MICHELE MONTAS is the Spokesperson for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General and the Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly.

TV: UN WEBCAST TV VIDEO - 23 minutes

UN: UNITED NATIONS BRIEFING AND TV - QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: TUESDAY, 22/04/2008 (MaximsNews Network)

UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / - 22 April 2008 -- Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General and UN Webcast TV Video.

**Questions and Answers

Question: It was reported yesterday that the Thai Prime Minister lashed out at both the World Bank and the UN for criticizing biofuel-producing nations and not oil-exporting countries. What is the UN position on that?

Spokesperson: Well, as you know, the Secretary-General has called for a complete analysis of all the factors that influence the rise in food prices. I don’t think he has talked only about countries producing food. He has also talked about the situation, other factors that influence the price of food. So really there is no comment to add to this. We have been relaying the Secretary-General’s comments about the food situation for quite a few weeks now.

Question: Any reaction from the Secretary-General to the sort of confusion at yesterday’s Security Council on Peter van Walsum’s report on Western Sahara? Some ambassadors said that his personal recommendations contradicted the Secretary-General’s report and that, one ambassador said, he had no capacity to produce such assessment beside the report itself.

Spokesperson: Mr. van Walsum was acting in his role as facilitator and he has some leeway to present his own conclusions to the Council. The position of the Secretary-General is contained in his report and, as you know, Mr. van Walsum, who is still the [Secretary-General’s Personal] Envoy in this case, was presenting to the Council his own conclusions and his own suggestions to break out of the impasse.

Question: Why weren’t these recommendations added to the original report instead of having them as a separate document?

Spokesperson: Well, because the Secretary-General does not share all the elements of [van Walsum’s assessment]. Those were suggestions made by Mr. van Walsum in his capacity as facilitator.

[The Spokesperson later added that the Secretary-General was not making a value judgement in his report and that some degree of latitude should be given to his Personal Envoy.]

Question: Michèle, on the same subject, according to some press reports, the Special Envoy specifically said the following: “that in the absence of any pressure on Morocco, an independent Sahara was not a realistic proposition, that there was no compromise regarding the independence of the Western Sahara and that opting for realism was not capitulation”. Can you confirm?

Spokesperson: Well, I cannot confirm these exact terms but you had, most of you had yesterday, Mr. van Walsum’s proposal in your hands, so you know what he said.

Question: (inaudible) statement made in public?

Spokesperson: I don’t know about this specific statement that you quote.

Question: This is according to press reports.

Spokesperson: I cannot confirm the exact quote. No, I cannot. Yes, Matthew?

Question: There is a report by Amnesty International that says that in recent weeks 350 people have been taken hostage by the Lord’s Resistance Army. They are the ones who are saying that the LRA did it and they call on the surrounding countries and the UN to take all actions to get the people released and to enforce the warrants. What does the UN know about this? Is in fact the LRA doing it, and what is the UN doing? What is the response to this call and to this kidnapping?

Spokesperson: Well, there is no -- any response will have to come from the Security Council. Any decision to put armies together to attack a camp -- those people would presumably be detained -- would be a decision to be taken by the Security Council.

Question: I guess in terms of UN fact-finding, I know that in the past the UN had tried to say, well we don’t know if it’s the LRA, we don’t know who is doing this kidnapping. Has there been any progress in finding out actually who is behind this?

Spokesperson: No. We cannot confirm that. No.

Question: Is there any update on the peace talks?

Spokesperson: No, we don’t have anything yet on that, but I am sure you read the latest development.

Question: There was a report from Yemen that either just UNDP or the whole UN operation in Sana’a had either been closed or curtailed due to safety and a meeting by DSS (inaudible) with Government officials. Can you confirm that in Yemen some change is taking place in UN operations?

Spokesperson: I contacted UNDP about this and they said that, contrary to press reports, the UNDP office in Sana’a has not been closed and UNDP staff continue to go about their work. A security assessment is now under way and all UNDP programmes in the country continue to operate and all UNDP project offices outside of Sana’a remain open.

Question: Is the UNDP compound there MOSS compliant? That issue came up after….

Spokesperson: I don’t have that information. We would have to get the information from DSS who, as you know, will not really give specifics on security issues.

Question: The last one. The Committee on Relations with the Host Country is meeting today and it has always been open in the past so I tried to attend it and a guy from the Office of Legal Affairs said that it is a closed meeting. It is not listed as closed and the strangest thing to me was that he said that the Department of Public Information would produce a press release about the meeting. Since it is OLA and DPI, I am asking you, is the meeting closed and, if it is closed, how can it be closed if DPI itself is inside and is producing a press release?

[The Spokesperson later clarified that the meeting in question had in fact been an open meeting.]

Question: Russia is saying that Georgia’s action in flying a pilotless reconnaissance aircraft over Abkhazia, the aircraft that was shot down on Sunday, was a violation of UN resolution and I wondered if you knew whether that was the case.

Spokesperson: Well, in this specific case, our own Mission over there did not observe firsthand the shooting down of the Georgian unmanned [aerial] vehicle. I know that they are engaged in an investigation on that matter. In terms of the relations between Russia and Georgia, it a bilateral matter. Between Georgia and Abkhazia, of course we have a Mission there, but we cannot at this point confirm who shot the drone down.

Question: That wasn’t really the question. The question was whether the UN resolutions or a resolution forbids the flying of reconnaissance aircraft by Georgia over Abkhazia.

Spokesperson: Yes, it does.

Question: It does. Can you say which resolution that is?

Spokesperson: I can give you the information, I have it upstairs.

[The Spokesperson later clarified that Security Council resolution 937 (1994) welcomes the 1994 Moscow Agreement, which says, “The parties shall scrupulously observe the cease-fire on land, at sea and in the air and shall refrain from all military actions against each other.”]

Question: Michèle, you just recounted all the situation in the occupied Gaza wherein the population continues to be undermined and they are not given relief supplies and so on and so forth. Has the Secretary-General been in touch again with the top Israeli authorities, including Prime Minister, about the situation over there?

Spokesperson: No, not the Secretary-General directly, but we have, as you know, a mission on the ground, which is constantly concerned and active over these issues.

Question: Has he had any communication with former President Carter about his peace initiative?

Spokesperson: No he hasn’t, but as I said yesterday, we welcome all initiatives trying to bring peace to the region, and our Department of Political Affairs will have to really analyze the agreement that was reached and see what it means.

Question: According to some officials in some Governments, on the current food crisis, the discussion on this situation should take place within the FAO and not the World Trade Organization. What is the position of the Secretary-General?

Spokesperson: Well, as you know, the discussion is taking place right now everywhere. Right now there is a meeting in London about this. There is going to be a meeting at the FAO. Yesterday, the Secretary-General met with the WFP director and, of course, you know, and this is as I said yesterday, this is an issue that is going to be taken up by the whole UN system when all the heads of agencies and programmes and funds meet in Bern next week. So I think everyone is involved in this.

Question: I have a question on Zimbabwe. Human Rights Watch reported yesterday that Mugabe’s party is setting up torture camps to intimidate and torture opposition activists. What is the UN’s position on that? Are you aware of the situation?

Spokesperson: We don’t have any specific information on it. As I said, the Secretary-General yesterday met with the opposition leader in Ghana and they talked about the situation there. We have no independent body there to verify what is being said in the press. Thank you very much.

Labels: United Nations,  U.N., Secretary-General

 

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