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

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

Good Afternoon.

**Guest at Noon

Catherine Bertini, the Under-Secretary-General for Management, is here and after my briefing she will be briefing you on the overall financial situation of the Organization.

**Iraq

On Iraq, James Morris, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), will be in Baghdad on Sunday.  During his one-day visit he will meet officials from the Iraqi Ministry of Trade and the US-led civil administration, as well as WFP and other UN staff already based in the Iraqi capital.

Over the coming five months, WFP is gearing up to deliver
1.6 million tonnes of food to Iraq, enough to feed the entire population, some 27 million people, 60 per cent of whom are estimated to be entirely dependent on monthly food handouts.  WFP has already transported more than 100,000 tonnes of food into Iraq using corridors from Turkey, Syria, Iran, Jordan and Kuwait.

Meanwhile, today staff from the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the UN Development Programme were able to return to their Baghdad offices, which had been severely damaged by looters.

In the north, a UN team undertook a day trip to Kirkuk from Erbil to assess the humanitarian situation there.  As soon as the security situation permits, UN international staff will establish a permanent presence in Kirkuk.  A group of 31 humanitarian workers entered Iraq this afternoon, bringing the total of UN international staff in Iraq to approximately 250.

**Security Council

The Security Council is holding consultations on Iraq, with a briefing by Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette on the humanitarian situation there, which we just reported to you on.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo

From the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Bunia, in the north-east part of the country, UN personnel are reporting continued fighting around the airport between Hema and Lendu militia members.

The continued violence, including looting, has severely hampered the ability of the UN and other humanitarian actors to assist the needy population.  There has also been no access to some of the 2,000 people who have set up camp near the airport.  Two thousand more have sheltered in the UN mission’s compounds in town.

As part of a reinforced UN military presence in the area, more than
400 peacekeepers were deployed, with the total rising to 600 by the weekend.  The UN forces control the airport and are patrolling parts of the town.

UN officials were to meet today with members of the Ituri Pacification Commission in an effort to restore order in the town following the withdrawal of Ugandan forces earlier this week.

**Afghanistan

On Afghanistan, the United Nations has suspended mine clearance operations on the road between the Afghan capital, Kabul, and the southern city of Kandahar, and has also ordered staff not to travel by road in some parts of southern Afghanistan after attacks on UN vehicles took place in that area on
3 and 5 of this month.

Lakhdar Brahimi, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, said he was appalled at the assault on three deminers that took place 5 May in Zabul, in which two of them suffered bullet wounds.  Two days earlier, one deminer had been shot dead, and another has since gone into a coma, in a separate shooting incident.

In addition to the restrictions on road movement in the south, Brahimi said that no UN road movement would take place anywhere in Afghanistan between 6:00 in the evening and 6:00 in the morning.  UN security personnel are in close contact with the concerned Afghan authorities, reviewing security conditions in areas considered unsafe for UN staff to carry out work.

We have a press release from the UN Mine Action Service, as well as today’s briefing notes from Kabul, which provide more information.

The Kabul briefing notes also mention a registered increase in the number of threats and acts of intimidation, and even physical aggression, against journalists and the media in Afghanistan.  The UN Mission is paying considerable attention to all such cases and will continue to bring them to the attention of the Afghan authorities.

**Middle East

In Copenhagen, Denmark, today, the Third Conference on the International Alliance for Arab-Israeli Peace began, and the Secretary-General, in a message issued at the Conference, said it was taking place at a hopeful moment, following a terrible period of death and destruction on both sides of the conflict.

He notes that the Road Map issued last week by the Quartet, made up of the UN, the US, Russia and the European Union, is “a significant innovation in the peace process”, since it is clear about the end goal of an Israel and a Palestine living side-by-side in peace and security, and is equally clear about the steps for getting there.

He said, “I am convinced that we now have a historic window of opportunity”, with no previous peace plan having enjoyed such broad support as this one.  But, he adds that it is Israelis and Palestinians who must actually travel the road, asserting, “Both must hold firm to their commitments, and not allow extremists to dictate the future.”

**Guatemala

The United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) has said that justice in Guatemala still seems to be impossible and argues that there are people who remain above the law.  Three defendants, all senior army officers, in the case of the death of Myrna Mack, had their sentences overturned yesterday by the Appeals Court.  MINUGUA says it is lamentable that twelve years after the brutal crime was committed, those responsible for Mack’s death still have not been brought to justice.  MINUGUA is studying the sentences and following up with the verification process.  We have a press release in Spanish only.

**Kosovo

The first group of some 800 bodies exhumed in Serbia proper and believed to be of Kosovo Albanian missing persons will be repatriated under UN auspices today.  The transfer has been arranged by the Office on Missing Persons and Forensics of the UN Mission in Kosovo, in cooperation with the UN Civilian Police's Missing Persons Unit and the Serbian authorities.

An UNMIK team, including an Albanian forensic pathologist, was in Belgrade yesterday to monitor the transfer of bodies exhumed from one of the sites in Serbia, at Batajnica, which were identified by DNA.  Currently, 100 to
150 bodies are in the process of being identified through DNA.  We put out a press release from the Mission yesterday afternoon with more details.

**ICTY

Yesterday at The Hague, a three-judge trial chamber at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia held a hearing to consider an amended plea agreement between the Prosecutor’s Office and Serb indictee Momir Nikolic.

In that plea agreement, Nikolic would agree to plead guilty to persecutions on political, religious and racial grounds, as a crime against humanity; and, in exchange, Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte would recommend a sentence of between 15 to 20 years in prison and dismiss the remaining charges against him.

The trial chamber said it was satisfied with that plea agreement, and as a result found Nikolic guilty on the single count of persecution, adding that it would set a time and date for a sentencing hearing in due course.

**Rwanda Tribunal

Available on the racks today is a memorandum by the Secretary-General that lists the names of 35 candidates, from whom the General Assembly is to elect
18 “ad litem” or short-term judges for the Rwanda Tribunal.  The Security Council voted on 29 April to transmit those 35 names on to the General Assembly, which is to elect the 18 judges by an absolute majority among those Members voting.

**WHO Extends SARS-related Travel Advice

In response to several questions on an increase in the mortality rate for SARS, the World Health Organization said that there are different ways for calculating the rate that could account for the change in percentage.  WHO calculates mortality rates for all communicable diseases for surveillance purposes and that consists of the number of deaths divided by the total of cases.  The rise in the rate from about 4 per cent to 7 per cent is the result of the spread of SARS to the general public, affecting more vulnerable groups such as children and the elderly.

As of yesterday, a total of 6,903 cases, with 495 deaths, have been reported from 29 countries on five continents.  We have a press release with more.

**Noon Guests Tomorrow

Valli Moosa, the Chair of the Commission on Sustainable Development and South Africa’s Minister for Environmental Affairs and Tourism, will join Nitin Desai, the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, at our noon briefing tomorrow, and they will be here to talk to you about the Commission’s eleventh session, which ends tomorrow.

**World Chronicle programme

      And finally, the DPI’s World Chronicle programme number 898 will feature Joseph Stephanides, the Director of the UN’s Security Council Affairs in the Department of Political Affairs.  And you can see that at 3:30 p.m. today on
in-house television channels 3 or 31.

Any questions before we go to Catherine Bertini?  Yes, Akran?

Questions and Answers

Question:   You mentioned about the food and I have a report here from Iraq saying that the people of Iraq are still without proper clean water, enough food, electricity in Amara, in (inaudible), Basra and even Baghdad... (inaudible) the hospitals...

Spokesman:  Akran, what’s your question?

Question:      ...medicine and all these things.  When is the United Nations going to help and bring all these needed stuff?

Spokesman:  Why don’t you and I talk after the briefing?  Yes, Bill?

Question:   The Secretary-General, according to Secretary of State Colin Powell, was briefed yesterday on the text of the resolution.  What’s his reaction to that briefing?  Is he in support of this resolution?

Spokesman:  It’s too early for us to give any official reaction.  The Secretary-General himself is studying it; his senior aides are studying it.  And we expect that the United States will shortly present copies to members of the Council and then the Council debate will begin.  So, I think the
Secretary-General, even after he forms his opinion, would want to first watch how the draft was received in the Council, and then decide how he should act, if at all.  Bill?

Question:   One of the provisions of the resolution calls for the Secretary-General to place someone or to participate himself on the advisory board, along with the World Bank and the IMF, to oversee the Iraqi sales of oil and who they sell it to and what they get.  Has the Secretary-General or the UN ever done that?  Is there a precedent before that?  And, any idea how amenable the UN might be?

Spokesman:  Bill, you’re basing yourself on a press account.  So, I am not going to comment on something that hasn’t yet been made public.  Yes, Mr. Abadi?

Question:      Following the withdrawal of Ugandan troops from the DRC, there is violence and the refugees are on the move, as you indicated.  Does the Secretary-General believe that there are enough UN troops present in the territory to avoid the possibility of genocide?

Spokesman:  He’s made his views clear to the Security Council on that matter.  He has asked for additional troops. 

Catherine, do you want to come up?

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