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 press briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

** Secretary-General Begins Visit to Germany

The Secretary-General began his visit to Germany in Munich this morning, where he visited a police-training centre and addressed former and future participants in United Nations peacekeeping missions.  "As one peacekeeper to another," he told the Bavarian police, "let me say 'dankeschon'."

He then met with the Minister President of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber, for about an hour.  In remarks after that meeting he spoke of the fight against HIV/AIDS and the need to work in partnership against the disease.  Mr. Stoiber then had the Secretary-General and his wife Nane to lunch.

In the afternoon, the Secretary-General flew to Berlin, and went to the Foreign Ministry to meet with Joschka Fischer.  He arrived a few minutes early, to find the Foreign Minister talking to some 500 French and German graduate students.  Mr. Fischer invited the Secretary-General up onto the stage with him, to the delight of the students, who gave him a standing ovation.  He addressed them briefly.

Afterwards, the Secretary-General and the Foreign Minister met for about 45 minutes.  They told the press afterwards that their talks had focused on the Middle East and the Balkans.  On the Middle East, the Secretary-General said that Germany and the international community had a role to play.  He went on, "The United States, the European Union and the United Nations -- all of us have a role to play."

We should have a transcript of that press encounter shortly.

At this moment, the Secretary-General is accompanying the Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, and the President of the Parliament, Wolfgang Thierse, to view a segment of the Berlin Wall that has a sculpture on it.  That segment will come to the United Nations in October as part of an exhibit.

This evening, the Secretary-General is to meet with the German Minister of Defence, Rudolf Scharping, before attending a dinner in his honour hosted by Mr. Fischer.

** Prevention of Armed Conflict

At a General Assembly plenary meeting this morning, the

Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Fréchette, presented the Secretary-General's report on the prevention of armed conflict.

In her statement, she said:  "the costs of not preventing violence are enormous.  They are counted not only in damage inflicted but also in opportunities lost."  And she drew attention of the membership to the Secretary-General's 10 principles to guide future approaches to conflict prevention.

We have copies of her speech in my office.  (See Press Release DSG/SM/136-GA/9891.)

At the beginning of the General Assembly session, delegates stood in a minute of silence in tribute to Humayun Rasheed Choudhury of Bangladesh, President of the 41st General Assembly, who died this week.  The Deputy Secretary-General said that Humayun Choudhury had "represented his country with devotion, and served at the United Nations with distinction" and that at a challenging time in the life of the Organization, "we were privileged" to have him as President of the General Assembly.  (See Press Release DSG/SM/138.)

** Small Arms

This is day four of the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons In All Its Aspects.  Thirty-four speakers are scheduled to take the floor this morning, continuing the Conference’s Ministerial segment.

Negotiations on the draft Programme of Action will continue in closed session this afternoon.  A new draft is expected to be issued early next week.

The Conference’s side events continue.  It is an Africa Day for NGOs.  The International Action Network on Small Arms has organized meetings on small arms issues in Africa from 1:15 p.m. and NGO Caucus on Africa from 3:00 p.m., both in Conference Room 8.

In Conference Room 6, there will be panel discussions.  The first one, at 1:15pm, is organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).  It is about "field experience and lessons learned on weapons collection, management and destruction."  United Nations field personnel involved in small arms projects will be present.

Another panel discussion, organized by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, will focus on "the human costs of small arms and light weapons".  It will take place at 2:30 p.m. in Conference Room 6.

A full and updated list of side events is available in my Office.

** Bosnia and Herzegovina

The United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina said a 16-year-old Bosniac girl, Mehla Dzuric, was killed around 11 p.m. local time yesterday, when several bullets from an automatic rifle were fired into a house just outside Srebrenica. 

The girl and her family had recently returned to the area.  This is the second time that this particular house had been fired at in the last six weeks.  The property was secured by the police shortly after the incident, and there are no suspects at this time.

** Environment

Klaus Toepfer, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said today that scientific evidence shows that climate change "is the most serious socio-economic and environmental problem facing humanity".

He urged governments to build a basis for long term structured and coordinated response to the problem at next week’s resumed sessions of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn, Germany.

We have a press release with more information available in my office.

The Third Assessment Report of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change has been published in three volumes.   The first volume covers the scientific basis of the assessment, the second looks at impacts, adaptation and vulnerability and the third is entitled “Mitigation”.

Summaries of policymakers and technical summaries of the report are available on the Web site of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (www.ipcc.ch).

** East Timor

In a three-hour question and answer session before the East Timorese National Council, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Sergio Vieira de Mello, today stated that security is the highest priority in East Timor. 

Vieira de Mello also told the National Council members that a special assessment security team was recently formed to evaluate the security situation in some of the Timorese Districts.  The team already started working.

The National Council will be officially dissolved on Sunday, 15 July, the day the campaign for the 30 August Constituent Assembly starts.

** Kosovo-FYROM

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today that the number of people returning to The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) has decreased over the past days.  Currently some 500 people are returning per day.  The majority of the returns are to the capital, Skopje, while very minimal movement has been observed to the Kumanovo and Tetovo area. 

UNHCR has also expressed concern that officials at the Blace border crossing continue to reject those without valid passport.  UNHCR has raised this issue with the authorities in Skopje.

For more details, you can see the briefing note from the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, which will also give you details of the organized return yesterday of 210 internally displaced Albanians to their home village in Depce, Presevo Minicipality.

** Humanitarian Issues

In a rare joint statement, the heads of the four main United Nations aid agencies said in Geneva today that poor funding and lack of security were threatening humanitarian work worldwide.

Kenzo Oshima, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs; Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund; Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the World Food Programme; and Ruud Lubbers, the High Commissioner for Refugees, called for a more balanced response the world’s humanitarian crises.

Oshima said that without stronger commitment from donor countries, humanitarian agencies would not be able to serve the needs of those affected by conflict or natural disaster.  Bertini said rapid response to a call for aid for the Horn of Africa averted a famine last year but the response this year has not been adequate.

We have more information in a press release from Geneva.

** Security Council

The Security Council has no consultations scheduled for today, and no further meetings are expected until Tuesday of next week, when they are expected to take up Burundi in closed consultations.

** Press Conferences

Press conferences:  there are two that I want to mention for tomorrow.  At 11:15 a.m., Charles Josselin, Minister of Cooperation and Francophonie of France, will be here to talk about small arms.

And then at 1:30 p.m. in the UNCA Club, the United Nations Staff Union will hold a press conference on racism.

                ** Good News

And finally, the technicians were in our office until after 7 p.m. last night when they finally found the bug, and our office Web site is back on line (www.un.org/News/ossg).  So, I hope you’ll find updated information there as usual.

That’s all I have for you. Any questions?

** Questions and Answers

Question:  Fred, on this joint appeal by the heads of the United Nations humanitarian agencies -- is the Secretary-General concerned about the lack of donor response?  Is there anything that he is planning to do about this?

Spokesman:  He has been in touch with these four heads of United Nations agencies.  Yes, he’s concerned.  It’s a long-term trend with long-term implications.  So, he backs their appeal and whether he’ll add his voice formally to that appeal, we’ll have to see when he returns.

Question:  Fred, could you respond to a report in an Israeli newspaper that Indian UNIFIL troops were propping up Hezbollah.  You saw that?   

Spokesman:  I don’t think I need to add anything, or I don’t feel I need to add anything to the vigorous denial by Timur Goksel, the Spokesman for the UN Force in Lebanon.

Question:  (inaudible)

Spokesman:  Yes, he vigorously denied that earlier today.

Question:  Even with that denial, is that something that could be considered in this internal review, possibly, looking at?

Spokesman:  It could come up, surely.  Any such allegation could come up in the internal investigation being conducted by [Under Secretary-General for Management] Joseph Connor.  Mr. Connor has not yet indicated to me the scope of his investigation.  I have been asked ‘is he going to do it alone or with a panel?’  Those decisions have not yet been made.  When we get more details on it, we’ll give them to you.

Okay.  Thank you very much.

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