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.  Our guest today will be Mr. Kohona, the Chief of the Office of Legal Affairs Treaty Section, who is here to brief you on the treaties that will be highlighted at the 2005 signature and ratification event during the upcoming September Summit.

**Secretary-General

The Secretary-General will be travelling to Africa this week, first to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and then to the Sudan.  In Addis Ababa, the Secretary-General will co-chair, with the African Union Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare, a pledging conference aimed at increasing support for the AU Mission in Sudan.  And that will take place on Thursday, 26 May, in Addis.  From there, the Secretary-General will travel to Khartoum, the Darfur region and then to Rumbek in southern Sudan.

The Secretary-General is returning to Darfur to see first hand one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and the progress being made in meeting the people’s needs on the ground.  By going to Darfur, he hopes to rally support for the African Union’s security presence, revitalize the AU-mediated political process and focus attention on the need to sustain the vital and massive UN-led humanitarian assistance activities under way there.

In Khartoum, the Secretary-General is expected to meet with Sudanese government officials, AU officials, as well as the UN team on the ground.  He will be travelling to Rumbek where he plans to meet with John Garang, the Chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).  And the Secretary-General is expected back at UN headquarters on 1 June.

And for your information, we’ve also asked Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the head of the Peacekeeping Department, to brief you on the pledging conference requirements.  We expect that briefing to take place before the end of the week, obviously.

**Sudan

Also on Sudan, the UN mission on the ground reports that late last week, a clash between police and merchants in Kalma camp housing internally displaced people in South Darfur, reportedly resulted in one death and nine injuries.  Following the incident, the African Union police and elements of the AU Protection Force established a 24/7 presence at the camp.  The situation appears to be calm and agencies have resumed humanitarian assistance.  The UN mission also provided reports of fighting in North and West Darfur, as well as an incident of banditry in the NubaMountains.  And more information is obviously available upstairs.

**Security Council

At 3 p.m. today, the Security Council has scheduled consultations on Burundi.  This morning, the Council met with troop-contributing countries for the UN mission in Burundi, as well as the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti.  And today is also the day of the monthly Security Council luncheon with the Secretary-General.

**World Health

And now a statement on world health:

“The Secretary-General welcomes a decision by the World Health Assembly to adopt the International Health Regulations 2005, a measure that is among his recommendations in the “In Larger Freedom” report.  This decision marks a watershed for global public health and will help the World Health Organization to further advance its mandate, the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health, amid the challenges of the new millennium.  Few challenges reflect the increasing interdependence of all States, rich and poor, and weak and strong, so vividly as the spread of infectious disease.  Our experience with SARS, the avian flu and Marburg virus leave no doubt as to how rapidly infectious disease can traverse borders, oceans and continents, and compromise rudimentary and modern health systems alike.

“In adopting the new regulations, the Assembly has taken a bold and necessary step towards enhancing international cooperation in promoting and protecting global public health from all diseases’ risks, irrespective of origin and source.  It also recognizes that our multilateral institutions are fully capable of adapting to new threats and challenges.  And in recognizing that successful implementation of the regulations will require States to develop effective national capacities, the Secretary-General reiterates his call to all Governments to devote greater attention and resources to building public health infrastructure, and to donors to assist developing countries in doing so.”  And the statement is available upstairs.

**Afghanistan

As you may have already seen over the weekend, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Afghanistan, Jean Arnault, issued a statement in Kabul on the abuses of Afghan prisoners by international forces.  He said the circumstances involving the abuse were deeply disturbing and that such treatment was utterly unacceptable and an affront to everything the international community stood for in Afghanistan.  He added that the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission should be given access to prisons, including Coalition facilities.  And we have available upstairs the full text of Jean Arnault’s statement, as well as the briefing notes from Kabul, which mention that nearly 56,000 former combatants have now been disarmed.

**Zambia

James Morris, the Secretary-General’s Special Humanitarian Envoy for Southern Africa, was in Zambia today.  This is the first stop of an 11-day four-nation regional tour.  The food security issue in Zambia is very serious this year after three years of already severe problems related to food security, HIV/AIDS and the weakened capacity of the government response to these crises.  Morris’ efforts centres on refocusing attention on this terrible humanitarian crisis in southern Africa.

**FAO

Couple more reports.  In a new report, the Food and Agriculture Organization says that armed conflicts are now the leading cause of world hunger, with the effects of HIV/AIDS and climate change not far behind.  The report says that the goal of reducing the number of the world's hungry by half by the year 2015 is almost certain to be missed by a wide margin if the current trends persist. 

**Rwanda Tribunal

Lastly, the Judges at the annual plenary meeting of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda over the weekend elected Judge Erik Møse of Norway to a second two-year term as President of the Tribunal, which sits in Arusha.  Judge Arlette Ramaroson of Madagascar was elected Vice-President. 

**Press Conferences

And just to flag a couple of press conferences for you, this afternoon at 1:15, Goodluck Diigbo the President of the Partnership for Indigenous People’s Environment, will be here in room S-226.  At 3 o’clock, the Native Women’s Association of Canada will also have a briefing on the violence against indigenous women in Canada.  And we have a list upstairs also of four press conferences taking place tomorrow.  And we’re also hoping that Carolyn McAskie will also be able to brief you on the latest developments in Burundi at some point later today, and we’ll keep you informed on that.  Any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  One housekeeping issue, I don’t know how you can have that many press conferences today and tomorrow and why people don’t advise, especially the NGOs who travel very far and would like to get a hearing.  I find it outrageous because these stories don’t write themselves and half will go unheard today. 

Secondly, on Afghanistan the debate seems to have shifted with the United States accusing Karzai of not having done enough on drugs, to eradicate poppy cultivation, but also about the Afghan Government upset, as one would expect, about alleged torture and proven torture of prisoners there.  Does the UN fit in this anywhere? 

Associate Spokesman:  On the cases of torture, I think Mr. Arnault spoke over the weekend.  I’ve got nothing to add on that.  On the poppy, the information we have from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime this time does not suggest that President Karzai is any less committed than he was before to eliminating opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, and UNODC officials are working closely with US and Afghan officials in Afghanistan on that.

Question:  What about this pile-up of press conferences?

Associate Spokesman:  We’ll look into it.

Question:  Also on Afghanistan, it seems the Italian aid worker was kidnapped because they’re trying to get some help for the Afghans who have been growing poppies.  Does the UN have any comment on that?  I know Arnault made a statement but anything on her?

Associate Spokesman:  I’ll check when we get back upstairs on whether we have anything on her case.

Question:  Also, a little bird told me the Western Sahara Special Representative will be named this week.  Is that true?

Associate Spokesman:  I’d love for that bird to tell me because -- I’ll check.

Question:  Over the weekend, Mark Malloch Brown gave a pretty unusual graduation speech in which he said the US was an ungainly giant that only plays by its own rules and otherwise he was pretty critical of the United States, although he also did say some conciliatory thing.  It seemed unusual.  Is there a new strategy upstairs to really start going after the US a little more in responding to these critics in a way that breaks this certain unwritten rule of not calling out Member States on the carpet in such a public way?

Associate Spokesman:  I think Mr. Malloch Brown’s speech was given in the capacity he still has for a couple more weeks, as the Chief Administrator of UNDP, and was aimed at a graduating class of lawyers.  His message was, to these young American lawyers, the global system we have, the globalization, what we do need are more laws to regulate this international commerce across borders, and he was encouraging them to get involved and to follow in the footsteps of other great American legal scholars who’ve provided the base for the League of Nations, the United Nations Charter and the Declaration of Human Rights.  And I think that was the thrust of his message.

Question:  Is he becoming the Secretary-General’s attack dog a little bit?  He’s really been very outspoken against the United States.

Associate Spokesman:  I would not agree with that characterization.  I think if you saw his presentation to the House International Relations Committee, you would have seen that it was very full, complete and very respectful, and he engaged the US congressmen in a very active debate.

Question:  I think the message was “stop waving a big stick”.

Associate Spokesman:  I think the theme is for all Member States, and the US included, to be engaged in multilateral institutions.  Thank you very much.

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