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. Welcome to the visiting journalists from Russia.

**Security Council

This morning at about 10:45 the Security Council began an open meeting on the Middle East, including the question of Palestine.

There are 43 speakers inscribed on the list.

Also, we have upstairs a letter sent on Friday from Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso of Colombia, the current President of the Security Council, to Sir Ketumile Masire, the facilitator of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue.

In the letter, which was sent on behalf of all Council members in response to a letter sent by Sir Ketumile on 8 August, Ambassador Valdivieso says that the Council urges the Congolose parties represented in Gabrone, Botswana, to increase the representation of women in the Dialogue.

“Members of the Council,” writes Ambassador Valdivieso, “stress the importance of the role and contribution of women in the Inter-Congolese Dialogue and of ensuring that gender issues are addressed during the dialogue, consistent with Security Council resolution 1325.”

Last Friday, as you will remember, the Secretary-General issued a statement urging greater representation of women in the Dialogue, as well.

**Secretary-General in Norway

The Secretary-General has concluded his two-week vacation in Norway and this morning began an official visit to that country.

He met with the Foreign Minister, Torbjorn Jagland, for a discussion of issues such as peace efforts in the Balkans, the recently held G-8 summit in Genoa, the socio-economic problems of Africa and the worldwide AIDS crisis.  They also discussed the situations in the Middle East and in Colombia -- both areas where the Secretary-General is represented by Norwegian nationals.

He and his wife, Nane, then had an audience with King Harold and Queen Sonja.  Also present was Crown Prince Haakon Magnus and his fiancée, Mette-Marit Hoiby, who are to be married next Saturday.  The Secretary-General apparently gave them some personal advice, but declined to go public with what he told them. Princess Martha Louise was also part of that audience.

At midday, he met with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, and the Minister for International Development, Anne Kristen Sydnes, after which they had an encounter with the press.  In response to a question on the Middle East, the Secretary-

General warned that the current impasse cannot be allowed to persist.  "It is dangerous," he said.  "It is raising tensions in the region and if we do not take concrete steps to contain it, it may spread to other parts of the region and beyond."

Asked about continued United States withholding of dues payments to the UN over US opposition to the International Criminal Court, the Secretary-General replied, "This is an ex post facto reservation that I don't think would please other Member States who had negotiated in good faith, and I hope the US will release the money and continue to pay its dues in full and on time, without conditions, as every Member State is expected to do."

We expect to have the full transcript of that press encounter in the next few hours.

He then had a working lunch with the Foreign Minister.

In the afternoon, he addressed a conference at the University of Oslo that was organized by the Norwegian Government on the subject of the challenges of democratic governance in a globalizing world.  The meeting was opened by the Prime Minister and chaired by the Foreign Minister.

The Secretary-General told an enthusiastic audience of some 400 people that a world composed of States with open and accountable systems of government would be more peaceful than the one in which we actually live.  States that respect the rights of their citizens, and allow all of them a say in decisions that affect their lives, are likely to benefit from their creative energies, he said.

He noted the similar need for States to have more equality in their participation in the United Nations, as well as other groups, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.  He said that we would live in a better, fairer and more democratic world if more weight were given in those venues to the views and the interests of the poor.

We have the full text of that speech available in my office.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo

The new Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Amos Namanga Ngongi of Cameroon, is at Headquarters this week to familiarize himself with his mission.

Today he will be meeting with the Deputy Secretary-General and tomorrow with the Group of Friends of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He is expected to arrive in Kinshasa in the beginning of September.

**Kosovo

United Nations police in Kosovo have arrested an international police officer stationed in Mitrovica on allegations of sexual assault, and he is currently being detained and interviewed.  His immunity has been waived for this investigation, which is being conducted by the Mitrovica Regional Investigation Unit.  Once the investigation has been completed, an international prosecutor will evaluate the facts and decide whether to proceed to trial before an international judge.

This is a criminal investigation and not an internal one, and will be treated accordingly.  We will not be disclosing further details while investigators proceed with their inquiry.

This arrest is mentioned in today's briefing notes from Pristina, which also notes the Mission's concern over the closure of the border between Kosovo and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which has impeded rotations of UN police.

**East Timor

The ballot papers for East Timor's first democratic elections, to be held on 30 August, have arrived in Dili and are being kept in secure storage locations. The ballots, which arrived last Friday, were printed in Darwin, Australia, and will be marked individually with special seals in order to deter any attempt to introduce fraudulent ballots.

More than 600,000 ballots have been prepared -- well in excess of the final voter roll of 409,019 -- with the extra ballots to provide for the possibility that additional voters, who completed the registration procedures but have not been included on databases for eligible voters, will actually come to the polls on 30 August.

There is more information in the briefing notes from Dili.

**Cooperation among Developing Countries

Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), yesterday addressed the Tenth Meeting of the Intergovernmental Follow-up and Coordination Committee on Economic Cooperation among Developing Countries, which began in Teheran, Iran.

Speaking on behalf of the Secretary-General, Malloch Brown assured delegates from the Group of 77, which Iran currently chairs, that the integration of developing countries into a globalizing economy is at the very heart of the UN's agenda for the new millennium.  He said, "Working to implement your vision of a just and equitable future for all developing countries is the guiding principle of all our work."

His speech, which discusses ways to make globalization more inclusive and to deal with South-South cooperation, is available in my office.

**Report on Closed Forests

The United Nations Environment Programme today announced the launch of a new report based on a satellite-based survey of closed forests.  “An Assessment of the Status of the World’s Remaining Closed Forests” is the most comprehensive and reliable assessment of global forest cover and has found that 80 per cent of remaining closed forests is located in just 15 countries.  It also finds that

88 per cent of vital forest is sparsely populated and under low pressure from population growth, giving conservation efforts a chance of success.

The report calls on the governments of the 15 countries to draft action plans for the conservation of remaining closed forests and to increase the level of protected areas.

The full text of the report is available on the UNEP Web site and more details are available in a press release upstairs.

**Child Soldiers

The United Nations Children's Fund announced today that 227 former child soldiers have arrived in a rehabilitation centre outside of Kigali, Rwanda.  Most of the children, ranging in age from 10 to 18 years, were forcibly recruited and trained in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The children are receiving counselling and non-formal education by UNICEF and its partners, while attempts are made to locate their families.  About 85 per cent of the children are Rwandan and the rest are Congolese.

We have a press release on that upstairs.

**Press Conferences

And we have no press conferences scheduled for today.

That's all I have for you.  Do you have anything for me?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Is the group you mentioned called the Friends of the Democratic Republic of the Congo a new initiative?

Spokesman:  I don't know how long this Group of Friends has existed.  Let me find out for you.  I don't think it has just been created.  I'll check after the briefing.

Question:  Regarding the withholding of money -- what the Secretary-General called the "ex post facto reservation" -- is there a “here we go again” feeling about this, and is the Secretary-General making any calls or trying to encourage movement on this?

Spokesman:  I don't know about any efforts he has made since he called Congressman Henry Hyde, as I mentioned, two or three weeks ago.  I think that the effort made last December between the United States and the other member States to revise the scale of assessment in exchange for a pledge to a certain amount of the US arrears -- those negotiations were so extensive and so formal, that I think that is why the Secretary-General said today that he didn't think other Member States would understand if the US suddenly added a new condition to be met.  So the hope is that the US Congress, particularly on the side of the House of Representatives where this thing is now stuck, can sort out their internal problems and free up the funds.

Question:  Has the Security Council already adopted a resolution on the Middle East, or not yet?

Spokesman:  Today's session is, as far as I know, a series of speeches.  I don't know whether some kind of resolution would be introduced at the end of this session.  At this time I am not aware of any draft resolution or draft statement that is circulating.

Question:  What type of help is the Secretariat providing to help Congolese women participate in the Inter-Congolese Dialogue?

Spokesman:  What we are giving now is political support for the idea.  The Secretary-General issued a statement attributable to the Spokesman on Friday.  The Security Council has now strongly endorsed the idea.  The President of the Council has now written a letter to the facilitator, and the hope is that the Congolese Government will respond and, as they are meeting together with civil society and the political opposition, that they would go out of their way to include women in those two groups that the Government will be meeting with -- the opposition and civil society.

Question:  What is the total amount due to the United Nations from the United States?

Spokesman:  It is over a billion dollars.  I will get the exact figure for you right after the briefing.  [He later announced that the exact figure is $1,983,713,139.]

Thank you very much.

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