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

Our guest today will be Nicolas Michel, the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the UN’s Legal Counsel, and he will be talking to you about the Convention on Nuclear Terrorism that the General Assembly will be considering tomorrow.

**Statement on Latvian Envoy For UN Reform

We have the following statement regarding an appointment that the Secretary-General is making today:

“The Secretary-General is pleased to announce the appointment of Her Excellency Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the President of Latvia, as his Envoy for the Summit to take place in New York in September of this year.

“This completes the Secretary-General’s team of five envoys who have agreed to use their good offices to help him promote the comprehensive agenda outlined in his report “In larger freedom: towards development, security and human rights for all”.  He has placed before world leaders an agenda for action in order to move our world decisively towards important goals:  halving poverty in the next 10 years; reducing the threat of war, terrorism and deadly weapons; and advancing human dignity in every land.  He has also called for the most far-reaching reforms of the United Nations in its 60-year history.

“President Vike-Freiberga joins the other Envoys –- Their Excellencies Mr. Dermot Ahern, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ireland; Mr. Ali Alatas, the former Foreign Minister of Indonesia; Mr. Joaquin Chissano, the former President of Mozambique; and Mr. Ernesto Zedillo, the former President of Mexico.

“As Latvia’s Head of State, President Vike-Freiberga has actively supported the need for UN reform.  Elected to a second term in office in 2003, she has successfully guided her nation through a period of active reforms leading to full membership in the European Union and NATO.

“The Secretary-General wishes to express his profound gratitude to Her Excellency for having agreed to take on this challenging assignment and invest her time, energy and political wisdom in assisting him in his efforts.”

**Statement Attributable to Spokesman for Secretary-General

This statement attributable to the Spokesman regards an announcement by the European Union today:

“The Secretary-General warmly welcomes the European Union’s strong support for his efforts to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.  He is particularly heartened by the European Commission’s proposal to establish ambitious targets for providing official development assistance (ODA) -– targets that are consistent with the Secretary-General’s recommendations to the September Summit.

“These would not only trigger an estimated additional 20 billion euros by 2010; they would also bring EU countries closer to the target of ODA amounting to 0.7 per cent of their gross national income by 2015.

“The Secretary-General is also encouraged by the EU’s increasing emphasis on trade and other non-aid policies as a means of reaching the Millennium Development Goals, and by the decision of the European Union to focus on the needs of Africa.  He is confident that the September Summit will lead to a number of concrete actions, by developed and developing countries alike, to help them reach the Millennium Development Goals.”

**Sudan

Participants at a two-day donors’ conference in Oslo in support of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for Sudan, which the Secretary-General attended, pledged a total of some $4.5 billion for 2005-2007, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

As you’ll recall, in his speech in Oslo, the Secretary-General had appealed to the participants to pledge generously.  And when asked about the tendency of governments not to honour their pledges of assistance, he quipped, “Pledges are good, but cash is better.”

**Sudan - Pronk

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, today attended the second and last day of the pledging conference and in the margins of the conference, he today met with European Union representatives.  The objective was to mobilize the EU countries to support the African Union in its deployment in Darfur.  Pronk also met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick.  They discussed the situation in Sudan and U.S. support for AU deployment in Darfur. 

Pronk is heading tonight for Paris as part of a series of  visits to European capitals, to mobilize support for the AU Mission in Sudan, as well as to invite European countries to contribute military observers to the UN mission.

**Iraq - Security Council

Yesterday afternoon, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, briefed the Security Council in an open meeting.  He told the members of the Council that the new Iraqi Transitional Government will need the continued and active support of the UN, its neighbours and the international community at large.

He added that virtually all sectors of Iraqi society want the United Nations to play a larger role as the country moves forward in its political transition to writing a new constitution and holding fresh elections.  However, improved security is vital to any such expansion, Qazi added.  Qazi also stressed the imperative for all sectors to take part in the transition, especially the task of writing a new constitution.

Also speaking in the open session was Ambassador Anne Patterson of the United States who briefed on the activities of the Multinational Force, and Ambassador Sumaida’ie of Iraq who read out a statement on recent political developments in his country.

Following closed consultations, Ambassador Wang of China, speaking as President of the Security Council, said the members of the Council urged the new Transitional National Assembly to proceed without delay on the constitutional process.  They also stressed the need for that process to be as inclusive, participatory and transparent as possible.

**Iraq

Also on the issue of Iraq, a number of you have been asking us about our support for the Iraqi constitutional process.  In anticipation of an official invitation to assist in constitutional work in accordance with the Security Council resolution, we have done some preparatory work, including identification and deployment of some staff to the region.

The man who will be leading that effort is a noted South African constitutional expert, Nicholas Fink Haysom.  He has already been deployed to the region along with a small team.  We have a biographical note on Mr. Haysom upstairs.

**Lebanon

The Secretary-General’s new Personal Representative for Southern Lebanon, Geir Pedersen, arrived in Beirut yesterday to take up his duties.  Today, he paid introductory calls on senior Lebanese Government officials, including the President, the Speaker of Parliament and the Foreign Minister.

During the course of these calls, he also expressed the United Nations’ continuing concern about aerial violations of the Blue Line, noting both the Hizbollah drone that breached Israeli airspace yesterday and the most recent Israeli overflights of Lebanese territory.  Pedersen urged all parties to maintain “total calm” along the Blue Line.

**Security Council

The Security Council had on its agenda today consultations on the Central African Republic and other matters.  The Representative of the Secretary-General for the CAR, Lamine Cissé, briefed on the latest developments. A press statement on the subject was read out by Council President Wang Guangya.  A formal meeting was then held to adopt a presidential statement on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

**Greece/FYROM Talks

Matthew Nimetz, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the talks between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, issued a statement today, confirming that, on 29 March, he submitted to the parties a set of ideas for their consideration.  During the two weeks since that date, he has met with representatives of both of the parties, who have informed him of the views of their Governments.

Although Nimetz could not report that there would be an imminent breakthrough, given the continuing differences between the parties, both sides have strongly encouraged him to intensify his efforts based on the positions they have recently given him.  Discussions in future will take place through discussions between Nimetz and each of the parties separately, as well as in more formal meetings involving both parties.

**MONUC

The UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is investigating two separate incidents over the weekend for possible breaches of its policies on sexual exploitation and abuse.  In one of the incidents, Congolese police found two international civilian employees and a UN volunteer in a Kinshasa home with 13 Congolese women.  The staff involved have been suspended until the end of the investigation, which will determine whether there’s been any breach of the Mission’s Code of Conduct and of the Secretary-General’s zero-tolerance policy.

Separately, soldiers of the Mission’s Nepalese contingent, based in Ituri, have been accused of having negotiated the services of prostitutes while on a supply trip to Uganda.  We have more details on these investigations upstairs.

**Côte d’Ivoire

The UN Mission in Côte d’Ivoire reports that an arms inspection in line with UN Security Council resolution 1584 was conducted in Man today at the headquarters of the Forces Nouvelles and two of its barracks.  No anomalies were noted.  The Mission also reported that peacekeepers yesterday moved in to quell skirmishes in a village in the zone of confidence in the west of the country, and restored calm there.

**Deputy Secretary-General

As we had mentioned yesterday, the Deputy Secretary-General delivered her statement on conflict prevention in Stockholm.  She met with Hans Dahlgren, the Swedish State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and other Swedish Officials.  Her meetings focused on UN reform issues and the process leading to the September summit.

**Ethiopia

The UN World Food Programme, or WFP, warned today that the future of 3 million Ethiopians in need of food aid is in jeopardy, with malnutrition rates on the rise and funding for humanitarian operations in Ethiopia drying up.

Also, in Chad, nearly 200,000 refugees who have fled from the Darfur conflict in neighbouring Sudan risk going hungry unless donations are rapidly forthcoming.  And we have press releases on these items upstairs.

**Information/Communication

Tomorrow and Thursday, the UN task force on information and communication technologies will hold a global forum in Dublin, Ireland, to discuss how such technologies can improve education, especially in developing countries.  Among the participants at the forum will be Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs José Antonio Ocampo and the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser, Jeffrey Sachs.  We have a press release with more details on that.

This is almost coming to an end, hang on.

**Disability

The General Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee dealing with the rights of persons with disabilities is expected to elect Ambassador Don MacKay of New Zealand as its new Chair, succeeding Ambassador Luis Gallegos of Ecuador.  The election will take place at noon tomorrow in the ECOSOC Chamber, as part of the Committee's first organizational meeting for its sixth session.

**Press Conference This Afternoon

Immediately following today’s noon briefing, Ambassador Ronaldo Mota Sardenberg of Brazil will be here to brief on the Security Council’s upcoming mission to Haiti.

**Press Conference Tomorrow

Press conference tomorrow, the Secretary-General will be here to formally introduce his Special Envoy dealing with the Indian Ocean tsunami-recovery effort, former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Clinton

And continuing on Mr. Clinton, at about 1 p.m. today, UN Television will broadcast President Clinton’s address to a UN-organized meeting of dozens of media leaders from around the world to explore ways they can combine their efforts to fight AIDS.  As we told you yesterday, the meeting took place in Cannes, France, and President Clinton took part via satellite hook-up from UNTV studios early this morning.  We have a press release with more details on that upstairs.

So, before we go to Monsieur Michel, Edie?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Fred, you were talking about the Secretary-General’s welcoming of the European Union statement on his reform efforts.  Is the Secretary-General concerned about the growing antagonisms and problems with Security Council reforms, particularly the Chinese statement today that Japan isn’t ready for a permanent seat and both sides in the Model A and Model B -- well, certainly the Model B people saying that they don’t want any action before September?

Spokesman:  Well, I think he’ll just see the debate heating up, indicating that, indeed, Member States think that this year is a window of opportunity to actually achieve something on Security Council reform.  Whether they will succeed by the end of this year or not, remains to be seen.  But, the level of debate is intensifying; the volume is getting turned up.  And I think that’s a sign of seriousness.

Evelyn?

Question:  Could you elaborate on what Edie asked?  Whether the demonstrations in China have any impact here on the Japanese candidacy?  And also, the debate seems to be taking a form of “let’s do it by consensus”, which is a code word for blocking all action, because after 12 years there is no consensus, there won’t be any.

So that, as the Secretary-General said, they should be taking a vote, so that, I don’t know, do you still think that this is heating up a serious debate or just a blocking action?  Certainly the group that Italy is leading is blocking; you know, there is no consensus.  You know, the word “consensus” seems to be a way to say “don’t do anything”.

Spokesman:  Well, I don’t think the Secretary-General wants to comment on the public events in China.  He’s made his proposal.  Member States are taking it up with a vengeance.  It’s quite early in the process.  So, let’s see if some of the hard positions that you see being taken now are not merely opening positions in what will be a serious effort to reach agreement on Security Council reform by September, which is what the Secretary-General would hope would happen.

Massoud?

Question:  Following up on the same questions, has the Secretary-General been able to absorb the debate that has been going on since last week when he was away, not only about the Security Council reforms, but also on the, I mean one of the conditions that he set is it is not an à la carte menu of choices, which is exactly what it is becoming, and especially the concerns of the developing countries about the security proposal that he has made.  Does he have anything to say about those?

Spokesman:  Let’s just let the Member States try to sort it out, sort out their differences.  He does not want to comment at this time on any of those things.  Of course, he follows it very closely, including when he’s travelling.  But, it’s clearly in their hands now.

Mr. Abbadi?

Question:  The southern caucus of NGOs for sustainable development have been complaining that the Secretariat has excluded them from the list of participants and they said the Secretariat told them to go to what they called “hand-picked partners”, and they opposed that.

Do you have any comment on that?

Spokesman:  No.  But I mean, this is a perennial problem.  The number of NGOs is enormous and we have to be practical in selecting those who can actually participate in conferences.  We try to do that in a fair way.  I haven’t seen this specific complaint that you’re mentioning, but, as I say, it’s a perennial problem.

Edie?

Question:  Fred, the Pretoria Agreement on the Ivory Coast asks the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, to contact the Secretary-General and the Nigerian President, who is head of the AU on the very difficult issue of eligibility to be president.  Do you know whether President Mbeki has actually spoken to the Secretary-General on this issue?

Spokesman:  I can’t say if it was on this issue.  I know from the phone log that while the Secretary-General was travelling he spoke to President Mbeki.  I can ask if they would allow me to tell you what the subject of that conversation was, but normally those things are kept confidential.  But, I will put that question to them.

[The Spokesman later confirmed that, indeed, the subject of the Secretary-General’s phone conversation with President Mbeki was Côte d’Ivoire, but could not give details of the conversation.]

Yes?

Question:  Fred, what exactly are the criteria for the selection of the Secretary-General’s representatives to the UN reform process?  I mean, the Latvian President; Latvian authorities have been charged with systematic violations of the rights of the Russian-speaking community of the country, which makes up to 40 per cent of the population.  These people are deprived of their voting rights and they didn’t have a chance to take part in the recent municipal elections in this country.  They are non-citizens in this country – 40 per cent of the population.  How does it reconcile with the UN proclaimed principles of human rights protection?

Spokesman:  Well, that’s a profound issue that the Latvian Government is struggling with.  But the rationale for the choice of these people was laid out in my statement and I would have nothing to add to that.

Let me take Michael.

Question:  Fred, what is the next step now for talks between FYROM and Greece?  And, as I see here, the Secretary-General is going to get involved in the talks?

Spokesman:  I’d have to limit myself to the statement.  We indicated in the statement that discussions would continue bilaterally and...(interrupted).

Question:  ...it says the Secretary-General (Inaudible).

Spokesman:  I don’t think the statement says that.

Question:  That’s what it says.

Spokesman:  Well, I don’t want to argue about what the statement says.  But on these matters, which are extremely technical and complex, we limit ourselves to Mr. Nimetz’s statement and I try not to add or elucidate.  [He later stated that “under the Secretary-General’s auspices” does not necessarily mean direct involvement by the Secretary-General.]

Yes, Evelyn?

Question:  (Inaudible)... Mr. Nimetz, any way you could tell him that when he makes a statement on this, to at least do it the day that Greece has said something?  Because his statements, quite frankly to date, have been totally useless.

Spokesman:  I will relay that message.

Yes, sir?

Question:  Have the talks been productive?

Spokesman:  I’m not going to say anything beyond the statement, I am sorry.

Mr. Abbadi?

Question:  The Secretary-General has met with the Foreign Minister of Italy, Mr. Fini.  Has that covered the subject of reforms of the Security Council?

Spokesman:  I assume it did, but that took place at the residence at 11 o’clock and we haven’t received a readout of that meeting.  I’ll see if they’ll give us anything.  I also think that the Minister might have spoken to the Italian media travelling with him outside the residence after the meeting.

Question:  Yesterday, Mr. Bolton was quoted as saying that the Secretary-General called him and told him to get himself confirmed as soon as possible.  That statement could not be confirmed.  Has it been confirmed that the Secretary-General did talk to Mr. Bolton and tell him that?

Spokesman:  I think we confirmed yesterday that, indeed, the Secretary-General called Mr. Bolton.  We aren’t saying anything about what was said in that phone conversation, which was private.

Mr. Michel, please come up and talk to us about nuclear terrorism.

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