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 Marie Okabe, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.  I first would like to welcome the group of Indonesian journalists who are touring the facilities and who are joining us today.  I would also hope that all of you have had a decent August so far.

**Secretary-General in Austria

The Secretary-General and Mrs. Annan began their visit to Austria in the evening of Saturday, 25 August, this last weekend.

On Monday morning, that's this morning, the Secretary-General met first with the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna and Executive Director of the Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention, Pino Arlacchi.

At mid-morning, the Secretary-General met with the Foreign Minister of Austria, Benita Ferrero-Waldner.  During the meeting, which lasted for about an hour, they discussed many issues including the crisis in the Middle East, the Balkans and the fight against AIDS.

Following the meeting, the two principals had a brief encounter with journalists.  We will have the transcript available shortly in our office.  In answer to a question on the Middle East, he said that the situation “is very worrying, is tragic, we have innocent people suffering and I think the international community has an obligation to do whatever it can to bring an end to this misery.”  He added, “I am worried that if we do not contain the crisis it could spread.”

On the United States participation in the Racism Conference, which will open in Durban on 31 August, he said that “it is a decision for Washington.  There are indications from Washington that if they do not get the language they want they may not participate.  Efforts are being made and people are working on the language even as we speak.” 

This evening, the Secretary-General and Mrs. Annan, accompanied by the Foreign Minister will be guests at a candlelight dinner in honour of the participants of the “Salzburg Dialogue Among Civilizations”.  The dinner will take place at the Castle Fuschl, where the dialogue among civilizations encounter will be held tomorrow.  The Secretary-General will deliver the opening address of tomorrow’s meeting.

Both the toast and the embargoed speech are available upstairs in the Spokesman's office, as well as the transcript I mentioned.

**Statement on the Inter-Congolese Dialogue

I have a statement attributable to the Spokesman.

The Secretary-General is pleased to learn that the participants at the Preparatory Meeting for the inter-Congolese dialogue, which convened in Gaborone, Botswana from 20 to 24 August, have agreed to start the dialogue on 15 October 2001 in Addis Ababa.

He notes the readiness of the Congolese parties, for the first time since the start of the conflict, to sit at the same negotiating table and discuss how to achieve enduring peace and national reconciliation in their country.  He encourages them to build on the spirit of Gaborone and wishes them success in their endeavour.

The Secretary-General commends the Facilitator of the inter-Congolese dialogue, Sir Ketumile Masire, and his team for their hard work and reiterates the continued readiness of the United Nations to assist and to support their effort.

**Racism Conference

On the Racism Conference, speaking in Johannesburg before meeting with South African President Thabo Mbeki, High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, said she was encouraged by the constructive atmosphere that was apparent in the last weeks before the talks in Durban, and by evidence that the political will existed to reach “shared commitment to tackle intolerance and bias."

Mrs. Robinson, who is also the Secretary-General of the World Conference Against Racism, said intensive discussions had taken place, and were continuing on a number of outstanding issues and that considerable progress had been made.

"Flexibility is being shown in the search for language on the questions of addressing the past including slavery and colonialism and the Middle East," she said.  "One thing I would like to reaffirm is that there is a clear understanding that theformulation "Zionism equals racism" has been done away with."

On the question of participation at Durban, Mrs. Robinson said, "We will need the participation of all countries at the highest level possible to demonstrate our determination to fight this plague."

More of her comments are available upstairs in the office.  We also have upstairs a background press release issued by the Conference’s secretariat.

**Security Council

As you know, there is no Security Council meeting today.

Tomorrow, the Security Council will hold a public meeting on the situation in Kosovo.  Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guéhenno will brief on the United Nations operation in Kosovo.

**East Timor

The head of East Timor’s Independent Electoral Commission, Carlos Valenzuela, today commended the “exemplary civility and peacefulness” that has marked the campaign for the 30 August Constituent Assembly elections, and said the East Timorese are “ready to participate in the simple but symbolic act of voting.”

In a press conference in Dili, Valenzuela noted that there had been very few allegations of incidents between political parties, only one of which had been substantiated by judicial authorities.  “I can say that in over fourteen elections in which I have worked, I have never seen such a peaceful and orderly campaign.”

Approximately 425,000 East Timorese are eligible to vote in the election, which will elect an 88-member Constituent Assembly that will have 90 days to write and adopt a Constitution for an independent and democratic East Timor.

**Ethiopia/Eritrea

On another United Nations mission, this time the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, known as UNMEE, issued a statement today on the allegations of sexual misconduct in UNMEE’s Italian contingent.  These allegations first surfaced in the Italian press last week and had never been previously been reported to the United Nations mission.

Today, the United Nations mission said it is taking the allegations seriously and would investigate them, as it has done in the past.  “The mission has zero tolerance towards such acts and will do its utmost to quickly and thoroughly establish the facts,” the statementsays.

The full text of this press release is available upstairs.

**Fiji

On Saturday, general elections began in Fiji and will last until next Saturday.  The weeklong vote is due to Fiji’s geography.

Since 23 August, the United Nations Fiji Electoral Observer Mission has deployed 20 teams in various locations throughout the country.  On the first day of voting, United Nations teams observed the voting in some 140 polling stations and reported that the elections were being conducted in an orderly manner with no serious incidents being reported.

The teams did report that in a number of polling stations voter queues were long and in certain areas some material, such as electoral posters and computers were not available.  In most places, the mission reports that these problems were fixed later in the day.

There's a note available upstairs with more information on these elections.

**Kosovo   

In Kosovo, the Kosovo Force (KFOR) there continues to patrol the border between the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo to interdict the movement of people and weapons.  Since Friday morning, a total of 149 individuals, all suspected members of the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA), have been detained while trying to cross illegally into Kosovo.  Ninety-six of them were detained last night.

You can read more about this development in today’s briefing notes from the United Nations mission in Kosovo, which had a briefing in Pristina earlier today.

**Western Sahara

And as we reported on Friday, the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara, James Baker, is meeting today with representatives of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO) and the Governments of Algeria and Mauritania in Pinedale, Wyoming, starting today through Wednesday, 29 August.

We do not expect to have any more information on this meeting until its completion.

And finally, I guess it's still the last few days of August, there are no press conferences scheduled for today and tomorrow. 

That's all I have for you today.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Were these the representatives of the delegations of Algeria and Mauritania?

Associate Spokesman:  As I mentioned, these were representatives of the Polisario Front and the Governments of Algeria and Mauritania.

Question:  Were they ministers?

Associate Spokesman:  I don't have any more information than what I gave you now.  I know that on Friday we announced that it would be representatives at the ministerial level.  I can try to see if we have further information for you upstairs afterwards.

Question:  I understand from Washington that the Secretary-General was going to be calling Secretary of State Powell following these stories that he's virtually ruled out going to Durban.  Do you know anything about this phone call and what the Secretary-General's message was?

Associate Spokesman:  Based on information of a few minutes ago, I can't confirm that there has been a phone call today.  As you know, the Secretary-General is in frequent contact with Colin Powell on a number of issues and they did speak over the weekend.  But again, I don't know what the subject matter was.

Question:  What level are negotiations taking place on the Racism Declaration and Programme of Action.  Like today, for example, who met and where?

Associate Spokesman:  Well, as you know, Mary Robinson is there herself.  We have information from the Secretariat there.  I don't have any more details here.  But as the Secretary-General also mentions in his remarks, consultations are under way as we speak, with Mary Robinson there already on the ground, trying to come up with acceptable language.  Let me try to find out more details of that and get back to you after the briefing.  [The journalist was later told that informal consultations as well as contacts among capitals were taking place in advance of the Conference.]

Question:  You mentioned that the Secretary-General has already met with

Mr. Arlacchi.  I'm wondering if Joe Connor ever completed his review of the report that the Secretary-General was awaiting and whether this might have come up in their discussion.

Associate Spokesman:  I don't have a read-out on their meeting.  They met for I think half an hour or so this morning.  I can read to you what the

Secretary-General said about the meeting in response to a question from a journalist following the meeting earlier today.

The Secretary-General says, "Let me say that decisions regarding Under-Secretary-Generals, their extension will be taken by me in the fall in New York.  Of course these are decisions that will be made public.  The report of the United Nations version of the Inspector-General is usually given to the General Assembly and these reports will therefore become public."  And as of now, that is the only read-out that I have of the meeting that took place earlier today.

Question:  There was a request by the Security Council that Congolese women be encouraged to participate in the inter-Congolese dialogue.  Do you see any follow-up on that?

Associate Spokesman:  I've noted that myself.  I have not seen any new developments on that, but I just learned that Mr. Masire is expected to be here next week to brief the Council.  So maybe we can take it up with him and have him come talk to you about it after his briefing.  I believe it's going to be on the morning of 5 September.

Are there no other questions?  Have a good afternoon.

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