Press encounter following meeting with Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi (unofficial transcript)

SG: Good morning ladies and gentlemen, as you heard from the president, we have had a very ver y good discussion focusing on African issues, focusing from Sudan to the situation in Somalia, the Congo and Burundi and, of course, UN/Kenyan relationship and our activities here in Kenya. I have with me Mr. Toepfer who is the head of UNEP [UN Environment Programme] who has provided dynamic leadership for the UN activities here.

We are all here this time to attend the ACC, with the heads of agencies of the UN family. We meet twice year and this time we decided to meet here at the initiative of Toepfer, which I accepted immediately and we are having very very good discussions.

This morning I also spoke to the President about the issue of AIDS and the need for all of us to join the fight against this epidemic from top to bottom, requiring complete social mobilization in all countries. Yes, the epidemic has hit Africa the hardest but it is a global problem and we really need to mobilize the will and the resources to tackle it: prevention, education, cure and treatment.

I will now take you questions.

Q: [inaudible] on the US Navy plane currently being held in China.

SG: I have followed the developments following the collision of the two aircraft. I hope it will be settled peacefully between the two countries. I know that the US has asked for access to the 24 officers on the plane and, from what I have picked up, it is likely that they will be given access to the troops and eventually to the plane. I hope they will resolve it peacefully and I also offer my sympathies to the family of the Chinese pilot who is missing and I hope he will be found shortly.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, two UN staffers are still being held in Mogadishu. Do you have any comments on any new developments?

SG: Yesterday I had the opportunity of meeting those who were released and I was able to hear from them directly what an ordeal they had gone through. They were in good health and good spirits. We are in touch with the two are still detained. We have access to them and we make sure they have enough food and water. We are negociating to get them out and I am quite hopeful that we get them out as we got the others out. But let me add, that these lawless and reckless people who prey on young men and women from distant land who've come to help, whose only reason for being in Somalia is to help the needy, ought to understand that their behavior is something that the international community can not accept and can not condone. Aid workers deserve better treatment and deserve our appreciation and thanks rather than this kind of treatment.

Thank you very much. *****