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.

**Security Council     

Good afternoon.  Membersof the Security Council began their day with a closed consultation this morning to hear briefings on the question of missing Kuwaitis and third country nationals in Iraq and then also on the humanitarian situation in Somalia.

On Iraq, Council members were briefed by the High-Level Coordinator, Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov, on the Secretary-General’s latest report on missing Kuwaitis and third country nationals which detailed the lack of progress due to the continued Iraqi refusal to cooperate with him on this issue.

Following Ambassador Vorontsov, the Council was briefed on the humanitarian situation in Somalia by Carolyn McAskie, the Deputy Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs.  Ms. McAskie told Council members that, even though the situation in Somalia is less violent than it was a few years ago and that there have been improvements in the lives of many Somalis, the country still suffers from the worst socio-economic indicators in the world –- including high child mortality and malnutrition rates –- and it remains in need of international assistance.

We expect the President of the Council, Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso, to speak to you at the stakeout after today’s consultations.

This afternoon, the Council will resume its open public meeting on the Middle East, including the question of Palestine.

At this time, there are nine speakers left on the list.

**Secretary-General Concludes Official Visit to Norway

The Secretary-General this morning had a private breakfast meeting with Thorvald Stoltenberg, the former Foreign Minister of Norway, who is one of the Secretary-General's advisers.  And, yes, the family name is the same as the Prime Minister.  The relationship is father and son.

The Secretary-General then met with his Special Coordinator for the Middle East -- another Norwegian -- Terje Roed-Larsen.

After that, he went to the Storting, or Parliament, where he had a tour d'horizon with members of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs.

He then had lunch with the Minister of International Development, Anne Kristen Sydnes, where the discussion focussed primarily on the fight against HIV/AIDS.

At a press encounter after the lunch, the Secretary-General was asked about the Middle East peace initiative by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, and

he welcomed Yasser Arafat's statement today that he was prepared to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for truce talks in Berlin.  "Any attempt to bring the parties to the table is something that I support," the Secretary-General said.  We expect the full transcript of that exchange later this afternoon.

Then in the afternoon, the Secretary-General and his wife, Nane, laid a wreath on the grave of Trygve Lie, the first United Nations Secretary-General.

He left Norway this afternoon for a few more days' holiday.  And this weekend he will begin an official visit to Austria.

**Viewing of Videotapes

As agreed with the Government of Israel during discussions held recently in New York, a delegation of Israeli officials will be given an opportunity to see the videotapes and related items that could shed light on the condition of three Israeli soldiers abducted on the Israeli-Lebanese border on 7 October 2000.  That screening will take place tomorrow at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

You'll recall that a first viewing of those videotapes and the bloodstained items took place here at United Nations Headquarters on 8 August.

As discussed with the Israeli authorities, arrangements are being made by the World Health Organization (WHO) to facilitate the analysis of the bloodstained items in the possession of the United Nations, with a view to determining whether the blood belongs to the Israeli soldiers.  The Government of Israel has been requested to provide the necessary information for that purpose.

**Iraq

From the Office of the Iraq Programme, Iraq’s weekly oil exports remained constant at 13.9 million barrels -– the same as the previous week’s total.  So far into the current phase, which is phase ten of the oil-for-food programme, which ends on 30 November, Iraq has earned an estimated $1.6 billion in revenue from its oil sales.

The value of contracts placed on hold by the Security Council’s

661 sanctions committee dropped slightly from the previous week’s total of

$3.5 billion to $3.48 billion, mostly owing to the release of a single high-value contract in the electricity sector.  A gas turbine contract, valued at

$77.8 million, which had been on hold for over one year, was released by the Committee on condition of close end-use monitoring by the United Nations observation mechanism in Iraq.

The full text of the Office of the Iraq Programme weekly update is available in my office.

**Secretary-General's Message to the People of East Timor

The Secretary-General, in a video message to the people of East Timor that is being aired there prior to the 30 August elections for the Constituent Assembly, told the Timorese people, "The eyes of the world are now on you once again."

He assured them that the United Nations and its agencies are supporting their heroic efforts to rebuild their lives, revive their communities,

re-establish their institutions and take control of their future.  He urged them to vote on 30 August, saying, "All your voices must be heard."

We have the text of that message available upstairs.

**East Timor

The Secretary-General's Special Representative for East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, today opened a seminar, including participation from some 50 women, on ensuring that women's rights are enshrined in East Timor's future constitution.

The Gender and Constitution Working Group, which organized today's seminar, has created a charter of rights for East Timorese women, consisting of

10 proposals for Constitutional articles of particular relevance to women, and has so far collected more than 10,000 signatures in support of that charter's inclusion in the Constitution.

Vieira de Mello commended the group's work and encouraged its effort to collect signatures to support the charter.

We have more information on that in today's report from Dili.

**Kosovo

The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Kosovo, Hans Haekkerup, today condemned the killing of five members of a Kosovo Albanian family, who were shot dead last night near Glogovac.

Haekkerup said, "The cold-blooded killing of members of the Hajra family is shocking, monstrous and incomprehensible."  Such killings, he warned, threatened the progress toward self-government and a democratic future.

We have a press release from Pristina.

**Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports today that, a week after a peace agreement was signed in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), small groups of ethnic Slavs continue to flee from the northern town of Tetovo.

Meanwhile, in the FYROM capital, Skopje, several hundred displaced persons barricaded a road leading to the border crossing of Blace, where in recent weeks thousands of FYROM citizens have returned home from Kosovo.  More than

27,000 refugees have returned from Kosovo, but over the past three days, no returns from Blace have been reported.

We have additional information in today's UNHCR briefing notes, which also mention efforts to repatriate Angolan refugees who had been in both Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville.

**Sierra Leone

Yesterday in Sierra Leone, 45 combatants from the pro-Government Civil Defence Forces (CDF) turned in their weapons in Makakura, a town in the district of Koinadugu, in a ceremony witnessed by the Secretary-General's Deputy Special Representative, Behrooz Sadry.  All weapons handed in, including rifles and grenade launchers, were promptly destroyed.

The event marked the beginning of the disarmament process in Koinadugu, following the start of disarmament in Moyamba last week.

The CDF also handed over 39 former child combatants to a child protection agency, CARITAS, based in Makeni.

The disarmament process in Moyamba and Koinadugu is to continue through the end of this month.

**International Labour Organization to Visit Myanmar

Juan Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), today announced in Geneva that a four-member team will travel next month to Myanmar for three weeks to assess the effectiveness of recent efforts made by the Government in that country to eliminate forced labor.

The team will be led by Ninian Stephen of Australia, who will travel in mid-September.  It is expected that the team will report to the ILO's Governing Body in November.  In carrying out its mandate, the team will have full discretion to make the contacts it deems appropriate across the country.

We have a press release from the ILO, which includes more details on the members of the team.

**Budget

The latest figures for outstanding contributions to the United Nations regular budget, as well as the peacekeeping and tribunal budgets, are out today, and they show that as of the end of July, the United Nations was owed just a little less than $4.3 billion, including more than $726 million for the regular budget, more than $3.46 billion for peacekeeping and just over $100 million for the tribunals.

The biggest debtor, the United States, now owes more than $2.33 billion, and the breakdown of that is $462 million for the regular budget and  $1.8 billion for peacekeeping.

**Press Conferences

We have no press conferences scheduled today and so far none scheduled for tomorrow.

That's all I have for you.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  On the videotape, do you have any indication of the size of the Israeli delegation and whether any relatives of the three abducted Israeli soldiers will be viewing the video?

Spokesman:  At this time, I do not.  I think you might ask the Israeli Mission in New York rather than the one in Geneva, which I think, is handling the arrangements.  Our position remains the same.  We would welcome the presence of family members as part of the official Israeli delegation.  But at this time, we have no indication of what the composition of the delegation will be.

Question:  How many countries already spoke in the Security Council?

Spokesman:  I don't have that number.  We can get it for you.  It's over 40, I believe.  If you check with me after the briefing we'll give you the exact number.

Question:  Did the Secretary-General have any comment on the report today in the New York Times that the number two man of Iraq said that "Israel and all the Jews that are pigs and monkeys should be killed and destroyed and that all Arab countries should rise to the occasion"?

Spokesman:  I don't know whether he would have read that statement.  If it's accurate as reported, it's an unfortunate statement.  I'm sure he would regret that it had been made.  I don't think it helps international relations for high-level officials to be making comments like that.

Question:  Any comment from the Secretary-General concerning the $1 billion that Iraq wants to pay for the Palestinians?

Spokesman:  No.  The Secretary-General has no public position on that issue.

Thank you very much.

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