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

Following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Richard Sydenham, Spokesman for the General Assembly President.

Good Afternoon.

**Iraq -- Humanitarian

UN international staff continue to return to various parts of Iraq.  The UN humanitarian spokesman in Amman, Jordan said today that a team arrived in Basra yesterday.  They report that water supply remains inadequate there, but that all hospitals are functional and protected by military, with about 50 per cent of staff reporting to work.

As we reported last week, UN international staff returned to the north of the country, where they continue to re-establish contact with local authority, as well as with the national staff.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said it is sending more supply trucks from Iran into Iraq.  In addition to water trucks, UNICEF is also bringing in 40 tons of high protein biscuits and medical supplies bound for Baghdad.  

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) continues to oversee the delivery of food into the country with a number of ships docking at ports in Turkey and Jordan.  WFP staff are also trying to reactivate the network of food agents, so that some 27 million Iraqis can receive their monthly food ration. As of 26 April, WFP food deliveries have reached 55,273 metric tons.  This is enough food for nearly 4 million Iraqis for one month. 

Lastly, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome today conducted their first preliminary assessment on crop production in Iraq.  At least one-third of Iraq's critical spring grain crop appears to have emerged unscathed from the conflict, they report.  FAO, however, warned that the fate of the bulk of the winter crop of cereals, some 1.2 million tonnes of sorely needed wheat and barley, still remains in doubt.  For more information on these and other items, please pick-up the Amman briefing notes.

**Security Council

The Security Council is holding consultations this morning to discuss Liberia. The Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Tuliameni Kalomoh briefed Council members on the Secretary-General’s recent report on Liberia, which we flagged for you on Friday.

Then, at 3:30 p.m., the Council will hold a public meeting on Timor-Leste.  The Secretary-General’s Special Representative Kamalesh Sharma is expected to introduce the latest report of the Secretary-General on Timor-Leste, in which he appealed to the Council to extend the mandate of the UN Mission by another year.

**SARS

The World Health Organization announced that the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, in Viet Nam has remained stable for

18 consecutive days.  If the trend continues, the country will be removed from the list of affected areas, making it the first country to contain its SARS outbreak.  The WHO team in Viet Nam, however, cautioned against a lapse in the current high state of alert, saying the risk of a single imported case could start another outbreak.

The WHO expert team in Shanghai has released a preliminary report of their findings on SARS.  The team was given free access to all requested data, patient registries and facilities, which were visited on very short notice.  There was no evidence found of a systematic underreporting of cases, and it was concluded that the level of preparedness and response was good.  The team also found a very high level of government commitment to tackle the SARS problem.

The latest statistics indicate a total of 4,836 cases with 293 deaths in 26 countries.  We have a press release with more.

**Afghanistan

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) welcomed the inauguration of the Constitutional Review Commission on Saturday.  The Commission's mandate is to conduct public consultations throughout the country and abroad in order to ascertain the aspirations of Afghans with regard to their future constitution.  Based on the results of this effort, the 35-member body will review the work of the Drafting Commission and prepare the Draft Constitution to be submitted to the Constitutional Loya Jirga tribal council in October.

In a statement, the UN mission acknowledges the efforts of the Administration of Afghanistan to ensure that the Commission represents the regional, ethnic, professional and religious diversity of the Afghan nation and the full participation of women in the constitution-making process.

Also in Afghanistan, the UN mission and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission issued a joint statement condemning “in the strongest possible terms” those who perpetrated human rights abuses during violent clashes in Badghis province, in which 38 civilians died while 761 homes and 21 shops were looted.  There are more details in the briefing notes from Kabul. 

**DRC

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a military observer of the UN Mission (MONUC) there was killed Saturday morning, and another seriously injured as their vehicle drove over a landmine at Komanda, 60 kilometres south-west of Bunia.

An investigation is under way with a view to establishing the circumstances surrounding the accident, which is the second of its kind since the deployment of MONUC observers in the DRC in November 1999.

Also in the DRC, the official Congolese Rally for Democracy-Goma (RCD-G) delegation to the Follow-up Commission arrived in Kinshasa on 27 April, their first visit to the capital since the conflict broke out in 1998.  Its arrival was escorted and monitored by the UN Mission in the DRC which greeted the event as an important step forward in the peace process.  The development was brought about after intensive negotiations by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Amos Namanga Ngongi, over the past few weeks in both Kinshasa and Goma.

**Sierra Leone Court

Last Friday, the Special Court for Sierra Leone held its first hearing in the trial of Augustine Gbao, who stands accused of crimes against humanity and violations of the Geneva Conventions, including murder and rape.  Four of the

17 counts against him involve attacks against UN peacekeepers.  Gbao pleaded not guilty to all the counts against him, and declared that he did not have the funds to pay for his defence.  The Special Court will pay for his defence until an investigation into his financial standing has been completed.  There is a press release on that.

**Rwanda Tribunal

In a letter to the General Assembly and Security Council that is on the racks today, the Secretary-General notes that the terms of office of 11 of the permanent judges on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda will expire this 24 May, and the terms of four judges who are trying cases that are likely to last beyond that date were not elected to new terms of office.

The President of the Tribunal, Judge Navanethem Pillay -– who will herself be leaving the Tribunal to take up her duties on the International Criminal Court –- has asked for the terms of judges trying ongoing cases, including her own term, to be extended so that they can finish work on those cases.

**UN Electoral Assistance

The UN Electoral Assistance Division, which is currently assisting close to 50 electoral processes worldwide, draws attention to the UN involvement in Yemen, where the country’s third parliamentary elections since unification in 1990 took place on Sunday.

The UN Development Programme, which co-chaired with the Netherlands a project to provide technical assistance to the elections, reports that among its achievements was an increase in women's voter registration, with an increase in registration by Yemeni women by 100 per cent from the previous elections.

The Electoral Assistance Division took note of the fact that elections took place as scheduled -- in spite of speculation that they might be postponed due to the uncertain security climate in Yemen stemming, in part, from the war in Iraq.   The process in Yemen attracted interest from electoral authorities in the region, including the Palestinian Central Election Commission.

**Meeting on Iraqi Cultural Heritage

Tomorrow, in London, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, and the British Museum will host the second meeting of international experts to try to save Iraq’s museums and cultural property.  Curators of the largest collections of Mesopotamian antiquities outside Iraq will try to work out the best and fastest ways to help their colleagues inside Iraq, both in Baghdad and in other parts of the country, to retrieve stolen artefacts and preserve and protect their collections.  The head of research at the Baghdad Museum, Donny George, will also attend the meeting.  We have a press release with more details on that.

Our guest at the briefing on Wednesday will be Koichiro Matsuura, the Director General of UNESCO, who will talk about UNESCO’s plans for assisting Iraq.

**CWC Review

There are two conferences relating to the weapons of mass destructions opening today.

The first Chemical Weapons Convention Review Conference convened in The Hague, with representatives of the 151 States parties of the Chemical Weapons Convention attending.  The Conference will review the operation of the Convention, now that it has been in force for almost six years.  In particular, it will assess the current process of destruction of declared arsenals.

And the second is the Preparatory Committee for the 2005 Review Conference of the parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which opened today in Geneva.  This meeting is the second of three sessions that will be held prior to the 2005 Review Conference.  We have press releases on both upstairs.

**Sustainable Development

And finally, the Commission on Sustainable Development begins its eleventh session today here in New York.  The two-week session will focus on how to translate into reality the goals and targets agreed on at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg last year.

The Commission will also consider ideas on how to organize its work in the coming years, including a proposal to focus on two or three issues over each two-year cycle.  The high-level segment will take up the first three days, with ministers from more than 40 countries expected to speak.  We have a few press releases with further details.

That’s all I have for you.  Anything before we go to Richard?  Yes, Akran?

Questions and Answers

Question:      Concerning drinking water in Basra.  Before the invasion, everybody had water.  What happened?  I am not clear.  You said that it is half the capacity now, it is destroyed.  Was it bombarded by the ah…?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  Well, Akran, there was a war.

Question:  Pardon?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  There was a war there.  And so, what is being done now is that the infrastructure damaged during the fighting is being gradually repaired and water supply in Basra is being restored.  But, what we reported is it’s not fully restored yet.

Question:  Is the water still coming from Kuwait to Basra?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  I don’t know if there’s any water coming from Kuwait.  I haven’t heard that Basra gets its water from Kuwait.  Lee?

Question:  Will we be having a briefing on the Committee on Information at the end?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  I hadn’t planned for that.  If you’d like we could ask the chairman of the Committee to talk to you if you have any interest.  I see some nodding, yeah, then we will ask for that.  Yes?

Question:  Fred, I came in late, I don’t know if you said anything about the events in Cyprus?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  No, we didn’t.

Question:  Does the United Nations have any comment on that?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  You mean the exchanges; the crossing of the green line?  In fact it’s been part of the UN mission in Cyprus’s mandate to encourage contacts with both sides.  One of the worst results of the separation of the two communities was that whole generations lost contact with each other.  And so, we have in small ways encouraged the contact of the two communities through the years.  So, (a) we’re encouraged by these crossings; (b) we’re facilitating them, working with the authorities, and we can only hope that these developments will have a positive bearing on the ultimate goal of the reunification of the island.  Yeah?

Question:  Some people compare it with the collapse of the Berlin wall, and I wonder if you or the Secretary-General share this view?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  I don’t think we want to make comparisons beyond what I have already said.

Question:  And a final one, what is the status of the team the Secretary-General created for the Cyprus negotiations?  Is it still intact or are there any changes that have taken place?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  We have nothing to announce on that.  The team is still in place.  The Secretary-General said, as recently as his visit to Athens last week, that he continues to be prepared to play a role.  But, he said he needs to see a sea change in the attitudes.  He has to be convinced of the real political will on both sides to move the process forward.  If he sees signs of that political will on both sides, he’s happy to get involved again.  Yes, Michael?

Question:  Fred, as you know obviously, there are a number of resolutions floating around the Security Council right now, which they are discussing informally, all of which could determine to a large extent the UN’s role in a post-war Iraq.  What is the Secretary-General’s view about what that UN role should be?  And, specifically, there’s a Russian proposal, as you know, to give the Secretary-General and the UN control of the oil industry in Iraq.  Specifically, what’s his reaction to that resolution, as well?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  Well, the Secretary-General has no preconceived views of what the UN role should be.  What he mostly wants is for the Council to agree among themselves on what that role should be.  He has through contingency planning given thought to a minimalist role versus a maximalist role, and I think he would like to see the UN system prepared to do whatever it is the Council calls on him to do.  But he’s not saying “this is the role I think the UN should be undertaking”.  At least he’s not saying today, and I don’t think he would say unless the Council asked him, “Mr. Secretary-General what do you think”?, if all 15 members said “Mr. Secretary-General what do you think the UN could do, or how it could be most helpful”?

So, in the meantime, he’s in touch with Council members individually and he continues to urge them to move towards a consensus position as they have to act on these time-specific requirements.  The extension of “oil-for-food” on

3 June, the extension, if there is one, of the temporary emergency oil-for-food arrangements that run out in the middle of May, I think 14 May.  These are the steps towards an ultimate decision on a UN role.  It doesn’t appear like the Council is of one mind, yet.  But he does sense a gradual coming together of the Council members that he hopes will produce a consensus, in time.  Serge?

[He later noted that the Council had already extended the temporary oil-for-food arrangements, on 22 April, until 3 June.]

Question:  Fred, regarding Iraq, there’s a report of a large number of missing children and abduction of girls.  This was reported by your office in Amman.  Was the office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict informed about it?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  I would have to see…  First of all, I am sure he was informed, but I’d have to see, first, whether he sees that as part of his mandate, second what he’s doing about it. But, I am sure you could call him or we’ll call him for you right after the briefing to get an answer for you.  Yes, Mohammed?

Question:  Fred, my question is, what is the distinction between “a vital role” and a “central role” which the Secretary-General, the United States and the United Kingdom addressed?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  I don’t think the adjective is important.  The definition of the job is what is important.  So, to say that the UN will play a vital role, a central role, a pivotal role or any other kind of role is meaningless unless you define what role it is; and that’s what the Council is now trying to do?  Yes, Michael?   

Question:  What’s the whereabouts of Mr. Ahmed?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  As far as I know, he’s at his desk continuing to give thought about the possible political role that the United Nations might play in Iraq and he continues to be available to any Council member that might want to consult with him.  I haven’t checked with him today, but I know that quite a few Council members have already approached him, met with him, discussed ideas with him.  So, he’s continuing his work.  Michael?

Question:   Any reaction to the news coming out of the coalition forces plan on tripling the number of inspectors they have on the ground, particularly after all the discussion that we had here about UN inspectors going back into the country once it was declared safe?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  Well, that’s a Council matter to decide, that’s one of those issues that’s on their plate, whether they want to order the inspectors back.  The Secretary-General’s view has been consistent all along, that for the credibility of the process, even if they had

3,000 inspectors there on the ground, should they find something it’s the UN inspectors that should verify.  And Hans Blix commented that he feels his people should be on the ground and not just functioning, I think he said “as an auditing firm”.  But, ultimately, it is the Council that has to decide, with the Secretary-General feeling that it would be good for the legitimacy of the process if the UN inspectors were back on the ground.

Richard?

      Spokesman for General Assembly President

Good afternoon.

Today marks the opening of the Committee on Information, which will meet for 2 weeks ending 9 May.  This morning the Committee will hear a statement by the Under-Sectretary-General for Communications and Public Information,

Mr. Shashi Tharoor.

President Kavan starts a visit to California today.  During his visit he will speak on the role of the UN in maintaining peace and security at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and on the role of the UN in resolving international conflicts at the Commonwealth Club of California. 

Later in the week, in Los Angeles, he will speak at UCLA and address the World Affairs Council on the role of the UN in conflict prevention and Management.

In a message delivered on President Kavan’s behalf this morning at a seminar on US/UN relations organized by the Inter-Religious and International Federation for World Peace, President Kavan noted that, since its founding, the United Nations has always had a special relationship with the United States and the US participation in the UN continues to be fundamental.  He said that, in an inter-linked world, “no nation can pursue its aspirations towards economic prosperity and sustainable development, towards human dignity, towards a safe and secure environment in an isolated way and without the cooperation and sound

relations with other countries.  The only way to ensure global peace and security is to win the war against poverty.  That is why, our commitments for international development cooperation are so important”.

This message is available at the 3^rd floor documents counter and on the GA President’s Web site.

One further note on upcoming meetings, the second part of the resumed 5^th Committee meetings will be held from 5 to 30 May.

Any questions?

Thank you.

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