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 Stéphane Dujarric, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon. 

**SG Leaves Indonesia

Starting off with the Secretary-General’s travels, he has now completed his programme in Indonesia, and is on his way to India today, where he is expected to arrive shortly.

Before leaving Jakarta, where he attended the Asian-African Summit, he held 12 bilateral meetings on the Summit’s sidelines on Saturday.  Those meetings included President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Senior Genearal Than Shwe of Myanmar, President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir of Sudan, as well as President Hu Jintao of China.  The Secretary-General also held a press conference on Saturday, and that transcript is available upstairs.

On Sunday, he was in Bandung taking part in the Golden Jubilee commemoration of the 1955 Asian-African Conference, which took place in that city.

**Statement on Lebanon

I now have a statement on Lebanon:

“The Secretary-General is dispatching today a team to verify whether there has been a full and complete withdrawal of all Syrian troops, military assets and the intelligence apparatus from Lebanon in keeping with Security Council resolution 1559 (2004). 

“The deployment is pursuant to an agreement reached between the United Nations and the Governments of Syria and Lebanon.  He expects those Governments to cooperate fully with the mission and provide it with the necessary support and assistance to carry out its task.

“The Secretary-General has asked the mission to complete its work as soon as possible.  He will present the findings of the verification team to the Security Council in a report that will supplement the information in his upcoming report on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1559 which is expected to be released on 26 April.”

And the statement is available upstairs.

Also, as we mentioned last week, a five-person advance team will be travelling to Lebanon tomorrow.  And that is in preparation for the work of the commission that will be looking into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.  This team is not beginning the investigation.  Rather, they will be working on logistics, security and administrative issues

**Togo Statement

Yesterday afternoon, we issued a statement on the elections in Togo. The statement was issued before incidents of violence were reported in certain parts of the capital Lomé, after the voting had ended.

In the statement, we said that the Secretary-General welcomes the peaceful and orderly manner in which the Togolese people turned out in large numbers to cast their votes.  The Secretary-General also appeals, once again, for calm and urges the parties to refer any electoral disputes to the appropriate authorities as provided for by the Togolese Electoral Code.  And we have full copies of the statement upstairs.

**Security Council

Turning to the Security Council -- Council members today began an open meeting at 10 a.m. for briefings by the chairmen of some of the Council’s subsidiary bodies.  The briefings are by the Chairmen of the Committee established pursuant to Resolution 1267 concerning Al-Qaida and the Taliban; the Committee established pursuant to Resolution 1373, concerning counter-terrorism; and the Committee established pursuant to Resolution 1540, which deals with the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

**Burundi

A note on Burundi.  The Regional Initiative Summit on Burundi ended in Uganda last Friday, with Heads of State endorsing a further extension of Burundi’s transitional period until 26 August.

In a statement delivered to the Summit on Friday, on behalf of the Secretary-General, UN Special Representative for Burundi, Carolyn McAskie, said the Secretary-General thanked to the courageous efforts played by the Chairman and members of the Regional Initiative, as well as by the Facilitation.  The peace process in Burundi is approaching what we hope will be its final stages, despite recurring delays.  And we have this statement available upstairs.

**DRC - Support for National Troops

On the Democratic Republic of the Congo, peacekeepers from the UN Mission in the DRC are providing support to troops from the DRC’s national army in an operation in the Ituri district, in the country’s north-east.  The peacekeepers were informed on Sunday that the national army troops were under attack by militia members in Kagaba, and the militia included women and children.

The UN troops are currently in the town to ensure that the militia members are flushed out and that the national army forces are in control there.  Peacekeepers from the contingents of Pakistan, Nepal, Morocco and Bangladesh are taking part in the operation.

**Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, the UN Mission in that country reports that, to date, nearly 50,000 Afghan military forces personnel have been disarmed.  In addition, almost 44,000 Afghans have qualified for reintegration benefits since the Afghan Government’s New Beginnings Programme -- which is supported by the UN Mission and the UNDP -- started in October 2003.  And we have more news from Afghanistan in notes upstairs.

**Crime Congress

A couple of more items, the eleventh UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice ended today in Bangkok.  During the Congress, the Firearms Control Protocol of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime entered into force, after Zambia became the fortieth nation to ratify the protocol.

The Congress also adopted the Bangkok Declaration, in which Member States reaffirmed their readiness to improve international cooperation in the fight against crime and terrorism at the multilateral, regional and bilateral levels, in areas including extradition and mutual legal assistance.  We have more information on that upstairs.

**ESCAP

Also on Friday, we flagged to you the release of the 2005 Economic and Social Survey for Asia and the Pacific.

Today the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific launched the report officially in Bangkok, with the Commission’s Executive Secretary, Kim Hak-Su, saying that the region was “experiencing a year of shocks” -- such as the tsunami and bird flu.

**Korea Flu

And on the bird flu, the recent outbreak in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has been successfully contained, the Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, said today.  A so-called H7 strain of the bird flu virus had been detected recently on three poultry farms near the capital Pyongyang.  Although this virus caused severe disease in chickens, it is not directly related to the other strain of the virus circulating in other parts of Asia.

FAO has now urged the country to continue surveillance on the affected farms and elsewhere to ensure that no residual infection remains.  And we have a press release on that upstairs.

**Africa Malaria Day

And lastly, today is Africa Malaria Day 2005, and commemoration activities are focusing on forming partnerships to fight the disease -- which kills nearly a million African children under five each year, more than any other single sickness.  The driving force behind the day is the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, which was launched in 1998 by the World Health Organization,UNICEF, the UN Development Programme, as well as the World Bank.

And I think that’s it from me, unless you have any questions?

Yes?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Stéphane, who will lead the new team going tomorrow to Lebanon?

Associate Spokesman:  The verification team?  It will be led by Brigadier General Elhadji Mouhamadou Kandji of Senegal, who is currently the Deputy Military Advisor in DPKO, and he will be assisted by Colonel Ian Sinclair of the UK, who is currently the COS of the UN peacekeeping mission in Cyprus, as well as Commander Kari Olavi Makinen of Finland, who currently works in the Missions Operations Service of DPKO.

Question:  Who is Mr. Quarterlands who is supposed to lead another team?

Associate Spokesman:  That is the team I mentioned to you which is focusing on the logistics and administrative preparations for the Hariri commission’s work.

Question:  And what is the nationality of Mr. Quarterlands?

Associate Spokesman:  I don’t have the nationality.  We can talk later. [The Associate Spokesman later said that this was an administrative team and that the names would not be released.]

Question:  I have another question.

Associate Spokesman:  Yes?

Question:  Regarding Mr. Satari.  He has been invited by President Bush to his ranch yesterday for the weekend.  Is there any plan to meet with the SG?

Associate Spokesman:  Not that I am aware of.  But I can check after the briefing.  Yes?

Question:  Do you know what time the Lebanon report will come out tomorrow?

Associate Spokesman:  We expect the Council members to receive it hopefully sometime in the morning.  But, hopefully, we’ll know more about it in the afternoon.  Yes, Massoud?

Question:  You have got this timeline on Mr. Strong, I saw that.  You did not answer the question that I asked, when he was employed at that time, according to your assistant press officer, was he removed or resigned?  Was he charged with something when he left the UN?

Associate Spokesman:  Not that I am aware of, but we can see what’s available in the files.

Question:  Okay.  And also, I asked about this: can UN officials serve on the board of directors of various firms or corporations… (Interrupted)?

Associate Spokesman:  I have upstairs for you the staff regulations dealing with when actually employed staffers.  That is all public information.  We can share that with you upstairs.

Question:  They can serve on...(Interrupted)?

Associate Spokesman:  No, I said you can look at the rules, because they are all different depending on what position people have.  So, we’ll go upstairs and take a look at the rules.

Question:  Okay.  And what about the taxes question that you said was going to be answered in Mr. Strong’s timeline?

Associate Spokesman:  Which tax question?

Question:  While he had another position at UNDP, where he was being paid another $200,000 and...(Inaudible) Under-Secretary?

Associate Spokesman:  His tax issue is a question you should ask him.  I can’t speak for what taxes he pays and doesn’t pay.

Question:  And this one you’ll check?

Associate Spokesman:  Yes.

Yes, Mr. Abbadi?

Question:  On Togo, there are indications that a lot of violence has taken place during and after the elections.  Obviously, the statement by the Secretary-General praising the fashion in which these elections took place was premature.  Why was the statement issued before the facts were in?

Associate Spokesman:  Well, I don’t think the statement was premature.  The statement was issued at a point where violence had not yet occurred.  One can’t predict when violence does, will or will not occur.  Obviously, we have updated what the general sentiments are and the Secretary-General has appealed for calm.

Question:  On the borders of Eritrea and Ethiopia, there is a lot of violence on people, as far as 40 or 42 people killed, according to some sources.  Do you have any further information?

Associate Spokesman:  No.  But I’ll be happy to check for you.

Per?

Question:  On the Volcker investigation, to what extent did his investigators have complete unsupervised access to hard copies of documents in Kofi’s office?

Associate Spokesman:  The investigators had complete, unfettered access to all the computers -- hard drives, e-mails, network drives    in all the computers in the executive and in every office on the Secretary-General’s floor.  They also had direct and unfettered access to all hard files kept in what we call the central filing unit where all documents are kept; all 30^th floor documents are kept.  So, they did not need permission and there was a protocol signed.  They had unsupervised access, shall we say, to those files.

Additionally, every staff member was ordered to turn over any personal files they had relating to the oil-for-food programme, and a list was kept of people who had turned in whatever additional personal files they may have had.  And of course, the Volcker people had access to everyone on the SG’s staff, including the Secretary-General.

Question:  Well, what about access to hard copies of files and documents in Kofi’s personal office?

Associate Spokesman:  They had access to every piece of paper and every person on the 38^th floor.

Question:  So, they went in Kofi’s personal office and said “I want to look at these documents, those drawers”, etcetera?

Associate Spokesman:  I don’t know physically, how they worked, and I think you’d have to ask them.  But I know they had, as far as we’re concerned, they had access to every piece of paper and every person on the 38^th floor.

Question:  Because we’re getting different versions of events here.  So, ...(Interrupted).

Associate Spokesman:  I think the Volcker committee have said clearly that they have gotten full cooperation and full access to UN staff and UN documents.

Question:  But did they actually walk into Kofi’s personal office, without supervision, to look for documents, whatever documents they were?

Associate Spokesman:  I can’t answer that because I don’t know the answer to that.  But what I do know is that they had absolute, direct and unfettered access to all files, all documents, electronic hard drives, hard copies and to people for interviews.

Question:  Can you find out if they actually walked into his personal office to check hard documents?

Associate Spokesman:  I have the information I have.  If I can get anything else, we’ll see.

Yes?

Question:  Last week in the speech that he gave to the Information Committee, Mr. Shashi Tharoor candidly admitted that the United Nations’ image has been at an all time low and in fact that he is tacitly admitting that the UN DPI failed to do anything about it.  Can you tell me whether his speech which he gave -- which was supposed to be vetted -- was it vetted by Mr. Mark Malloch Brown or the Secretary-General?

Associate Spokesman:  I don’t know.  We’ll ask Mr. Tharoor.  Yes, Mark?

Question:  I just wondered if there is an update on Benon Sevan and what was happening with him?

Associate Spokesman:  Not since I last..., I don’t have the note in front of me, but I think you asked me a question or somebody asked me a question a couple of weeks ago, and I’d said his extension expired some time soon.  I’d have to check the days, but I mentioned too, a couple of days ago.

Question:  Right.  But did you actually have the date to when his extension expired?

Associate Spokesman:  Yes, I did have the date.  I said I just don’t have it in front of me.  Yes?

Question:  So, is Mr. Strong going to come?  You said last week that there is a possibility he was going to present himself here?

Associate Spokesman:  I don’t know.  We’ll see. I haven’t heard anything else.  But, we’ll check.

Thank you.

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