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, everyone.

**Guest at Noon

Our guest today is Ali Muktar Farah, the head of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Liberia.  And he will be talking about the humanitarian situation in that country in just a few minutes.

**Bunia Quiet Today

From the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the counterattack on Bunia announced by Lendu militia for 9:00 this morning never materialized, but sporadic fighting did continue as of midday.

The Deputy Force Commander, Brigadier-General Roberto Martinelli, met today with leaders of the various warring sides, the Hema and the Lendu, to try and broker at least a 24-hour ceasefire in order to move internally displaced people to more secure locations.

Suspected cases of cholera and dysentery have appeared among the 8,000 or so displaced persons who have taken refuge in each of the two UN compounds in Bunia.  The revised toll of yesterday’s mortar attack on one of those compounds is five dead and 100 injured.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has brought in a Congolese medical team from Goma with three surgeons working out of a mobile clinic to support the UN medical team already in place.  UN humanitarian workers report that, although there is a strong ethnic mix among the displaced, inter-ethnic relations in the two camps is good.

Political talks are also scheduled for today in Dar es Salaam, that’s in Tanzania, where DRC President Joseph Kabila may meet with members of the Ituri Pacification Commission (IPC), as well as leaders of the various armed groups, to try and find a means of bringing peace through the interim administration established by the IPC late last month.

We have no further information on the two UN military observers who have been missing since Tuesday, but the search for them continued today.

We have received digital photographs; in fact we’ve been getting them daily from the UN Mission in Bunia and these are available from the UN photo library and they’re on display on the third floor.

**Security Council

The Security Council has no meetings or consultations scheduled today.

Following a day of consultations on Iraq yesterday, Council members agreed to meet at the expert level this afternoon to consider a new draft resolution on Iraq.

Also today at 3:30 p.m., the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee is scheduled to meet in Conference Room 7.

**Iraq

From Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, issued a statement expressing concern that evidence of past serious human rights violations in Iraq may be lost unless immediate measures are taken to preserve it.  Among those measures would be securing mass grave sites and allowing appropriate access to those sites by independent forensic experts.

De Mello added that all relevant evidence concerning human rights violations must be secured and made available to the Special Rapporteur dealing with human rights in Iraq, as well as to jurisdictions that might be established to deal with grave violations of human rights committed by the former regime.

Kenzo Oshima, the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator and head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, will arrive in Baghdad tomorrow.  In the following days, he will visit also Basra and the lower south region of the country.

The purpose of the trip is to gain first-hand appreciation of the humanitarian situation in Iraq, as well as the future humanitarian needs in the country.  Oshima will meet with UN staff and NGOs, as well as with members of the US-run Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.

**Sierra Leone Special Court

This morning, the Chief of Investigations of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Alan White, announced that he had credible information that the family of indicted war criminal Sam Bockarie had been killed in Liberia.  That information, he said, casts serious doubts about the claims regarding the circumstances of Bockarie’s death, and he argued that Liberian President Charles Taylor continues to obstruct the Tribunal’s efforts. 

For the past 10 days, the authorities in Liberia have refused to transfer Bockarie’s body to the Court for an independent forensic examination in order to provide positive identification.  The Office of the Prosecutor has repeatedly called on President Taylor to cooperate with the Court’s work, to no avail.

In an interview with the Washington Post, the Special Court’s Chief Prosecutor, David Crane, charged that Bockarie was executed by Taylor’s chief of security, General Benjamin Yeaten.  He also repeated demands that the Liberian Government take all steps to deliver another indicted suspect, Johnny Paul Koroma –- who is reported to be in northern Liberia –- alive to the Court.

**Rwanda Tribunal

Today in Arusha, Tanzania, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted the former Rwandan Information Minister of genocide and crimes against humanity, and sentenced him to prison for the rest of his life.  The Tribunal also convicted a former municipal official of Bicumbi commune to 25 years’ imprisonment for complicity to commit genocide and crimes against humanity.

The judgments handed down today include the first conviction the Tribunal has passed down for other inhumane acts, including the decapitation and castration of a man and the sexual mutilation of a dead woman.  We have a press release with more details. 

**Afghanistan

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, responding to increasingly serious security incidents affecting the United Nations and non-governmental organizations, announced that it has taken new measures for south-west Afghanistan.  Road missions will only take place with armed escorts provided by the Afghan authorities at a level commensurate with security requirements.

These measures, according to the mission, reflect its commitment to continue operations in all areas to the maximum extent possible.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has hosted the first-ever meeting of a commission with the Government of Afghanistan and the UN refugee agency to discuss the ongoing return and reintegration of Afghan refugees.  The so-called Tripartite Commission, held on Wednesday in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, marked the start of a formal process for resolving one of the world's longest-running humanitarian concerns.

**Human Rights

Asma Jahangir, the Special Rapporteur dealing with extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, is gravely concerned about a potentially dangerous situation developing at military-controlled farms in Okara, Pakistan.

She has received reports that, on 11 May, a unit of Pakistani Rangers under the direct control of the Pakistani military shot at a crowd that was demonstrating against the excessive use of force on previous occasions, and killed one demonstrator.  The Rangers have surrounded the farm tenants, and there are worries about the possibility of further violence.  There is a press release on that.

**SARS

The World Health Organization (WHO) has removed Toronto, Canada, from the list of areas with recent local transmission of SARS.  The chain of transmission is considered broken since in the past 20 days, which is twice the maximum incubation period for SARS, no further cases have occurred.  Earlier, Toronto had also been removed from the list of areas for which WHO has issued recommendations pertaining to international travel.

WHO will hold a meeting of epidemiologists on SARS tomorrow and Saturday in Geneva.  The latest statistics on SARS indicate a total of 7,628 probable cases and 587 deaths.  That’s based on reports from 29 different countries.

**Drugs -- Peru

A new survey conducted by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the Government of Peru shows that coca cultivation in Peru has remained stable over the past year, dispelling fears that there was a major shift in coca cultivation recently to Peru from neighbouring Colombia.

According to the survey, some 46,700 hectares of coca were under cultivation in Peru last year, a 1 per cent increase from survey results for 2001.  Meanwhile, the Office on Drugs and Crime two months ago published a report on Colombia that showed a 30 per cent reduction in coca cultivation from 2001 to 2002.

As a result, coca cultivation in the Andean region as a whole -– which comprises Peru, Colombia and Bolivia –- dropped by 17 per cent last year, to 173,100 hectares, the first drop recorded in over a decade.

**Vesak

We have a message from the Secretary-General, available upstairs, to mark the occasion of the Day of Vesak, on which Buddhists mark the life of the Buddha some 2,500 years ago.  The Secretary-General says that the teachings of the Buddha should prompt us to be more mindful of all our fellow human beings and of succeeding generations.

**International Day of Families

Today is International Day of Families, dedicated to raising the awareness of family issues and improving the institutional capabilities of nations to tackle serious family-related problems.  The Secretary-General’s message that was issued last week as a press release is available at the documents counter on the 3rd Floor.

**Fréchette

The Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Fréchette, is in Brussels today where she met with the European Union’s Political and Security Committee.  Among the topics discussed were EU-UN cooperation on crisis management.  Afterwards, the Deputy went to a series of meetings with the General Secretariat of the European Council and the European Commission.

**UN Peacekeeping operations

A background note on UN peacekeeping operations is now available at the documents counter and on the UN Web site.  Among other basic facts, the note points out there are currently 14 peacekeeping operations, with a current budget of about $2.63 billion.  Proposed budgetary levels for the period July 2003 to June 2004 are estimated to be about $2.3 billion.  Some 89 countries are currently contributing almost 37,000 military and civilian police personnel.

**Budget

Another budget news today, Ghana made a payment of more than $67,000 to become the 81st Member State to be paid in full for its regular budget contribution for this year.

That’s all I have.  Anything before we go to Mr. Farah on Liberia?  Yes?

Questions and Answers

Question:   Can you give us any advance on the search for troops for Congo, and also whether the Secretary-General -- Mr. De Mello has been making comments, as you know, with his report.  Does the Secretary-General endorse this, that Congolese lives are as important as Iraqi’s and they’re annoyed that Iraq’s got the monopoly and there are no troops for the Congo?  What’s the latest in the search for troops?

Spokesman:  I am not going to comment on the latter.  But, on the former, we never talk about specific contributions until the package is complete.  We feel that we’re making very good progress; there are discussions going on at the highest level; we’ve received active expressions of interest from possible troop-contributors in Africa, Europe and Asia and I think you can say in general we’re pleased with the progress that we’re making in assembling a possible intervention force for the DRC.  Mr. Abadi?

Question:  When the Secretary-General says the Buddha message should be taken seriously by all those concerned about the fate and direction of humanity, whom does he have in mind?

Spokesman:  We can talk afterwards about that, Mr. Abadi.  Thank you.

Mr. Farah, welcome to the briefing.

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