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.

**Statement on the Middle East

We released a statement on the Middle East yesterday afternoon.  I would just like to read it before the camera into the record.

“The Secretary-General is dismayed by the escalating violence, which continues to spread death and misery among both Israelis and Palestinians.  He deplores acts of terror, such as the one committed yesterday by a Palestinian gunman in Tel Aviv.  He is also deeply disturbed by the fact that Israel continues to use its armed forces for the deliberate killing of pre-selected Palestinian individuals.  Last Tuesday this tactic led to the killing of eight people, including two young boys.  Over the weekend further incidents of the same type killed one person and injured at least five others.

“The Secretary-General recalls that he already condemned this practice, which violates human rights law, as well as general principles of law, in his statement of 5 July.  Israel's continued use of it can only further inflame an already very dangerous situation.  The Secretary-General appeals once again to the Government of Israel to put an end to it.  Indeed, he appeals to all sides to stop the cycle of destructive violence and to return to the path of dialogue, since there can be no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict other than a political one.  He urges both parties to focus their energies on the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Mitchell Report, which they have both embraced.

**New UNIFIL Commander

The appointment of General Lalit Mohan Tewari of India as the new Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon is now official, following an exchange of letters between the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council.

The previous commander, General Seth Kofi Obeng of Ghana, relinquished his command on 15 May 2001 and since then his deputy, General Ganesan Athamanathan, has been Acting Force Commander.  General Tewari is currently the Commander of the Higher Command Wing at the College of Combat of the Indian Armed Forces.  His previous United Nations experience is as Chief of the Observer Group in Costa Rica within the United Nations Observer Group in Central America from 1990 to 1991.

We have a full press release upstairs.

**Videotape

The Israeli delegation, that came here this morning to view the videotape and related items that could shed light on the condition of three Israeli soldiers abducted on the Israeli-Lebanese border last October, left without viewing the film.

The United Nations had defined the modalities for this viewing in a letter to the Israeli Ambassador that it delivered yesterday.  The Israeli delegation today had questions about these modalities, and we said we would meet with them later today to see if we could sort it out.

**Security Council

Though the Security Council has not scheduled consultations for today or tomorrow, the Council’s programme of work for this month includes a discussion tomorrow on “Regional Approaches to Conflict Management in Africa.”  It is organized by the Mission of Colombia, which holds the Council Presidency for August, and the International Peace Academy. 

Traditionally, the Security Council has approached conflicts in Africa predominantly from a “national” perspective.  More recently, the United Nations has been attempting to adopt a “regional” and a “subregional” approach.  The purpose of tomorrow’s meeting is to advance ideas, in an informal setting, on the advantages and shortcomings for the United Nations system, in particular the Security Council, to approaching conflicts in Africa from a regional perspective.  Participants are expected to focus, in particular, on West Africa and the Great Lakes region.

The Colombian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Guillermo Fernandez de Soto, and the President of the International Peace Academy, David Malone, will open the meeting, which will happen tomorrow morning at the Princeton Club here in New York City.  The event is not open to the press.  However, do let us know if you want to know more about it and the discussions.  The Council Presidency has offered to brief you after the meeting, if you are interested.

A background note on tomorrow’s meeting is available in my Office.

**Iraq

The weekly update from the Office of the Iraq Programme shows strong Iraqi oil exports in the week leading to 3 August under the oil-for-food programme.  In all, Iraq exported 17 million barrels of oil, at the average rate of 2.4 million barrels per day.  So far into the current Phase X of the programme, which runs from 4 July to 30 November, Iraqi oil exports have generated $1.1 billion.  Seventy-two per cent of the oil revenue goes to fund the humanitarian programme.

There was a drop in the value of contracts placed on hold by the Security Council’s 661 sanctions committee, with the total standing at almost $3.4 billion, compared with the previous week’s $3.5 billion. 

The full text of the OIP update is available in my Office.

**Afghanistan

The United Nations Coordinator’s Office for Afghanistan held a meeting today in Kabul with senior Taliban officials to express its serious concern over the recent arrest of 24 humanitarian aid workers, eight of whom are international, of the non-governmental organization Shelter Now International.  Eliane Duthoit, the United Nations Regional Coordinator based in Kabul, said that the United Nations was told that the case against the foreigners and the Afghan nationals who had been arrested was being reviewed, and that review is expected to be completed within a few days.  The United Nations did not meet with the aid workers imprisoned, but did receive assurances about their well-being.

The Office of the United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan has been in constant touch with officials from embassies of the international staff who were arrested to provide any support that is needed.

We have a press release with more details.

**Kosovo

Gary Matthews, the United Nations Principal Deputy Special Representative in Kosovo, condemned the attack this morning that occurred two kilometres north of Podujevo, in which a group of Serbs travelling in a convoy to Serbia were attacked, and three Serbs injured.  The attack was the second one against Serbs in the past 24 hours.  Matthews said that, as Kosovo prepares for elections this November, "such acts of violence are extremely destabilizing," and said they jeopardized the future of all citizens of Kosovo.

We also have a press release from the United Nations Mission, which notes that the Mission today took control once more over the Germia Building in Gracanica, where last Friday an Office of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Committee on Kosovo had been inaugurated.  The inauguration of the building had taken place without prior consultation with the United Nations Mission, which had made clear that it would have to authorize any such act.

**Racism Conference

The Preparatory Committee for the World Conference against Racism is in its second week of discussions and negotiations.  During a briefing today in Geneva, the Spokesman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said there had been some movement on the issues of addressing the past –- shorthand for slavery, the slave trade and colonialism -- and victims of racism and racial discrimination.  There was also some movement on the question of the Middle East.  A number of non-papers by different regional groups are circulating, and some further progress on how to reach agreement on these difficult issues could be expected by the end of this week, the Spokesman said.

The summary of the briefing is available in my Office.

**Refugee News

More than 22,000 refugees from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia have returned from Kosovo in the last month.  The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)reports that last weekend alone, 1,000 returned, while another 200 fled in the opposite direction into Kosovo.  The pattern of the last weeks has been that more people are returning to FYROM than fleeing from it, but there are an estimated 40,000 refugees from FYROM still in Kosovo.

The High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, in letters to the Secretary-General of NATO, George Robertson, and the European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, has urged greater international efforts to reverse the wave of displacement caused by the conflict in FYROM.  Lubbers warned that prolonged displacement could jeopardize the chance for return and reconciliation.

Today’s briefing notes also say that in Pakistan, UNHCR and the Pakistan Commission for Afghan Refugees began the initial screening process for Afghans in the Jalozai and Nasir Bagh camps yesterday.  This part of the process will collect family data, which will be used in the in-depth interviews, due to start near the end of this month.

**Global AIDS and Health Fund

Today, the Government of Kuwait pledged $1 million to the Global AIDS and Health Fund.  The total of pledges now stands at $1.395 billion.  An updated table of contributions will be posted on our Web site this afternoon.

**Press Releases

      A couple of press releases to mention –- one from the World Health Organization on the immunization campaign in central Africa.  Tens of thousands of vaccination teams have embarked on a door-to-door campaign to immunize millions of children against polio.  The teams will also administer Vitamin A, which prevents hundreds of thousands of childhood deaths each year.  The second release is from the United Nations Environment Programme, saying that the Secretariat for the Convention on Migratory Species is calling for efforts to conserve West Africa’s sea turtles.  So you can pick up that press release for more information.

**Press Conferences

No press conferences are scheduled for today.  We have one for tomorrow:  at 11.15 a.m. in this room census experts from India, the Palestinian Authority, South Africa and Brazil will brief you on the issues and problems that emerged during the current census round which started in 1995 and is due to end in 2004.  The briefing is being sponsored by the Statistics Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

So that’s all I have for you.  Questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:   Could you be more specific about the meeting with the Israeli delegation later today?

Answer:     How more specific would that be?

Question:   The time . . . or with whom?

Spokesman:  There is no specific time.  We are talking amongst ourselves now here in the building.  I don’t know whether the matter will have to go any further up than the Chief of Staff who is currently leading these discussions.  But when we have an answer for the Israelis, we would contact them, and then these discussions on modalities would continue.

Question:   Did the Israelis view the second videotape and other evidence, including the blood-stained items?

Spokesman:  They saw nothing.  The tapes were to have been viewed in a conference room, and then the items had been laid out in an office adjacent to the conference room and, to my knowledge, they did not even enter either room.  I don’t know where these discussions took place.  I don’t think that’s important.  The main thing is they did not view the tapes; they did not view the items.  They wanted to clarify these modalities, and so that’s what we are in the process of trying to do. 

Question:   What modalities are we talking about?

Spokesman:  I do not want to get into that right now, but we spelled out our terms in the letter yesterday.  They indicated their basic agreement with those terms, raised questions about one or two aspects of those terms and we could not give them an immediate answer.  So we’ll talk about that amongst ourselves and get back to them this afternoon.

Question:   Can we see a copy of that letter?

Spokesman:  I do not think so, but I will ask for you.

[Following the briefing, it was announced that yesterday’s letter to the Israeli Ambassador defining the modalities would not be released.]

Question:   What happened at yesterday’s meeting with the Israeli delegation?

Spokesman:  I do not actually know, but my understanding was that was to discuss these modalities.  Further to that, we then sent a letter to the Ambassador saying here is how we would expect this thing to happen.  And they came in this morning, saying:  “We would like to discuss certain aspects of this.  And can we do it this way and this way?”  And we said:  “We’ll have to get back to you.”

Question:   Is the Deputy Force Commander in Lebanon remaining in his job?

Spokesman:  I’ll have to check to see if he stays on.  I do not actually know.  He is also from India, so normally they are different nationalities -- number one and number two.  So I will have to check.

Question:   As he was also named in Mr. Connor’s report, what is the status of Mr. Hutter?

Spokesman:  Mr. Hutter offered to be reassigned, and a decision to reassign him was made.  He is in the process of relinquishing his responsibilities for the Asia and Middle East Bureau, of which he is Director, and his responsibilities for the Lebanon portfolio have been suspended a week or so ago.  I would have to see if I have the exact date.  

Question:   Do you have the names and titles of the Israeli delegation that are here now?

Spokesman:  We mentioned General Danny Arditi, who is a liaison officer of the Ministry of Defence, as heading the delegation.  I think there was the second person from the Ministry of Defence, and then there were three people from the Israeli Mission, including Ambassador Yehuda Lancry.  And there may have been another person –- it’s about half a dozen people.

Question:   Where is the Secretary-General getting his guidance regarding the modalities for handling the tapes?

Spokesman:  This is within his competence to decide how to handle the material that was gathered -- in this case, the items taken from the cars -– by the United Nations peacekeeping personnel.  So I think it is within his administrative competence to make these decisions.

Question:   Any precedent?

Spokesman:  Not that I am aware of.  I would probably have to spend a few hours in the library to see if there are any precedents.

Question:   From what I understand, the Israeli delegation was told that it could check the videotapes and the items only once.  Is that the point that the delegation is objecting to?  Can you confirm that?

Spokesman:  I do not want to confirm that –- I do not want to get into any details.  I would just say that for us –- we are trying to help on the humanitarian side to see if there is anything in this film or in these items taken from the cars that could shed light on the condition of the three soldiers.  But we also have to refrain from revealing anything that could be of an intelligence nature.  So yes, the way the film would be viewed could shift in one direction or the other.  So we are trying to establish modalities that preserve the humanitarian nature of this exercise.  That’s the fundamental issue.

Question:   Did you send the bloodied items for a blood test?

Spokesman:  No.  We did offer to the Israelis, if they wanted, to take samples of the blood.  Originally we said we might even do that through a third party –- World Health Organization or so.  They would test the blood and then the Israelis would give us the blood information from their files on the three soldiers to see if there was a match.

Question:   What was Israel’s reaction to that?

Spokesman:  You will have to ask them.  I am not sure whether they informed us formally that they would have to go ahead with this, but certainly they have an option to do so.

Question:   Cambodia’s Constitutional Council today approved a revised law that would establish a framework for a United Nations-assisted tribunal.  Does the United Nations have a comment on this latest action?

Spokesman:  Yes, we welcome the action by the Constitutional Council approving the Law on the Establishment of Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed During the Period of Democratic Kampuchea.  Once the King approves this law finalizing the legislative process, we look forward to receiving an official translation of the legislation for our analysis.  As we’ve emphasized in the past, the participation of the United

Nations in this effort depends on the conclusion of a memorandum of understanding between us and the Cambodian Government, with which this legislation must conform. 

Question:   Fred, did you say we could see the videotape afterwards?  The videotapes, from what I understand, are the property of the United Nations.  Could you ask if we could see the tapes?

Spokesman:  No.  The decision was made to offer to the Governments concerned, Israel and Lebanon, to view the tapes.  And we will not show them further.  We will not show them to the media. 

Question:   Did you promise to show them to the families of the soldiers?

Spokesman:  We reiterated our position that we would welcome the families coming as part of the Israeli delegation.  Well, we still do not know.  You have heard Ambassador Lancry as he left the building today.  It sounds like the composition of their delegation is perhaps something that they are considering.  But our offer stands that we would welcome the presence of family members as part of the official delegation.

Question:   Would you elaborate on the statement about “movement” in the Preparatory Committee for the Racism Conference?

Spokesman:  I do not think there was anything of a very specific nature said, but I would refer you to the full summary of that press conference.  There are about two pages on what the Spokesman for United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, said.  As that is several thousand miles away, and I am not that familiar with what is going on day by day, I think if you have a follow-up question, you should call the Spokesman for Mary Robinson.

I have an update for you:  the current Deputy Force Commander of UNIFIL had been scheduled to rotate in the middle of this month, but has agreed to stay on a few extra weeks to ease the handover to the new force commander.  But yes, the Deputy will be rotated out and replaced.

Question:   Is there any limit on the number of people who can participate in the Israeli delegation?

Spokesman:  I do not want to discuss these modalities.  Let them try to sort this problem out upstairs with the Israeli delegation and see if we can come to some mutual understanding.

Thank you very much.

* *** *