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 Marie Okabe, Associate Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

**Statement Attributable to the Spokesman on Côte d’Ivoire

I’ll start with a statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General.  It’s on Côte d’Ivoire:

“Following requests from the Monitoring Committee, as well as President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, urging the United Nations to institute an international commission of inquiry to investigate the tragic events that occurred in Abidjan on 25 March 2004, the Secretary-General has asked the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to take the lead in the establishment of such a Commission, which will commence its work as soon as possible.

“The Secretary-General expects all Ivorian authorities and political forces to extend all the necessary cooperation to this Commission.  In the meantime, he calls on all Ivorians to continue to exercise restraint and avoid any steps that could cause further deterioration in the situation in the country.”

There is more on this in today’s briefing notes from Geneva from the Human Rights Commissioner’s office.

**Security Council

Turning to New York, the Security Council this morning approved the programme of work for April and then heard a briefing on the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Darfur, Sudan.

Jan Egeland, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, who is also the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, gave that briefing.  He is scheduled to talk to you here in Room 226 following the briefing by Security Council President, Ambassador Gunter Pleuger.  Ambassador Pleuger will be here immediately after this briefing is finished.

At the stakeout microphone just a few minutes ago following consultations, Ambassador Pleuger read out a press statement on behalf of the Council on the Darfur situation.  Council members urged the parties concerned to fully cooperate to address the grave situation, to ensure the protection of civilians and facilitate humanitarian access.  They also called on the Sudanese Government and opposition groups to conclude a ceasefire and reach a political settlement.  Talks on this are ongoing in the capital of Chad, as you know.

**Sudan

Also on Sudan, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights announced in Geneva that it was in the process of fielding a fact-finding mission to look into the situation in Darfur.  The mission members would interview refugees from Darfur who are in Chad, and the Office was also seeking access to Darfur itself.  Given the urgency of the situation, the Commissioner says that the mission would deploy in the coming days.

Seven UN agencies, meanwhile, have issued a humanitarian appeal to provide immediate assistance to more than 100,000 people in eastern Chad, who had fled the conflict in Darfur.  The amount of the appeal is about $30.1 million.

The World Food Programme said that 1.2 million people were in need of food aid but the prevailing dangerous conditions were restricting access.  WFP could only reach about 300,000 people at present.  And, the UN Refugee Agency says that it is becoming increasingly urgent that additional refugee camps be set up in Chad because most of the existing sites are quickly approaching capacity.

**Security Council - Cyprus

Also at the Security Council this afternoon at 3 p.m., the Secretary-General's Special Adviser for Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, will brief the Council in an open meeting on the developments since the February 13th agreement in New York and the recently concluded talks in Bürgenstock, Switzerland.

In his statement to the Council, de Soto will outline the plan, unveiled on Wednesday, which will go to two separate referenda on 24 April. Following the open meeting, Council members will move into closed consultations to continue their discussion on Cyprus.  Alvaro de Soto will afterwards be at the Security Council stakeout microphone should you have any questions for him.

**SG in Vienna

The Secretary-General this morning was in Vienna and he opened the spring session of the Chief Executives Board, which brings together, twice every year, the heads of UN agencies funds and programs.

The World Tourism Organization is the most recent addition to the meeting, having been recently added as a UN specialized agency.

After a three-hour regular session, the members of the Board attended a luncheon hosted by International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei.  They then flew by helicopter to Baden, just outside Vienna, where they had a three-hour private discussion.

This evening, they will attend a dinner hosted by Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

**SG-Abdullah Meeting

Yesterday evening, the Secretary-General had a three-way meeting with Austrian President Thomas Klestil and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who was on an official visit to Vienna.

They discussed the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, including the humanitarian situation of the Palestinians and blockages at checkpoints that are threatening international relief aid efforts.  They also discussed efforts to make progress in the search for peace, in light of Israel’s declared intention to withdraw from Palestinian areas.

**Holkeri - Kostunica

Turning to Kosovo, Harri Holkeri, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative there, met today in Belgrade with Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.  They discussed the recent events in Kosovo, which left 19 people dead, hundreds injured and many properties damaged.

Holkeri stressed to Kostunica that the international community’s current priority is to bring the organizers of the violence to justice, and he noted that 140 arrests have already been made in connection with the riots.  We have a press release on that upstairs.

**Rwanda Tribunal

Now turning to Rwanda, or actually to Arusha, a small fire broke out early this morning at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda’s premises in Arusha, Tanzania.  The Tribunal’s security and local fire authorities acted quickly and were able to contain the flames with a minimum of damage to office documents and equipment.  There were no injuries.

Preliminary investigations have determined the cause of the fire to be of an electrical nature, but a thorough and comprehensive investigation is still under way.  As a result of the fire, trial proceedings have been adjourned until Monday.

**Zimbabwe Appeal

The United Nations is urgently seeking additional funds to meet massive humanitarian needs in Zimbabwe.  The UN’s Humanitarian Office there says that while the response in the first six months to an appeal has helped ease some of Zimbabwe’s humanitarian problems, a lot more must be done to prevent the erosion of basic services.  The funding requirements now stand at close to $100 million.  We have more details on that appeal upstairs.

**Guatemala

The UN Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) has welcomed yesterday’s announcement by the President that Guatemala will reduce the size of its army and its military budget by 50 per cent.  We have a copy of a press release from MINUGUA on this upstairs.

**DSG Travels

And yesterday, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette wrapped up four days of meetings with high-level European officials in Strasbourg and Brussels, to review and develop further areas of cooperation between the United Nations and the European Union.

She met with the European Parliament’s President, Pat Cox, and with European Commission President Romano Prodi, among other officials, and also spoke about UN reform at a forum organized by the European Policy Centre.

**Aggressive Driving Seminar

Now to an item, which at first glance perhaps seems outside of the scope of what we normally mention here, but is nonetheless an important issue.

The UN Economic Commission for Europe is holding in Geneva on Monday an International Seminar on Aggressive Driving.  It’s worth noting that road accidents cause over 120,000 deaths and 2.4 million injuries every year throughout the Economic Commission for Europe region, which includes Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and North America.  Also, the seminar will also be the launch of Road Safety Week in that region.  In addition, next Wednesday is World Health Day for Road Safety.

**The Week Ahead at the United Nations

And we have copies of The Week Ahead for other events planned for next week.

**Press Conferences Today

As I mentioned, press conferences:  immediately after I am done here, Ambassador Gunter Pleuger of Germany will be here to brief you on the April programme of work.  And at 1 p.m., Jan Egeland will be here to brief you on the situation in Darfur.  And at 1:30 p.m., Bishop Artemije of the Diocese of Prizen and Raska, and head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Metohija will be here to talk about the consequences of the latest violence in Kosovo.

**World Chronicle Television Programme

And one last item:  World Chronicle programme featuring Legweila Joseph Legweila, the UN Special Representative in Ethiopia and Eritrea will be shown today at 3:30 p.m. on in-house television channel 3 or 31.

And that’s all I have for you.  Before we call in Ambassador Pleuger, do you have any questions?  Yes, David?

Questions and Answers

Question:  The Fifth Committee today apparently asked the SG to review and re-issue a staff bulletin of January about domestic partnerships.  What is the reaction of the Secretariat to that, and will the Secretary-General consider retracting or revising his initial bulletin?

Associate Spokesman:  I have nothing further at this moment to add beyond what the Secretary-General said when he spoke on this subject when he was asked about it.  So, let me follow up.  This is the first I have heard about the action today.  [She later told the reporter that the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management, Rosemary McCreery told the Fifth that the Secretariat will carefully review the views and concerns expressed by Member States and will reissue the bulletin promptly after the review has been completed.]

If there are no more questions, let me go outside and try and get Ambassador Pleuger.  Thank you.

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