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.

**Burundi

Burundians went to the polls today for the first time in over a decade.  

They are voting in the municipal elections, which are the first in a series of four elections.  

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Burundi, Carolyn McAskie, spoke to journalists at midday, speaking on the progress of the elections so far.  While expressing satisfaction with the peaceful atmosphere in which people have been voting since early morning, she also expressed dissatisfaction over a handful of people who are bent on trying to derail the elections either by using fraud or by resorting to violence in an attempt to deter the population from expressing its vote.

Also at one polling station, a UN South African peacekeeper was shot in the head.  He is apparently in critical condition and has been medivaced to Nairobi.  We also expect the Secretary-General’s statement on Burundi a bit later.

**Other Peacekeeper Casualties

Also from the Peacekeeping Department, we’ve been informed that there were two other casualties in two different Missions.  One of the Nepalese peacekeepers who took part in the operation in Ituri, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which I referred to yesterday, has now died of his wounds.  The peacekeeper, a Major, had been leading the evacuation of troops who’d come under fire while providing security for a human rights verification team.

And also in Haiti, two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were wounded yesterday when their armoured personnel carrier they were travelling on came under fire in Haiti’s capital.  Both soldiers are said to be out of danger.

**Appointments

The Secretary-General has appointed Ambassador Kai Eide today, who’s the Permanent Representative of Norway to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as his Special Envoy to carry out a comprehensive review of Kosovo, as indicated in the Secretary-General’s recent report to the Security Council on the UN Mission in Kosovo.

There has been an exchange of letters between the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council on this appointment.  Ambassador Eide’s previous experience with the UN and his in-depth knowledge of the Balkans make him the ideal person for this endeavour.  And, the comprehensive review will be initiated this summer, in accordance with relevant Security Council resolutions. 

And the full text of the Secretary-General’s statement is available upstairs. (See SG/A/927.)

**Deputy Secretary-General’s Travels

As a continuation of her visits to peacekeeping missions, the Deputy Secretary-General will be travelling to Kosovo from June 5^th to the 7^th, to be followed by a visit to Burundi from 8^th of June to the 10^th.  The main purpose of her visits will be to reinforce the Secretary-General’s zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse for United Nations personnel and to review the status of relevant prevention and enforcement measures in each mission.

The Deputy Secretary-General has already visited the peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), Liberia (UNMIL) and Côte d’Ivoire (ONUCI) earlier this year. 

**Security Council

Turning to the Security Council, the 15 members of the Council unanimously adopted a resolution today that extends the mandate of the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as that of the French forces supporting it until June 24^th, with a view to renew it, in this specific instance, for a period of seven months.

The resolution requests that the Secretary-General, on the basis of the Pretoria Agreement, designate, as an exceptional arrangement, after consultations with the African Union and President Thabo Mbeki, a High Representative for the elections in Côte d’Ivoire to assist in particular in the work of the Independent Electoral Commission and of the Constitutional Council.

The resolution also authorizes the Secretary-General to begin the necessary planning and preparations to facilitate a timely deployment in the event that the Security Council decides the mission’s authorized strength.

**Zimbabwe

Turning to Zimbabwe, Miloon Kothari, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on the right to adequate housing addressed an urgent appeal to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Zimbabwe urging the Government to immediately halt the mass forced evictions that are reportedly taking place in the country.  The Special Rapporteur reminded the Zimbabwean authorities of their obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which that country ratified in 1991.  And, we have a press release from Geneva available upstairs. 

**Advisory Panel on NEPAD

Also today, the Secretary-General is scheduled to officially receive the report of his Advisory Panel on the International Support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, known as NEPAD.  It is being presented by Chief Emeka Anyaoku of Nigeria, the Chair of the Panel and a former Commonwealth Secretary-General. 

The Panel was appointed last year, comprising of 13 eminent Africans and international personalities, to explore concrete measures to strengthen international support for Africa’s development.  Its report recommends greater action in the areas of aid, debt relief, market access, and private capital flows, as well as better coordination of the UN in support of NEPAD.  And a press release will be available shortly upstairs.

**Timor-Leste Appointment

The Secretary-General today appointed Sukehiro Hasegawa of Japan as head of the UN Office in Timor-Leste.  Hasegawa had previously served as the head of the UN Mission of Support in East Timor, and his new appointment takes effect from May 21^st until May 20^th of next year.  And, we have a press release available on that, as well. 

**UNEP - World Environment Day

The World Environment Day is being marked this Sunday, and San Francisco is hosting the event this year, the first time a North American city has done so.  Under the theme of "Green Cities", the city’s observance has been in full swing, with activities actually spanning five days, with each day focused on a specific theme.

In his message for the Day, the Secretary-General notes that by 2030, more than 60 per cent of the world’s population will live in urban areas.  This rising concentration of humanity means the world won’t achieve the Millennium Development Goals unless environmental planning is incorporated into all aspects of urban management.  And we have the full text upstairs, as well as a message from Klaus Toepfer, the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme.

**UNICEF Report on Water and Sanitation

Basic sanitation must reach 138 million more people every year through 2015, close to two billion in total, to bring the world on track to halve the proportion of people living without safe water and basic sanitation, according to a report released by the World Health Organization and the UN Children’s Fund.  And, we have a press release available on that upstairs. 

And I think that is it for me, except we do have the Week Ahead available to you upstairs since it’s Friday.  Any questions? Yes, James?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Stéphane, the other day, in the briefing, you announced that 40 people had been fired since Kofi Annan took over.  Can we have a list of those staff?

Associate Spokesman:  We can probably give you a list of the offences.  I don’t know if we’ll be able to release a list of the names.  But, we’re working on putting that list together, and also the reasons for the firing.

Question:  Would that have been effective since the UN’s inception?

Associate Spokesman:  No, since 1997.

Question:  And are we talking about in the Secretariat, or are we talking about the agencies, as well?

Associate Spokesman:  If I’m not mistaken, this is staff summarily dismissed by the Secretary-General.  He would only have the authority to dismiss staff that works directly for him in the Secretariat.

Question:  A follow-up on Maurice Strong.  Maurice Strong, of course, is found to have employed in his office one of his relatives.  Has there been any follow-up action yet on Maurice Strong?

Associate Spokesman:  No.  I have nothing further on Strong.

Question:  Will you give us an update on that?

Associate Spokesman:  I sure will. 

Question:  Could you tell us the subject of the discussion between the Secretary-General and Mr. Burns today?

Associate Spokesman:  I will get you a read-out of that meeting, as soon as I can.  Yes, James?

Question:  In the [inaudible] press story the other day out of Washington, there was a mention of some other information contained in the Parton documents that you took from the Volcker Commission.  And, in it, it said that there was a further unreported contact with the Masseys -- that, in fact, the Masseys wrote a letter to Kofi Annan of his trip to Baghdad in ’98 congratulating him.  That letter wasn’t found in the UN files, but it was given to the Volcker Commission by Cotechna [inaudible]. 

Can you explain to us, especially, can you confirm that that’s true -- the Secretary-General received that letter?  And, can you explain to us why that letter didn’t appear in UN files?  And, also, was it among the files that were shredded?

Associate Spokesman:  No, the files that I think you’re talking about belong to the Volcker Committee, and as long as the Committee is continuing its work, I can’t comment…

Question:  No, that wasn’t the question.  The question is, did the Secretary-General receive a letter from the Masseys in ’98 congratulating him on a trip to Baghdad, and what happened to that letter?

Associate Spokesman:  I’m not aware of it, and these are issues that are being looked at by the Volcker Committee.

Question:  Okay.  There was a lot of trouble in the Volcker Commission about whether Kofi Annan had met one of his son’s business partners, Pierre Muselli.  The question is about whether the Secretary-General has met one of his other business partners, Hanni Yamani.  Can you tell us whether the Secretary-General’s ever met Hanni Yamani?

Associate Spokesman:  I’m not aware that that has taken place.

Question:  Can you check, please?

Associate Spokesman:  Yes. 

Question:  I’d like an answer, I mean a definitive answer, if you could get that.

Associate Spokesman:  Thank you very much.

Question:  I have another question.

Associate Spokesman:  Yes?

Question:  The other day, a French reporter here reported that the Secretary-General was depressed.  Is that true?

Associate Spokesman:  No.

Question:  It’s also rumoured in the building that the Secretary-General is going to resign at the reform summit in September.  Is that true?

Associate Spokesman:  No. 

Question:  Some questions about Joseph Stephanides.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t to the briefing yesterday.  As I understand it, Mr. Stephanides -- what is the serious misconduct Mr. Stephanides is accused of?

Associate Spokesman:  It’s all listed in the Volcker report.  It’s a serious breach of procurement rules. 

Question:  Okay.  As I understand the breach, he’s said to have made a political decision.  Are other members of the steering committee, that also came to that same political decision, under investigation by the UN for breaching procurement rules?

Associate Spokesman:  The Volcker Committee is investigating the whole oil-for-food programme and … (talkover).  Let me finish.  You’ve asked me a question; give me the chance to answer.  The Volcker Committee is looking at all the aspects of the oil-for-food programme.  As their findings are released, we will act upon those findings.

Question:  Well, as you know, those findings have been released months ago (talkover).  The findings are that the, published in the first Volcker report, there is a memo from the steering committee talking about the selection, the difficulty of selecting more French banks.  Is anybody going to face any consequences, as a member of the steering committee, for having made a political decision to choose Lloyd’s register?

Associate Spokesman:  As the Volcker Committee is continuing its work -- it’s far from finished -- and as its findings are released -- we will act upon them. 

Question:  Is the former Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali going to face any consequences for his political interference in choosing Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP)?

Associate Spokesman:  I’ll just refer you to my last answer. 

Question:  No, no.  The Volcker Committee declared itself on that; it’s found that he had politically intervened.  Is there going to be any follow-up action, or is there going to be no follow-up action against Boutros-Ghali?

Associate Spokesman:  I have nothing further to add.  Thank you very much.

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