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

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 Hua Jiang, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Richard Sydenham, Spokesman for the General Assembly President.

Deputy Spokesman

Good Afternoon.

**Secretary-General in Amman

The Secretary-General today addressed the closing plenary of the World Economic Forum in Amman, Jordan, urging delegates to follow the model for the future provided by the second half of the last century, built on a network of institutions in which different nations could cooperate for the common good.

“I see human beings caring for each other, and States sharing responsibility for the safety and welfare of all people”, he said.  “I see markets that are truly free and fair.  The poor will be able to improve their lot by producing and selling, without facing trade barriers or unfairly subsidized competition.  I see peoples working together to care for their common home, the Earth.”  He concluded, “Let our children look back on this time, and say that here, by the shores of the Dead Sea, we entered a living land –- a land of hope.”  We have copies of that speech upstairs.

Before attending the Forum, the Secretary-General began his day in Amman with a meeting with the Foreign Minister of Brazil, Celso Amorim, with whom he discussed the situation in Colombia, as well as UN reform and the situation in the Middle East, including yesterday’s Quartet talks.  The Foreign Minister mentioned Brazil’s interest in promoting peace in Africa, and they also discussed in particular the current events in Guinea-Bissau.

At midday, the Secretary-General met with the Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister, Nabeel Shaath, for a review of current efforts to advance the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

He then saw the former Foreign Minister of Iraq, Adnan Pachachi, and the two men talked of the emerging UN role in Iraq, the security situation there, the political process leading to an interim Iraqi Administration and the problems of managing the closing down of the “oil-for-food” programme.

**Secretary-General in Amman - Sunday

On Sunday, the Secretary-General met with the other principals of the Quartet –- which brings together the United Nations, the United States, the Russian Federation and the European Union –- and read out on the Quartet’s behalf a statement agreeing that moving along the path of the Road Map will require determination and courageous decisions on both sides.

The Quartet statement called on the Palestinian Authority to make all possible efforts to halt immediately the activities of individuals and groups planning and conducting terror attacks on Israelis, and also called on the Israelis to make every possible effort to support the Palestinian Government and to take immediate actions to ease the plight of the Palestinian people.

He added, in his capacity as Secretary-General, that the principle of parallelism must be maintained, and he called on Israel not to use disproportionate force in civilian areas, carry out house demolitions or engage in extrajudicial killings.  Simultaneously, he said, the Palestinian Authority must not spare any effort to bring to an end all acts of terror against Israelis anywhere.  We have the statements upstairs.

After the Quartet meeting, the Secretary-General had a large number of bilateral meetings with other leaders, focusing on Iraq and the Middle East.  The bilateral meetings included those with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and King Abdullah the Second of Jordan.

Earlier in the day, the Secretary-General and his Special Representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, met with the Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, Paul Bremer.  Following that meeting, the Secretary-General, in press comments we have available upstairs, said that Vieira de Mello and Bremer have been working extremely well together, and that there is a clear direction as to the formation of the interim Iraqi Authority.

**Iraq Meetings

A short while ago, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette formally launched the revised Humanitarian Appeal for Iraq, in which the UN is requesting an additional $259 million for the remainder of 2003.

In her remarks, she noted that while some of the UN’s humanitarian planning assumptions did not materialize, notably large-scale population movements, the conflict and its aftermath nevertheless resulted in a wide range of urgent humanitarian needs some –- such as food distribution -- had been anticipated while others, due to widespread looting, emerged only after the conflict.

Fréchette outlined activities the UN has been conducting in Iraq in a number of vital sectors.  “The humanitarian assistance the UN has provided has been tangible and important for the Iraqi people in these difficult months”, she told the delegates.

In closing, she noted that “while the needs in Iraq are large, humanitarian needs elsewhere are also large”.  She appealed to all donors to respond to this request for funds in a way which does not compromise their support for other equally important emergencies.

The Deputy Secretary-General was followed by Kenzo Oshima, the UN Emergency Coordinator who outlined the appeal in more detail.

Ramiro Lopes da Silva, the UN Coordinator for Iraq, then presented an overview of the humanitarian situation, the UN’s activities in the country, as well as the organization’s priorities.

“Searching for common ground, building consensus, facilitating dialogue between all parties involved in the effort to rebuild Iraq is a crucial task”, he said.  “The major challenge faced by the UN is to interpret the aspirations of the Iraqi people, and respond to these needs”, he added.  The meeting has now moved into a closed session.  The text of these three interventions is available upstairs.

Shortly after this briefing, at about 12:30 p.m., Oshima and Lopes da Silva, will be here to answer your questions on the appeal.

**Democratic Republic of Congo

We reported last week that two military observers from the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were abducted by armed men in Beni, North Kivu.  The two of them, from Tunisia and Russia, had been found safe and were brought back to their base on Saturday, 21 June.  We have a press release on that.

Also on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Report of the Security Council Mission to Central Africa is out on the racks today.  As you may recall, the Council took a trip to the region from 7 to 16 June.

The report says that the Mission is deeply concerned, not only by the present situation in Bunia, but also the possibility of further fighting, humanitarian catastrophe and human rights violations after the current emergency measures expire on 1 September.  The report also notes that the Burundi peace process is at a crucial juncture and calls on the international community to make every effort to assist the Burundians in the process.

**Security Council

At 3 p.m. today, there is a meeting of the Security Council with the troop-contributing countries to the UN Disengagement Observer Force.

Informal consultations on the Democratic Republic of the Congo scheduled for this morning have been cancelled because, the Council presidency says that the incident in Beni where two military observers were abducted has been resolved and there is no need for an urgent briefing.

**Sierra Leone Special Court

Responding to a request from the Prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Switzerland today announced that various personal and business accounts of Liberian President Charles Taylor would be blocked or frozen.

The Prosecutor, David Crane, thanked the Swiss authorities for their rapid and decisive support of the Special Court, which had made the request to block assets held by Taylor, which he said could be evidence of the joint criminal enterprise which Taylor and other indictees are alleged to have conducted in Sierra Leone.  We have a press release upstairs with more details.

**Afghanistan

Lakhdar Brahimi, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, has called for the immediate release of two journalists arrested last week. His spokesman said that the appeal was being issued "both on procedural grounds, to the extent that continued detention of the two journalists does not serve the investigation undertaken by the authorities, and on substantive grounds".

Citing the current case, as well as other incidents of threats and intimidation against journalists recorded in recent months, the spokesman called for "a thorough and time-bound review of the legal system in order to promote freedom of expression, protect the rights of journalists and guarantee their freedom to do their work in safety, including publishing critical reports and opinions."  You can find more details in the briefing note from Kabul.

**Timor-Leste

Sandra Peisley, the United Nations first woman civilian police commissioner, assumed her functions in Timor-Leste today as Police Commissioner in the United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET).  Ms. Peisley is an Assistant Commissioner in the Australian Federal Police, and has had responsibilities in a wide variety of relevant areas of policing, including police training, management, investigations and close protection.

**Landlocked Countries

The first Preparatory Committee for the International Ministerial Conference of Landlocked and Transit Developing Countries opened this morning at UN Headquarters, and will continue through Friday, dealing with such issues as the access of landlocked countries to deepwater ports.  A high-level panel on landlocked countries will take place, starting tomorrow at 10 a.m. in Conference Room 2, featuring Under-Secretary-General Anwarul Karim Chowdhury and economist Jeffrey Sachs.

**SARS

The World Health Organization today has removed Hong Kong from its list of areas with recent local transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.  Twenty days, which is twice the maximum incubation period, have passed since the last case was isolated on 2 June.  The latest statistics on SARS indicate a total of 8,461 probable cases, including 804 deaths, reported worldwide.  We have a press release with more details.

**Press Conferences

At 10.30 a.m. tomorrow, the US Mission will be sponsoring a press conference by Lex Friedman, chairman of the US National Council on Disability, who will discuss the importance of the UN Convention on the human rights of people with disabilities.

At 4:30 p.m. tomorrow afternoon, Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, and others will hold a press conference in this room to brief you on the informal information sharing and forward planning meeting on the reconstruction needs for Iraq.

And at 3:00 p.m. this afternoon, the US Mission will be sponsoring a press conference in this room by the Iraqi leaders from the Coalition Provisional Authority in advance of the technical consultation on reconstruction needs for Iraq, which is taking place tomorrow.

That’s all I have for you.  Any questions before we move on to Richard?  Richard?

Spokesman for General Assembly President

Thank you.  Good afternoon.

This morning the General Assembly plenary adopted by consensus the draft resolution of the ad hoc working group on integrated follow-up to major UN conferences in the economic and social fields.

Before the vote, President Kavan made a statement in which he said that he had made it a priority of his presidency to see a successful outcome to the work of the ad hoc working group.  The challenge before the group was considerable, he said, but it had made concrete recommendations to ensure that the UN supports, in the most efficient way, the implementation of the ambitious and detailed set of development goals agreed upon at major UN conferences and summits. 

He said that “our commitment to the goals agreed at conferences, from the Children Summit to the Millennium Summit, Monterrey and Johannesburg, was alive and strong, much stronger than our areas of divergences.”  The agreement, he said, “will help make the work of our organization more relevant, more visible and enhance its role and political importance, by focusing it on the actual implementation of conference outcomes.” 

President Kavan said he saw this resolution as an important landmark “that will contribute to strengthening of the General Assembly and ECOSOC, and to the implementation of the programme of reform launched by our Secretary-General”.

The text of President Kavan’s remarks is at the documents counter upstairs and will be on the Web site.  After the vote, the plenary heard statements by Morocco and Greece on behalf of the European Union.

Hua already mentioned the PrepCom on Landlocked Developing Countries, which is starting today.  There is a press release on that over on the table there.

This week also sees the Ad Hoc Committee on an International Convention on Protection of Rights of Persons with Disabilities continuing its session.  And this afternoon there will be a panel discussion on new and emerging approaches to definitions of disability.

And coming up on Wednesday, the plenary will hold elections for ad litem judges for the Rwanda tribunal.

Any questions?

Thank you.

**Statement Attributable to the Spokesman for Secretary-General:  Myanmar

Deputy Spokesman:  Yeah, I have just received a statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

“The Secretary-General is gravely concerned about a report he received recently that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), is being held in Insein Jail outside Yangon.  He considers the conditions under which she is being held -- incommunicado and without charge -- to be truly deplorable.

“The Secretary-General has also been informed through his Special Envoy that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is being held under Section 10-A of Myanmar Law No.3 (1975) designed to “safeguard the State against the dangers of subversive elements”.

“The Secretary-General urges the Government of Myanmar again to heed the repeated calls of the United Nations and the international community, including the member nations of ASEAN, to immediately release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of the NLD detained on 30 May; to acknowledge that the people of Myanmar are overwhelmingly in favour of change; and to join hands with all parties, including the NLD, to bring about national reconciliation in Myanmar as soon as possible.”

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