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.

**Lebanon Video

Today, an Israeli delegation headed by Israeli Defence Force liaison officer General Arditi is meeting with officials here at Headquarters, including Assistant Secretary-General Hédi Annabi and Military Adviser Gen. Timothy Ford, on issues surrounding the videotape made last October by United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon.

We anticipate that General Arditi and his delegation will view the videotape, among other articles of a humanitarian nature pertinent to the kidnapping last October that took place in the Shebaa Farms area.  That viewing, we expect, will take place at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow.

**Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Kenzo Oshima, today delivered a message on behalf of the Secretary-General to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony.  In the message, the Secretary-General said that it was now time to turn into deeds the words of the Millennium Declaration, “To strive for the elimination of weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear

weapons . . . .”  He added, “We must dispel the fearful shadow that weapons of mass destruction cast across every nation.  We must replace a culture of reaction with one of conflict prevention.”

The full text is available in my office.

**East Timor

Speaking in Geneva over the weekend, Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Secretary-General's Special Representative in East Timor, said that recent criticisms of East Timor, made by Phillips Petroleum and some ministers in the Australian Government, were not made "in a spirit of partnership and co-operation."

Last week, Phillips Petroleum and its co-venturers decided to defer investment decisions on a proposed pipeline from the Timor Sea to Darwin, Australia, complaining that East Timor was not providing the same fiscal terms as had been offered before, when Indonesia and Australia had established a treaty on oil revenue in the Timor Gap.

East Timor's lead negotiators on the new Timor Gap Treaty, Mari Alkatiri and Peter Galbraith, said today that they wanted oil companies to continue working with East Timor.  However, they added, it would be unfair for East Timor to provide the companies the same fiscal incentives that had been offered in the past.  Alkatiri emphasized that the regime that has been developed between East

Timor and Australia on oil in the Timor Gap will ensure that any investment in a gas pipeline in that area will get a healthy reward.

We have additional information in a press release from the United Nations Mission.

**Sierra Leone

From the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone, we report that over the weekend, peacekeepers began deploying to Kono District in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone.  An advance party of some 350 Pakistani soldiers arrived at their new sector headquarters in Yengema.  This is the latest move in the mission’s ongoing efforts to further re-establish its presence throughout the country.

On the disarmament front, the mission also reports that 1,088 Revolutionary United Front (RUF) combatants were disarmed on Friday.  Since the start on 1 July of simultaneous disarmament exercises in the Kono and Bonthe districts, more than 5,000 combatants have been disarmed, both RUF as well as members of the Civil Defence Forces.

We have a press release on that upstairs.

**Security Council

The Security Council has no meeting scheduled either today or tomorrow.

**Afghanistan

The Office of the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan says it is very concerned about the arrest of eight international aid workers, belonging to the non-governmental organization Shelter Now International.

The United Nations Office in Kabul is monitoring the situation, and is currently trying to obtain more information about the arrests from the Taliban authorities.

**Racism Conference

About an hour and a half ago in Geneva, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson and South African Foreign Minister Dr. Dlamini-Zuma signed a Host Country Agreement on the holding of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, from 31 August to 7 September.

This contract between the United Nations and the Republic of South Africa defines the responsibilities with regard to the holding of the Conference.  This was the last official requirement before thousands of participants arrive in Durban for the largest international anti-racism congress ever.

**Bellamy in Africa

The Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, will visit Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 8 to

13 August at the beginning of the second round of the polio immunization campaign.  She will visit border regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to witness first-hand cross-border immunization activities in camps for displaced persons.  In Angola, she will join the Minister of Justice to launch the Child Registration Campaign to promote birth registration.

We have more information in a media advisory from UNICEF.

**Press Conferences

We have no press conferences scheduled for today and thus far not for tomorrow either.

**Questions and Answers

      Question:  Could you tell us about any phone calls between the Secretary-General and the Israeli Government?

      Spokesman:  Yes, the Secretary-General spoke to the Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, yesterday.

      Question:  What was the nature of the call, what was said?  Characterize the call regarding the videotape.  What was it about?

      Spokesman:  They discussed the situation on the ground, the Connor report on the investigation into the UNIFIL videotape.  The Secretary-General did express the hope, on the videotape question, that once the Israeli team had come here and viewed the video, the issue could be put behind us.  That's a fervent hope.

      Question:  Any indication whether the participants in this viewing tomorrow will be available to us afterwards?

      Spokesman:  I would check with the Israeli Mission if I were you on that one.

      Question:  Have you heard from Beirut about this?  Will they be sending anyone?

      Spokesman:  We have not heard to date any word from Lebanon, no.

      Question:  Any reaction to what's happening in Italy in relation to the forthcoming FAO Summit?

      Spokesman:  We saw press reports that the Italian Government was considering asking the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to not hold their World Food Summit in Italy, but we checked with FAO and as of a short time ago they had received nothing official from the Italian Government.

      Question:  On the detention of this group in Afghanistan, is there the hope that the United Nations may help to mediate some sort of release or something?

      Spokesman:  The general background is that we have been asking the Taliban authorities to allow humanitarian workers to freely go about their business.  I think it's against that backdrop that they are asking for information concerning exactly why these people were detained and what their condition is.

Question:  Is this a setback of some sort for those efforts to encourage aid there?

      Spokesman:  When international aid workers get arrested it's always a setback, yes.

      Question:  What is the subject of the talks today between the Israeli team and Mr. Annabi?

      Spokesman:  I assume it's just to find out exactly what it is they want to see and then to make arrangements for them to see whatever that is tomorrow.  You remember our offer was to view the edited version of the first videotape, to view an unedited version of the newly discovered videotape, and to view the seven items taken from the car that have traces of blood on them.

      Question:  Any talk about the idea of international observers in the territories?

      Spokesman:  The United Nations is not directly involved in that matter.  That, as I understand it, is between the Government of the United States and the parties.

      Question:  Did United Nations officials on the ground in Lebanon and lower-level officials here make a political decision on this tape not to tell people?

      Spokesman:  I think what the Connor investigation found was that they did not adequately assess the humanitarian value of the information.  That on both the military side and the civilian side, the information should have been moved up the chain of command, at which point a political decision based on humanitarian grounds could have been made to inform the Israelis of the amount of blood.

      Question:  Would you disagree with the charge that the United Nations is now making decisions throughout the system based upon, in this case, Hezbollah, a non-governmental organization, calling the shots in the area?

      Spokesman:  I think that's an oversimplification.  If you look at the Secretary-General's reports on Lebanon you will see that we have been consistently urging the Lebanese Government to take full sovereign control of the southern part of the country.

And we have said that the remaining element of our mandate in southern Lebanon is to help secure the peace.  Hezbollah's role in southern Lebanon is between Hezbollah and the Lebanese Government.  We're asking the Government to exercise its sovereign control over the south.

The Government has been reluctant to send its troops right to the border.  In the meantime we've been patrolling the Blue Line, carrying out the remaining elements of our mandate, which is to help preserve peace and security in the south.

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