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 Team

The Israeli delegation that was here last week is now returning to Israel.  Coming into the Building this morning, the Secretary-General told CNN that the United Nations’ discussions with the delegation had been constructive and useful, clarifying a number of issues of concern to the Israelis.

He said he had given to the Israelis and the Palestinians letters indicating precisely how the fact-finding team to Jenin would approach its work.

“I think at this stage”, he said, “it is very urgent that we go in, find out what happened and put all the rumours and accusations behind us.”

At this point, we are awaiting the Israeli response to the Secretary-General’s letter, which was sent on Saturday and shared with the Security Council.

Meanwhile, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman travelling with the fact-finding team, reports from Geneva that the team continued to work through the weekend while awaiting further instructions from New York.

The names of the two new additions to the team to work with military adviser General William Nash were released in Geneva.  They are Col. Miles Wade of the United Kingdom, who worked with Nash in the Balkans, and Major François Xavier Thomas, a planning specialist with the French Army.

Stephane also announced two aides to police adviser Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald.  They are Inspector Patrick Leahy of the Irish Police, who arrived today, and who has experience in UN operations in Bosnia, Cambodia and Namibia. The second aide is Assistant Commissioner Dermot Jennings, also of Ireland, who has extensive experience in counter-terrorism work. He will join the team shortly.

The forensic expert for the team, Dr. Helena Ranta, will be joined by three other forensic experts from the University of Helsinki.  Dr. Ranta is in Geneva, and her three assistants will be joining her soon.

**Middle East/Security Council

The Security Council will meet at 3 p.m. today to continue its consultations on the Middle East, after having held consultations yesterday afternoon in which Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast briefed them on the fact-finding team to Jenin.  He is expected to brief them again this afternoon.

After those consultations, Security Council President Sergey Lavrov told the press that Council members remain firm in their insistence on the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1405 and are concerned at the continued delay in the arrival of the fact-finding team.  They also supported the Secretary-General’s letters, sent over the weekend, to Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Lancry and Palestinian Ambassador Nasser al-Kidwa containing clarifications about the team.

Mr. Lavrov added that the Council members expect a “positive report” on the team today.

The Council had discussed the team on Friday afternoon, as well, and also exchanged views at that time about the Secretary-General’s proposals for a multinational force in the area.  Both Mr. Prendergast and Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno participated in that discussion.

**Security Council

This morning, the Security Council held closed consultations on the report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Abkhazia, Georgia.  The report, which we flagged to you last Thursday, was introduced by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hédi Annabi.

This afternoon at 3 o’clock, Kieran Prendergast, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, will brief the Council on the Middle East, as I just told you.

At 3:30 p.m., the Council will reconvene to hear out the 10 speakers left from last Friday’s open meeting on East Timor.

**Security Council Mission

This morning in Pretoria, the Security Council mission to the Great Lakes region held a meeting with Deputy-President Jacob Zuma of South Africa in the presence of the Foreign Minister of Gabon, Jean Ping.  The mission, led by Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France, then met with Burundi rebel groups. Ambassador Levitte said that the Security Council strongly supported the facilitation on the crisis in Burundi and urged the rebel groups to cease hostilities immediately.  It is time to cease fire now, he said; time is of the essence and tomorrow could be too late.

The Security Council mission arrived in Pretoria yesterday afternoon.  It held closed-door meetings with Ambassador Mahmoud Kassem, Chairman of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The meeting was followed by a working dinner with five representatives of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) and five representatives of the Unarmed Opposition.

Ambassador Levitte welcomed the significant progress made in the inter-Congolese dialogue which ended on 19 April in Sun City, South Africa.  The Security Council mission also encouraged all the parties that had declined to be party to this agreement to be flexible and to continue negotiations in view of consolidating the political process that had just been launched.

**Abduction

The Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Representative for the United Nations Development Programme in Somalia (UNDP) has confirmed that a Somali national officer employed by UNDP has been abducted in Mogadishu.

The officer, Professor Mohamed Ali Aborkor, was taken at 4:30 p.m. yesterday, Sunday, April 28, by abductors who remain unknown.

The UN Country Team for Somalia is working to establish contact with the persons who have taken the officer hostage in order to ascertain his condition and whereabouts, and to ensure his safe and immediate release.

**Commission on Human Rights Elections

This morning, the Economic and Social Council held elections for a number of bodies, including the Commission on Human Rights.  There were four vacancies in the African Group, three in the Asian Group, one in the Eastern European Group, three in the Latin American and Caribbean Group, and four in the Western European and Others Group.

In three groups –- African, Asian and Western European and Others –- the candidates were elected by acclamation, and there were elections for the other two groups.

In the Western European and Others Group, the countries elected were Australia, Germany, Ireland and the United States.

A press release will be issued later with the complete results of all the elections that took place this morning.

**Angola

In a letter to the Security Council, which is out on the racks today, the Secretary-General says he has appointed four experts to pursue the extended mandate of the monitoring mechanism dealing with Angola sanctions.  The monitoring mechanism will continue to be chaired by Ambassador Juan Larrain of Chile for the extended mandate, which will last through 19 October.

**UNCTAD

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) today issued the 2002 edition of its Trade and Development Report, and you just saw a press conference about that report in this room a few minutes ago.

The Report says that the world economy has defied predictions of a deep recession in the aftermath of 11 September, but a good deal is hanging on the strength of the United States economic recovery.  Overall world growth slowed to 1.3 per cent, down from 3.8 per cent in 2000, and some emerging markets, notably in East Asia and Latin America, entered into recession.  However, exchange rates have been fairly stable, and some Latin American economies showed signs of recovery towards the end of last year.

Copies of the Report and accompanying press releases are at the Documents Counter.

**Dag Hammarskjöld Medals

This afternoon, representatives of 37 countries will receive the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal on behalf of peacekeepers who lost their lives while on service with United Nations peacekeeping missions.  The Medal is egg-shaped and made of clear lead crystal, engraved with the name and date of death of the recipient, the United Nations logo, and the inscription “The Dag Hammarskjöld Medal.  In the Service of Peace”, in English and French.

This is the second ceremony to honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of peace.  In March, medals were presented to 20 Member States for 315 peacekeepers.  From 1948 to the end of 2001, a total of 1,738 peacekeepers lost their lives in the cause of UN peacekeeping.  Another ceremony is planned for June.

**World Urban Forum

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) announced that the first-ever World Urban Forum was successfully launched today in Kenya by President Daniel Arap Moi.  In a video message, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette called for cities to work for people and not against them.  Anna Tibaijuka, the Executive Director of UN-Habitat, reinforced this message stating that the World Urban Forum must prioritize the needs of the urban poor and find innovative ways of providing them with security of tenure and adequate shelter.

The World Urban Forum is an open-ended think-tank for all those concerned with the future of cities and towns.  It will continue until the end of the week.

**Signing

Signings.  Just one today.  Belarus became the seventy-fourth country to sign the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

**World Chronicle

We have another World Chronicle TV programme to announce.  This one will feature Joseph Chamie, Director of the United Nations Population Unit at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.  You will see that at 3:30 p.m. today on in-house television channel 3 or 31.  And then one press conference to announce for tomorrow.  At 12:30 p.m., Carol Bellamy, the Executive Director of UNICEF, will be joined by Jim Morris, the new Executive Director of the World Food Programme, and Kenzo Oshima, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, to brief you on the humanitarian crisis in North Korea.  That’s all I have for you.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  A couple on the Middle East.  I thought that the Secretary-General’s letter was already answered by Lancry who said no conclusions or observations, or something to that effect.  And secondly, could you tell us whether the Secretary-General appreciates any Council action today while this is still ongoing, and did he say anything to the members?

Spokesman:  On your first question, we’re expecting a written reply to the letter.  The Secretary-General was on the phone the whole weekend with a number of leaders, as well as Ambassador Lancry several times.  But what we’re waiting for is a written reply.

To my knowledge, I am not privy to everything that was said in those phone conversations -- he did not mention a view as to the Security Council this afternoon.

Question:  There’s some speculation that the team might leave Geneva without a formal decision to cooperate from the Israeli cabinet.  Can you clarify what the position is, and what conditions the team will take off?

Spokesman:  No.  I believe that Stephane Dujarric said in Geneva today that the team would travel to Israel only with the cooperation of both the Israelis and the Palestinians.  Yes?

Question:  Can you say actually that now all the disputes or unresolved issues regarding the names, regarding the composition of the team are now solved?  And what are those that are not solved so far regarding the composition of the team, particularly regarding Mr. Sommaruga and Mrs. Ogata?

Spokesman:  Whatever questions were raised about the composition of the team, were answered.  Our position was clarified.  In the letter it makes it very clear who the three principal members of the team are.  We think we have Israel’s understanding on that.  But, of course, we’re still waiting for their final response in writing. 

Question:  It’s been over a week now that we’ve been dealing with the fact-finding team.  How would you best describe the Secretary-General’s demeanor relative to theirs?  Is he understanding of the Israeli position?  You said earlier that he thinks that it’s important that they urgently go to the field.  Does he feel like he’s being misled by the Israelis?

Spokesman:  No.  I think what he said this morning as he came into the Building kind of summarizes it.  I have already quoted what he said.  The Israeli cabinet, as you know, over the weekend had on its plate more than just the fact-finding team.  They were also dealing with the issue of what to do with the Palestinian Authority President and so I think the Secretary-General probably has some amount of understanding for the heaviness of the agenda.  But he did say today that it’s time now for a -- in fact, he said it’s urgent that we go in.  So he’s hoping that, with a positive response from Israel in writing today, the team can get on its way.

Question:  Did he get a sense from his discussions with the Israelis that there will actually be a decision from them today in writing or otherwise?

Spokesman:  He is expecting a response today.  I can’t tell you for sure whether they specifically indicated they would get back to him today.  But it is his clear understanding that he’d be hearing from them today.

Question:  I don’t know if there’s a communication problem.  I mean, the Secretary-General this morning said there was going to be a cabinet meeting.  Everyone at the Council said there would be one.  Then there was not even a meeting today on such a matter of high priority between the two.  It just appears that Israel is in no rush to decide.  Why is there still such optimism everyday that there’s going to be an answer?  It seems like a stalling game.

Spokesman:  You’ll have to ask the Israelis about the scheduling of their own cabinet meetings.  I know nothing about that.  The optimism stems from reasonably good exchange that we had with the visiting delegation last week where we felt we clarified everything that we could clarify for them.  We’re now waiting to hear from them.  We don’t see any insurmountable obstacles.  But it’s up to Israel now to reply.

Question:  What are the main preconditions of Israel as far as the visit of the fact-finding committee to Jenin?

Spokesman:  You’ll have to ask the Israelis that.  I can’t get into some of the confidential exchanges that took place over the weekend.  But the whole purpose of the letter that was sent on Saturday was to lay down in writing very clearly what the team is to do.  And now that that is in black and white, we are expecting a reply from the Israelis.

Question:  Yesterday evening I was shown a letter from Mr. Lancry to

Mr. Annan that addressed part by part the letter that Mr. Annan sent to Mr. Lancry raising further questions and asking for further clarifications and raising objections.  So ...

Spokesman:  I have no knowledge of that letter.  If we’re waiting for a letter today in response to the letter sent Saturday, then whatever you saw was not the letter we were expecting.

Question:  Would the team be withdrawn back to New York after a certain amount of time?  Is there any consideration ...

Spokesman:   I don’t want to speculate about that yet.  I don’t want to speculate about that ever.

Question:  Does the Secretary-General want the Security Council this afternoon to, in some way, express impatience or to put some pressure on Israel to move forward?

Spokesman:  I’m not going to put words in the mouth of the Security Council. 

Question:  You said earlier that the team would not go to Israel without the express consent of the Government.  And Stephane said that.  Why is it that the United Nations will not send this fact-finding team without the consent of Israel?  Why not put it, in other words?  We’ve had a week now.  It just keeps getting delayed.

Spokesman:  I think you can figure out that it would probably be not very productive to go to Israel and sit at the airport because you don’t have visas, or make it to a hotel, but not be able to get out of the hotel to go where you need to go to do your job.

This fact-finding mission, if it’s to be done right, that means on the scene, needs the cooperation of the Israelis and the Palestinians.  And that’s where we’re hoping to get.

Question:  Are you going to disclose any of the contents from the Secretary-General’s letters?  I know they are sensitive.  But do you plan on disclosing anything?

Spokesman:  They were shared with the Security Council and we’re not going public with them.

Question:  There’ve been several Dutch forensic experts who have gone into Jenin and said there’s been no massacre.  There’ve been a few people making reports and comments.  For those who lost track of the origination of this team, can you explain who decided that there would be a fact-finding panel?  How that came to pass?  Why this episode compared to other episodes in the Middle East?  Why did it come to this two and a half weeks ago?  Was it something the United Nations thought could defuse a resolution deadlock in the Security Council?  Who proposed this?  How did this come to pass?

Spokesman:  The Secretary-General proposed the idea.  The Security Council blessed the idea and called on Israel to cooperate with the panel and asked the panel to go in expeditiously.

The things that the panel will want to look at are actions by the military, by the Israeli Defence Forces.  Whether they used excessive force and did not have due regard for civilians who were affected.  Whether they were killed in the tens or in the hundreds.  It’s a matter of whether international humanitarian law, the rules of war were violated.  And second, whether there was any interference with attempts to bring humanitarian assistance to those who were injured or to remove the bodies of the dead.  I mean, those, I think, are two main areas that the team will want to look at.

Question:  What Israeli government officials has the Secretary-General spoken with today?

Spokesman:  I don’t know, I’d have to check for you.  But over the weekend he spoke both with Prime Minister Sharon and, more than once, with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

Question:  On the Human Rights Commissioner, I don’t know if I remember correctly.  But last year, I think the Secretary-General might have put out a statement on when the United States was not re-elected for the Human Rights Commission.  Does the Secretary-General have any statement on the election today or the ...

Spokesman:  It just happened.  I don’t know if we will have a reaction or not.  But I have nothing to give you right now.

Question:  Just mention in two sentences the two main things that the enquiry will look at.  Would they also look at what the Israelis say they should look at, which is what they say provoked their incursion.  And I believe that, you know, that it’s Palestinian land, et cetera, et cetera, inside the camp?

Spokesman:  In the letter, the letters that the Secretary-General sent over the weekend to the Israelis and the Palestinians, he invites them to present any information to the team that they feel is relevant.  Of a military nature, security nature, humanitarian nature.  So, the Palestinians and the Israelis may present information or facts as they see them to the team.

Question:  When Secretary-General Annan spoke two Fridays ago to Foreign Minister Peres, and Peres said “we accept the representative”, I mean, did the Secretary-General tell the Israeli Foreign Minister that “I am sending a team, and I will chose the names”?  And the Israelis have said “we were misled”.  What happened in that call?

Spokesman:  I don’t want to get into who said what, when.  The Secretary-General feels that he had very early on -- and I mentioned those two phone calls to the Foreign Minister and the Defence Minister on the Friday -- an indication of Israel’s intention to cooperate full with whatever team he appointed.  There was, at the very beginning, you will recall, an indication by the Israelis that they would prefer a one-person team.  The Secretary-General, I think, explained right at the outset that he would want a team of several people.

Question:  If I may turn your attention a little bit to another part of the world.  What’s going to happen in regard to the Srebrenica conference?  Do you have any details on that?  What the preparations look like, et cetera?

Spokesman:  I don’t have.  Check with my office afterwards.  I don’t know if there’s a press release out on that, or if they had one it might have been held up.  But we have something on that, but I don’t have anything with me at this time.

Question:  Moving to yet another part of the world.  I wonder if we can get a read-out on the Secretary-General’s meeting with the Chinese Vice-President this afternoon?

Spokesman:  We’ll try our best.  I mean, we can get you a read-out, but whether it will say something or not ...

Question:  Completely right off the Middle East, can you just bring me up to date.  Has a firm date been set for the Loya Jirga in Afghanistan?  Last I heard it was June 10^th.  But that seems to have shifted.  Do you know?

Spokesman:  I don’t know.  I believe a firm date has been announced.  I don’t know if there’s been any shifting, but we can check right after the briefing for you.

(The Spokesman later announced that the Loya Jirga date of 10 June remained as scheduled.)

Question:  Fred, what does the Security Council mission led by Ambassador Levitte hope to achieve through its discussions with South Africa?

Spokesman:  You would have to ask the mission that.  I mean, I don’t speak for them.  But Ambassador Levitte gave a press conference here on Friday announcing the mission.  You had ample opportunity to ask him that on Friday.

Question:  Moving back to Irwin’s world; and this region or part of the world.  I know there is a printed statement on Myanmar.  There’s a hint in the statement that Ambassador Razali says that there could be considerable progress soon.  Can you explain what the latest is?  What kind of progress he meant? 

Spokesman:  No.  I think I said when I got that question, was it Friday?  I said that they’re expecting some kind of an announcement from the Government, but that Ambassador Razali himself did not want to pre-empt the Government’s announcement, but something that he considers would be very positive.  I haven’t seen whether anything has happened since Friday.

Question:  Sorry to go back to this.  But the same letter that’s supposed to be received today from Israel.  Is there a presumption that Kieran Prendergast will have this letter before he goes to the Security Council and, if he does not, does this make this briefing somewhat moot?

Spokesman:  No, I believe the Council wants him to report.  The hope is that he would have the response from Israel.  But I think if he has not received the response, he will still go to the Council and report.  At least that.

Question:  Is the letter of the Secretary-General on this team limited to procedural questions or does it touch on substance?

Spokesman:  I think I have already quoted from it and the substance.

Question:  Does the Secretary-General think Bill Clinton should go to North Korea as the North Korean Government issued an invitation?

Spokesman:  I have no guidance on that point.  Thank you very much.

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