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 Marie Okabe, Associate Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

**Middle East

Good afternoon.  The Secretary-General awoke this morning to the news thata suicide bomber, presumed to be Palestinian, had blown up a commuter bus in northern Israel.  He issued a statement through his Spokesman in Moscow, where he is travelling, as you know.  I'll read it to you:

“The Secretary-General was appalled by this morning’s bomb attack in northern Israel.

“It comes at a time when there is a concerted international effort to convene a peace conference on the Middle East.

“Brutal and willful killing of innocent civilians can never be justified, no matter what the political objective.  Every effort must be made to bring to justice those responsible for this cruel act.

“The Secretary-General extends his condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government of Israel.

“He urges those committed to finding a political solution in the Middle East to stay the course.  The enemies of peace should not be allowed to derail this process.”

We have copies of that statement available in our office.

Meanwhile on the ground, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Terje Roed Larsen, told reporters that he also condemned the attack which he called “morally repugnant”.

Larsen urged the Palestinian Authority to take immediate action against those groups and individuals responsible for such acts.

As we speak, Larsen is in Ramallah for a previously scheduled meeting with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

**Secretary-General

In Moscow today, the Secretary-General traveled to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, just outside the walls of the Kremlin, where he laid a wreath.  He then met privately with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov.

After that, he went across town to visit the SANAM Clinic, which works at preventing HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases among vulnerable populations in Russia, including street children.  He listened to presentations on their work

by different young people, most of them HIV-positive.  They reported a dramatic rise in HIV infections in Russia, with nearly 200,000 registered cases, suggesting an actual figure six times that much.  He thanked them, saying he was really happy there are so many young people involved in this struggle.  Young people listen to their peers, he said, "much more than old ones with gray hairs like me." 

In the early afternoon, he returned to the Kremlin to meet with President Vladimir Putin, who had just returned from the Asian security conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan.  The President reported on his meetings with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who were also at Almaty, and his efforts to defuse the lethal tension between them.  The President indicated he was prepared to continue in a peacemaking role between India and Pakistan, with the Secretary-General's help.

They also discussed in some detail the situation in Afghanistan, which is preparing to choose a new government through a traditional council meeting, or Loya Jirga.  He then had a working lunch with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov during which they reviewed questions on India-Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East.  Their talks also focused on Iraq, terrorism, Georgia-Abkhazia, Chechnya and Kosovo. 

The Secretary-General then went to the Duma, or parliament. 

We'll have more on his programme later in the day if you want an update.

**Security Council

Here in New York, the Security Council is scheduled to meet this afternoon at 3 p.m. in consultations with a view to adopting a presidential statement on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As you recall, the President of the Security Council, Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe of Syria, in a press statement yesterday afternoon condemned recent attacks against the United Nations mission in that country by the Rally for Congolese Democracy-Goma (RCD-Goma) rebels.

Also this afternoon, the Security Council has scheduled a meeting with the troop-contributing countries to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).

**Syria dam collapse

This morning in Damascus, Syria, the UN Resident Coordinator there met with Syrian authorities to begin coordinating assistance following yesterday’s dam collapse in the north of that country.

The UN country team was immediately convened and permission from the Government to travel to the devastated area has been sought.

According to the latest figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, a 60-kilometre-square area was submerged when the Zeyzoun dam collapsed around 3 p.m. local time yesterday. 

According to information compiled by the Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, at least three villages have been submerged and 10 people may have been killed.

As telephone lines to the affected area have been cut, the extent of the damages and casualties remains unclear.

Here in New York, Kenzo Oshima, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and the chief of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has issued a statement extending condolences to the Government and the people of Syria.  And he has decided to deploy a UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team to Syria.  That four-member team, which is made up of disaster experts, is expected to arrive tomorrow.  And they'll work together with their Syrian counterparts to assess the extent of the damage.

We have copies of the statement from the Emergency Relief Coordinator's Office upstairs.  And we also have copies of the situation report from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

**World Summit for Sustainable Development Preparatory Committee

Now turning to the first day of the Ministerial Segment of the Preparatory Committee Meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable Development taking place in Bali.  More than 100 ministers began the three-day segment, which aims at generating political commitment for action at the Summit in August.

Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette said that challenges faced on both sides of the development-environment equation were great, and the summit in Johannesburg was meant to find a way to improve standards of living while protecting the environment.  She underlined the need to move forward on five key issues:  water and sanitation, energy, agriculture, biodiversity and ecosystem management and health, issues which the Secretary-General has proposed as most fundamental to sustainable development.  She stressed the need for a credible political declaration that committed leaders to act.  “The political declaration,” she said, “is the place for commitments to action in key areas, global and local, and for providing a sense of the values that underpin the concept of sustainable development and instigate actions.”

We have the full text of her remarks available upstairs along with two press releases on today’s activities in Bali, where the preparatory meeting is taking place.

**World Environment Day

Today is World Environment Day and in his message on this occasion the Secretary-General said that this year’s theme, “Give Earth a Chance”, was meant to convey a sense of urgency about the state of the earth.  He said the planet was “still in need of intensive care” and added that there was little chance of protecting the environment without a “greater sense of mutual responsibility” as the environmental footprint left by some societies was much larger than others. 

His message has been issued as a press release and was delivered earlier today in Shenzhen, China, by a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) representative.

Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of UNEP, said a team of climbers had recently returned from a survey of the Himalayas and reported that global warming is having a dramatic impact on glaciers, causing them to thaw rapidly.  As an example, the team discovered that the glacier from which Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay launched their historic climb of Mount Everest 50 years ago, has receded some five kilometres.  The team interviewed the local population and took photographs chronicling the dramatic impact of climate change on the world’s most famous mountain range. 

We have a press release with more details on this subject.

Also today, the UN Atlas of Oceans was launched on its own Internet site.  The Internet-based atlas will provide users with continuously updated strategic data on the state of the world’s oceans.  The atlas has been two and a half years in development, and represents the first time the scientific community and academic experts have collaborated on such a broad subject.  The initiative was led by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) with the UN Foundation providing the principal funding.  The atlas is available at www.oceansatlas.org and we have a press release with more information on this.

**Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons, Francis M. Deng, visited Turkey from 27 to 31 May.

He was invited by the Turkish Government to study the situation of internal displacement in the country, and to discuss with the Government and non-governmental organizations measures for ensuring effective responses to the conditions of the internally displaced.

What is critically important in his view is that an opportunity now exists for the international community to assist the Government of Turkey with the voluntary return, resettlement and reintegration of the displaced.

Dr. Deng will elaborate upon the findings of his mission in a report, which will be presented to the Commission on Human Rights.

There is a press release on this subject for more information.

**ICTY

And in news from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) we learn that Judge Claude Jorda issued a Decision rejecting the request by Zravko Mucic for release.  Mucic, indicted for violating the Geneva Conventions while he was commander of the Celebici camp in Bosnia in 1992, had argued that he had already spent two-thirds of his nine-year sentence, handed down in 1998, in detention.

Meanwhile yesterday, in the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, a witness identified only as K12 was found to be in contempt of court by Judge Richard May.  Spokesman Jim Landale said there would be a hearing on the matter in 28 days’ time, and that defence counsel had been appointed for witness K12.  The maximum penalty is a fine of up to 100,000 euros, seven years’ imprisonment or both.

We have more details in a press release on this subject.

**World Chronicle

Just two more announcements.  One is on the World Chronicle programme which is featuring Dileep Nair, Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services.  It will be shown today at 3:30 p.m. on in-house television channel 3 or 31.

**Press Conference

And press conferences, there are none scheduled for today.  At 11:15 a.m. tomorrow we have Patrick Mazimpaka, special envoy of the President of the Republic of Rwanda in charge of the Great Lakes Region, who will discuss the problems in that region and why Rwanda intervened in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

And that's all I have for you today.  Do you have any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Can you tell me who the person in the Secretariat is that handles the year of mountains?  I heard about this just recently and I'd like to do an interview on what they are finding.  Who is the expert?

Associate Spokesperson:  Let me find out who is around and who would be the best person for you to talk to on that.  [The expert on mountains with the FAO was located in Rome, the correspondent was later told.]

Correspondent:  Especially to go into the problems of the glaciers.

Associate Spokesperson:  Sure.  As you heard, we have a press release today on that subject.  Maybe we could get you in touch with one of the climbers. 

Correspondent:  I'd also like to get an expert on the Oceans Atlas.

Associate Spokesperson:  We'll try to get you a number of interviews since it's World Environment Day today.

Question:  Yesterday you talked about a tense but calm atmosphere in Cyprus between Poland and the Republic of Korea.  Is there any other similar peace mission, perhaps in East Timor, where there was a United States and Portuguese contingent watching?

Associate Spokesperson:  I have no World Cup update today, but we'll keep looking at our cables and talking to our field missions for you.

Question:  Where is Mr. de Soto now?

Associate Spokesperson:  I'll have to check and get back to you.  He's either here or in Cyprus.  [The Associate Spokesperson later announced that Mr. de Soto is currently in Cyprus.]

Question:  Do you have any readout on Iraq at all from the Annan-Putin meeting?

Associate Spokesperson:  The only public comments that we have is the transcript that we just received -- it's a press encounter by Putin and the Secretary-General after their meeting.  It does not go into Iraq as far as I know, but take a look at that.

Question:  These mountaineers, were they sent by the United Nations?

Associate Spokesperson:  They were assisted by the United Nations.

Question:  Were United Nations mountaineers with them?

Associate Spokesperson:  We'll have to talk to UNEP, because they are the ones that supported this study.  So we'll try to find out for you or maybe we will see if there's something there who can talk more about this.

Question:  I asked Fred a week ago about a backgrounder or session on the upcoming Goodwill Ambassadors event.  I don't know if it's possible if we can get that in the next few days.

Associate Spokesperson:  We've put in a request, so we'll squawk it as soon as we can get something on that.  [The Spokesman’s Office later announced that Gillian Sorensen, Assistant Secretary-General for External Relations, will discuss the Goodwill Ambassadors’ event as a guest at Monday’s noon briefing.

Question:  Wasn't there supposed to be a new announcement regarding a capital master plan or something that Joe Connor was going to unveil -- something about reconstruction or which way to go?

Associate Spokesperson:  We'll have to find out when such a briefing can be done.

If there are no other questions, have a good afternoon.

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