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.

**Secretary-General on Middle East

Good afternoon, we’ll start with a statement attributable to the Spokesman in response to a suicide bombing in Jerusalem this morning:

“The Secretary-General condemns the suicide bomb attack today in Jerusalem.  He reiterates his utter condemnation of such attacks against Israeli civilians as morally repugnant.  The way out of this vicious cycle of violence is for both parties to move ahead towards an immediate ceasefire, leading towards a resumption of negotiations on a just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement.  In this regard, the Secretary-General calls on Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Sharon to cooperate with United States Secretary of State Colin Powell’s mission.”

**Secretary-General in Geneva on Human Rights

In Geneva today, the Secretary-General addressed the current session of the Commission on Human Rights, first paying tribute to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, who will depart from that post this September. He said, “The poor, the oppressed and the victims of injustice in every country and everywhere in the world have reason to be grateful to her.”

He then talked at length about the struggle against terrorism, noting that security cannot be achieved by sacrificing human rights.  He warned, “To try to do so would hand the terrorists a victory beyond their wildest dreams.”  He said that we must be careful not to place whole communities under suspicion and subject them to harassment because of acts committed by some of their members.  Nor must the struggle against terrorism become a pretext for the suppression of legitimate opposition or dissent.  States, he said, have the duty to protect their citizens from terrorism, but they must also take the greatest care to ensure that counter-terrorism does not become “an all-embracing concept that is used to cloak, or justify, violations of human rights.”  Similarly, he added, there is a need for moral clarity in judging the actions of resistance movements, and he called suicide bombings aimed at civilians “morally repugnant.”

The United Nations, the Secretary-General asserted, cannot afford to be neutral in the face of great moral challenges, as is happening today in the Middle East.  He warned, “Wanton disregard for human rights and humanitarian law is something we cannot accept.  We must let those responsible know that they face the verdict of history.”  We have copies of his speech upstairs.

**Secretary-General on Middle East

In a brief press encounter with reporters following his statement to the Commission on Human Rights, the Secretary-General was asked about the situation in the Middle East.  Referring to his concern about the humanitarian situation

in the Palestinian refugee camps, he told reporters, “Once we get access to the camps, I think we are all going to have a lot of work to do.”  Noting the dangerous situation and the “appalling” humanitarian and human rights situation, he said, “I think the proposition that a force should be sent in there to create a secure environment, as well as provide space for diplomatic and political negotiations, can no longer be deferred.  It is urgent; it is imperative.”

At a press event later in the day, also in Geneva, the Secretary-General was asked to elaborate on the concept of a force.  He said he was talking about a force that would help create a secure environment to allow assistance to reach those in need, to enable an end to the killing, and to give the space for political and diplomatic negotiations.  He said he was not talking about a buffer zone.  The transcript from the press encounter immediately after the Secretary-General’s address to the Commission is available.  And the transcript of the afternoon press encounter is expected soon.

The Secretary-General also met with Mary Robinson and with Krzysztof Jakubowski, the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, before attending a luncheon hosted by the Foreign Minister of Switzerland, Joseph Deiss.  The Secretary-General is scheduled to leave Geneva for New York on Saturday.

**Middle East -- Humanitarian

On the humanitarian situation in Jenin, the situation remains unchanged since yesterday.  The officials from the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Committee of the Red Cross remain in Jenin city awaiting permission to enter the refugee camp.

Meanwhile, UN humanitarian agencies did manage to deliver supplies outside the camp.  The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) delivered today more food supplies to Jenin city, particularly the areas where the refugees from the camp have taken shelter.  The World Food Programme has also been distributing food to Ramallah and Bethlehem.  Convoys are set go into Tulkarem and Nablus.  This week’s food delivery conducted by WFP is part of the programme to assist some 3,000 Palestinians in need of food assistance in hospitals, orphanages and homes for the elderly.  Concerning the fate of the students at UNRWA’s training center in Ramallah, out of the 104 students arrested two days ago, only 55 had been released, as has the Dean of the School.

**Security Council

The Security Council is set to begin closed consultations in a few minutes.  Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast will brief the Council on the situation in the Middle East, including the Secretary-General’s comments on the need for an international force in the Middle East.

**Talks on Iraq

The Secretary-General’s talks with Iraqi officials, which had been scheduled to take place next week, have now been postponed at the request of the Iraqi delegation.  We are in the process of trying to find new suitable dates for these discussions.

**Afghanistan Earthquake

At 8:30 this morning, an earthquake hit the Hindu Kush Mountains in Northern Afghanistan again.  The epicentre was in two mountainous villages, Dawabi and Khojakheder.  According to the United States and Swiss Geological services, the magnitude was 5.8 on the Richter scale.  Initial reports from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Kabul have confirmed that 27 people were killed and 120 have been injured.  A World Food Programme (WFP) helicopter has left for the villages, carrying an emergency assessment team comprised of staff from WFP and other UN agencies.

**East Timor

The United Nations electoral chief in East Timor, Carlos Valenzuela, today reassured voters and political parties that ample safeguards have been put in place to ensure that international standards are met during Sunday’s vote for East Timor’s first popularly elected President.  Addressing the concerns of several political party representatives over the transparency of the vote,    Mr. Valenzuela, who is the Chief Electoral Officer of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), stressed during a press conference that the IEC’s international and East Timorese staff would remain professional and impartial and that Sunday’s ballot would be free and fair.  More than 2,000 East Timorese and international observers have been registered, which shows a major interest in these elections.

**Assembly on Ageing

After a marathon session last night, the Main Committee of the Second World Assembly on Ageing, which is meeting in Madrid, Spain, this morning endorsed the text of the International Plan of Action on Ageing and the accompanying Political Declaration.  Just a half-hour ago, or 5:30 p.m. Madrid time, the plenary of the Assembly adopted those two documents by acclamation.  The two documents define the blueprint for international action in dealing with the challenges of population ageing during the upcoming century and for promoting the development of a society for all ages.

Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Nitin Desai addressed a press conference in Madrid this afternoon, calling the conference “extremely successful” and calling on the international community to take responsibility to support activities that will allow countries to manage the demographic change that is taking place.  We have a press release upstairs.

**Secretariat Appointment

The Secretary-General is pleased to announce his decision to appoint Tuliameni Kalomoh, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Namibia, as a new Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs.  Mr. Kalomoh will replace Ibrahima Fall, who, you will recall, is about to head up the West Africa Office of the UN in Dakar.  We have copies of Mr. Kalomoh’s bio in our office.

      **Peacekeeping Data

Also in my office, you can find an update on the number of peacekeepers who have served with the 15 United Nations peacekeeping operations.  As of the end of March, the number remains steady at about forty-six and a half thousand military and police personnel.  And they come from 87 different countries.

      **Press Releases

A press release from the International Labour Organization today indicates publication of a report on working conditions in Cambodian garment factories.  The report has an overview of 34 factories under a technical cooperation project and found no evidence of forced labor or discrimination.  The report, however, did uncover problems involving sexual harassment, freedom of association, and payment of wages and overtime hours.

And, we have the "Week Ahead" for you, which you can pick up in my office.  That’s all I have.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Did Iraq give any reason for canceling the meeting with the Secretary-General?

Spokesman:  I think you have to ask them their reason, but they indicated to us that they did not want anything to detract from the attention being given the problem in the Middle East.

Question:  Can you share any thoughts with us on where this force that the Secretary-General’s talking about might come from, what ideas he’s been kicking around?

Spokesman:  Mr. Prendergast is briefing the Council as we speak about the Secretary-General’s ideas.  It’s not a UN force that he’s talking about, it’s a multinational force.  He’s hoping that the Council will keep in mind the experience of Bosnia, where the carnage was allowed to carry on for years before a meaningful international fighting force was put in place.  So he wants a force that’s strong enough not to be challenged, and one that can secure the environment so that negotiations can be conducted and the Palestinian Authority can rebuild its capacity to govern.

Question:  Such a force would need Israel’s approval, wouldn’t it?

Spokesman:  Of course, both parties would have to cooperate with the deployment of such a force.  The Secretary-General does not have in mind a force that would go in over the objections of one of the parties.

Question:  He can’t be very encouraged by Israel’s repeated record against any kind of force on that territory.

Spokesman:  He feels that the dire situation in the region now calls for something new to be done.  A ceasefire is the first priority.  And the challenge then, of course, would be to effectively implement and monitor a ceasefire.  In his judgment, an observer mission would not be up to the task, given how far the situation in the area has deteriorated between the Palestinians and the Israelis.   

Question:  Has the Secretary-General discussed the force with both parties and the Council members, or is this the first discussion with Mr. Prendergast and the Council?  Also, how would the force be composed?  Where would the members come from?

Spokesman:  The Secretary-General has not discussed the force with either the Palestinian or Israeli leadership.  The concept, it’s really only just a concept, is being presented to the Council for the first time now by    Mr. Prendergast.  As a multinational force, of course, it would need a lead nation, and he has no concrete ideas yet about the composition of the force, except that it should be a multinational, and not a UN, force.

Question:  The multinational force that you mentioned before didn’t need the permission of the Serbs or others.  Why in this case do they need to have the Israelis’ agreement?

Spokesman:  We’re talking about the Secretary-General’s concept, and his concept is for a force that would be accepted by both sides.  So perhaps the analogy with Bosnia was not fully appropriate, but what we’re talking about is not allowing a bad situation to get worse over a long period of time without taking concrete action.

Question:  Is this a decisive message that he’s sending here, that we can’t work it out, just for both sides to agree?  The ceasefire’s not working, we’re not following the Mitchell report, that this really has to be the next chapter in the Middle East and that really, there’s no turning back?

Spokesman:  I think that he, like the rest of us, sees the situation going from bad to worse right under our eyes, and he, therefore, felt that something new, something bold, needed to be considered by the Security Council.

Question:  Will there be a press release with Mr. Prendergast’s remarks?

Spokesman:  I don’t believe so.  I suppose your best chance would be to try and intercept him as he comes out of the Council, but he has not told us that he’s prepared at this time to speak to the press.  You also have the option of catching Council members as they come out, to ask them their reactions to what he said.

Question:  Has there been any preliminary planning or talk of numbers?  There was a United States Army report a while ago that talked about 20,000.

Spokesman:  No, the Secretary-General hasn’t mentioned numbers that I’m aware of.

Question:  Would it be thousands?

Spokesman:  I don’t know, but he does feel that it must be strong enough that it would not effectively be challenged.

Question:  When the Secretary-General says the UN cannot afford to be neutral in the face of great moral challenges, and then refers to human rights and humanitarian law, is he firmly saying that one side is more guilty than the other and one needs to take a stand on this?  What’s the interpretation of what he was speaking about there?

Spokesman:  I don’t think it’s a reaction to one side or other, but it’s a reaction to the carnage that’s taking place, that we cannot remain neutral as people are being killed on both sides from one day to the next.

Question:  Has the Secretary-General spoken with officials of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) about these ideas?

Spokesman:  Not to my knowledge, no.

Question:  Why is he talking of sending a multinational force and not a UN peacekeeping force or any force related to the UN?

Spokesman:  A multinational force can be assembled quickly and deployed quickly.  A UN force takes too long.  Given the gravity of the situation, the Secretary-General is asking that we deal with it immediately and effectively.

Question:  In such a scenario, would the Secretariat consider appointing an individual to be the coordinator in the way [Lakhdar] Brahimi coordinated in Afghanistan?

Spokesman:  I think you’re getting too far down the road.  The Secretary-General is floating a concept, not planning a force or mission.  The next step is to see the Security Council’s reaction to the idea that’s being presented to them now.

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