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.

**Security Council

The Security Council is meeting in closed consultations today to review recently issued reports by the Secretary-General on two peacekeeping operations –- the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the UN Observer mission in Georgia (UNOMIG). As you'll recall, the Secretary-General requested six-month extensions for both of those missions.

The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, first introduced the report on Lebanon and took questions on that item, and he is now introducing the Georgia report.

The Council is expected to break at 1:15 p.m. and resume consultations this afternoon, if it has not finished with its programme.

Meanwhile, for those of you who may have left the building yesterday a little on the earlier side, the Security Council President, Wang Yingfan, did read a formal statement on the Democratic Republic of the Congo following a day-long debate on the situation in that country.

**East Timor

The Secretary-General's latest report on the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor is out as a document today, and it calls the past six months a most productive period, during which the East Timorese people made broad advances on the path to independence and self-government.  He adds that, while a number of serious incidents have occurred, the overall security situation in East Timor has been stable.

The Secretary-General also notes the preparations for the August 30 elections to the Constituent Assembly, in which 1,138 party and independent candidates were registered by the June 23 deadline.

The report also details the shape of the international presence that is to remain in East Timor after it attains independence, and calls for a maintenance of both a military and civilian presence in the post-independence period.

The Secretary-General says that, as long as militia groups are not disbanded by the Government of Indonesia, there will be a need for a United Nations force to continue, in close coordination with the Government of East Timor, to maintain a secure environment.  He recommends that a strong combat force should be deployed at its current level in East Timor's border regions and in the Oecussi enclave. However, the level of peacekeepers could be reduced in eastern and central East Timor if the situation remains stable there.

The civilian component of the successor mission would include the essential elements of a sizeable operation headed by a Special Representative of the Secretary-General, including a small political office.  Meanwhile, in the early days after independence, it will be necessary to maintain, within the mission, a small team of professionals in various fields, to continue the work of "Timorization" and skills transfer.

The Security Council intends to consider the report next Monday, when it will hold an open meeting on East Timor, at which the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello, is expected to speak.

**International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia today confirmed that Croatian General Rahim Ademi voluntarily handed himself in to the custody of the Tribunal.  After his arrival in the Netherlands, the non-disclosure order on his indictment was lifted.  Ademi is charged with crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war.  He is expected to make his first appearance before the Tribunal tomorrow afternoon.

Ademi served in the Ministry of the Interior of Croatia from 1991 and as Acting Commander of the Gospic military district in September 1993.  He is accused of the persecution and killing of Serb civilians and surrendered soldiers, and the destruction of civilian buildings and property.

Prosecutor Carla del Ponte has filed a request to unseal a second indictment served to the Croatian authorities along with the Ademi indictment and warrant.  The request to unseal has to be approved by a Judge of the Tribunal.

And we have more information in briefing notes from the Tribunal.

**Balkans

The border between Kosovo and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia remains closed.  We mentioned to you at midday yesterday that it had been closed.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is reporting refugee flows in both directions with more than 200 people returning to Skopje from Kosovo and more than 130 leaving FYROM for Kosovo.  Both figures are from Tuesday.  The UNHCR is urging all parties to avoid further confrontation in a conflict that has already displaced tens of thousands of people.

In Kosovo, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative Hans Haekkerup today said that he had signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Committee for Missing Persons that would permit matching the DNA of members of families of the missing with the remains of the people who are still unidentified.

**SG Message to Biological Weapons Convention

Today in Geneva, Jayantha Dhanapala, the Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, delivered a message on behalf of the Secretary-General to the meeting under way there of States that are party to the Biological Weapons Convention.

In his message, the Secretary-General says that, after 25 years without a system of formal verification, it is now widely believed that the Biological Weapons Convention should be strengthened through an international instrument that would establish measures to monitor implementation and verify compliance.

He says that progress in reinforcing the Convention would help to lessen the risk that "the pursuit of profits for some will destroy the hopes of peace for all."

The ad hoc group that is meeting in Geneva has been working since 1994 on negotiations to develop a protocol that could allow for monitoring the implementation of the Convention.  Now, the Secretary-General says, the material currently on the table provides a foundation for a consensus that reflects everyone's interests and concerns.  The United Nations is ready to provide all necessary assistance to the negotiations, he added.

We have copies of his message in my office.

**Financial Times/Arlacchi

I think you know from experience that I'm very slow to criticize your work, particularly in public.  But I need to correct the record following a report in this morning's Financial Times of London.

The FT writes, and I quote, "Pino Arlacchi, head of the United Nations programme to combat the international drugs trade, has been told to step down."

That is false.

The second sentence of the story says, and I quote again, "Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, told Mr. Arlacchi that he must leave the organization when his contract finishes at the end of February."

That is false.

The Secretary-General has had no such conversation with Mr. Arlacchi.

The Secretary-General is in the process of reviewing the Internal Oversight reports on Mr. Arlacchi's operation.  You were briefed fully on the assessment report by the head of the Oversight unit.  And, to date, the Secretary-General has made no decision.

**Press Releases

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced in a note to the press today that thousands of documents on chemical safety would now be available free of charge on the Internet.  The service is being offered by the International Programme on Chemical Safety, a joint activity of WHO, the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme, and will assist countries in the environmentally sound management of chemicals.

**Budget Payment

Budget payment –- we're up to 99 countries paid in full with a contribution of more than $41,000 by Bosnia and Herzegovina.

And we have no press conferences scheduled for today or tomorrow.  August must be near.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  On the Biological Weapons Convention, does the Secretary-General have any comment on the United States' announcement that it will not support the result of these negotiations, which means effectively that they will not be able to reach consensus?

Spokesman:  No.  When Mr. Dhanapala delivered this statement, the US position was already known, and the statement was delivered as drafted. 

I think, in general, what the Secretary-General hopes is that the United States can close ranks with the rest of the international community, not only on this Treaty, but on a number of the others where the United States is practically standing alone in opposition to agreements that were broadly reached by just about everyone else.

That's probably going to be a slow process, but the hope is that eventually the consensus on these very important issues –- global warming, small arms -- can be reached.

Question:  Given the situation in Macedonia, is there any prospect of engagement of the UN?

Spokesman:  No.  The European Union and the NATO alliance are the ones primarily concerned in FYROM today.  The European Union has taken the lead in trying to bring the parties to a political agreement.  I saw today that the NATO Secretary-General, Lord Robertson, as well as the European Foreign Affairs chief, Javier Solana, both intend to return to Skopje later this week to try to bring the parties back together.

We're very concerned, of course, because of the impact that instability in FYROM has on neighbouring Kosovo, where we do have a role, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where we also have an important role.  So, we're watching it very closely.  But I would not expect for the UN to be given a role in FYROM as a result of the latest instability there.

Question:  Fred, is it possible in the case of Pino Arlacchi that the Secretary-General has evolved perhaps strong feelings about the matter that might have been conveyed to Mr. Arlacchi in an indirect way?

Spokesman:  He told me he never discussed this with Mr. Arlacchi.

Question:  Perhaps through a third party?

Spokesman:  He said he discussed it with no one outside the UN.  He has asked Mr. Joseph Connor, his chief manager, to evaluate the critique of

Mr. Arlacchi's management style that was made by the Internal Oversight people, and that evaluation is still being done.  And, until it's done, no decision will be made.

And I don't want to even indicate whether the SG is leaning one way or the other.  First, I don't know, and finally, I have to say you know by now that it's not the Secretary-General's style to communicate to his senior managers through the media. 

He faces decisions, not only on Mr. Arlacchi in the light of the OIOS reports, but on all of his other senior managers who also have contracts that expire at the end of February.  So, he'll be undertaking a review of all these matters through the fall, and then be making whatever management decisions he feels are required for his second term, starting by the end of the year.

Question:  Has any progress been made on the Cyprus front?

Spokesman:  You see that Mr. [Alvaro] de Soto [Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Cyprus] is on the Secretary-General's calendar of appointments for today.  But I don't know when we would have anything specific to announce.  Last I heard, we did not have either a date or a venue for the meeting with Mr. Denktash that both Mr. Denktash and the Secretary-General went public with, in that order, earlier this week.

Question:  Mr. de Soto is in New York today?

Spokesman:  Yes.

Question:  Is there any chance we might get a chance to talk to him?

Spokesman: Ring him up.  I can ask him if he would want to go public.  I don't think that he would want to brief publicly, but he's usually receptive to taking phone calls from journalists.

Thank you very much. 

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