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

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Marie Okabe, Associate Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon. 

**Guest at Noon

Our guest today is Under-Secretary-General Anwarul Chowdhury, Secretary-General of the Mauritius International Meeting to Review the Implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States.  Mr. Chowdhury will update you on the preparatory negotiations on small islands that are being held this week and will answer questions about the Mauritius conference.

I’ll turn the floor to him immediately after my briefing.

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

I’ll start with a statement, attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on Uganda.

The Secretary-General welcomes the announcement made on 14 April by President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, in which he reiterated his readiness to talk with the leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), either directly or through intermediaries, in order to reach a peaceful resolution of the conflict in northern Uganda.

The 18-year conflict has had devastating consequences for innocent civilians, particularly children, and all efforts must now be made to ensure a rapid and definitive end to the violence in the area.  The Secretary-General calls on the Lord’s Resistance Army to refrain from any further acts of violence against civilians and to respond positively to President Museveni’s call for dialogue.  He urges all those with influence over the Lord’s Resistance Army to encourage it to enter into a dialogue with the Government, for the sake of peace.

The Secretary-General also calls upon the international community to continue to support efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to affected civilians.

**Secretary-General

The Secretary-General last night met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, at the residence of British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, and they discussed, among other topics, Iraq, the Middle East and Cyprus.

Speaking to reporters afterward, the Secretary-General agreed with the Prime Minister that a new Security Council resolution on Iraq may be necessary as we move forward, and added that he hoped that all Member States would cooperate.  He said that he believes all sides have a common objective of doing whatever can be done to ensure that there is peace and stability in Iraq.

Asked about the Israeli plan to withdraw from Gaza, he said that withdrawal should be seen as a first step, because “we also have to deal with the issue of the West Bank”, and he hoped that further action would be done in the context of the diplomatic Quartet’s Road Map.

We have transcripts of their press encounter upstairs.

**Iraq

The electoral team headed by Carina Perelli, Director of the Electoral Assistance Division, left earlier Iraq today, and it is expected to return back to New York in the coming days to brief the Secretary-General on its work.

In comments she made to reporters in Baghdad yesterday, Perelli said that the United Nations is concerned that the security situation in the country should stabilize for elections to be held.  She also mentioned plans for an independent electoral commission, comprised of Iraqis.

**Security Council

And here at UN Headquarters, the Security Council this morning heard a briefing from U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte, who updated Council members on the work being done by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

Council members then went into closed consultations, to continue discussions on Iraq.

**Democratic Republic of Congo

According to the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more than 40 people were drowned last week and 10 more were missing after an overloaded boat sank in Lake Tanganyika in the east of the country.  The boat was travelling between two towns on the lake, which forms the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s border with Tanzania and Burundi.

Also from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UN Mission is investigating the details of a cargo plane which made an unplanned “acrobatic” landing in Bunia yesterday evening, after the airport had closed.  The plane’s crew was using forged flight licences and claimed to be transporting palm oil.  They have been held for questioning by UN officials. 

**Côte d’Ivoire

As you’ll recall, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, at the request of the Secretary-General, had established an Independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate human rights violations allegedly committed during demonstrations in Côte d’Ivoire in March.  The team arrived in Abidjan yesterday and has begun its work.  It will report to the Acting High Commissioner by the end of the month.

The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, arrived in Côte d’Ivoire yesterday as part of an initiative by the international community to support the peace and reconciliation process there.  We have copies of his arrival comments upstairs.

**UNHCR

And the UN refugee agency is appealing for funds for its cash-strapped programmes for Liberian and Sudanese refugees.  You can read more about that in a press release upstairs.

**Haiti

The head of the World Food Programme (WFP), meanwhile, who is in Port-au-Prince, has urged donors not to forget about the dire needs of the Haitian people and to increase their support for a country he described as “in danger of slipping into oblivion”.  He asked donors to urgently come forward with $8 million to support the provision of emergency food rations for the most vulnerable sectors of the population.  And you can read more about that in a press release.

**ICTY Letter

Out on the racks today is an exchange of letters between the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council, noting the appointment of Lord Iain Bonomy of the United Kingdom, to replace Judge Richard May on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.  May, who is also British, resigned for health reasons, effective on 31 May.

**ESCAP Annual Survey

The economies of the developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region grew 6 per cent last year, up from the previous year, while inflation was kept in check at low levels throughout most of the region.

The economic growth was faster than that of developing countries in other regions, and even faster than the global economy itself.  This information appears in the latest annual survey from the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

**UNEP Opens Office in Brazil

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has opened a new office in Brasilia today, which will promote cleaner and greener energy, early warning and emergency response to natural disasters.  You can read more about that in a press release.

**The Week Ahead

And for your planning purposes for next week, we have the Week Ahead at the United Nations available for you as well.

Before I turn to Ambassador Chowdhury, do you have any questions for me?  David and then CNN.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Marie, the names of the oil-for-food panel seem to be discussed everywhere but here.  Is there any announcement?  You said by the end of the week there might be some names announced.

Spokesperson:  We do not have an announcement yet, but we can confirm that three persons have been identified to serve on the independent panel that will conduct an inquiry into the “oil-for-food” programme.

They have said that they were prepared to serve on the panel.  They have indicated that a Security Council resolution would be extremely helpful for the work of the inquiry.  Security Council members are discussing the possibility of such a resolution.  The panel would not be formally announced before the Security Council members reach a decision on this point, and this is all I have to say.

Question:  Identify in this case means they’ve been selected and they’ve decided to join the panel, but now the conditionality is the Security Council.  There are three names that I’m aware of.  Is that the total extent of the panel as far as numbers? 

Spokesperson:  There are three persons who have been identified.  They are Paul Volker, former head of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank; Mark Pieth of Switzerland, an expert in money laundering for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); and Richard Goldstone of South Africa, former Prosecutor for the International Tribunals.

Question:  But the resolution from the Council is the conditionality all three have established to serve on the panel.

Spokesperson:  You would have to ask the Council members what form the ...

Question:  They have all said that the Council must endorse this through a resolution before they would agree finally to serve on this panel.

Spokesperson:  The Secretary-General passed on the fact that they have indicated that such a resolution would be extremely helpful for them to carry out this inquiry.

Question:  What would a resolution give the panel that it doesn’t have otherwise?

Spokesperson:  I have nothing further than this statement.  As I said, this was not meant to be an announcement yet.  We simply are responding to questions as a result of leaks in the press.  Yes, David?

Question:  A little bit of difference in the schedule of Brahimi.  You’ve said a number of times by the end of the month, which we’ve all taken to understand to mean not next week, but the week after.  But the Council -– even Ambassador Negroponte -– said today at the stakeout that next week they expect to hear.  Could you clarify the schedule of Mr. Brahimi in specific detail?  What is he doing now as it relates, even though he’s out of Iraq, what is he doing now that relates to Iraq?

Spokesperson:  I don’t have his exact itinerary of what he is doing now.  He left Iraq yesterday and, as far as I know, he will be coming to New York in the last week of this month, which, if you look at the calendar, is towards the end of the month.

That’s all I have.  Any other questions?  Yes, David?

Question:  Ambassador Negroponte today made a point of calling on nations to support a force that would be assigned to specifically protect the United Nations, its people and its facilities.  Has the Secretariat or the Secretary-General established minimum conditions as it relates to security as to what it would take for the international community before the United Nations returned in force?

Spokesperson:  As you know, the Secretary-General has repeatedly talked about the importance of assuring security for staff before they return in large numbers.  As this is a security matter, I can’t really go into details of what exact conditions need to be met on the ground.  But, clearly, this would have to be the responsibility of whoever is responsible for providing the security at that time.  And, as you know, we do have a security liaison assessment team on the ground, which is working on precisely what you’re talking about.

If there are no other questions, I would like to turn it over to Ambassador Chowdhury.

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