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.

Iraq Talks

The Iraq talks resumed this morning, starting with a tête-à -tête meeting between the Secretary General and the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Naji Sabri.  That lasted, I think, 10 minutes or so and then the full delegations met.  And those talks concluded just 10 minutes ago.

This was the first time that the United Nations and Iraq technical experts

-- first time in several years -- have been able to talk shop.  I think both sides found it very useful.

The Secretary General will brief the Security Council on these talks later today, after which he and Hans Blix and Mohammed El Baradei will come out to the stakeout to talk to you.

Middle East

Late yesterday, we put out a statement saying that the Secretary-General was disbanding the fact-finding team into recent events in the Jenin refugee camp, as called for by the Security Council in resolution 1405 (2002).

The Secretary-General had written to the President of the Security Council, the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority communicating this decision; the letter to the Council explaining his decision is now out on the racks.  The Secretary-General has also written to former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, the head of the team, and the other team members, thanking them for their dedication, energy and time.

Yesterday, the Secretary-General received a letter from these three principal members of the fact-finding team, in which they informed him of the planning activities the team had undertaken in Geneva.  In the letter, they said, “We are disappointed that our mission, which we had hoped would contribute to improving the situation in the Middle East, was not able to deploy”.

The team members have left Geneva today.  One member, Cornelio Sommaruga, gave a press conference in Geneva in which he regretted being unable to carry out the work of the fact-finding team.  We’ll see if we can get a transcript of that for you later today. 

(The Spokesman’s office announced after the briefing that there was no transcript of that press encounter in Geneva, and therefore it would not be made available.)

The Security Council held consultations on the Middle East yesterday afternoon, and are expected to do so again in this morning’s consultations, under

"other matters".  Just now, Council consultations have briefly suspended for about 15 minutes.

Middle East/UNDP

Tim Rothermel, the Special Representative of the UN Development Programme’s Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian people, met this morning with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah compound, becoming the first UN official to meet with him after the end of his confinement.

Rothermel reaffirmed to President Arafat UNDP's continued support to the Palestinian Authority and informed him that UNDP had spent $1.9 million over the last three weeks on emergency aid in the Palestinian territory.  He also offered help in repairing the Ramallah compound and pledged support for the rebuilding of Palestinian institutions.

Security Council

The Security Council this morning began its work by approving a resolution that requested the Secretary-General to establish, within a month, a two-member team of experts that could provide the Council’s sanctions committee on Somalia with an action plan to improve the enforcement of the arms embargo that has been imposed on Somalia.  That plan of action, according to the resolution, would detail the resources and expertise needed by a future panel of experts dealing with Somalia sanctions.

The Council then went into consultations on Liberia.  Ibrahima Fall, the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, briefed the Council on the latest report of the Secretary-General on Liberia’s efforts to comply with UN sanctions resolutions.  The complete version of that report -- with its observations included -- is out on the racks today.

The report notes the confidence-building measures taking place in the Mano River Union, which brings together Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, notably the meeting of the leaders of those three countries under the auspices of King Mohammed the Sixth of Morocco in Rabat earlier this year.  A second summit meeting in Rabat is reportedly scheduled for this month.

The report also notes continuing efforts to find a resolution to the conflict in Liberia.  However, the Secretary-General says, “Much remains to be done to restore sustainable peace in Liberia”.

A resolution on Liberia was introduced by the United Kingdom.  Also on Liberia, a press statement is expected to be issued by Council President Kishore Mahbubani of Singapore, who in his capacity as Chair of the Liberia Sanctions Committee briefed the Council, after the consultations ended.  The Council is suspended now, as I said.

This afternoon, once again, at 3:30, the Council intends to hold consultations on Iraq, and the Secretary-General will be briefing them.

After those consultations, the Council intends to start an open debate on the Middle East, including the question of Palestine.  There are more than 30 speakers signed up as of just a few minutes ago.  As Ambassador Mahbubani indicated in the formal meeting this morning, that debate could go on well into the night.

Security Council Mission

The Security Council mission to the Great Lakes region of Africa arrived in Entebbe airport at 3 p.m. local time and was expected to have a meeting with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni an hour later.

As scheduled, the Council delegation did have a joint meeting with the Political Committee of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement yesterday and we are expecting a press release some time later today.

Cyprus

We issued this statement yesterday afternoon.  I’ll read it for the record.

“Alvaro de Soto, the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Cyprus, briefed the members of the Security Council on talks in Cyprus between H.E. Mr. Glafcos Clerides, the Greek Cypriot leader and H.E. Mr. Rauf Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot leader.  He informed them of the Secretary-General's intention to travel to Cyprus and meet with the two leaders in furtherance of his mission of good offices.  The Secretary-General hopes to see decisive progress in the talks between the two leaders in the coming period.  He plans to call on them separately and then to meet them jointly.  The dates of his visit will be announced shortly.”

Then yesterday afternoon, the Security Council unanimously endorsed the report on Cyprus by Mr. De Soto.

In a press statement issued afterwards, the Council expressed its regret that the negotiations between the two sides had not made more progress in the period since the Council was last briefed on 4 April.  “The time had now come to set down on paper areas of common ground between the two sides”, the statement says.

Members of the Council also warmly welcomed the Secretary-General’ s intention to visit the island in the near future.  The statement said that “they hope that this would enable decisive progress to be made in the face-to-face negotiations in the period before the June target date for agreement which the Council once again endorsed”.

East Timor

UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) officials in Dili today announced that more than 6,000 refugees returned to East Timor last month, the highest monthly return since March 2000.  A total of 204,292 refugees have returned to East Timor from camps in West Timor since late 1999.

UNHCR officials attribute the recent upsurge in returns to factors including President-elect Xanana Gusmão’s visit to Atambua, West Timor, in early April; the outcome of the 14 April presidential election; and the excitement surrounding the upcoming independence celebrations.  UNHCR is now concentrating its efforts on facilitating the voluntary return of as many of the remaining 55,000 refugees as possible ahead of Independence Day on 20 May.

Kosovo

The UN Mission in Kosovo has deposited half a million euros, allocated from its contingency funds, into a new account to manage the Earthquake Emergency Fund that was established this week by Special Representative Michael Steiner.  The emergency programme, which is to help Gnjilane recover from the recent earthquake, is to be operational next Monday.  We have a press release on that.

Signings

Signings today.  Chad and Micronesia signed both Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict now has 103 signatories and the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children has 98.

World Chronicle TV Programme

The World Chronicle TV programme featuring Ambassador Ivan Simonovic of Croatia, the President of the Economic and Social Council, will be aired today at 3:30 p.m. on in-house channels 3 or 31.

Press Conferences

Press conferences for Monday.  There’s one: 11:15 a.m., Juan Somavia, the Director-General of the International Labour Organization, and John Sweeney, the President of the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organizations, and they will launch a new report on child labour -- “A Future without Child Labour”.

And finally, we have the week ahead for you.  If you want to, pick it up from my office.

Security Council

I am told that the open meeting of the Security Council on the Middle East has been rescheduled for 3 p.m., instead of 4:30 p.m. today.  Okay, the open meeting on the Middle East rescheduled 3 instead of 4:30.

Yes?

Questions and Answers

Question:   It now raises the question, what happens to the Secretary-General’s briefing on Iraq?

Spokesman:  We’ll have to look into the implications of that.  I have to check.  But I just wanted to give you the latest information from the Council.

Question:   I’m sorry, Fred, I missed the beginning of your briefing stage.  Were you able to tell us any more about how the talks went?  Whether these were final talks or whether there’s an agreement for future talks or whether there was any movement on the issue of the return of weapons inspectors?

Spokesman:  The Secretary-General will brief the Council first.  We originally thought that was going to take place at 3:30, but now we see that the Middle East meeting has moved back to 3 o’clock.  So we’ll have to get the latest on when the Secretary-General might brief them.  And then he said he’d come out with both Hans Blix and Mohamed El Baradei and the three of them would tell you how this round went. 

Question:   Two questions on Jenin.  Is it possible to get copies of that letter that Martti sent to the Secretary-General? 

Spokesman:  No, unfortunately, not.

Question:   And secondly, is there any plan for any kind of lower level, lower key follow-up information gathering that was alluded to in the Council letter?

Spokesman:  Let’s see what the final action of the Council is.  You heard what the Secretary-General said initially, that he didn’t feel a full and balanced report was possible without going to Jenin.  But, he has one ear open to see what the Council might ask of him.

Okay, enjoy your weekend.

* *** *