be at least 500 million of small arms and light weapons in circulation –- one for every 12 people on earth.”

He also reaffirmed his commitment to work “with governments, civil society groups and the general public to rid humanity of this scourge”.

Also commemorating the International Day, the UN Development Programme held an event is Pristina, Kosovo to destroy some 500 small arms.

Copies of the Deputy Secretary-General’s message and the Secretary-General’s message are both available in my office.

The Small Arms Conference elected Ambassador Camillo Reyes of Colombia as Conference President and confirmed Joao Honwana, the Chief of the Conventional Arms Branch of the Department for Disarmament Affairs, as Secretary-General of the Conference.

After hearing statements of the Conference President, the President of the General Assembly and the Deputy Secretary-General, the Conference then moved into the Ministerial segment for a general exchange of views.  Ten speakers are scheduled to speak this morning, followed by fourteen speakers this afternoon.  Copies of the speakers list are available in the Spokesman’s Office.

A number of side events will take place during the Conference.  Among these events are an “iHuman” gun sculpture in the General Assembly public lobby, which will open on Wednesday at 6.00 p.m.  Also the Netherlands Mission will screen a video on small arms and their destruction in the Visitors Plaza at 1:15 p.m.  It will include remarks of the Secretary-General.  Zlata Filipovic, a Bosnian girl who wrote a diary in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is expected to make brief remarks on the issue of small arms during the video presentation.  Martin Sheen, an actor, hosts the video.  Copies of the side events are available in the Spokesman’s Office.

**Iraq

The Memorandum of Understanding with Iraq governing the oil-for-food programme is being extended for another 150 days, following agreement reached this morning between Iraq and the UN Secretariat on the text.

An exchange of letters will take place at UN Headquarters this afternoon.

**UNIFIL Videotape

We received a letter from the Israeli Minister of Defence over the weekend requesting access to an unedited version of the UN videotape.  Of course, it’s the video tape -- that was discussed here last week -– taken by UN peacekeepers of the vehicles [allegedly] used in the abduction of three Israeli soldiers from Lebanon at the border last October.

We are studying this letter as well as the reaction of the Lebanese authorities which we also received over the weekend.

Our decision was to offer an edited version of the videotape and I have no reason to think that will change.

**Security Council

There are no meetings of the Security Council expected today.

Tomorrow morning, at 10:30 a.m. Council members will discuss, in consultation, the Secretary-General's report on the UN Mission of Observers in Prevlaka, and his report on developments in Guinea-Bissau.

**Mission in Prevlaka

For those of you who might have missed it, the Secretary-General’s report on Prevlaka (United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka, UNMOP), came out late on Friday.  The report recommends that the mission be extended by a further six months until 15 January.  The mission has been able to maintain stability, the Secretary-General says, while monitoring the demilitarization of the Prevlaka peninsula, allowing talks on the future of Prevlaka to continue.

**West Timor

A UN inter-agency technical security assessment mission arrived in West Timor yesterday.  The mission, led by the Office of the UN Security Coordinator with the participation of five UN agencies, is expected to last for about a week and make recommendations after reviewing the security situation in West Timor.

This security assessment follows the killing last year of three UN staff of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

**Refugees - FYROM

The briefing notes from the UN Mission in Kosovo are available in my office. They inform us that as a result of the ceasefire in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, close to 9,000 people have returned to FYROM, leaving a total of some 64,000 people inside Kosovo as refugees.

**Press Releases

The World Health Organization announced in a press release today, that the six largest medical journal publishers have launched an initiative to provide access to scientific information to some 100 developing countries.  The three-year programme will begin next January, and will provide access to more than

1,000 leading medical and scientific journals to academic, research and government institutions in the poorest countries free or at significantly reduced rates.

In another press release, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda announced that Judge Andresia Vaz of Senegal was sworn in today to replace the late Judge Laity Kama who died last May.

**Signings

This morning, Andorra became the 68th country to sign the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

**Monthly Summary of Troop Contributions to Peacekeeping

In my office you can find the update on the number of peacekeepers who serve with the 16 United Nations peacekeeping missions.  As of the end of June 2001, there were a total of 43,590 military and police personnel from 89 different countries.

**Press Conferences

       Press conferences today.  We have four.  At 12:45 p.m. in this room, Ambassador Camillo Reyes, the newly elected President of the UN Conference on Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, will discuss the issues of the Conference.

At 2:00 p.m., the International Action Network on Small Arms will hold a press conference to discuss small arms.

At 2:45 p.m., John Bolton, the United States Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, will discuss United States policies on illicit trade in arms as well as on missile defence.

And at 3:15 p.m., Congressman Bob Barr of the United States will also talk about the small arms issue.

Tomorrow, at 11:00 a.m., there will be a press conference to launch the first edition of Small Arms Survey, and the speakers will include Ambassador Raimund Kunz, Head of the Swiss Delegation to the UN Conference on Small Arms.

**Guest at Noon Briefing     

And our guest at tomorrow’s noon briefing will be Eimi Watanabe, the Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Development Policy at the UN

Development Programme and Kate Raworth who will launch the Human Development Report.

Any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  About the video on Lebanon, has it been released?

Spokesman:  It has not been.  We made the offer to release the edited version.

Question:  Is there going to be, or has there been, an internal inquiry about who withheld the evidence about the existence of the tape?

Spokesman:  No.  

Question:  The Hezbollah has issued a statement basically saying the United Nations would be spying if it gave this videotape to Israel.  What is your reaction to it?

Spokesman:  I said in my statement that we are also studying the reaction of the Lebanese authorities, and I guess I could include in that as well the statement by Hezbollah.  We are caught in the middle here.  But with the Israeli Defence Ministry saying they want something that we are not willing to provide, it now looks like there will be no turn over of the tape.  We made an offer, and it is on the table.  They may look at the edited version of the tape.  That is all we said on Friday.  Over the weekend, the Defence Ministry of Israel said that is unacceptable.  And the Lebanese authorities said the showing of any videotape would be unacceptable.

Question:  (inaudible)

Spokesman:  Go back to the text of the press conference on Friday by the Head of the Peacekeeping Department who gave the full rationale for our position.

Question:  I have heard it said by NGOs and also by people associated with this Conference that things have been taken down by the UN from displays of explicit photos.  Some NGOs are saying that they are not allowed to enter the plenary with whatever they have xeroxed, as well as paper work or documents in their bags.  Is there someone who is vetting materials from delegates?

Spokesman:  I don’t know.  I will have to look into this question of materials having been taken down.

Question:  Is it because they are too explicit?

Spokesman:  We will have to see whether that actually happened or not -- what the criteria are and who makes the judgment.  As for NGOs bringing materials into the plenary session, they are not allowed to disseminate material.  You can’t use the General Assembly Hall for lobbying.  So, I will assumed that if bags or whatever were checked, it would just to make sure that what they had was their own personal faxes and not anything for distribution.

Okay?  Thanks very much.

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