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.

**Security Council

Today being the first of the month, the rotating presidency of the Security Council changes hands.

Colombia assumes the presidency for the month of August.  There are no meetings scheduled for today, as Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso spends the day in bilateral consultations with the other Council members to determine the programme of work for the month.

Tomorrow, the Council will hold an open debate on small arms, during which the Secretary-General will speak.  The public meeting will be presided over by the visiting Foreign Minister of Colombia, Guillermo Fernández de Soto.

**UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Yesterday afternoon, we put out a statement from United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, expressing her deep dismay over the escalating violence in the occupied territories following an Israeli attack in the town of Nablus, which left at least eight dead, including two children.

“This daily violation of the right to life must stop”, she said, while recalling her recommendation, made following her visit to the region last November, for the dispatch of international monitors to the area.

We have copies of her statement in my Office.

**International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia

Yesterday in The Hague, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced Stevan Todorovic, a former Bosnian Serb police chief who last year pleaded guilty to persecution as a crime against humanity, to 10 years in prison.

The Presiding Judge, Patrick Lipton Robinson, said that Todorovic's crimes  -- including the beating, murder and sexual assault of non-Serb civilians in the municipality of Bosanski Samac, were "particularly grave".  Judge Robinson also noted, however, that his guilty plea and subsequent cooperation in testifying against other suspects, as well as his expressed remorse, were mitigating factors in his sentencing.

Todorovic has already served more than two years and 10 months in detention, and will be credited for time served.

We have copies of Judge Robinson's statement in my Office.

**Child Labour

The International Labour Organization's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) will be working with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on the child labour portions of a survey on labour practices in five West African cocoa-growing countries.  The Programme will provide technical and training expertise for the project, beginning in September, which involves Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, and Nigeria.

**New Stamps

We have some new stamps today.  The United Nations Postal Administration issued a set of six commemorative stamps and three prestige booklets on the World Heritage Site Series, featuring heritage sites in Japan.  There are two stamps each in United States, Austrian and Swiss denominations.  I don't know if you can see these, but they are very pretty.  The prestige booklets, one in each denomination, contain 24 stamps.  Details of the designs can be found in the United Nations Postal Administration Philatelic Bulletin for August-September.  We have a few contact sheets in colour if you are interested.

**Press Conference Today

Today at 12:45 p.m. in this room, Jackey Maarohanye, Director of the Ithuteng Trust, will be here to talk about the tragedies that young people endure when war and conflict tear up their societies.  This press conference is sponsored by the Office of the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu.

**Press Conferences Tomorrow

Tomorrow there will be two more press conferences.  At 11 a.m., Ambassador Bagher Asadi of Iran, who is also Chairman of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, will address the Group's position on the outcome of the negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the ongoing preparations for the upcoming conference on economic cooperation among developing countries that will take place in Iran this month.

At 1 p.m., the Minister of Foreign Relations of Colombia. Guillermo Fernández de Soto, will refer to his country's presidency of the Security Council in the month of August, among other issues.

**Other Matters

If you have noticed some strange signs of things disappearing from the third floor and painting taking place, these are the initial tremors of some violent upheavals that will take place over the next several months as we move the documents section to the front of the Building -- I think where it was in 1950 when the Building was built.  It will be more convenient for them and, we hope, for you.

The Spokesman's Office will also be opened up so that is easier to move in and out of it.  We will also be renovating two of the journalists' office spaces; one in the front of the Building, room 301, and one on the side of the conference building, room 322.  This will take a number of months, so we will be working in construction dust for a while.  I hope I will have your patience and understanding.

Are there any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  How concerned is the Secretary-General about the United States dues being paid before its President George Bush comes to address the General Assembly in September?  Is this a problem that he feels could further affect views of this country in the United Nations?

Spokesman:  The Secretary-General has said that other delegations find it difficult to understand why seven months after an agreement was reached on a restructuring of the assessment scheme -- which was also tied to an agreement by the United States to pay a portion of its arrears -- no cheque has been put in the mail.

He has spoken to Congressman Henry Hyde about this subject.  Mr. Hyde said that he hoped to be able to free up the money soon, but he indicated a number of internal problems in getting the money through the legislative process.  So the Secretary-General did advise the Congressman that if President Bush is indeed going to come here for the general debate at the opening of the Assembly in September, it would certainly be good if payments by the United States could be made by then.  Otherwise, we just keep waiting patiently.

Question: Is Francesc Vendrell [Personal Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Mission to Afghanistan] still meeting with the Six plus Two Group of countries (China, Iran, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United States and Russian Federation)?  And will his contacts be affected by the new monitoring mechanisms set up by the Security Council?

Spokesman:  I don't know the answer to that question, but I will look into it right after the briefing for you.  [He later said that Mr. Vendrell had not met recently with the Six plus Two.]

Question:  I walked by the video store today and I could have sworn I saw a videotape called the Lebanon/Israel Video:  the Joe Connor Story, but I was probably hallucinating.  Is there anything new on this today?

Spokesman:  As I told you yesterday, Mr. Joseph Connor, Under-Secretary-General, Department of Management, did present the initial draft of his report to the Secretary-General yesterday afternoon and for probably little over an hour walked him through it.  The Secretary-General took the report home last night to study it and he will make a decision soon on the next steps.  But I have nothing further to announce at this time.

Question:  Did anything about the videotape come up in the meeting with the Arab ambassadors yesterday?

Spokesman:  I did not get a read-out of that meeting.  The Arab ambassadors asked for the meeting and their expressed interest was not on that subject.  But I do not know whether it came up or not.  I can try, however, to find out for you. 

[He later announced that the meeting was on recent developments in the Middle East, and not on the Lebanon videotape.]

Question:  The report on the issue was originally meant to examine the change of command and what happened to the video.  There were also allegations about Indian collaboration.  Does the report also address these allegations?

Spokesman:  I am not going to give you any previews of the report.  When we are ready to release it, we will do so. I did say several times in this room that the terms of reference were broad enough to allow Mr. Connor to look into any subsequent allegations that came up since his investigative group was formed.

Question:  After the lottery bowl drawing of the seating for the upcoming session of the Assembly, a statement saying "we'll have to mix it up a bit more" was overheard on the tape.  Do you know why that was said?

Spokesman:  I did run that question upstairs, but I have not received an answer as yet.  I'll try to find out for you.  I do not think it was anything significant, but we can always ask.

Thank you very much.

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