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.

**Statement on Jerusalem Bomb Attack

The following is a statement attributable to the Spokesman concerning the event in Jerusalem:

“The Secretary-General is appalled by today's bomb attack at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in which seven people were killed and more than

80 wounded.  He condemns utterly all such terrorist attacks against civilians.   He once again urges all concerned to end the cycle of violence, revenge and retaliation, and calls on the parties to return to the path of negotiations on a permanent settlement.”

**Jenin Report

On the Jenin report, the Secretary-General’s report on recent events in Jenin and other Palestinian cities is expected to be released tomorrow.

As you’ll recall, this report was requested by the General Assembly on

7 May, after the disbandment of the team which the Secretary-General, supported by the Security Council, had proposed to send to Jenin to establish the facts on the ground.

We expect the report to be available in all languages without any embargo tomorrow morning at about 8:30 a.m.  Electronic copies will also be available on the Web site.

At 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, a senior United Nations official will give you a background briefing on the report.

**Cyprus

On Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus, called this morning on His Excellency Mr. Glafcos Clerides, the Greek Cypriot leader, and on His Excellency Mr. Rauf Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot leader, to convey the Secretary-General’s invitation to meet them in Paris on

6 September, to take stock and see if a course can be charted for the way ahead.  Both leaders accepted the Secretary-General’s invitation.

**Myanmar

Razali Ismail, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Myanmar, will return to Yangon from 2 to 6 August to help facilitate the national reconciliation process in Myanmar.

During his visit, Mr. Razali will meet with leaders of the Government, senior members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and some ethnic nationalities leaders.

The Secretary-General hopes that Mr. Razali’s mission, the first since political freedom was restored to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in May, will provide the process with an added momentum so that the two sides can start their substantive dialogue in the near future.

This will be Mr. Razali’s eighth mission since he was appointed Special Envoy in April 2000.

**Security Council

The Security Council started consultations today with a discussion on Burundi, during which members heard a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Tuliameni Kalomoh.

The Council President, British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, is expected to read a press statement on Burundi following consultations.

The second item on the agenda is a report by Ambassador Jagdish Koonjul of Mauritius in his capacity as Chairman of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa.

Also today, the Security Council’s Iraq Sanctions (661) Committee was meeting starting at 10:30 a.m. on the situation between Iraq and Kuwait.

For the record, yesterday afternoon, the Security Council voted to extend the mandates by six months of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).

Today is the last day of the British Council presidency.  Tomorrow, the United States takes over as the President of the Security Council for the month of August.

**Democratic Republic of Congo

Yesterday afternoon, in a statement to the press, Ambassador Greenstock told journalists that the Security Council welcomed the peace accord signed by Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The President said that members of the Council have called on the parties to the Lusaka peace agreement to hold talks with the United Nations Mission as soon as possible on the practical implementation of the accord.

“There's a lot of work there for the United Nations to do, but a lot of discussion is needed to find out exactly what that is", he said.

Council members also expressed their "warm appreciation" to the Government of South Africa for its role in facilitating the accord, he added.

**Afghanistan

There were a number of questions on Afghanistan that I couldn't answer yesterday.  Most of them in fact should have been posed in Kabul and not in New York.

The most important in my view was whether the United States had exerted any pressure on the United Nations to revise the report or to suppress it.

I spoke to the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Lakhdar Brahimi, this morning, who said, "Absolutely not."  He then added, "neither directly nor indirectly".

Yesterday, I denied that any such pressure had been put on the Secretary-General.  He has not even discussed the report outside his own circle of advisers.

The decision on how to deal with the report was made by Mr. Brahimi, within his competence as head of the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan.  Any further questions should be directed to him or to his representatives in Kabul.

**Human Rights -- Australia

The regional adviser for Asia and the Pacific of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, P.N. Bhagwati, today issued a report on the conditions under which illegal immigrants are detained in Australia, and said he finds that the situation for such detained persons is “a matter of serious concern”.

Mr. Bhagwati wrote that a more humane approach to illegal immigration in Australia “would certainly be desirable”, but also welcomed the positive efforts under way to improve detention conditions there.  The concerns brought up in his report include the situation of detained children and concerns about family unity, the unduly long periods of detention spent by some individuals, the absence of proper judicial review, and the lack of adequate information to detainees about their rights.

High Commissioner Mary Robinson today endorsed the findings and urged the Australian Government to review the concerns expressed and seek appropriate ways to address them.

We have a press release with more details and the full report is available on the High Commissioner’s Web site.

**International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia

Today in The Hague, Milojica Kos, who had been a shift commander at the Omarska detention camp in Bosnia, was released by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, gaining early release after having served more than four years in detention for crimes against humanity, including murder and torture.

Tribunal President Judge Claude Jorda granted Kos’ early release yesterday, in an order that considered the gravity of his crimes, and also acknowledged his willingness to reintegrate into society, his exemplary behaviour during detention and his determination not to commit any further offences, among other factors.

Last November, Kos had been sentenced to six years in prison for his crimes while being credited for the time served since he was first imprisoned in The Hague in 1998.  He is the second prisoner to be granted early release.

We have more details in a press release upstairs.

**Signings

One signing today.  South Africa became the 77th country to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

**Press Conferences

Apart from the daily noon press briefing by the Spokesman, we have no other press conferences scheduled apart from the one by a senior United Nations official that I already mentioned to you on the Jenin report.

That's all I have for you.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Tomorrow is the wrap-up of the Tobacco Conference.  Is there going to be any kind of final document?  Are we going to be able to get hold of something to wrap this, or somebody who will?

Spokesman:  Let me ask.  Your preference would be to get a briefing from someone, I suppose.  I'll also ask whether there'll be any final document.  We'll squawk it.

Question:  Any follow-up on the resumption of humanitarian aid to Chechnya?

Spokesman:  No, nothing beyond what I told you yesterday.  As far as we know, our operations are still suspended.

Question:  Do I understand that we should direct all questions to Kabul now?

Spokesman:  I think after 30 questions yesterday and some 20 the day before, I've exhausted my capacity to respond.  As I said from the very beginning, this really is a Kabul story rather than a New York story.

Question:  Was the report supposed to have been released yesterday, and then a decision was made not to, or was that never said?  I have the impression it was supposed to have been released.

Spokesman:  I don't think any decision had been made.  I think one of the options that Mr. Brahimi considered was going public with the report.  He discussed it with his senior aides, and he made the decision he made.

Thank you very much.  See you tomorrow.

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