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.

**Bertini

Catherine Bertini, the Secretary-General’s Personal Humanitarian Envoy, continued her visit the Middle East today.

She was briefed by a number of the UN agencies on their work in the region.  The agencies included the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

Later in the day, she was accompanied by Israeli officials to two of the authorized crossing points between Israel and Gaza:  those at Erez and Karni.

There she was able to observe first-hand the procedures for the transfer of people and commercial goods on the Israeli side of the crossings.

This evening, she will return to Jerusalem to meet with international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in the West Bank and Gaza.  Afterwards, representatives of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) will also brief her on their work.

Tomorrow, Ms. Bertini and her team will travel to the West Bank to meet with senior Palestinian officials, including Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.  They will also have the opportunity to visit humanitarian projects run by international and local NGOs.

We will keep you updated.

**Security Council

This morning the Security Council began a private meeting to review the progress to date of the new UN mission in East Timor after 85 days in operation.

Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hédi Annabi provided the briefing.

In addition to the 15 Council members, five non-members are to take the floor.

We expect the President of the Council, US Ambassador John Negroponte, to speak to you at the stakeout.

This afternoon, Council members will hold a second private meeting.  This one will be with troop-contributing countries to the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

**Iraq

According to the weekly update from the Office of the Iraq Programme, oil exports under the programme plunged further to 4.4 million barrels in the week ending 9 August, averaging 629,000 barrels of oil per day. 

In earlier phases of the programme, Iraq had exported over 2 million barrels of oil per day.

The week’s exports netted an estimated $101 million in revenue, bringing the overall total estimated revenue to just under $1.7 billion.

We have the full text of the weekly report upstairs.

**World Summit on Sustainable Develoment

At a press conference this morning, Nitin Desai, Secretary-General of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, launched the Johannesburg Summit

2002 report.

In introducing the report, entitled “Global Challenge, Global Opportunity”, he highlighted the choice we faced between two futures.  He said, “If we do nothing to change our current indiscriminate patterns of development, we will compromise the long-term security of the Earth and its people.”

The report examines a number of issues that the Secretary-General has identified –- that Secretary-General Kofi Annan has identified -- as central to the negotiations at the Summit, including water and sanitation, energy, agricultural productivity, biodiversity, and human health. 

Mr. Desai also announced that more than 100 world leaders would attend the Summit, which would be held from 26 August to 4 September.  The Summit is set to finalize a new global implementation plan to accelerate sustainable development, and to launch a series of innovative partnerships to promote sustainability.

**Afghanistan

The United Nations Population Fund has set up an emergency mobile hospital in Kabul.  The hospital, erected in collaboration with the Government of Denmark, is in response to a request for assistance from the Afghan Ministry of Public Health.

My understanding is that the Kabul hospital that asked for this additional assistance has maternity facilities that are stretched to the limit.  Therefore they needed extra capacity.  And the reason for the stress is the large number of refugees that have returned to Kabul from Pakistan and Iran.

The mobile hospital, which will operate 24 hours a day, is expected to handle 20 to 30 births a day, as well as about 2,000 medical inquiries.

**Central Asia

The Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala, will leave for Central Asia tomorrow to discuss a draft treaty on a Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone in Central Asia.

The treaty is currently being negotiated among five countries that he is going to visit on this trip:  Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

The idea of a nuclear-free zone in the region was originally launched by the five countries in 1997 and three resolutions have been adopted by the General Assembly in support of the initiative.  The resolutions request the Secretary-General to provide assistance to the five countries in their efforts to establish the zone.  A UN-sponsored expert group has been providing substantive and technical advice to the countries. 

We have a press release on that in my office.

**Guinea-Bissau

Out on the racks today is a letter from the Secretary-General to the President of the Security Council in which he asks the Council to extend the mandate of the UN Office in Guinea-Bissau until 31 December 2003.

In the letter the Secretary-General notes the extension will contribute to the ongoing efforts to strengthen Guinea-Bissau’s friendly relations with its neighbours.

**Angola

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported today that the spontaneous returns of Angolans back to their home country from the Democratic Republic of the Congo have slowed down, amid reports of a lack of food, schools and medical facilities in Angola.

Angolan refugees living in the DRC have told UNHCR that they prefer to wait for a UNHCR-sponsored repatriation next year, rather than rushing back now.

Also, we have more details in today’s briefing notes from UNHCR, which mentions the completion on Sunday of the transfer of 20,000 Sudanese refugees from the northern Ugandan town of Lira to a safer location in Kiryondongo, following the 5 August attack by Lord’s Resistance Army rebels on the refugee camp, near Lira, at Acholi-Pii.

**Uganda

The World Food Programme (WFP) has underscored again today that it will not suspend deliveries of emergency food for thousands of displaced Ugandans and Sudanese refugees living in northern Uganda, even despite demands from the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army that all humanitarian workers pull out of that region.

WFP has distributed 2,100 tons of food during the last three weeks to internally displaced persons in the camps in northern Uganda, and has warned that the insecurity in the area has ensured that it cannot deliver food without heavy military escorts provided by the Government.

The agency says it is obliged to do all it can to help the people in northern Uganda, as long as the Government guarantees security for its operations.

**Bosnia

The United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina today commended the police in the canton of Sarejevo, following their arrest last week of a person identified as the perpetrator in the beating and sexual abuse of a Serb woman who had returned to the Bosnian capital.

In a statement that I have available upstairs, the Mission says, “In light of the ever-accelerating return process, it is imperative that the police vigorously investigate all return-related incidents.”

**Rights

In a letter to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson appeals to the US Government to stay the execution, scheduled for tomorrow, of Javier Suarez Medina, a Mexican national who is on death row in Texas.

Ms. Robinson wrote that Mr. Suarez Medina’s right to seek legal assistance from his consulate had not been respected, and said the trial proceedings against him had not complied with international human rights standards.  He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1989.

**UNCTAD

A new list prepared by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that ranks the world’s 100 largest economic entities places 29 transnational corporations alongside the economies of nations, with Exxon ranked above the economies of Chile and Pakistan –- while Nigeria comes in between DaimlerChrysler and General Electric.

UNCTAD says that the contributions to the world economy by the 100 largest transnational corporations have grown faster than those of countries in recent years, accounting for 4.3 per cent of world gross domestic product in 2000 –- which is up from 3.5 per cent just 10 years earlier.  Exxon is ranked as the world’s forty-fifth largest economic entity, adding $63 billion in value in 2000; General Motors is forty-seventh on the list, just ahead of Peru.

We have copies of UNCTAD’s press release, issued in Geneva late yesterday, and the table of the world’s 100 largest economic entities, available in my office.

**Signing

One signing today:  Pakistan will become the sixty-seventh State Party to the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings when they deposit their instrument of accession.

**Iranian Cyclists

And finally, an UNCA announcement:  At 1:30 this afternoon, two Iranian students who have been cycling around the world will arrive at United Nations Headquarters.  Amir Ahmadi and Hassan Alizadeh left Teheran more than 10 months ago on their mission of peace and friendship; a journey that has taken them more than 14,000 miles so far.  They are videotaping and photographing their trip and keeping journals.  They plan to write a book about their travels.

And the pair will meet with the press in the UNCA Club at 3 this afternoon after they have had a guided tour of the UN.

That’s my report for today.  Muhammad?

Questions and Answers

Question:  Fred, is there any new development about Iraq and United Nations relations?

Spokesman:  No, we have not yet received an answer to the Secretary-General’s letter to the Foreign Minister.  I think that’s the next official step we anticipate.  Anything else?

Okay, thank you very much.

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