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.

Good Afternoon.

**Secretary-General in Geneva

The Secretary-General is spending much of today in Geneva meeting with United Nations agency heads. 

He began his day with a planning meeting for the G-8 Summit, which he will attend at the end of this week in Genoa, Italy. For that, he met with K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Peter Piot, the head of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and

Dr. Andrew Cassels, a Director with the World Health Organization (WHO).

Carlo Lamprecht then paid a courtesy call on the Secretary-General.  He is the President of the Council of State of the Republic and Canton of Geneva.  The Secretary-General then discussed global trade issues with Mike Moore, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

He was then paid a visit by Yoshio Utsumi, the head of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).  They discussed the framework for the World Summit on the Information Society.  You don't have to worry about that for another couple of years; that's planned for 2003.

He and his wife Nane had lunch with Professor Klaus Schwab and his wife. Professor Schwab is founder of the annual World Economic Forum, which is held every year in Davos, Switzerland.

This afternoon, he visited the headquarters of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where he was met by Ruud Lubbers, who heads that agency.  Hundreds of staff members gathered in the lobby and on the balconies to greet him warmly.  You know the Secretary-General used to work for the UNHCR.

He [briefly addressed the staff on] a number of global issues that have an impact on refugees, from globalization and HIV/AIDS to poverty and the environment [before meeting with Lubbers].  Afterwards, he was introduced to the award-winning American film actress Angelina Jolie, who stars in the current film "Tomb Raider".  She was visiting the UNHCR to learn about humanitarian work on behalf of refugees. She told the Secretary-General she had already visited a number of refugee camps in Africa, and she had posted her impressions on the Web site of USA for UNHCR -- that's a non-governmental group here in the United States.  If anyone's interested in reading those impressions, we have the address of that Web site in my Office.

Tomorrow, the Secretary-General continues working in Geneva.

**Statement on India and Pakistan

We have the following statement, attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, on the recently concluded summit between India and Pakistan:

"Following the summit meeting in Agra between Prime Minister Vajpayee and General Musharraf, the Secretary-General would like to encourage both leaders to regard this meeting as the first step in a process, and to persevere with their efforts to establish a sustainable bilateral dialogue so as to resolve their differences.

"A sustained Indo-Pakistani dialogue, especially at the highest level, is sorely needed, and the summit should be seen as an important step towards this.  It would have been too much to expect major breakthroughs on the difficult issues of substance from a first meeting.  The fact that the two leaders are talking can contribute to an easing of tensions, especially on the question of Kashmir.  This is in the interest of both India and Pakistan, as well as of the entire South Asian region."

**Security Council

The Security Council is holding informal consultations this morning on Burundi.

Kieran Prendergast, the Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, has briefed on two important recent political developments, including the meeting held on 8 July in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, between the Burundi Peace Process Facilitator, Nelson Mandela, and regional leaders, when he presented his proposal for a transitional arrangement in Burundi. 

You might recall that when the Secretary-General was in Lusaka, he and former President Mandela held a private meeting on this issue and later, at Mandela’s invitation, the Secretary-General attended the meeting with the regional leaders.  As regional leaders agreed with Mandela’s proposal, the Facilitator organized another meeting two days later in Johannesburg, with the Burundi signatories of the Arusha Agreement.  Prendergast is also discussing this development with Council members.  He has also briefed them on efforts to reach a cessation of hostilities agreement in the country and on the humanitarian situation in Burundi.

Under other matters, Council members are expected to discuss a presidential statement on the Central African Republic.  There may be a formal meeting this afternoon, or tomorrow, to adopt it.

**Middle East

Today in Madrid, a two-day UN international meeting dealing with the question of Palestine, and specifically the theme "The Road to Israeli-Palestinian Peace", began, and the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Terje-Roed Larsen, delivered a message on the Secretary-General's behalf urging all parties to make a determined effort to prevent the unravelling of the peace process.

The Secretary-General, in his message, said that the time has come to consolidate the fragile ceasefire and move swiftly to the implementation of the recommendations of the report issued by the commission headed by former United States Senator George Mitchell.  He added, "Personally, I will continue to do whatever it takes to contribute to these peace efforts."

He also warned that nine months of violence and closures have had a severe impact on the Palestinian economy, and urged donors to assist the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, better known to you, I think, as UNRWA.

Yesterday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen addressed the foreign ministers of the European Union in Brussels, and asked for their help in funding the agency's $311 million budget for this year, which currently faces a shortfall in donor pledges of $58 million.

We have copies of the Secretary-General's message, as well as of Hansen's speech, in my Office.

**Small Arms Conference

The United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects went into its first night session yesterday evening, with delegates beginning a paragraph-by-paragraph review of the revised Programme of Action and finishing its first review of the Programme's preamble. 

The Conference has taken up the first operative part of the Programme this morning, which deals with the main theme of preventing, combating and eradicating the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.  The Conference is expected to spend the whole day on this part of the text.

**FYROM/Refugees

Refugees continue to trickle both ways across the border crossings between the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Kosovo, with a total of

309 people returning to FYROM from Kosovo yesterday, even as more than 180 left in the other direction, entering Kosovo.

The UNHCR reported 1,000 new arrivals in Kosovo over the weekend, with

many coming from the FYROM capital, Skopje, in what they called a precautionary measure.  In all, about 62,000 FYROM refugees remain in Kosovo, while some

12,000 have returned to their home country.

We have more details in today's briefing notes from the UNHCR, which also mentions that some 3,000 people have returned to Sierra Leone from the troubled Parrot's Beak region of Guinea since the beginning of this month, with the returnees not reporting any harassment on their way back home.

**Iraq

According to the weekly update from the Office of the Iraq Programme (OIP), following Iraq’s resumption of oil exports under the United Nations “oil-for-food” programme on 10 July, a total of 6.8 million barrels of oil were lifted through three loadings at the authorized terminals of Mina al-Bakr, in southern Iraq, and Ceyhan, in Turkey.  These were the first exports in current phase X, which began on 4 July and runs through 30 November.

The value of contracts placed on hold by the Security Council’s 661 sanctions committee remained almost constant at $3.4 billion.  The full text of the OIP weekly update is available upstairs.

**East Timor

A Serious Crimes Panel in Dili, East Timor, yesterday sentenced a former militia member to 15 years’ imprisonment for the murder of a United Nations official in Ermera district following the 30 August 1999 Popular Consultation.  The official, a local staff member of the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), was seized by a militia group on 31 August 1999 and subsequently beaten and stabbed to death.

This is the first case in which a person has been convicted of killing a UN official in East Timor.  Nine UN mission local personnel were killed during the violence surrounding the 1999 Popular Consultation.  The UN Mission was in East Timor between July and September 1999.

You can get more details in the briefing note from Dili, today, which will also provide you with information on the many ongoing activities leading up to the 30 August Constituent Assembly elections, including the final number of candidates to the elections as announced by the Independent Electoral Commission. 

**Signings

We have a couple of treaties being signed today.

This morning, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), signed both Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  The FYROM was the seventy-fourth country to sign the Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, and the eighty-first to sign the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.

This afternoon, the Netherlands will become the thirty-seventh country to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

**Press Releases

Some press releases to highlight today:  Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), endorsed a report by the

G-8 Renewable Energy Task Force.  Mr. Toepfer applauded the Task Force’s goal of delivering renewable energy to over 1 billion people across the globe, which they said could be met in the next decade.  An estimated 100 million people currently are served by renewable energy sources worldwide, ranging from wind power to solar cells.

In a second press release, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have signed a memorandum of understanding to alleviate the impact of HIV/AIDS on rural populations.  The effect of AIDS on rural communities can be devastating.  In the 25 worst-hit African countries, some 7 million agricultural workers have died of AIDS since 1985.

And finally, the Food and Agriculture Organization today said that rift valley fever is threatening livestock and people in Iraq.

      **Press Conference

Tomorrow, Pauline Baker, President of the Fund for Peace, and others will hold a press conference on arms brokering.  This press conference is sponsored by the Swedish Mission.

**UNCA Announcements

Two announcements from you, the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA).  Tomorrow, at 10 a.m., there'll be the premiere film screening of "In Shifting Sands ... the Truth about UNSCOM and the Disarming of Iraq".  The director is none other than Scott Ritter, the former Chief Weapons Inspector of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM).  The executive producer is Tom Osborne, the former President of the Correspondent's Association.  That's tomorrow at 10 o’clock.

I've also been asked to announce a joint meeting of the Board of Directors of the Memorial Scholarship Fund and the UNCA Executive Committee.  That will be held at 2 p.m. today, to select scholars for the current year.  You're all asked to attend that meeting.

That's all I have for you.

**Questions and Answers

No Questions?  One question?

Question:  Is there any update on the videotape from Lebanon?

Spokesman:  I did speak to Joseph Connor, Under-Secretary-General for Management, this morning.  I got a rough sense of his timetable, for which some of you have been asking repeatedly.  He expects to finish his work in a couple of weeks.  He selected an internal team, in other words, members of the Secretariat.  Yesterday, I said it was about a half dozen; I think it's seven.

You asked me yesterday, would he go to the Middle East?  Yes, in this two-week period, he expects to travel to the Middle East and some of his people, from this team, will be leaving tonight.  They've been working, actually, through the last weekend, reviewing documentation.  Yes?

Question:  Was the Secretary-General involved in the dialogue between India and Pakistan, in any way?

Spokesman:  I couldn't say that he was, beyond the fact that, when he visited there a few months ago, he urged them to talk, and he said the "K word" in both capitals -- Kashmir -- and he urged them to begin a dialogue to resolve their differences over Kashmir.  His message was well received on both sides, so I think

they were already in the process of getting a dialogue going.  The statement of today stands on its own.

Question:  Today in the Small Arms Conference, they're going over the Programme of Action, paragraph by paragraph?

Spokesman:  Yes, that's a long and tedious exercise.  It's just getting under way.  Yes?

Question:  Can you confirm that the Israeli Defence Minister has cancelled his trip to meet with Secretary-General Annan?

Spokesman:  I can't officially.  We saw it on the wires this morning.  Yesterday, I wasn't sure of the date of the planned meeting; it turns out it was going to happen this Sunday.  It was just one of many meetings, I think, that the Israeli Defence Minister must have planned, but officially I can't tell you.  We just saw on the wires that he cancelled his visit to the United States.

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