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.

Former Brazilian President Fernando Enrique Cardoso will be joining us here at the briefing today.  He is Chairman of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Eminent Persons on United Nations Relations with Civil Society, which began two days of closed-door meetings here at Headquarters yesterday, and he will discuss the Panel’s work with you.

**Iraq

This morning in Baghdad, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, met L. Paul Bremer, the US Civilian Administrator, and John Sawers, the UK Special Representative.

The three held an initial meeting alone for an hour, and they were then joined by their respective delegations for an additional 30 minutes.

During the meeting, Bremer and Sawers briefed Vieira de Mello on the Coalition’s priorities in Iraq during the current phase, namely:

1.  Re-establishing law and order, reconnecting basic services, and rejuvenating civil society;

2.  Working on improving the economic situation; and

3.  Moving towards creating a democratic, representative government in Iraq.

Afterwards in speaking to the press, Bremer said the UN had a vital role to play in Iraq and said he was looking forward to working closely with Vieira de Mello and his team on implementing Security Council’s latest resolution on Iraq.

For his part, Vieira de Mello said that they had had a very cordial and constructive meeting, adding that he was spending his first few days in Baghdad working on defining precisely what the nature of the UN role would be, in accordance with the Council’s resolution.

Also today, Vieira de Mello had the opportunity to visit the UNDP offices and meet with the UN staff there. 

During the next few days, he will continue to assess how best the UN might assist Iraq in the areas outlined in the Council’s resolution.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sablière of France is scheduled to brief you here in room 226 at 12:45 p.m. tomorrow on the upcoming Security Council mission to Central Africa, which he will lead.  The mission is expected to travel to South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including Bunia, Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania.

Meanwhile, the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) is coordinating joint mechanism on the ground with the Interim Emergency Multinational Force in advance of its deployment in Bunia.  The consultations with troop-contributing countries to that Force continue.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, the Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, will be our guest at the noon briefing on Thursday to talk to you about his just-concluded visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

On the humanitarian front, the World Food Programme (WFP) said that insecurity in the Ituri region was hampering the distribution of food aid to the displaced populations there.  WFP had just completed a general distribution in difficult conditions of three weeks of rations to 9,000 displaced persons near the airport.  The displaced persons were regularly harassed by rebel groups, according to WFP.

Meanwhile, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that humanitarian activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are severely underfunded with only 18.5 per cent of funding received against an appeal of more than $220 million.

**Security Council

The Security Council is meeting on the programme of work for the month of June and on Côte d'Ivoire during which members heard a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hedi Annabi on the latest developments there.

A press statement on Côte d'Ivoire is expected to be read following those consultations.

Also following the consultations, the Council President, Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov, is scheduled to brief reporters in this room on the programme of work for the month.

**Cyprus

Out of the racks today is the Secretary-General’s latest report on the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus, which covers the developments on the island since November of last year.  He recommends that the Council extend the mission’s current mandate for a further six months, until 15 December 2003.

In the last week of April, the Turkish Cypriot authorities opened a crossing point to the public for travel in both directions.  This was the first such opening in almost three decades.  Additional crossing points were opened in the following days.

The first week around 140,000 Greek Cypriots crossed to the north and 34,000 Turkish Cypriots went in the opposite direction.  Since then, the average number of crossings has stabilized to about 13,000 people per day.

The UN force, especially its civilian police component, has been active in ensuring a safe and orderly crossing of people and vehicles through the UN buffer zone.  UN engineers have also worked to improve the roads.

To face these additional duties, the Secretary-General says that the mission requires an additional 34 civilian police officers.  There are currently 35 police officers assigned to the force.

In conclusion, he notes that these recent developments are not a substitute for a comprehensive settlement.  “It seems highly unlikely that such a settlement can be achieved without the genuine political commitment to the proposal I put forward and a firm timetable to finalize the negotiations”, he says.

**Statement Attributable to Spokesman for Secretary-General on Zimbabwe

We issued a statement yesterday evening expressing the Secretary-General’s concern over reports of the possibility of violence in connection with the mass action against the government planned by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Zimbabwe.

The Secretary-General urged the organizers of that action to ensure that it remains peaceful and within the law.  And he called on the Government of Zimbabwe to respect the basic principles of freedom of expression and of assembly.

He reiterated his support for and readiness to contribute to the search for a negotiated solution to the country’s difficulties.

We have the full text available in my Office.

**Liberia

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that thousands of Liberians have fled fresh fighting in southern Liberia for the relative safety of neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire in recent days, putting new pressure on communities already burdened by long-time refugees and the effects of Côte d'Ivoire's civil conflict.

**Burundi

From Burundi, the World Food Programme said that the renewal of intensive fighting on 22 May in Bujumbura province has caused a serious displacement of up to 15,000 persons. 

Meanwhile, UNHCR said it was worried about more than 35,000 Burundian refugees who had sought asylum in Tanzania in the last year and a half.  There was a sharp rise in the number of returns of these Burundian refugees amid concern that their return was not fully voluntary.

**Consolidated Appeals Review

A few press releases to highlight.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, said today that the mid-year review of the 2003 Consolidated Appeals for countries in crisis shows that overall only one third of the funds required have been received so far.

Some of the appeals for individual countries like Afghanistan and Iraq have received strong funding, while others like Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have received less than a quarter of what is needed. 

**International Labour Conference

The 91st International Labour Conference began today at ILO headquarters in Geneva and will run until 19 June.  It began with the election of its new President, Michael Christopher Wamalwa, Vice President and Labour Minister of Kenya.  ILO Director General Juan Somavia presented his annual report, “Working out of Poverty”, which provided a road map for ILO efforts to reduce poverty by promoting decent working conditions for the working poor and creating new opportunities for those excluded from work.  We have details in the press release.

**World Health Organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday expressed concern over the rather slow process of developing commercial diagnostic tests for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.  Part of the problem arises from certain unusual features of SARS that make this disease an especially difficult scientific challenge.

The WHO, together with the Chinese authorities, is also concerned about the SARS outbreak in China, as the number of new cases is dropping very sharply, virtually to zero, while doubts still exist on the effectiveness of surveillance and reporting systems.

The latest statistics indicate a total of 8,384 probable cases, with 770 deaths, reported from 29 countries.  Those, of course, are the worldwide figures.

In other news, WHO and UNICEF welcomed the new $88.6 million pledge from the Rotary International for the Global Polio Eradication Program, the world’s largest public health initiative.

**UNIC Bonn

Finally, the UN Information Centre in Bonn, Germany, informs us that the German Government has approved plans to convert former government and parliament buildings in Bonn to a UN campus.

The buildings are to be fully refurbished and will eventually house the offices of the UN Volunteers, UNESCO’s Institute for Vocational Training, the Regional Office for Health and Environment of the World Health Organization; and the secretariats of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention to Combat Desertification and the Convention on Migratory Species.

The current 600 staff is due to move into the refurbished buildings in 2005.  The campus will be able to accommodate up to a 1,000 staff and it is hoped it will attract more agencies and programmes. 

That’s all I have for you.  President Cardoso, would you like to come up and join me here?  I will be with you in just a minute.  Any questions before we go to President Cardoso on civil society?  Richard?

Questions and Answers

Question:  Is it the Secretary-General’s intention to stop at the microphone on the way in or we don’t know?

Spokesman:  I haven’t been able to talk to him yet this morning, so I don’t know which way he might come in.  I was calling him to give him the heads up that there might be some of you waiting for him at the front door.  So, we will get a call from his security when he leaves the residence and we’ll take that opportunity to urge him to come in through the front door.

Question:  You mentioned the Bonn building; I was away, is there anything new on the Capital Master improvement; has there been a decision regarding money, regarding the renovation of this structure here?

Spokesman:  I think we’re still waiting for the financial arrangements to be sorted out; and those, of course, were dependent on an interest-free loan from the US Government.  So, I’d have to ask Catherine Bertini what the latest is from the US Congress on that score.  Yeah?

Question:  Has the Secretary-General any plans to send his Special Advisor de Soto to the area, Cyprus and Greece and Turkey?

Spokesman:  To my knowledge, no.  As you got from my report, he’s still waiting for a signal from the two sides that they’re willing to negotiate in good faith on the basis of his latest proposal.  Yes?

Question:  What’s the status of the Council mission to West Africa now?

Spokesman:  It’s still on.  I don’t have the dates with me; when we get closer to the date, we would ask Ambassador Greenstock who is going to head that mission to come and brief you on it.  I’d just say that I can have some one, if they’re hearing this, in my Office run down to provide you with the dates.  [He later said the new dates for the mission were 28 June to 5 July.]

President Cardoso, welcome to the briefing; and you want to tell us about this two-day meeting that is just winding up now?

President Cardoso:  That’s right.

(Issued separately)

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