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 Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.  It is Friday, the last day of the heatwave, hopefully.  We prepared a short briefing.  I will start with a statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Statement on Cambodia

“The Secretary-General has noted that His Majesty, King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia, signed the draft law on a special court to try Khmer Rouge leaders today, bringing the legislation into effect. 

“The United Nations looks forward to receiving the law and an official translation, now that it has been adopted.  The legislation will be reviewed to determine that it conforms to a draft memorandum of understanding governing its participation with Cambodia in a trial.  The United Nations is prepared to continue to work closely with the Government to assist it to undertake a trial that will finally bring Khmer Rouge leaders to justice and provide a measure of accountability for the heinous crimes they committed against their fellow Cambodians and their country.  The relationship between the United Nations and the Government of Cambodia will have to be governed by a memorandum of understanding.”

**Security Council

There are no scheduled meetings of the Security Council today or on Monday.  The next scheduled meeting will be closed consultations on Tuesday, on the situation in Bougainville.  And we also heard from the Council that it is quite possible that on Thursday, it will hold closed consultations on Liberia.

**Mary Robinson

This morning, Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights and Secretary-General of the World Conference Against Racism, held a press conference in Geneva, which was also videoconferenced into New York for you to see and participate in.  She highlighted some of the progress to date, notably on the issue of indigenous peoples.  Concerning the more sensitive issues of reparations and the Middle East, she observed noticeable goodwill on all sides while discussions are still ongoing. 

The two working groups, one for the Plan of Action and the other for the Declaration, will report to the plenary of the Preparatory Committee in Geneva in just a few moments.  The High Commissioner also said that while the formal work will stop this evening, informal consultations will continue and that the two working groups will officially resume their talks at the start of the Conference on 31 August in Durban, South Africa.

We have in our Office a note to correspondents with media arrangements for those of you who wish to attend the conference in Durban.

**UNHCR -– New Assistant High Commissioner Appointed

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers announced the appointment of Kamel Morjane of Tunisia as the new Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees, replacing Soren Jenssen-Petersen.  Morjane’s most recent appointment was as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  He is expected to take up his post on

1 October.

More information is available in a press release in our Office. 

**UNHCR on United Kingdom

Still on UNHCR, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is deeply concerned about the outbreak of vicious attacks on asylum-seekers in the United Kingdom over the past week, including the murder of a Turkish Kurd in Glasgow on Sunday and stabbings of other asylum-seekers in Glasgow and Hull.

The UNHCR called the incidents "sadly predictable", given the climate of vilification against asylum-seekers in some mass circulation media and by some politicians.  High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers noted in a recent editorial that asylum-seekers make a perfect target for those who want to invoke the age-old prejudice against foreigners, and they cannot answer back.

For more details, see today's briefing notes from UNHCR, which also mention its concerns about the upsurge of violence in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and its efforts to provide relief supplies to more than 6,000 new Angolan refugees who have fled to the Bas-Congo region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

**Sierra Leone

The Government of Sierra Leone, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone are holding their fourth meeting on disarmament issues today in the eastern town of Kenema.  Oluyemi Adeniji, the Secretary-General's Special Representative, is chairing the meeting.  The meeting is to review progress in the disarmament process and to look at the commitment of the RUF and the pro-Government Civilian Defence Force (CDF) to disarming, among other aspects of the country's peace process.

**East Timor

News from another United Nations Mission.  I move to East Timor.  The United Nations Mission there has proposed to the Indonesian Foreign Ministry that an Ad Hoc Committee be formed to fully review the shooting of an Indonesian soldier by New Zealand peacekeepers on 28 July.  This will be a joint committee of the United Nations peacekeeping force and the Indonesian army, which will work to reach conclusions about the incident that are acceptable to both sides, as well as agree on preventative measures for the future.  The incident, as you will recall, took place on 28 July some four kilometres south-west of Tilomar in Suai district.  That is in the western part of East Timor, on the border with West Timor.  The initial investigation concluded that the deceased man was an Indonesian army sergeant, who was out of uniform, but carrying a service rifle close to the border, contrary to the orders from his superiors. 

You can find more details in a briefing note from the East Timor Mission.  That briefing note will also give you details on the opening of an office this week in Dili, the capital of East Timor, for the Truth, Reception and Reconciliation Commission.

The Commission, as you might recall, will undertake two primary functions: it will establish a truth-seeking function, inquiring into the pattern of human rights violations in East Timor committed within the context of the political conflicts between 1974 and 1999.  The Commission will also create a community reconciliation body to facilitate agreements between local communities and the perpetrators of non-serious crimes and non-criminal acts committed over the same period.

All this and more in the briefing notes from Dili, available in our Office.

**Youth Day

This Sunday is International Youth Day, and the Secretary-General, in a message, which is available as a press release, says that this year's observance should focus special attention on health and unemployment.  On health, he noted that every minute, five people between the ages of 10 and 24 are infected with HIV, and encourages governments to carry out the steps to which they agreed at the United Nations General Assembly special session on HIV/AIDS.  On unemployment, the Secretary-General notes that there are roughly 70 million unemployed young people in the world today, and he urges governments to support the Youth Employment Network -- an initiative launched by the UN, the World Bank and the International Labour Organization -- to make proposals on employing young people.  If young people are left on society's margins, the Secretary-General says, all of us will be impoverished.

**Signings

Today, the 2001 International Coffee Agreement will be signed by the Dominican Republic and India, bringing the number of signatories to eight.

**Monthly Summary of Peacekeeping Troop Contributions

Also, in my office you can find an update on the number of peacekeepers who served with 16 United Nations peacekeeping operations at the end of July 2001.  The number has reached a total of 44,675 military and police personnel who come from 88 countries.

**Press Conferences and Week Ahead

There are no press conferences scheduled for Monday. 

And finally, I would like to bring to your attention that though next week is a very light week, we prepared the week ahead, which gives you some of the activities that are being planned.  It is available in our Office.

      Are there any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Is there any reaction from the Secretariat on today’s bombings in Iraq?

Deputy Spokesman:  No -– I do not have any reaction.  I do not know the details of these bombings, so I would not venture any words on it.

Question:  How long do you expect it will take to conclude the memorandum of understanding with Cambodia?

Deputy Spokesman:  We first have to get the legislation here and then we have to look at it to make sure that it conforms with the memorandum.  The idea is to have it very fast, but we have to get the basic document, which is the law. 

Question:  But a memorandum has been already prepared?

Deputy Spokesman:  There is a memorandum of understanding –- yes.  But we have to make sure that the law conforms with it.

Question:  What did the Office of the Secretary-General say when it received a letter from the Chinese Ambassador on the question of Taiwan’s bid to join the United Nations?

Deputy Spokesman:  I haven’t seen this letter, but I have seen some media reports about it.  I take it that you are talking about the proposal by some Member States to have it included as an item on the agenda of the next session of the General Assembly. 

Correspondent:  That happened on Wednesday, and on Thursday, the Chinese Ambassador submitted a letter.

Deputy Spokesman:  I have not seen that letter.

Question:  Is the Preparatory Committee for the Racism Conference going to continue its work over the weekend?  Or is it really going to end tonight?

Deputy Spokesman:  Yes.  The PrepCom closes tonight, Geneva time.  And then the two working groups will resume on 31 August, which is the opening of the Conference.

Question:  So they will continue talking about the language?

Deputy Spokesman:  That is not at all unusual.  It happens with many conferences.  Thank you very much -– have a very pleasant weekend.

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