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 Stephane Dujarric, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

If I could ask any of you if you have cell phones to please turn them off, because they interfere with the PA system here.

**Secretary-General-Oslo

Starting out with the Secretary-General who, as you know, is in Oslo today at a donors’ meeting on Sudan.  He urged donors to give, and give generously, to support the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for Sudan.

The Secretary-General said that the United Nations has identified $2.6 billion that will be required for the first two and a half years, and added, “We must remain unified in taking the next step, by giving the parties what they need to help communities recover and consolidate peace.”

The Secretary-General also noted massive shortfalls in funding for the UN humanitarian appeal that was launched five months ago for Sudan, with some $1 billion still required to meet the most immediate needs.

In his speech, copies of which are available upstairs, the Secretary-General said that the situation in Darfur remained extremely grave, with continuing abuse of the civilian population and attacks against humanitarian workers.  He said that the only route to peace in Darfur is a political settlement, with progress needed urgently on the talks in Abuja, Nigeria.

Before the speech, the Secretary-General had met jointly with Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement Chairman John Garang.

He urged both to cooperate fully with the UN Security Council resolutions on Sudan, and expressed some concern about slippage in the timetable for implementing the peace accord.  He told them that the clock was ticking on the deadline for concluding an agreement with the UN regarding the deployment of the peacekeepers in Sudan.

At a press conference he held before leaving Oslo, the Secretary-General was asked about the tendency of governments not to honour their pledges of assistance, and he quipped, “Pledges are good, but cash is better.”  He was also asked if he agreed that stronger security measures are needed for the people of Darfur, and he replied, “A hundred per cent; I agree with that.  And that’s what we’re trying to work for.”  And the transcript of that press conference is available upstairs.

**Sudan

His Special Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, and the African Union issued a joint statement late Friday on an attack in Darfur and named the perpetrators of the attack.  Those names will be sent to the Security Council sanctions committee to be brought to justice.

In his speech in Oslo today, Jan Pronk highlighted the humanitarian and development priorities that were required in Sudan.  He explained the UN system's integrated approach to development, as well as how the Comprehensive Peace Agreement might be adapted and adjusted as a model for use in Darfur.  And Pronk also emphasized the urgent need for a political settlement in Darfur.

**Sudan - Refugees

Also on Sudan, Acting UN High Commissioner for Refugees Wendy Chamberlin on Monday appealed for urgent international support to ensure that at least minimal conditions are in place in south Sudan, so that millions of uprooted people can begin returning to the devastated region later this year.

**Secretary-General in Switzerland

Prior to Oslo, the Secretary-General was in Switzerland, where he chaired the twice-yearly meeting of the heads of UN agencies, funds and programs who make up the Chief Executives Board of the UN (CEB).

The Board met in private session Saturday.  And afterwards, the members of the Board said that their discussions had focused on efforts to implement the Millennium Declaration, collaborate on conflict prevention, support African development and work towards UN reform, not just of the Secretariat but of the entire system.

**Iraq

Today, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, will brief the Security Council at 3 p.m.  He will deliver remarks in public session of the Council.  Afterwards, Council members will meet with
Mr. Qazi in closed consultations.

Qazi will be available to talk to you at the Security Council stakeout microphone after the end of the closed consultations.  And we also expect to have the statement that he will deliver in the public session available shortly after this briefing.

**Côte d’Ivoire

Turning to Côte d’Ivoire, the UN Mission in Côte d’Ivoire reports that unidentified assailants fired between 15 and 20 shots at the Mission’s headquarters in Daloa yesterday in the western part of the country.  No damage or injuries were reported and the assailants escaped.  The UN Mission informed military authorities (FANCI) in the area and investigations are continuing.  The military authorities said they would increase night patrols in the area.

The UN Mission also carried out arms inspections along the Ivorian-Guinean border over the weekend.  And more information is available from the briefing from the UN Mission.

**Deputy Secretary-General

The Deputy Secretary-General is in Stockholm today and tomorrow.

She will address a conference on “Conflict prevention and resolution:  Challenges and Change for the United Nations”, which is co-organized by Norway and Sweden in connection with the preparation of the 2005 General Assembly summit.  Embargoed copies of that speech are available.

The Deputy Secretary-General address will show that the United Nations is a more effective prevention instrument than many realize.  She will highlight measures proposed by the Secretary-General to make the UN more effective in this regard.  Those measures await decisions by world leaders in September 2005.

**Somalia

Turning to Somalia, the Secretary-General has written to the Security Council President on re-establishing the Somalia monitoring group.  Four experts are named to the group, as requested by the Council to continue investigating the implementation of the arms embargo and violations of that embargo.  The group’s mandate is contained in resolution 1587.

**Democratic Republic of Congo/Uganda

Turning to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the Court began two weeks of public hearings concerning armed attacks on the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  In June of 1999, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) filed an application with the Court, instituting proceedings against Uganda for “acts of armed aggression perpetrated in flagrant violation of the UN Charter and of the Charter of the Organization of African Unity”.  Information about the responses by the DRC and Ugandan Governments since the application was filed can be found on the Court’s Web site.

**Indonesia

A couple of more items.  An earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale, followed by five aftershocks, hit West Sumatra, in Indonesia, yesterday, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports. The epicentre was in the Indian Ocean, 105 km south-west of the city of Padang.  No casualties have so far been reported.

The provincial government has prepared food items and medicine and will send them to the affected districts.  However, according to OCHA, the stock is adequate for a short-term period only.

**Commission on Sustainable Development

Here in this Building, more than 75 government ministers with a broad range of portfolios are meeting here at UN Headquarters over the next two weeks to decide on policies and practical measures to speed up progress towards achieving the internationally agreed goals and targets related to water, sanitation and human settlements.

The meeting is the 13th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, and is its first policy-setting session since the World Summit on Sustainable Development was held in Johannesburg in 2002.  And we have a lot more information on that upstairs if you are interested.

**North Korea Flu

Concerning the Avian Influenza, known as the bird flu, an international conference on that subject ended in Paris on Friday.  The Democratic People's Republic of Korea during the meeting formally appealed to the international community for assistance in its fight against the virus.

The country has asked the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health to provide diagnostic tools and technical assistance for disease control strategies, including vaccination.  FAO experts have already been fielded to Pyongyang and are currently supporting the government in obtaining information on the extent of the outbreaks.

**Bill Clinton

Tomorrow at 8 a.m. in Studio H, President Bill Clinton, former President of the United States, will address more than three dozen media leaders from around the world, gathered in Cannes, France, at a UN-organized meeting, to explore ways they can combine their efforts to fight AIDS.  He will join the gathering through a satellite link from UN Headquarters.

President Clinton is expected to talk about his work, through his Foundation, in fighting HIV/AIDS and will exchange ideas with the media leaders who are meeting in Cannes during the world’s largest television market, as part of the Global Media AIDS Initiative (GMAI) at the invitation of the Secretary-General.

This gathering in Cannes comes 15 months after the Secretary-General brought together 22 media leaders at UN Headquarters in January of last year, to focus attention on how their companies could contribute to the fight against AIDS.  Those attending executives pledged their companies’ commitment and resources to raise public awareness and understanding about HIV/AIDS.

**HIV Children

Also on the same issue, the UNICEF today praised a plan from the Clinton Foundation that will significantly increase the number of HIV-positive children receiving anti-retroviral drugs specifically formulated for them.  We have more information upstairs.

**Press Conference Tomorrow

And lastly, tomorrow at 10:30 a.m., Ambassador Phillipe Djangone-Bi of Côte d’Ivoire will hold a press conference in this room to update you on the situation in his country.

That’s it from me.  Yes, Warren?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Stephane, John Bolton this morning at his confirmation hearings said that he and Kofi Annan had a conversation on the telephone in which Kofi Annan said “get yourself confirmed quickly”.  Can you confirm that and tell us anything more about who initiated that call and whether that’s the only conversation they’ve had, etcetera, etcetera?

Associate Spokesman:  Yes, the Secretary-General called John Bolton last week.  The Secretary-General is a courteous man.  He was reaching out to someone he may be working with closely in the future.  But we don’t want to pre-judge the outcome of the ongoing legislative process currently playing out in Washington.

Yes?

Question:  But can you confirm he said that?

Associate Spokesman:  No, I cannot confirm.  I don’t have any more information on the content of the phone call.

Question:  Is there any better elaboration on the reason for the call?

Associate Spokesman:  Better than the one I’ve just given you?

Question:  Well, reaching out to somebody he might be working with.  I mean, why not when he was nominated?

Associate Spokesman:  The Secretary-General has been on the road a lot lately.  This was a time for him to call him.  He found it was a good time for him to call Mr. Bolton.  He had also spoken to Mr. Wolfowitz when he was nominated.  So, I don’t think it’s anything that unusual.

Yes?

Question:  Under the rubric of reaching out to somebody he might be working with, I asked you on Friday whether it was standard procedure for the Secretary-General to forward a letter from a company seeking to renew a contract in a country to that country’s ambassador.  Did you get an answer for me?

Associate Spokesman:  No, not yet.  But I will try to get one for you today.

Question:  Can you find out if any action has been taken on that?  Because reading the Volcker report, it’s rather bizarre, because according to Kofi Annan himself, at that time he had no memory of meeting Elie George Massey, except once fleetingly after the Sunday Telegraph article came out.  And also at that time, when he did intervene on the company’s behalf, he believed his son wasn’t being paid by the company.  So, it would be interesting to have an explanation why he would intervene on the company’s behalf when he didn’t know of any connection he had to the company at that point.

Associate Spokesman:  I’ll try to get an answer for you on what standard procedure, if there is, to handling letters addressed to the Secretary-General.  But as for the Volcker panel itself, we’re not going to comment any more on that... (Interrupted).

Question:  But there was a rather serious allegation made in the Volcker panel that the Secretary-General had intervened on behalf of Cotecna.  Is there any follow-up being taken here?  And is there an investigation... (Interrupted)?

Associate Spokesman:  The investigation is being carried out by Mr. Volcker.  I think both the Secretary-General and Mr. Malloch Brown have answered at length on the Volcker report... (Interrupted).

Question:  On the specific allegation about the forwarding of a letter from Cotecna’s owner to the Ghanaian ambassador and the Secretary-General’s use of a UN employee to confirm that he’d done that back to Cotecna, is there any further action planned on that?  Or is that something that’s also being swept under the carpet now?

Associate Spokesman:  Nothing is being swept under the carpet, I’m just not going to comment any more about Volcker.  But I’ve heard your question.

Question:  ... (Inaudible) the Volcker inquiry, they make a serious allegation against the Secretary-General and then nothing happens.  What’s going to happen is what I am asking.

Associate Spokesman:  As you’ve seen throughout, when the Volcker reports have come out, procedures were taken against staff who have been found to violate rules.  And we’re also... (Interrupted).

Question:  Does that amount to a violation of the rules?  And if it does amount to a violation of the rules, what action is being taken... (Interrupted)?

Associate Spokesman:  I am not going to comment any more on the Volcker report from here.

Question:  Then can you find out for me whether that allegation, as published in the Volcker report, amounts to a breach of rules?  If it... (Interrupted)

Associate Spokesman:  I’ve heard your question.

Question:  ... If it does amount to a breach of rules, the second part of the question is, what action is being taken?

Associate Spokesman:  I’ve heard your question.

Yes, Mr. Abbadi?

Question:  In her speech in Stockholm on conflict prevention and resolution, the Deputy Secretary-General said that prevention is the cornerstone of collective security... (Interrupted).

Associate Spokesman:  I’m sorry; I can’t hear your question.

Question:  She said that prevention is the cornerstone of collective security.  If preventive diplomacy is so important, why wasn’t this recognized earlier?  Why weren’t enough resources devoted to this field?  And finally, why was the Centre for Preventive Diplomacy headed by Mr. James Jonah and then Alvaro de Soto eliminated?

Associate Spokesman:  The last part of your question is way before my time.  But I think preventive diplomacy is always seen as a cornerstone of conflict prevention.  I don’t think that is particularly new.  As to the resources that have been allocated, quite a large number of resources have been allocated within the Secretariat to that effect.

Question:  The Deputy Secretary-General herself recognized that there is only a limited number of staff devoted to this field and she says:  “Yet, the United Nations still lacks a dedicated mediation support unit within the Secretariat and there are just 62 Professional staff at Headquarters covering the entire field of preventive diplomacy.”  Why haven’t the resources been devoted to this field, compared, for example, to peacebuilding?

Associate Spokesman:  It’s a good question.  I’ll try to get a better answer for you than the one I have given you.

Yes?

Question:  Mr. Mark Malloch Brown has been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.  You probably saw that.  How much of an influence does he have in the United Nations at this point in time?  It seems that he is calling all the shots.  Is that... (Interrupted)?

Associate Spokesman:  Wrong.  He is the Chef de Cabinet to the Secretary-General, who remains very active.

Question:  He is more influential than the Secretary-General himself?

Associate Spokesman:  No.  Within the United Nations, he is the Chef de Cabinet and the Secretary-General is the Secretary-General.

Thank you very much.

Question:  No.

Associate Spokesman:  No?

Question:  Is anyone from the UN, UN Television, at this Cannes meeting?  Can you tell me?  Is there a contingent in Cannes from the United Nations?

Associate Spokesman:  I wish I were.  I don’t know.  I’ll find out.  [The Spokesman later said that Under-Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor is attending in AIDS/Media event.  A delegation for UNTV is also attending the MIP-TV meeting.]

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