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.

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

I am going to start with a statement regarding the tragic train derailment in Iran.

“The Secretary-General was distressed to learn of the casualties and damage caused by the chemical train derailment and explosion in Neyshabur, Iran.  He conveys his condolences and deepest sympathy to the Islamic Government of Iran and the victims of the disaster.

“The United Nations stands ready to assist those affected by the tragedy”.

**Group of Friends

Tomorrow morning at 10, the Secretary-General will meet with the Group of Friends of Iraq.  This will be an opportunity for the Secretary-General and the members to exchange views on the current situation and the way forward in Iraq.  His Special Adviser, Lakhdar Brahimi, will also be in attendance at this meeting.  And a final list of the participants will be released tomorrow morning.

**Cyprus

Earlier this morning, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, met with the Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos.  Later in the afternoon he met with the Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash.

Direct talks between the two leaders, in the presence of Alvaro de Soto, will start Thursday at 10 a.m., local time, at the Nicosia Conference Centre in the UN protected area.

**Security Council

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s initiative to withdraw the Israeli military and settlements from the Gaza Strip should be welcomed by all, UN Envoy Terje Roed Larsen told the Security Council this morning.  But, Larsen added, this should be seen as a first step and made in the context of the Road Map as part of a cooperative agreement between Israelis, Palestinians and the International community.

Roed Larsen went on to say that the cautiously positive view of the situation is tempered by the grim reality that confronts both Palestinians and Israelis.  The tragic outcome of the violence, which, since last month, claimed the lives of more than 60 Palestinians and 11 Israelis, underscores the importance of the need for both parties to take immediate steps for the resumption of the peace process -– that is the only viable long-term option for both peoples.

The full text of his periodic briefing on the situation in the Middle East is available upstairs.  Council members are continuing their discussions in closed consultations.  Tomorrow is the monthly Security Council luncheon with the Secretary-General.

**Timor-Leste

Progress in Timor-Leste has been considerable, the Secretary-General says in a report to the Security Council, but it has become increasingly clear that further assistance to that country will be crucial following the end of the present mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission this 20 May.

Following a UN mission’s in-depth analysis of Timor-Leste’s requirements, the Secretary-General recommends that the Security Council extend the UN Mission in that country for a further 12-month “consolidation phase”.

During that time, he says, the Mission would function under a modified mandate, providing assistance to the country’s justice system and core administrative structures; contributing to the development of its national police; and helping to maintain security.

He suggests that the UN Mission retain 58 civilian advisers, 157 civilian police advisers, 42 military liaison officers and a security force of some 310 military personnel, including an infantry company and air support.

The Security Council will hold a public meeting on Timor-Leste on Friday. The report is available in the Spokesman’s Office.

**Sudan

A UN team has arrived in Darfur, Sudan, to assess humanitarian needs in the highly volatile region, while UN agencies are delivering and pre-positioning food and other supplies for tens of thousands of internally displaced persons they can reach.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Tom Vraalsen, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in the Sudan, who has been in the country since last week, said the parties must immediately cease hostilities, so that displaced persons and refugees in Chad can voluntarily and safely return to their homes and start to rebuild a peaceful Darfur.

In both Khartoum and Darfur, he urged the authorities to keep their promises for unimpeded access to the populations in need.  There’s a press release with more details on that.

**Georgia/Group of Friends

The “Group of Friends of the Secretary-General” ended today its third Geneva meeting... where it had been reviewing progress in the Georgian-Abkhaz peace process.

In a statement to the press, the Group of Friends said it was encouraged by the progress made –- despite the difficult situation on the ground –- in areas including political and security matters, refugee return, and economic cooperation.  A senior Georgian delegation attended the meeting and presented its position on the peace process; the Abkhaz side declined an invitation to take part.

The meeting was chaired by Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations at the UN.  And we have copies of the full press statement available in my office.

**European Union-United Nations

The European Union and the United Nations are holding a day-long meeting here at UN Headquarters, to discuss ways in which the two bodies can deal with crisis management.

Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hédi Annabi, is heading the UN side of today’s EU-UN Steering Committee talks, which focus on ways to follow up on a joint declaration, signed last September, between the Secretary-General and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, acting as the EU Presidency.  That declaration called for further practical steps to be taken to build on the momentum of positive cooperation between the UN and the EU.

**FAO/Bird Flu

More news regarding avian influenza... also known as “bird flu”.

The Food and Agriculture Organization warns that killing wild birds isn’t an appropriate measure to control the spread of bird flu and it does nothing to help prevent future outbreaks.

FAO says prevention needs to be based on a control and surveillance system to ensure that any contact between wild birds and poultry is avoided or, at least, monitored.  So far, 20 people have died from bird flu and thousands of birds have been culled.  We have more in an FAO press release available in my office.

**Democratic Republic of Congo Preparations for Truth Commission

Preparatory work is under way in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to look into past human rights abuses, as foreseen in the December 2002 peace accord.

Representatives of the international community, the Congolese authorities and civil society will be gathering from the 25th to the 28th of this month in Kinshasa to discuss the matter.  The idea is to promote a debate among national authorities and civil society about the nature and purpose of truth commissions, and how to improve on a draft law currently being considered by the Parliament.

Also from the DRC, the UN representative, William Swing, reiterated in a press encounter today that elections can still be held as scheduled in July 2005, as long as the necessary financial, technical and logistic support is available.  Press releases on both these matters are available upstairs.

**SG Meets Permanent Representatives

The Secretary-General will meet at lunchtime today with the International Association of Permanent Representatives to the United Nations, in a gathering hosted by Spain’s Ambassador, Inocencio Arias.  He expects to discuss with them how the events of the past year have underlined the pressing need to make the UN the most effective instrument it can be in meeting today’s threats to global security.

**UN Composition

The percentage of female staff at the United Nations Secretariat has increased, with women taking up 41.8 per cent of the posts at the UN that are subject to geographical distribution.  The Secretary-General’s report on the composition of the Secretariat notes that proportion shows a steady increase in recent years, with women occupying 38.1 per cent of such posts in 1999.

The report also notes that more than 73 per cent of UN staff come from 25 Member States.  All but 13 Member States are represented, though, in the Secretariat staff.  As of mid-June of last year, the average age of the staff was a young 46 years.

**NGO Workshop

As you know, the UN has regularly been the subject of criticism.  Some of this criticism has been inaccurate, and some of it has been justified.

For this reason, the NGO section of the UN’s Department of Public Information is holding a workshop tomorrow, titled “Defending the United Nations:  What Every NGO Should Know”.

The workshop will offer the NGO community ideas on how to explain to the UN’s critics the role that it plays in maintaining peace and security and promoting development throughout the world.

The press are invited to attend.  The workshop runs from 10 a.m. to 12 noon tomorrow.  It will be held in Conference Room 1.  And then between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. in Conference Room 8.  The morning session will be moderated by Shashi Tharoor, the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information.  And we have more on the workshop upstairs.

**Noon Guest Tomorrow

Our guest at tomorrow’s noon briefing will be Major-General Lalit Mohan Tewari, the outgoing Force Commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.  And he will be joining us here.  His tour of duty ended yesterday and he will give us a wrap-up briefing.

**Treaties

Finally, news on treaties:  Yesterday, France became the fiftieth country to express its consent to be bound by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.  With that ratification, the Convention will now enter into force on May 17.

That’s all I have for you.  Mohamed?

Questions and Answers

Question:  Fred, when will Dr. Brahimi brief the Secretary-General about developments in Iraq?  My first question.  And my second question is, could you please give us the names and nationalities of Iraq’s friends?

Spokesman:  Of?

Question:  Iraq’s friends.

Spokesman:  I think I said in my announcement that this group of friends, which is a self-selecting group, will not be made available until tomorrow morning.  And that is because it’s kind of increasing by the minute.  On your first question, Mr. Brahimi will be flying back to New York today, arriving quite late in the day, and he will not be able to see the Secretary-General before tomorrow morning.  So, they are expected to meet before this friends meeting takes place at 10 o’clock tomorrow morning.  Yes?

Question:  To follow that:  Does the Secretary-General then still hope to issue his recommendations before he leaves for Japan?  And if so, what kind of a deadline would that be?

Spokesman:  I think until he and Mr. Brahimi talk, it would be premature for me to guess.  I think, although he said yesterday morning his intention was to try to get this done before he leaves for Tokyo on Friday morning, that matter is under review and we’ll have to see.  It will be a bit of a challenge to get this done before he goes on Friday morning.  And we’ll have to see, after his meeting with Mr. Brahimi tomorrow morning, how they plan to handle it.

Question:  Has the Secretary-General already met with the security team?  There are two teams coming back from Iraq.

Spokesman:  No.  I think he will probably meet with the entire team that Mr. Brahimi headed, the political part, and the technical part on elections, tomorrow afternoon.

Question:  Last week, I think it was, you said Louise Arbour was on the short list of candidates for the Human Rights Commissioner’s job.  What’s the status of that now?

Spokesman:  I think the Secretary-General told you yesterday coming into the building that he expects to make an announcement very soon.  And as soon as we are ready to make it, we will.  But I have nothing to tell you now.  Yes?

Question:  Will the decision be made after Mr. Brahimi has met with the Secretary-General, concerning the elections?

Spokesman:  What I said or I hoped to say to you is that we won’t know until that meeting how they plan to proceed.  I can’t predict what will be decided at that meeting.  We will have to wait to see what comes out of that meeting.

Question:  What time will he go back?

Spokesman:  For Mr. Brahimi to go back to Iraq?

Question:  Yes.

Spokesman:  No plans at the moment, no.  Yes?

Question:  Haiti is appealing for foreign help and you mentioned yesterday that a UN team has been on the ground there for eight days.  Can you give us a status report on their activities?

Spokesman:  I believe that they are expected to return from Haiti at the end of this week, and that they will be submitting a report to the Secretary-General.  It was originally planned, I think, as a general fact-finding mission.  But in light of the current humanitarian emergency, it has narrowed its focus on the humanitarian needs of Haiti.  And I think, as I mentioned to you yesterday, it has been actively engaged in trying to negotiate a humanitarian corridor through Gonaives into the northern part of Haiti.  I have not heard from them today.  But as of yesterday, they had not yet been successful in that.

Question:  Is the Secretary-General planning any further initatives with regard to Haiti?

Spokesman:  Only what he said yesterday, that he was thinking of ways of increasing the UN’s involvement, primarily on the humanitarian side, and on the political side, ways of supporting the efforts of CARICOM and the OAS.

Thank you very much.

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