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.

**Guest at Noon

Joining us today is Kalman Mizsei, the Director of the UN Development Programme’s Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.  He’ll be talking to you about the expansion of the European Union and its implications for development in the region.

**Security Council

The Security Council this morning has been holding consultations on Haiti.  Council members received a briefing on the Secretary-General’s recent report from Hocine Medili, who led a recent UN assessment mission to Haiti.  That report had recommended a UN peacekeeping mission of up to 6,700 troops, as well as more than 1,600 civilian police.

Council members also heard from the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser, John Reginald Dumas, who provided an update on political, security, economic and social developments in Haiti.

They went on to discuss the text of a draft resolution on the establishment of a UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti.

The Council may go into a formal meeting after consultations adjourn to consider that draft resolution.

The Council is also scheduled to hold formal meetings to consider a presidential statement on Côte d’Ivoire and on Kosovo.  It is expected to discuss the statement on Kosovo under “other matters” in today’s consultations.

**Sudan

The UN High-Level Mission to the Sudan, led by World Food Programme head James Morris, continued its work in Darfur today.  Teams led by Morris and by Ambassador Tom Eric Vraalsen visited camps in Darfur, and are scheduled to fly back to Khartoum later today.

Meanwhile, a UN human rights team which has been conducting a separate visit to Darfur is expected to return to Geneva this weekend, and to report to acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan next week.

While on the topic of the Sudan, the UN refugee Agency reports that hundreds of Sudanese refugees have crossed back into their homeland after fleeing raids by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army on refugee settlements in Uganda.

So far, the raids have displaced more than 25,000 refugees in northern Uganda.  We have a press release on that.

**Quartet

In London, the UN’s Middle East Envoy Terje Roed-Larsen joined his colleagues from the European Union, Russia and the United States to prepare for Tuesday’s Quartet meeting.

The meeting on Tuesday morning will be hosted by the Secretary-General in his office on the 38th floor.  The attendees, in addition to the Secretary-General, will be US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowan, EU High Representative Javier Solana, and EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten.

Following the meeting, there will be a press conference at which the Secretary-General will read out a statement.

**Secretary-General on Group of 77

The Secretary-General yesterday afternoon celebrated the fortieth anniversary of the Group of 77 coalition of developing nations, but he also warned that overall the world has become a much more unequal place than it was 40 years ago.

He says that, if there is anything that the past four decades have taught us, it is that opportunities for development need to be more evenly distributed.  We have copies of his remarks upstairs.

**Thailand

The acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, today called on Thailand to carry out swift and transparent investigations into the killings that took place on Wednesday in the south of the country.  At least 112 people, including five police officers and soldiers, are said to have died that day in clashes between law enforcement officers and assailants.

Ramcharan also urged that immediate measures be taken to ensure full respect for the human rights of all concerned, including those detained following Wednesday’s confrontations.

**Tajikistan

The Secretary-General says that the UN peace-building office in Tajikistan is continuing to make an important contribution to that country’s post-conflict transition, and he says that he intends to continue its work for another year, until 1 June 2005.

In a letter to the Security Council, which we have upstairs, the Secretary-General writes that the viability of Tajikistan’s peace process will be tested by parliamentary elections in early 2005.

**Deputy Secretary-General Travels to Italy and Switzerland

Next week, the Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Fréchette, will be travelling to Italy and Switzerland.

She will first attend the official launch of the Global Compact in Rome.  This is an initiative by the Italian Government, the International Labour Organization and the private sector within the framework of the Secretary-General’s 1999 Global Compact to gather the world of business and labour around universal principles on human rights, work norms and environmental protection.

On Wednesday, Ms. Fréchette will visit the UN System Staff College in Turin, where she is the President of the Board.

And finally on Friday, she will be in Geneva to address the first-ever global meeting of the staff of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, known as UNAIDS.

**UNODC/Vatican

Out of Vienna, Antonio Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has completed a visit to the Vatican where he had an audience with His Holiness, Pope John Paul II.

Costa thanked the Pope for his Message of Peace delivered on 1 January this year, which, among other things, stressed the importance of justice, and the universal principle of United Nations work.

Following the audience with the Pope, Costa met with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, for an exchange of views and prospective collaboration in the prevention and treatment of drug abuse and crime.

Their discussion included possible cooperation between UNODC and Catholic charities around the world.  And we have more on this meeting in a release in my Office.

**UNHCR

The UN refugee agency today expressed its concern at yesterday’s European Union legislation on asylum, which it warned may lead in practice to breaches of international refugee law.

The Asylum Procedures Directive, agreed to yesterday in Luxembourg, contains no binding commitment to satisfactory procedural standards, and could allow States to adopt or continue worst practices in determining asylum claims, UNHCR says.

UNHCR details its concerns in today’s briefing notes, which also announces that Russia’s Memorial Human Rights Centre has been named this year’s winner of the Nansen Refugee Award.  That Award is given annually to individuals or organizations that have distinguished themselves in work on behalf of refugees.

**World Press Freedom Day - Preview

We have a reminder that the UN’s Department of Public Information will be observing World Press Freedom Day -– which is coming this Monday.

The first part of the observance starts at 10 a.m., in Conference Room 2, with statements from the Secretary-General, as well as from the director of UNESCO’s New York office and the President of the UN Correspondents Association.

It will be followed by a panel discussion at 10:50 a.m. on the topic: “Reporting and Under-reporting:  Who Decides?”

The panel will be made up of representatives from the media, NGOs and the UN.  And the Under-Secretary-General for Communication and Public Information, Shashi Tharoor, will be the panel moderator.

We have more information on Monday’s observance upstairs.

**Guest at Noon – Monday

The head of the UN’s Electoral Assistance Division, Carina Perelli, will be our guest at the noon briefing on Monday.  And that’s in response to your request.

She will be discussing her work in Iraq.

**Press Conferences – Today

Press conferences:  This afternoon at 1:15 p.m., Børge Brende, Chair of the Commission on Sustainable Development, will give a wrap-up on the outcome of the Commission’s twelfth session.

And at 3:30 this afternoon, the French Minister of Ecology and Sustainable Development will be here to brief you.

**The Week Ahead at United Nations

We have the Week Ahead for you to help you following your coverage of the UN next week.

**SG on Reported Abuses of Iraqi Prisoners by US Guards in Abu Ghraib Prison

And then, I was asked in this briefing yesterday and asked again this morning by a few journalists for the Secretary-General’s reaction on reported abuses of Iraqi prisoners by US guards at the Abu Ghraib prison; and I can say the following:

“The Secretary-General was deeply disturbed by the pictures of Iraqi prisoners being mistreated and humiliated by their guards in the Abu Ghraib prison.  He hopes that this was an isolated incident and welcomes what appears to be a clear determination on the part of the US military to bring those responsible to justice, and to prevent such abuses in the future.  In all circumstances, and in all places, the Secretary-General is strongly opposed to the mistreatment of detainees.  He reiterates that all detainees should be fully protected in accordance with the provisions of international human rights law.”

That’s all I have for you.  Any questions?  Yes, James?

**Questions and Answers

Question:   I have a few questions, Fred.  One is if you specifically have any comments on the developments in the BakassiPeninsula?

Spokesman:  Is that a reference to an earlier press briefing in this room?

Question:   I assume you don’t have any? 

Spokesman:  I have nothing on Bakassi today.

Question:   The second question is:  In that statement you just read, the last sentence talking about detainees should benefit from international humanitarian law.  Is that a veiled reference to Guantanamo?  I mean, the way it’s phrased, “... in all places and at all times...”, it suggests that there is a veiled reference in there to Guantanamo.

Spokesman:  I don’t think there is a veiled reference.  “...all places and at all times” kind of speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

Question:   There is no veiled reference to Guantanamo, is that right?

Spokesman:  It would apply to every place in the world where detainees are kept.  And that would include Guantanamo.

Question:   Third question I have is, Edward Mortimer in a piece in the Wall Street Journal today about the oil-for-food scandal and the UN’s view of the oil-for-food scandal, and in there he said that Saddam underpriced his oil allowing for premiums that could then be kicked back to people.  Isn’t it a fact that it wasn’t Saddam who priced the Iraqi oil, it was the United Nations oil overseers, subject to approval by the 661 Committee who priced Iraqi oil?  And that if the oil was underpriced, it was the UN underpricing the oil; not Saddam underpricing the oil?

Spokesman:  I would refer you to Edward Mortimer on that.  He can explain why he worded his article in that way rather than get into a technical discussion with you here, where I might quickly get in over my head.

Question:   I have one other question, a follow-up on that, which is:  As you know, there were three oil overseers setting the oil price originally.  It went down at one point for more than a year to one oil overseer, a Russian who was called Alexander Kramer.  Can you tell us where Alexander Kramer is now?  Can you find out for us?

Spokesman:  I will try to find out for you, sure.  Yes, Susie?

 Question:  I wonder what more you could tell us about the letter the Secretary-General wrote to Yasser Arafat?  Why it was written and anything more about the contents?

Spokesman:  It was written in response to a letter that he received from Arafat.  There was some media reporting commenting on the hard line taken in that letter.  But there is nothing in that letter that isn’t consistent with the line of the Quartet, which, in fact, is a hard line, but it’s a hard line delivered to both the Israelis and the Palestinians.  So, there is no departure in content or tone from past statements as far as that letter goes.

Okay, then I am going to turn, if we’re all done.  I wish you a happy weekend.  But first, I’ll turn the podium over to Kalman Mizsei.  Welcome, sir.

Mr. Mizsei:Thank you very much, Fred.

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