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 Hua Jiang, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

**Ceremony of Remembrance

The United Nations will hold a solemn Ceremony of Remembrance on the morning of 11 September, as an expression of shared loss with New York, our Host City, and with people throughout the world who lost loved ones.  United Nations staff and members of delegations are invited to attend.

The Ceremony will be held on the North Lawn.  The Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly, and the Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN will speak.  Selected UN staff will also be invited to speak.

**Security Council

Security Council consultations have just adjourned.

Members of the Council will now hold two back-to-back open meetings. 

During the first, Council members are expected to adopt a resolution relating to Angolan sanctions, extending the suspension of the travel ban on officials of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola -- known as UNITA -- for a further 90 days.

The second meeting is to adopt a presidential statement on the Democratic Republic of the Congo in which it welcomes, and pledges its support, for the Pretoria agreement recently signed between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Earlier this morning, while meeting in closed consultations, Security Council members received a briefing on the latest developments in the town of Bunia in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was the recent site of fierce fighting between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups.

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

The Presidency of the Security Council will issue a written press statement on the situation in Bunia at the end of today’s meetings.

**East Timor

Yesterday afternoon, following the three-year prison sentence handed down to former East Timor Governor Abilio Soares by the Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunal in Indonesia, this office put out a statement noting the suggestion made during the Tribunal’s proceedings of irregularities by the UN Mission in East Timor, or UNAMET, during the 1999 popular consultations.

These allegations are false.

I would like, for the record, to note four important points:  that security responsibility throughout the popular consultations process rested at all times with the Indonesian authorities and not UNAMET; that an independent Electoral Commission certified the results, after a close scrutiny of complaints; that recruitment to work for UNAMET was open to all qualified East Timorese, regardless of political belief; and that the announcement of the result, on 4 September 1999, was in accordance with planned procedures, in consultation with the Indonesian Government.

Therefore, it cannot be concluded that the large-scale, organized and coordinated violence of September and October 1999 was a consequence of any irregularities in the ballot, bias or abdication of security responsibilities on the part of the UN Mission.

We have the text of a fuller statement available upstairs.

The Secretary-General also fully endorsed a statement put out by High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, which voiced concerns that the prosecution in the Indonesian trials had not put before the court evidence that portrayed the killings and other violations as part of a widespread or systematic pattern of violence.  A further concern she noted was that the prosecutions included only a very small percentage of the available testimony, despite offers of assistance by UN officials.

That statement, also available upstairs, urged the Indonesian authorities to take all possible measures to investigate fully the violations of human rights perpetrated in East Timor, and called for the ad hoc tribunal to function in full respect of international human rights standards.

**Afghanistan

The UN Mission in Afghanistan today announced in Kabul that it helped to broker an agreement between two warring commanders in northern Afghanistan, which had led to fighting last weekend in Gosfandi, in the district of Sar-i-Pul, where eight soldiers had been killed.

The agreement called for the complete demilitarization of the central bazaar in Gosfandi, and for all military groups to stand down from their positions and remain in their respective villages.  The UN representative, who had travelled on Sunday to Gosfandi to help broker the agreement, told Kabul that so far both parties were complying with the agreement.

We have more details in today’s briefing notes from Kabul, which also notes the positive development yesterday, when Afghan Defence Minister Mohammed Fahim said that all weapons belonging to his faction have now been registered as State property and will be kept at the State Depot.

**Rwanda Tribunal

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda announced today that General Augustin Bizimungu, who had been chief of staff of Rwanda’s armed forces during the 1994 genocide, was arrested in Angola on Monday and has been transferred to the custody of the Tribunal.  He will make his initial appearance before a Tribunal judge shortly.

General Bizimungu is one of the most senior former Rwandan military commanders to be apprehended by the Tribunal to date, and the first arrested on the Tribunal’s behalf in Angola, where he was identified during the process of demobilizing UNITA forces.  He has been indicted on charges of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, crimes against humanity and serious violations of the Geneva Conventions.

We have a press release from the Tribunal with more details.

**Human Rights

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson will visit China, Cambodia and East Timor to address human rights concerns in those countries.  Her trip will be from 18 to 25 August.

On her seventh visit as High Commissioner to China, Mrs. Robinson will take stock of the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding concluded with China in November 2000.

In Cambodia, her visit will focus on judicial and legal reform, human trafficking and economic and social rights.

In Dili, she will deliver an address to Parliament and will also attend the first public hearing of the country’s Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

We have more details on her trip in the office.

**Bosnia and Herzegovina

The UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) today said that it remains concerned at the high level of judicial ineffectiveness in dealing with cases of human trafficking in that country.

The Mission noted that last week, a Bosnian district court found three individuals guilty of having trafficked three women, but sentenced them only to suspended prison terms of one to one-and-a-half years.  The Mission, in a statement we have upstairs, responded, “This mild sentencing is appalling and an insult to women who had become victims of severe human rights violations”.

The Mission also mentioned some signs of progress in the fight against human trafficking, with 10 cases where traffickers have been successfully tried and sentenced since June of this year, a sharp increase from previous years.

**Trafficking

In a report to the General Assembly on trafficking in women and girls, available on the racks today, the Secretary-General says that more action by governments and others to deal with human trafficking needs to be taken, including preventive measures, as well as measures to ensure adequate protection to support trafficking victims.

Programmes and policies to assist trafficking victims, he writes, should include training for police officers, government officials and customs and border police.

The report also notes the steps taken by countries and by the UN system to deal with the trafficking of women and girls.

**Secretary-General’s Message

In a message to the thirty-third Pacific Islands Forum held in Suva, Fiji, the Secretary-General commended the cooperation between the United Nations and the Forum as most useful.  The UN has facilitated the electoral processes in Fiji and the Solomon Islands, and the peace process in Bougainville in Papua New Guinea.

The Secretary-General said, “The challenges we face in this age of globalization oblige all countries and regions to work together in all spheres of human activity”.

He also noted that in just two weeks’ time, the world will gather to discuss issues of the utmost importance to the Pacific countries in Johannesburg for the World Summit on Sustainable Development.  “I know you have been and continue to be fully engaged in the crucial work to seek a successful outcome there”, he said.

**Climate Initiative

The UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank have become the first inter-governmental organizations to sign up to the Johannesburg Climate Legacy, an initiative committing those who travel to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, later this month in Johannesburg, to offset the environmental costs created by such travel.

The organizations will pay to neutralize the amount of carbon dioxide from emissions released by their travel, paying the money to a trust fund set up by the Development Bank of South Africa.

UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown said the initiative was an opportunity for UNDP to set an example, to take practical steps towards addressing climate change issues, while providing tangible benefits to local communities.  We have more details in a press release from UNDP.

Also today, UNDP noted that 11 Latvian companies have recently joined the Secretary-General’s Global Compact, which encourages businesses to uphold human rights, labour rights and environmental standards.

**Treaties

We have a few treaty signings today, with El Salvador signing the protocol dealing with trafficking in persons, especially women and children; the protocol against the smuggling of migrants; and the protocol against the illicit manufacturing and trafficking of firearms.

Also, Haiti signed the two Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, dealing, respectively, with children and armed conflict, and with the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

That’s all I have for you.  Greg?

Questions and Answers

Question:   Do you have any timings on that 11 September ceremony, just for our planning purposes?

Deputy Spokesperson:    We’re still working on the timing of that ceremony because it clashes with some other meetings of the General Assembly and the Security Council meetings.  So, we’re still in the process of finalizing the plan.

Question:   On that day, is that the only public event that the Secretary-General will take part in associated with the anniversary, or are there other events that he will be going to around the city?

Deputy Spokesperson:    In the evening, I was told that the Secretary-General might be attending another ceremony organized by the City.  But again, the official invitation hasn’t been issued yet, so, I can’t give you more details apart from that.

All right, have a very good afternoon.

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