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

Following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

**Fact-finding Mission

A short while ago in Geneva, Stephane Dujarric, who is the Spokesman traveling with Martti Ahtisaari, the head of the fact-finding mission to the Middle East, read out the following statement to the press:

The UN fact-finding mission to the Middle East met this afternoon in Geneva for the first time.  Team members and a number of additional experts met for an internal organizational meeting.  As other members of the team gather in Geneva over the next few days, the fact-finding team will continue to prepare its mission, and the team is expected to be in the Middle East by this Saturday.

At a photo opportunity, two additional members were present:  First, Tyge Lehmann, who is the senior legal adviser for the Danish Government, and we have his bio in my office; and medical adviser, Helena Ranta, of the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Helsinki.  And we’re still trying to get her bio.

**Middle East

Yesterday afternoon, Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Lancry came to see the Secretary-General to convey the position of the Israeli Cabinet concerning the UN fact-finding mission to the Middle East.  The Ambassador sought clarification on the team’s composition and scope of action, as well as other issues.

The Secretary-General said clearly that the mandate of the team was Security Council resolution 1405 of April 19.  While he would not discuss his choice of team members, he did not rule out adding additional experts as might be deemed necessary.

The Ambassador said that his Government wished to send representatives from Israel to brief the Secretariat staff to make sure that the Government’s point of view was understood.  That team could arrive in New York tomorrow.

The Israeli Mission has notified us of the names of three individuals on their side who will participate, one each from the Defence Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Defence Force.  We are trying to set up a meeting at mid-day that would be chaired by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast, and he would be joined by representatives from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Office of Legal Affairs.

The Secretary-General agreed to postpone the departure of the fact-finding team to allow this consultation to take place, but, as we have just said, we expect the team to be in the Middle East by this Saturday.

The Security Council yesterday afternoon also held consultations on the Middle East, and afterward Council President Sergey Lavrov of Russia said that Council members fully supported the Secretary-General’s efforts to implement resolution 1405 and expect the full cooperation of Israel with the Secretary-General and the fact-finding team.  Council members also expressed serious concern for the safety of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, and emphasized that there must be no harm to him or others in his compound, and that the siege must be lifted.

**Middle East -– Human Rights

Today in Geneva, High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson presented to the Commission for Human Rights a report on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, which, since her visiting mission was not given clearance to visit the area, is based on reports from all concerned organizations that are present there.

It is indisputable, the report says, that there has been extensive loss of life on the Palestinian, as well as the Israeli side.  In addition, the report notes, citing estimates by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, there has been extensive destruction of property and infrastructure, with some 4,000 to 5,000 people left homeless in the Jenin refugee camp.

It also mentions reports from Israeli human rights groups of the difficult conditions in detention centres for Palestinians and the violent treatment of some detainees, and cites numerous reports that the Israeli Defence Force used Palestinians as human shields.  The report also notes accusations from various sources of a denial of humanitarian access and lack of access to medical assistance.

The High Commissioner, in the report, appeals for everyone in a position to do so to help the two sides to return to negotiations for a peaceful outcome, and stresses, “The military operation must be brought to an end.  Equally, all attacks against Israeli civilians must end.”  We have copies of the report upstairs.

**Secretary-General at Harvard

The Secretary-General will be traveling to Boston this afternoon.  He will spend the rest of the day at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.  After a roundtable meeting with Harvard faculty, the Secretary-General is scheduled to deliver the 2002 Godkin Lecture at 6 p.m.  The theme of the address is “Globalization and Governance in Africa.”  We should have embargoed copies of the speech shortly.  The lecture will be broadcast live on the Harvard University Web site.   My office can give you that Web site address.

The Secretary-General will be speaking about Africa’s challenges today and how Africans themselves are tackling them in such areas as conflicts, HIV/AIDS and economic development.  He is expected to encourage the new spirit of democratic empowerment throughout Africa, where the people are seeking political and economic empowerment though good governance and sustainable development.

The audience, which will range from 700 to 800, is expected to include Harvard College students, Kennedy School graduate students, Harvard faculty and staff, as well as members of the community.  His remarks will be open to the press for coverage and broadcast live as I mentioned earlier.  The Secretary-General is scheduled to attend a dinner in his honor hosted by the President of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers, before returning to New York later tonight.

**Kosovo

Following consultations on Kosovo this morning, the Security Council opened a public meeting on Kosovo, in which the Secretary-General’s Special Representative there, Michael Steiner, briefed the Council on the Secretary-General’s latest report, which is out on the racks today.

Steiner told the Council that “the Kosovo where my predecessors arrived looked very different from Kosovo today.”  He noted that the multi-ethnic Government of Kosovo and its Presidency are now in place, and the area has a functioning police and justice system in which crime has decreased steadily.  The social infrastructure has been rebuilt from scratch, with more than 1,100 schools operating, and 360 functioning healthcare facilities throughout Kosovo.

Now, Steiner said, “we need to transfer authority within Kosovo to the Provisional Government,” and also need to convince the people there to look “beyond Kosovo to Belgrade and to the region.”  He described to the Council a series of benchmarks that will need to be achieved before a discussion on Kosovo’s status can be held. 

We have the text of his briefing upstairs, as well as the Secretary-General’s report, which welcomes the formation of the new Government and says it must lead by example in “creating conditions conducive to inclusion and reconciliation.”  After the current open debate on Kosovo ends, the Council expects to adopt a Presidential statement on that subject.  Michael Steiner has also agreed to come to the Council stakeout once the formal meeting is over to talk to you, and we’ll squawk that as it’s about to happen.

**Kosovo Earthquake

Also on Kosovo, at 1 p.m. today there was an earthquake that damaged the region around Gnjilane, one of Kosovo’s larger towns, in which one person was killed and 63 others injured.  Quite a bit of damage has been reported by the UN Mission at the city center, and extra UN police are patrolling the streets now. Moderate to light damage to homes was widespread, the Mission says.  We are still collecting information on damage to smaller towns.  There were no UNMIK or KFOR injuries reported.

**East Timor

Police officials from East Timor, Australia and Indonesia held their first-ever trilateral talks in Dili today to discuss a wide range of regional security issues.  These include cooperation among the three police forces, especially in the fight against cross-border crimes such as drug smuggling, money laundering and people smuggling.

Representatives of the East Timor Police Service, including UN Police officials, said today’s meetings were constructive and resulted in an agreement by which Australia and Indonesia will place full-time police liaisons in Dili in order to further trilateral cooperation.  The talks stemmed from a high-level meeting held in Denpasar, Indonesia, in February which was attended by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and representatives from Australia and Indonesia.

**Afghanistan

The World Food Programme says it is sending nine tonnes of food aid to about 2,000 people who have been affected by a flash flood in a town in Badghis province in north-west Afghanistan.  Distribution should start by midday Thursday.  About 180 shops have been destroyed or washed off by the torrential rain.  The river that passes through the city is reported to be about seven meters deep.  Most of the affected population is spending the night with relatives and friends.  Bagdhis is one of the most drought-affected provinces in Afghanistan.  This was the second major flash flood to hit north-west Afghanistan in the past couple of weeks.

We also have an update on Afghanistan from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which reports that total refugee returns have topped 350,000 in less than eight weeks.

Also on Afghanistan, Angela King, Special Adviser to the Secretary General on Gender Issues, and Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), are organizing a briefing on “Women and the Rebuilding of Afghanistan:  Challenges and Opportunities” tomorrow at 1:15 p.m. in Conference Room One.  Featured speakers are Dr. Sima Samar, Minister for Women’s Affairs of Afghanistan, and Mahboba Hoquqmal, Vice-Chair of the Commission on the Loya Jirga.

**Background Note on Peacekeeping Operations

The updated Background Note on Peacekeeping Operations in both English and French is available in the Spokesman’s Office.

We currently have a total of 15 peacekeeping operations.  Approximately 46,000 military personnel and civilian police from 87 countries are serving in those operations.  The approved peacekeeping budget from 1 July 2001 to 30 June 2002 is about $2.77 billion.  The outstanding contributions to peacekeeping were about $1.42 billion on 31 March 2002.  The Background Note is also posted on the United Nations Web page.

**Signing Today

One signing to report today.  This morning, Guinea-Bissau signed the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

**World Chronicle

One World Chronicle TV programme to announce featuring Adama Dieng, Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.  You can see that at 3:30 today on in-house television channels 3 or 31.

**Press Conferences Scheduled for Tomorrow

At 10:30 a.m., Ian Kinniburgh, the Director for the Development Policy Division at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and others, will brief on the United Nations 2002 Global Economic Outlook.  The report and the discussion in the press briefing are embargoed until 11 a.m. tomorrow, New York time.

Then our guest at our noon briefing tomorrow will be Lieutenant-General Satish Nambiar, the head of the Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping, and the United Service Institution of India; and Mrs. Anna Lindh, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden.  They will present a concluding report after nine seminars on Challenges for Peace Operations into the Twenty-first Century.

And then at 12:45 p.m., Tom Vraalsen, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs for the Sudan, will brief you on the worsening humanitarian situation in that country.

And also on that, I understand, there is a media advisory here in the corner.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Are the meetings between the United Nations and Israel in the United Nations building tomorrow?

Spokesman:  Yes.

Question:  Do you know, will they continue on Friday?

Spokesman:  I don’t think so, but then I don’t know for sure.  My impression is that they were going to be a one-shot meeting.

Question:  If Israel still does not want to cooperate, what happens to the team on Saturday?  Where do they go?  Do they not leave?  Do they go somewhere else? 

Spokesman:  Why speculate on gloomy prospects?  We’re confident that this team is going to go and that we’re going to be able to resolve our differences, if there are differences, with Israel.  Getting the Israelis and the Palestinians to agree on anything is not easy.  But, we would like them both to agree that this is a fair and impartial study.

Question:  In the statement that you read this morning and issued last night, the Secretary-General said that he would not discuss his team, but he would consider appointing additional advisers.  The Israeli ambassador said on Israeli radio that the Secretary-General said that he was going to consider adding additional members of the team.  Is that a possibility or is the three-member team going to stand?

Spokesman:  Well, first, the hierarchy that you imply was pretty much wiped away by Martti Ahtisaari.  There are three principals on the team, but he said, “let’s not draw any divisive lines”.  The Secretary-General said that any additional expertise that Mr. Ahtisaari feels he might need can be brought on board.  General Nash mentioned one additional military expert that he would like to see.  That was yesterday.  The Secretary-General said, “Sure, bring him along.”

We have announced today the medical adviser, who is a forensic expert, a legal adviser who is a human rights expert.  You’ll see it from the bio upstairs.  And if out of the discussions with the Israelis tomorrow there are recommendations that Mr. Ahtisaari thinks would be helpful for additional kinds of experts, we’ll bring them on board.  The idea is to have all the expertise we need to do a fair assessment.

Question:  Just as a quick follow-up, can you tell us the name of this military expert?

Spokesman:  No, there wasn’t a name, it was a category of expert.

Question:  Oh, it’s just a category?

Spokesman:  Yes.

Question:  There seems to be some discussion around a money prize that the envoy Terje Roed-Larsen has received from the Peres Peace Institute in Israel.  Do you have any information?

Spokesman:  No.  I mean, I saw some mention of that in the Israeli media this morning.  I think you have to take with a grain of salt everything that’s being said about Terje Roed-Larsen these days.  He’s taking quite a beating.  But, if you like, we’ll try to talk to his office this afternoon to see what, if anything, they would have to say about that.

Question:  Do you know who is going to be representing the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and Legal Affairs in that meeting?

Spokesman:  It depends on who’s available.  I think Mr. Guéhenno, the Head of the Department, is still away.  So we haven’t finalized yet who it will be.  We were still phoning around at 12 o’clock, in other words.  But Prendergast is confirmed.

Question:  Has the Secretary-General, Mr. Ahtisaari, considered a counter-terrorism advisor, as the Israelis have been hinting?

Spokesman:  I don’t know specifically whether they have.  It seems the Israelis were talking about that.  I think Ambassador Lancry mentioned something along those lines to you last night.  But let’s see what happens with tomorrow’s talks.  And as I said, additional expertise that Mr. Ahtisaari feels will be helpful would be brought on board.

Question:  Has Mr. Peres raised any objection to the composition of the fact-finding committee particularly humanitarian members?

Spokesman:  We’ve only seen comments from the press.  But, as I indicated from my statement last night, the Secretary-General declined to discuss the composition of his team.  He feels it was his team to name.  He feels that the Israelis indicated to him in advance that they would cooperate with whatever team that he named and those are his people.  And that’s the end of the discussion.

Question:  Yesterday, or today, what Israeli officials, in addition to Ambassador Lancry, has the Secretary-General spoken to about this?

Spokesman:  I’d have to check the phone log.  I can’t recall any calls to or from Israeli officials since last night.  But let me double-check the log and tell you afterwards.  [There were none.]

Question:  By the composition of the team tomorrow, do we understand that the Secretary-General will not be at this meeting between the senior United Nations officials and the Israelis?

Spokesman:  That’s correct.

Question:  And can we put in a request to try and get to talk to both sides if possible?

Spokesman:  The Secretary-General does not want any Secretariat personnel talking about the Jenin mission until the mission is over.  You will be getting from Stephane Dujarric kind of daily technical reports with -- he’s warning us right now -- not much substance or meat.  And that will continue until the fact-finding team has completed its work and submitted its report to the Secretary-General.

Question:  And you’re saying that any expertise that is needed, is it for Mr. Ahtisaari to decide if it’s needed; for instance, if the Israelis propose somebody, is it for Mr. Ahtisaari to decide whether they should be taken on, or is it the Secretary-General that will decide that?

Spokesman:  Now that the SG has designated Mr. Ahtisaari as the head of this team, I think that Mr. Ahtisaari should make the final decision.  That is not to say that there may not be conversations between the Secretary-General and

Mr. Ahtisaari.  But Mr. Ahtisaari will also be listening to the other members of the team, the other advisers he has, including General Nash.

Question:  Could you please tell us the reason for delaying the departure of the fact-finding team to Israel?

Spokesman:  We issued a statement last night.

Question:  Just one clarification.  Does that mean we cannot expect any read-out on the meeting from the United Nations side at all?

 Spokesman:       That’s correct.  

Question:  Yesterday the former president of Rwanda, Pastor Bizimungu, was arrested.  The Secretary-General is concentrating on African issues at Harvard today.  What do you think of this event and would it impede the peace process in Rwanda?

Spokesman:  I don’t have guidance on that.  I’ll have to look into it and get back to you.

Okay, thank you very much.

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