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.

Good afternoon.

**Middle East

Last night the “Quartet” of Middle East Envoys, which includes the UN Special Coordinator Terje Roed Larsen, and representatives of the United States, Russia and the European Union, met with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.  During the meeting, which was described to us as serious and concrete, there was a very constructive exchange of ideas concerning the peace process, including a proposed conference on the Middle East.  On Saturday, the Quartet is to meet with EU Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana and United States Envoy William Burns.

**ILO

Citing what it called a "socio-economic meltdown" in the occupied Palestinian territory, the International Labour Organization today called on Israel to ease restrictions on the movement of Palestinian workers and urged the international community to support emergency measures aimed at creating jobs and promoting social dialogue between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

The report is to be presented by ILO Director-General Juan Somavia to the 90th Session of the annual International Labour Conference on June 3.  Pledging full ILO support for social dialogue between the Israelis and the Palestinians, Somavia said the report "must be read with a sense of empathy and compassion for all concerned."

"Any resolution of the conflict” he writes, “must be based on dialogue where the voice of workers in the occupied Arab territories and their families get a fair hearing in order to assist them in their hope of achieving conditions of decent work."

"At the same time,” he goes on to say, ”the voices of workers in Israel must be heard and listened to.  No one can be satisfied with the present situation or, worse still, a further escalation of conflict."  We have a press release upstairs, and a full report can also be obtained from my office.

**Afghanistan

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced today that more than 800,000 people had returned to Afghanistan since the Afghan Interim Administration and UNHCR started the assisted return programme 3 months ago.  The pace of the return has exceeded expectations, as 800,000 is the figure that UNHCR had planned for the whole year and it has strained aid agency resources, as well as Afghanistan’s absorption capacity.  We have more details available upstairs.

The UN Mission in Afghanistan announced that phase I of the Loya Jirga selection process was almost finished in all districts.  There are about 22 to

25 of them to be concluded.  Some of those will be districts where the Loya Jirga Commission will appoint the delegates due to a lack of conditions in the district for the selection process to be carried out.  Some of the areas have already concluded phase II, which is expected to be completed around 5 June throughout the country.

For those journalists who want to apply for accreditation to cover the Loya Jirga, the form, together with an information note, is available on the UN News Web site under the Afghanistan section. 

Finally, the Special Representative for the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, will have a star role in Afghanistan’s popular BBC radio soap opera “New Home, New Life”.  He will play himself in an episode to be aired on the first day of the Loya Jirga.  He talks to the characters about the important role of the Afghan people in the decision-making process.

**Security Council

The Security Council this morning unanimously adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the UN Observer Force in the Golan Heights for a further seven months.

This afternoon, the Council's working group on peacekeeping operations is scheduled to meet.

**Somalia Sanctions

The Secretary-General has appointed a two-member team of experts in connection with the United Nations arms embargo on Somalia.  The letter of appointment is out as a Security Council document, and we have the bios of the two individuals on request.

The team was appointed to provide the Security Council Sanctions Committee on Somalia with an action plan to improve the enforcement of the arms embargo. That plan would detail the resources and expertise needed by a future Panel of Experts to generate independent information on violations of the arms embargo and to provide recommendations on possible practical steps for strengthening enforcement of the embargo.

The Somalia Sanctions Council Committee took note of the appointment during a meeting it held this week and issued a press release saying it was "gravely alarmed" at the use of military weapons on a large scale inside the country, as well as the continued flow of arms and ammunition from the outside.

At their meeting, Committee members decided to send a letter to all Member States reminding them of their obligation to comply with the arms embargo and to report all available information on any violations or suspected breaches.

**Congo-Brazzaville

The World Food Programme says it has started feeding some 15,000 people affected by fighting and looting in the Pool Region, south of the capital, Brazzaville, in the Republic of the Congo.  The report comes amidst growing concern about tens of thousands more people trapped in the conflict areas inaccessible to WFP.

The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kenzo Oshima, on behalf of UN humanitarian agencies operating in the Republic of the Congo, called on the warring parties to enter into negotiations to guarantee safe humanitarian access to tens of thousands of displaced people believed to have found refuge in forests or small villages.

Sustained, secure and unconditional access throughout the Pool Region is needed to meet the needs of the displaced population suffering the combined effects of violence and two months without assistance.  Please see the WFP press release, as well as a statement we have in my office by the Emergency Relief Coordinator on this subject.

**Secretary-General’s Forthcoming Trip

As we told you, the Secretary-General departs New York this weekend to visit four countries -- Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Switzerland and Italy.  And we have copies now of his trip schedule in my office with further details.

**Ground Zero

Gillian Sorenson, the Assistant Secretary-General for External Relations, this morning represented the Secretary-General at a ceremony downtown marking the end of the recovery effort at the World Trade Center site.

No speeches were made at the solemn ceremony, which included the tolling of a firehouse bell, an empty stretcher carrying the national flag and bagpipers playing as the last 30-foot steel column was removed from the site.

**WSSD PrepCom in Bali

Today in Bali, Indonesia, the final Preparatory Committee meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable Development focused its attention on the draft implementation programme to be adopted later this year in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

Lowell Flanders, the senior official of the Summit Secretariat, said that work on the implementation programme was progressing well, but there were a few areas, including trade and finance, natural disasters and the establishment of a solidarity fund for poverty eradication, that needed further deliberation.  He added that if agreement was not reached by the end of today’s meetings, the Chairman of the Preparatory Committee would convene the committee of the whole tomorrow morning.

We have a press release with more details, as well as one reproducing an article on sustainable development by the Secretary-General that was in the Financial Times yesterday.

**WHO Press Releases

In a joint press release issued today, the World Health Organization and UNAIDS announced they will be holding a meeting in Cape Town in early June to accelerate research and testing for the development of an AIDS vaccine for Africa and to raise the $233 million required for the African AIDS Vaccine Programme.  The WHO and UNAIDS said that, although Africa hosts two thirds of the people living with HIV around the world, it still only receives 1.6 per cent, or the equivalent of $41 million, of the global aid spent on HIV research annually.

In an attempt to rectify this discrepancy, the 3 to 4 June meeting in Cape Town will group together African scientists, politicians, multilateral and donor organizations and research agencies, who will also define a plan of action for the next seven years.

In a separate press release, WHO said it was expanding its Tobacco Free Sports Initiative to include Tobacco Free Volleyball.  The initiative already encompasses Tobacco Free Football and Tobacco Free Olympics.  The announcement of the Tobacco Free Volleyball, in cooperation with the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), will take place on 31 May in Geneva.

Finally, a UNICEF press release.  On the eve of the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Seoul, UNICEF said it will launch today a videotape featuring prominent current and former football players to help improve the situation of children everywhere. In a series of TV spots, at least 45 World Cup stars will underscore the need for football, the world’s greatest passion, to be played on behalf of its greatest resource, children.

**Budget

One payment today, $22,000, from San Marino, which became the 79th Member State be paid in full for this year for its regular budget dues.

**Press Event Tomorrow

A press event tomorrow.  At 10:45 tomorrow, in this room, you are invited to witness the deposit of instruments of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by all

15 members of the European Union, as well as by the European Commission.

Following that event, at approximately 11 o’clock, a press conference will feature Jaume Matas Palau, the Environment Minister of Spain, which is the current holder of the rotating EU presidency, and Margot Wallstrom, the European Commissioner for the Environment.  They will discuss the importance of this unanimous ratification aimed at tackling climate change.  A number of European environment ministers will be present at this event, and there will be Spanish/English interpretation available.

**World Chronicle

Finally, World Chronicle programme No. 860 featuring Mournir Bouchenaki, the Assistant Director-General for Culture at UNESCO, can be viewed today at 3:30 p.m. on in-house television channels 3 and 31.

That’s what I have for you.  Richard?

**Questions and Answers

Question:   Any formal announcement –- I sound like a broken record –- of Iraq and Iran in Vienna?

Spokesman:  We still don’t have dates to announce.  As of yesterday, there was some further shifting of the proposed dates.  So, maybe tomorrow we will get it nailed down.  But as of today, it’s not yet agreed.

Question:   Will you be here?

Spokesman:  Yes.  Yes, Steve?

Question:   Is there anything the Secretary-General can cite or recommend, you know, in reaction to what the Pakistan Ambassador was saying yesterday, more international –- I know half of the answer anyway, but I mean more international involvement in the ongoing dispute between the two?

Spokesman:  Well, I’m not sure the Secretary-General has anything to add to what he’s already said.  But the face-off between India and Pakistan over the line of control in Kashmir, as well as their common border, involving something like a million or more than a million soldiers, is of grave concern worldwide.  The Secretary-General is aware that a number of nations, world leaders are, on a unilateral or a bilateral basis, doing what they can to reduce tensions.  And the Secretary-General, of course, encourages those efforts.  And, as I have already told you, he’s made his own views clear to both parties through telephone conversations that he had with the President of Pakistan and the Foreign Minister of India.  Yes?

Question:   Do you have any news about when and where the conference on the Middle East will take place?

Spokesman:  No, there’s nothing . . . no, I’m sure that was discussed in the meeting that the members of the Quartet had with the Israeli Foreign Minister last night.  The original announcement by the Quartet in Washington at their last meeting, was that the intent was to have it the beginning of the summer.  I think the United States has just announced that it now looks like it will be more like the end of the summer.  So we’re watching those developments carefully.  I think the Secretary-General feels, and the Quartet has said, that a meeting shouldn’t take place until there is a firm framework and a time line.  And I believe that they are trying to reach agreement now on those elements.  Richard?

Question:   Is it possible for us to get a briefing or some sort of paper hand-out about this upcoming meeting of the Goodwill Ambassadors that will be taking place in mid-June? 

Spokesman:  Let me look into that for you and get back to you.  [The meeting will take place in New York on 18 to 19 June.]

Question:   I have one or two other questions.

Spokesman:  Go ahead.

Question:   How do you feel about The New York Times article about the Secretary-General today and the dinner party circuit?  Do you think that it presents him in a light that he mixes only with high society, and people who have millions of dollars, and that he doesn’t get to see the common people, the regular folks, out and that he should do more of that?

Spokesman:  I think the point of the article was that he works hard after hours and he’s reaching out socially to, I guess you could call them, movers and shakers, but to important elements of New York society in a way or at least to a degree that his predecessors did not.  And I think that the supporters of the United Nations in this country feel that this effort that he is making, giving up three, five nights a week, reaching out to people, has had a very positive effect in terms of the UN’s relations with the host country.  I don’t think it means that he’s indifferent to the common people.  As you saw him walking in this morning.  There was a group of school children from Brooklyn, standing behind the barricade.  He spotted them and he stopped, he walked over, he chatted to them.  No, I think he has a genuine interest in people.  And not just people with power and money.

Question:   Fred, I might as well ask you if the Dodgers were coming back, but the . . . .

Spokesman:  Are you talking about my baseball team?  Be careful.

Question:   I thought you weren’t up on sports?

Spokesman:  In the 1950s, I was.

Question:   Speaking of sports, does the former soccer player Kofi Annan have a pick on the World Cup, which begins tomorrow?

Spokesman:  I’ll have to ask him.  I don’t think he’ll share it with you, but I’ll ask him for you.

Question:   Ghana was eliminated, I believe.  They didn’t make it.

Spokesman:  Oh, what a shame.  Anything else?  Serge?

Question:   I think you already answered the question.

Spokesman:  Okay.  Thanks very much.

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