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 Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Guest at Noon Briefing

Good afternoon.  My guest here today is Adama Dieng, the Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and he is joining us today to discuss the work and achievements of the Tribunal.

**Secretary-General

On Friday, today, the Secretary-General and Nane Annan toured the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, which is marking its 500th anniversary today.

Last night, the Secretary-General spoke at the RoyalCollege’s 500^th Anniversary Dinner, and he told them, “One of the reasons I am here tonight is that one of your Fellows, Professor James Garden, saved the life of my colleague and friend, Sir Kieran Prendergast.  For that, you have a special place in my heart”, the Secretary-General said.  And we have copies of that speech upstairs.

Later today, the Secretary-General will receive an Honorary Fellowship at the College’s diploma ceremony.

Following a reception hosted by the College President at EdinburghCastle, the Secretary-General is scheduled to go to London on his way to the African Union Summit.  And we have embargoed copies of the speech that he will deliver next Monday in Sirt, Libya.

**Zimbabwe

From Zimbabwe, Anna Tibaijuka, the Secretary General’s Special Envoy, is continuing her visit to that country.

Today, she began by visiting the Caledonian camp, where 4,000 evictees are now living in difficult conditions while waiting for relocation.  On the way to the village of Mutare, she stopped off at a number of sites where homes have been demolished.  She also visited some relocation projects proposed by the Government.

Yesterday, she met with international NGOs in Harare, as well as civil society representatives, including a women’s coalition which had brought women who had been evicted so that they could speak directly to Ms. Tibaijuka.  She was also able to visit Porta Farm, the site of the latest government eviction operation.  She also wished to investigate the deaths that were reported at that site.

Later, Ms. Tibaijuka met with the government policy committee which has been coordinating the operations.  She listened to the presentation made by the ministers, and she also briefed them on Habitat’s slum projects upgrading programme, which is based on negotiations with affected residents.

**Security Council

Turning to the Security Council, Ambassador Vassilakis of Greece takes over today as the President of the Council for the month of July, replacing Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sablière of France.  The Council President will hold bilateral consultations with other Council members on the programme of work for the month.

Next Tuesday, the Council plans to hold consultations on the programme of work for July.  And Ambassador Vassilakis is scheduled to give you a press conference afterwards in this room.

Going back to yesterday afternoon, Council held consultations concerning the latest incidents along the Blue Line.  And afterward, Ambassador de La Sablière in a statement to the press, reiterated the Council’s call on the Government of Lebanon to extend its control over all of its territory and to exert a monopoly on the use of force and to put an end to all attacks emanating from its territory.

In this context, Council members expressed serious concern at the Wednesday attack and the subsequent exchange of fire.  Council members urged all parties to fully respect the Blue Line and to refrain from violation of it and to exercise restraint.

**MONUC

From MONUC, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations Mission reports that people are demonstrating their support for forthcoming election, despite a number of incidents that marked the 45th anniversary of independence yesterday.  More than a quarter million voters have registered in the past 10 days in the capital city alone.  The United Nations is assisting in the organization of the elections.  And at the moment we have about 150 electoral personnel in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

**Statement on United States Funding for Fight against Malaria in Africa

Yesterday afternoon, we issued the following statement, which I will read into the record.

“The Secretary-General welcomes President Bush’s announcement of the United States’ commitment of more than $1 billion over the next five years to fund the prevention and treatment of malaria in Africa.  The Secretary-General notes that this will provide much-needed impetus in fighting this deadly disease, which claims the life of a child every 30 seconds.

“The Secretary-General believes that the announcement represents an important step in the commitment of developed countries to providing the resources necessary to reach the Millennium Development Goals, and the Secretary-General hopes this will be demonstrated at the Group of Eight meeting in Gleneagles next week, as well as at the World Summit in September.”

**Central African Republic

Turning to the Central African Republic, the Secretary-General, in his latest report to the Security Council, said that the elections in the Central African Republic this spring took place in an atmosphere of calm, apart from some organizational problems and cases of attempted or actual electoral fraud.

Now that the emergency situation has ended, the electoral process has been completed and new institutions are in place.  The Central African Republic, he said, has the tools needed to embark on the path of peace, reconstruction and sustainable development.  He encouraged the new authorities to do everything possible to ensure the respect for human rights.  And he also urged the international community to bring financial support for the economic reconstruction efforts already under way.

**Office of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, reports that it is holding an urgent meeting today in Geneva to try to find emergency resettlement for some 450 Uzbek asylum-seekers in Kyrgyzstan.  Resettlement is needed in part because Kyrgyzstan is coming under pressure from Uzbekistan, to return the refugees, the agency says.

And in Colombia, UNHCR says it is “deeply concerned” about a humanitarian crisis along the Colombia-Ecuador border, where fighting between irregular armed groups and the Colombian army has forced some 1,200 indigenous people to leave their homes.  And we have more upstairs in the briefing notes from UNHCR.

**World Health Organization (WHO)

Also from Geneva today, the World Health Organization presented highlights of its first progress report on health aspects of the Millennium Development Goals.  The report says that if trends established in the 1990s continue, the majority of poor countries won’t achieve the health goals.  And more information is available upstairs.

**Endangered Species

Some 30 years ago today, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known was CITES, entered into force.  Its mission was to bring under regulation the international trade in certain wild animal and plants so that such trade does not threaten their survival.

The Secretary-General of the CITES Treaty says that he is confident that, while human pressure on the natural environment will only grow in years to come,  it is possible to reconcile the needs of human beings and wildlife.  And we have a message available on that upstairs.

**The Week Ahead

And today being Friday, we have the Week Ahead.

On Tuesday, for press conferences, as I mentioned, Ambassador Vassilakis will brief you.

**Millennium Campaigns - White Bands

And lastly, you may have noticed white bands appearing on the wrists of people around the United Nations.  Those bands –- produced by the United Nations Millennium Campaign -– are a symbol for the global fight against poverty, and there will be a number of events throughout the world today to mark their significance.

For its part, the United Nations Millennium Campaign has helped to put a band of white fabric around the entire dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.  Other buildings throughout the world, including SydneyHarbourBridge in Australia, a mosque in Indonesia and the Trevi Fountain in Rome, will all be wrapped in white today.

**Holiday

And last, but definitely not least, we are closed on Monday, so please don’t come in.

Before I turn to my guest, any question?  Yes, Jonathan.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Steph, I think I missed a bit of the discussion of follow-up of Kofi Annan’s discussion with Security Council members about the new documents that are going to be handed over to the Volcker Commission.  I’m just wondering, what is the process by which those documents are being collected and handed over.  What do they comprise of?  Do we know?

Spokesman:  Jonathan, we had a lengthy discussion on this yesterday, I think about 45 minutes.  But to try to put it plainly.  These documents are informal notes -- sorry –- unofficial notes of the consultations Security Council members have.  The Volcker Committee already has quite a large number of the notes.  We expect not to hear back from the Council, in which case the transfer of documents will go smoothly, and the Volcker people will come here and have access to the documents as they so wish.

Question:  The selection of which documents are going to be presented ...

Spokesman:  It’s up to them, to see what they want.

Question:  Will they be given full a reign of ...

Spokesman:  They will have access to the full index of the meeting notes.

Question:  And then they will look for ...

Spokesman:  And then you’d have to ask them what they want to do.  The point -- the issue -- they will be given the index of meeting notes and then it will be up to them to see what is of interest of them. 

Question:  And when they will physically be collecting these?

Spokesman:  You’d have to ask them on the mechanics of it.

Question:  The State-run media in Zimbabwe is reporting the Secretary-General’s Envoy there praising the programme, the Government’s forced relocation programme.  Is this, is the envoy making her position clear now in Zimbabwe?  I mean, this report casts a strange light on ...

Spokesman:  Ms. Tibaijuka was quoted out of context in Government-run newspapers.  As I mentioned, she met with ministers.  They presented their case.  Listening to the statements made by the ministers should in no way be seen as her endorsing the Government’s policy.

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), the agency that she heads, which is the United Nations agency which in fact deals with issues of human population, has clearly stated that forced eviction is one of the main barriers to the significant improvement of slum dwellers.

Question:  This question may be answered in our discussion later, but will the United Nations Criminal Tribunal take up the case of Mbarushimana, now that they have called on France to help bring him to justice.

Spokesman:  I think I will let our quest talk about that.  But I can just maybe say one word.  The Tribunal, and Mr. Dieng will explain, said that they would not prosecute.  We are in informal contacts with other Member States to see if prosecution could move forward by national judicial authorities.

Question:  I have a question on the Uzbek-Kyrgyz problem.  Has the Secretary-General been speaking with the leaders of both those nations over the course of the last 24 hours, and is there anything specific you can relay on those discussions?

Spokesman:  Not over the last 24 hours.  He did have a conversation with the Kyrgyz President recently, but I’d have to check on the exact date.

Question:  And what came of that discussion?

Spokesman:  It was again the importance, stressing the importance of the Kyrgyz authorities not to conduct forced repatriation of Uzbek refugees.

Question:  Because of the time pressure that UNHCR seems to think it’s under, did the Kyrgyz President give any kind of a deadline for when they would hand back those refugees?

Spokesman:  No, I’m not aware.

Question:  Also about the Uzbek refugees.  There were several countries, I know one Scandinavian -- Canada, Australia New Zealand -- that are attending the talks.  Do you have any inclination which of those countries are kind of more willing to accept bigger number of refugees?

Spokesman:  No, I mean that sort of question, we could put you in touch with UNHCR and they could probably answer that for you.

Thank you.  Mr. Dieng.

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