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.

**Statement on Angola

I am going to start with a statement attributable to the Spokesman on Angola:

“The Secretary-General condemns the deliberate attack on a train, on

10 August, in which a very high number of civilians were killed.  He notes that the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) has claimed, and therefore bears, the responsibility for this indefensible loss of life.

“The Secretary-General continues to be very disturbed by the military and humanitarian situation in the country.  This incident underlines the urgent need for a political settlement of the conflict, to achieve durable peace and stability in Angola.”

**Security Council

This morning the Security Council met in closed consultations to receive a briefing on the situation in Bougainville by Noel Sinclair, the Director of the United Nations Political Office in Bougainville.  He reported on the latest developments in the ongoing peace process between the Government of Papua New Guinea and the Bougainville parties.

I am sure you have a few more details.  The Council President just spoke to you on the consultations, which just ended.

**Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

The Secretary-General, in a statement we issued yesterday, welcomed the signing of the Framework Agreement between the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and political parties representing the Albanian community. He hopes that this agreement will succeed in restoring calm, after the violence which has brought so much fear and pain to the people of the Republic in recent weeks, and will prove to be the basis for a stable political settlement.

The full text of the statement is available upstairs, also on our Web site, but I'll just read out the last paragraph:

"The Secretary-General is convinced that there can be no solution to this crisis other than a political one.  The use of violence by any party to undermine the agreement, or to seek further political gains, would be absolutely unacceptable."

Also yesterday afternoon, the Security Council adopted a Presidential Statement, which also welcomed the signing of the Framework Agreement and called for its full and immediate implementation.  It called on all concerned, including

leaders of ethnic Albanian communities in the region, publicly to condemn violence

and ethnic intolerance and to use their influence to secure peace.  The Council condemned the violence by extremists and called on all parties to respect the ceasefire.

The statement is available on the racks.

And today, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed its hopes that the agreement would pave the way for more than 125,000 people displaced by the fighting since February to return to their homes. Some 2,000 people left the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia for Kosovo over the weekend, but the number of people crossing the border into Kosovo fell sharply yesterday.  More details in today's briefing notes from UNHCR.

**Iraq

Now on Iraq.  The weekly update from the Office of the Iraq Programme shows that Iraq oil exports under the United Nations oil-for-food programme fell to

13.9 million barrels in the week leading to 10 August, down from the previous week’s total of 17 million barrels.

To date, contracts for humanitarian supplies and oil industry spare parts and equipment valued at $27.2 billion have been approved by the Security Council’s 661 Sanctions Committee and “fast-tracked” by the Office of the Iraq Programme.  Of these, $14.7 billion worth of supplies and equipment have been delivered to Iraq, while another $12.5 billion worth of humanitarian supplies and equipment are in the production and delivery pipeline.

The value of contracts placed on hold by the 661 Sanctions Committee is

$3.5 billion.  Of course a full note with all these numbers and details I just gave you is available in the Spokesman's Office.

**International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

Yesterday at The Hague, one of three Bosnian Serbs charged with crimes committed in Bosanski Samac returned to the detention facility of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, more than a year after the Tribunal had allowed his provisional release.

Milan Simic was provisionally released by the Tribunal on May 29, 2000, on the condition that he return for his trial, which is scheduled to begin this September 10.  Two other suspects in the case, Simo Zaric and Miroslav Tadic, who were also released last year, are expected similarly to return to The Hague before the trial begins.

**World Food Programme

The World Food Programme (WFP) today announced the launch of an emergency operation to assist Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.  The programme will require $11.5 million over the next six months to assist 270,000 of the most needy Palestinians.  Unemployment among Palestinians has risen to about 50 per cent and wages earned from work inside Israel have fallen by 75 per cent due to tighter border controls.

More information in a press release we have available from WFP.

**Pacific Islands Forum

And today, on the island of Nauru, the 32nd Pacific Islands Forum is beginning, and Beng Yong Chew, Deputy Director of the Asia and Pacific Division of the Department of Political Affairs, conveyed a message of greetings to the Forum on behalf of the Secretary-General.

In his message to the Forum, which is available upstairs in our office, the Secretary-General says that the deployment of United Nations electoral observers to Fiji elections later this month, at the request of the caretaker Government in that country, shows the commitment of the United Nations to do its part to promote peace and democratic governance in the region.

**United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

The UNHCR briefing notes, which I mentioned earlier, also have news on Angola.  And that is that Angolan refugees continue to arrive in the Bas Congo Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  By yesterday, UNHCR had registered more than 6,000 refugees who fled northern Angola in the wake of an UNITA offensive.  Plans are being finalized to transfer the refugees to villages further from the border.  Meanwhile, an estimated 1,500 refugees remain scattered among several border villages.

Also in the briefing notes, we are told that more than 5,000 Afghan families have been registered in the first week of the registration exercise in the Jalozai and Nasir Bagh camps in northern Pakistan.

**United Nations Development Programme

I have here two notes that have to do with the Web and the Internet. 

Mark Malloch Brown, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), today signed a memorandum of understanding with the Global Internet Policy Initiative to support the adoption of a legal and policy framework for an open and democratic Internet in developing countries.

The UNDP and the Global Internet Policy Initiative will cooperate on policy and regulatory reform, as well as on the design and implementation of national development strategies for information and communications technology, among other areas.

UNDP has issued a press release on this, which is available in our office and will give you more details.

**Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Kenzo Oshima, will open the Asian office of ReliefWeb on Thursday in Kobe, Japan.  The office will be located in the Asia Disaster Reduction Centre and will enhance the availability and dissemination of reliable information for humanitarian decision-makers.  There are currently two ReliefWeb offices, one in New York and one in Geneva.

**Press Conferences

We have no press conferences scheduled for today or tomorrow.

**S-G's Trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda

I would like to follow up on the information I gave you yesterday about journalists accompanying the Secretary-General on his visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. 

Following the questions you have raised, we are able to say this morning -- after following up with our offices in the region -- that the plane of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that will be made available for a limited number of journalists, will be able to do Kinshasa, Kisangani, Kigali and return to Kinshasa for those who wish to return to Kinshasa.

They will also be able to make hotel reservations; or rather United Nations offices will be able to make hotel reservations, both in Kinshasa and in Kigali.  There will be no need for hotel reservations in Kisangani, as there will be no overnight there.

So those of you who are interested, do let the Spokesman's Office know of your interest.  And we would need to know in addition to your names, or names of your colleagues from your organizations which will be participating in this, date of birth, passport number, passport expiration date, nationality and of course, the name of the media outlet which employs the journalist.

This, as I said, is for a limited number of journalists, so do send us your requests for space as soon as you can.  And ideally, we would like to have them all by the end of this week, the issue here being hotel bookings.  The earlier we do them, the safer we are to indeed get the space that is necessary.

That's all I have for today.  Any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Do you have any statement on the Middle East today?

Deputy Spokesman:  No, I don't have any statement on the Middle East.  But what are you referring to?

Correspondent:  To Israeli-Palestine actions yesterday.

Deputy Spokesman:  The Israeli action in the town of Jenin? 

Correspondent:  Yes. 

Deputy Spokesman:  We, of course, saw reports about that.  I remind you that the Secretary-General has, on several occasions, urged the parties to exercise restraint, to fully implement the Mitchell Report recommendations and to return to a process aimed at reaching a comprehensive settlement based on Security Council resolutions. 

The Secretary-General is concerned about the incursion into Jenin, which is in area A.  Of course as you know, it is an area under Palestinian control.  Such a use of military force will only lead to an increase in tension. 

If there are no more questions, I thank you for your presence, wish you a pleasant lunch and an even better afternoon.  Thank you.

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