DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL AND SPOKESMAN FOR THE PRESIDENT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

AND SPOKESMAN FOR THE PRESIDENT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Hua Jiang, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Richard Sydenham, Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly.

Deputy Spokesman for Secretary-General

Good afternoon.  Our guest this afternoon is Dr. David Heymann, Executive Director of the World Health Organization’s Communicable Diseases Cluster, who will be briefing you on SARS.

Late yesterday, we issued the following statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General:

“The Secretary-General is concerned that recent statements directed at Syria should not contribute to a wider destabilization in a region already affected heavily by the war in Iraq.  The Secretary-General welcomes recent clarifications in this regard, and reiterates his strongly held view that any claim of threats to international peace and security should be addressed in conformity with the provisions of the Charter.”

And this is another statement, attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General:

“The Secretary-General deplores the catastrophic losses to Iraq’s cultural heritage that have occurred in recent days and weeks.  He urges the Iraqi people to do what they can to restore that invaluable heritage by returning any looted items, and calls on the coalition authorities to act immediately to prevent further losses by protecting Iraq’s archaeological and religious sites, museums and other cultural institutions.  He also joins the Director-General of UNESCO in calling on the authorities of countries bordering Iraq, international police, customs organizations and leading actors in the art market to join forces with UNESCO in the work to prevent trade in stolen Iraqi objects.  He notes that Iraq’s cultural treasures bear witness to an invaluable legacy for all humanity, and their loss is a wound inflicted on all humankind.”

**UNESCO –- Iraq

The UNESCO also announced today that 30 experts from Iraq and other countries will meet in Paris on Thursday to attempt a preliminary evaluation of the state of Iraq’s heritage.  As soon as conditions permit, UNESCO will send a preliminary mission to Iraq to assess the state of conservation of the museums, monuments and main heritage sites.  We have a press release with more details.

**Humanitarian

On the humanitarian front, information gathered by assessment teams from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that severe and disturbing problems exist in many parts of Iraq.  The most urgent health issues are:  lack of security for health staff, patients and supplies; shortage of clean water and electricity;

shortage of money to meet the costs of running hospitals, as well as the expenses of doctors, nurses and other hospital staff; and impending shortages of particular medicines and other medical supplies.

The World Food Programme (WFP) says it is scaling up the loading of trucks and lining up convoys in Iran, Jordan and Turkey.  The agency is hoping to bring enough food into Iraq to continue the ongoing food distributions in the north and restart distribution in the south and centre before the end of the month.  The briefing notes from Amman are available upstairs.

**Oil for Food

In this week’s “oil-for-food” update, an ongoing review of priority items in the oil-for-food pipeline for Iraq has so far identified $395 million worth of supplies that are shippable within the 45-day timeline adopted last month by the UN Security Council.  Most of the goods confirmed with 137 suppliers are in the food, agriculture and health sectors.  Most were already in transit at the onset of the war and will be routed to strategic locations in Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait and Iran for transshipment to Iraq.

Starting with a primary list of 526 contracts, the UN found that the most common reason for suppliers dropping off the list was their inability to meet the Council’s shipping timeline.  The full text of the oil-for-food update is available upstairs.

**Security Council

On the agenda of Security Council consultations this morning is a briefing by Ambassador Juan Gabriel Valdes of Chile, Chairman of the Committee on sanctions against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.  The briefing is being held in accordance with resolution 1455, which calls on the Committee Chairman to report orally at least every 90 days on the work of the Committee and the monitoring group on those sanctions.

Michael Chandler, Chairman of the monitoring group, is also attending the consultations and is available to answer Council members’ questions.  The President of the Security Council, Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser of Mexico, is expected at the stakeout microphone following consultations.

Then in the afternoon at 3:30 p.m., the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Côte d’Ivoire, Albert Tevoedjre, is scheduled to brief the Council in consultations.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo

      In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the DRC, Amos Namanga Ngongi, together with a delegation of Security Council member States, expressed support for the Ituri Pacification Commission.

Mr. Ngongi recalled the Secretary-General’s interest in the situation of Ituri and his close engagement to support the pacification process to the end.  “I can assure you that the pacification efforts of MONUC will go hand in hand with your engagement”, he said.  More information is available in a press release upstairs.

**African Capital Markets Forum

Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette went this morning to the financial district in downtown New York to attend the second day of a two-day forum on Africa’s stock exchanges.  In her speech to the Forum, she passed on a short message from the Secretary-General, highlighting the need for Africa to show the real progress that is being made on the continent each day.

The Secretary-General, in his message, said it has never been easy to draw the world’s attention to investment opportunities in Africa, a challenge that has been made “even more difficult by the situation in Iraq, which has monopolized media attention, diplomatic energies and much else for many months now, and looks likely to do so for some time to come”.

The Deputy Secretary-General added that the African Capital Markets Forum under way in downtown New York, which brings together key people involved in African, American and European capital markets, is “a source of great encouragement”.  She said that, as we move forward, there is a template for action, in the form of the Millennium Development Goals, and she added that the United Nations is eager to do its part to support investment in Africa.  We have copies of that speech upstairs.

The Forum was organized jointly by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the African Stock Exchanges Association, in collaboration with the New York Stock Exchange, to draw attention to the steps taken to make African stock exchanges more efficient, accessible, trustworthy and attractive to foreign investors.  A new UNDP handbook on African stock markets will be distributed at the Forum.  The UNDP yesterday put out a press release with more details.

**UNDP

Mark Malloch Brown was confirmed by the General Assembly today for a second consecutive four-year term as Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).  Since taking office in 1999, Mr. Malloch Brown has overseen a comprehensive reform that has been widely recognized as making UNDP more focused, efficient and effective across the 166 countries where it works.  His efforts have included a major push to expand UN support to developing countries in areas such as democratic governance and using information and communications technology to support development.  The UNDP is coming out with a press release on the confirmation of his new term.

**UNHCR-Nansen

For her 33–year solo campaign to help Somalis -– many of them returned refugees and displaced persons –- UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers today announced that Annalena Tonelli, a 60–year–old Italian woman, has been selected as this year's recipient of the Nansen Refugee Award.

The Award, named after Fridtjof Nansen -– the world–famous Norwegian polar explorer and the world's first international refugee official -– was created in 1954 to honour individuals or organizations that have distinguished themselves in work on behalf of refugees.  The Award includes $100,000 for a refugee project of the recipient's choice.

      **Budget

On budget, we have one more payment today.  Spain became the 73rd Member State to pay its 2003 regular budget contribution in full with a payment of more than $34 million.

**World Chronicle

World Chronicle programme No. 889 with Etienne Krug, Director of the Department of Injuries and Violence Prevention, World Health Organization, will be shown today at 3:30 p.m. on in-house television channel 3 or 31.

That’s all I have.

Questions and Answers

Question:  What does the Secretary-General hope to achieve on his trip to Europe?  Who is he going to see?

Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  About his bilateral meetings during the trip, we made an announcement yesterday, and you can find the details on the Web site.  The main purpose of his trip to Athens is to listen to the European leaders about what ideas they have for post-war Iraq.  He’ll also deliver a statement while he’s there.

Question:  The Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Iraq was in Washington this week for some briefings.  What can you tell us about those briefings, and are there any developments?

Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  Apart from what I said yesterday, there’s nothing to add, I’m afraid.  If you want to find out more details, you have to talk to the Americans.

Question:  The Committee on Information’s decisions sometimes affect the work of the press.  I understand that DPI is going to brief this Committee.  Can we also be briefed by what DPI will tell them?  You used to invite a member of the Committee here as a guest speaker.  You don’t do that any longer.

Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  We will pass on the message.

Richard?

Spokesman for General Assembly President

Good afternoon.

At the opening of this morning’s plenary meeting, the General Assembly observed a minute of silence in tribute to the memory of the late President of the Republic of Nauru, the Honourable Bernard Dowiyogo, who passed away on 9 March.  The five regional groups, United States as host country, and the Permanent Representative of Nauru made statements.

The plenary then took note of the President’s decision, after consultation with the Chairman of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, to appoint Bolivia as a member of the Committee on Conferences for a term ending 31 December 2005.

The plenary also confirmed Mark Malloch Brown to a further four-year term as Administrator of UNDP beginning on 1 July 2003. In a statement after confirmation, President Kavan said of the Administrator, “When he came in 1999, UNDP was in a difficult situation. Core resources had fallen to an all-time low of $630 million, and there were expectations that this drop would continue.  In four short years, the funding situation has been turned around.  Confidence in the organization has increased dramatically.  The core budget is growing, and so is UNDP’s contribution to world development.  Today, if UNDP is a strong voice for the United Nations in development, if it has become an efficient, result-driven, and increasingly better-funded organization, it is to Mark Malloch Brown’s credit.  His talented, highly motivated staff shares the credit for this turnaround with him.”

Copies of the statement are available at the document’s counter.

The President then announced the dates of the High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development.  Last October, the General Assembly agreed to hold a High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development at the end of October 2003.  The President announced that, after consultations with relevant stakeholders, the ministerial meeting will take place on 29 and 30 October 2003, and 28 October would be the date for informal hearings with representatives of civil society and the business sector accredited to the High-level Dialogue.  So, for your calendars, that’s 28, 29 and 30 October, this year.

The plenary then decided to adopt the draft resolution on “the role of diamonds in fuelling conflict:  breaking the link between the illicit transaction of rough diamonds and armed conflict as a contribution to prevention and settlement of conflicts”.

The plenary then took up Fifth Committee reports which were introduced by the Rapporteur of the Fifth Committee, Haile Selassie Getachew of Ethiopia. 

In a statement yesterday to the special high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization, President Kavan said that “Over the past decade, numerous UN conferences and summits resulted in clarifying and setting development goals.  Now, the United Nations must prove its effectiveness in mobilizing political will for their implementation.  We have to do our utmost in supporting implementation at the country level.”

He continued, “There is an urgent need to set up the most effective mechanism for monitoring and review of the progress.  We also need to look at how to carry forward, in the UN’s work, the new approaches and spirit that emerged in the preparatory process for Monterrey and how to keep building the political will and momentum for action.  In this regard ... the General Assembly´s ad hoc working group on the integrated follow-up to the major conferences has been dealing with these issues ... and its work will result in concrete recommendations that could strengthen political engagement in the pursuit of development goals.”

Copies of this statement are available upstairs.

Any questions?

Question and Answer

Question:  Was the vote on Malloch Brown by consensus?

Spokesman for General Assembly President:  Yes.

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