DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General:

**Democratic Republic of the Congo

Good afternoon. We have scheduled for you immediately after this briefing at 12:30 a background briefing on the Secretary-General’s upcoming report on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We are now not expecting that report to come out until tomorrow. But as you will be taken up with former President Mandela’s visit tomorrow, we will try to get you updated. So, the comments by this senior United Nations official will then have to be embargoed until the report comes out. We will also try to give you some kind of a written summary of the highlights of the report that will help you draft something in advance of the appearance of the report.

**Security Council

The Security Council is having an open meeting on Angola right now. The Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, briefed the Council on the United Nations’ current assessment of the situation. He said there was no question that the resistance movement, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), bears the primary responsibility for the continued humanitarian and human rights catastrophe in Angola.

The Chairman of the Angola Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Robert Fowler of Canada, outlined the results of his visit to Angola last week, which included 15 hours of interviews with former military officers and officials of UNITA. Videotaped excerpts of these interviews were played in the Council Chamber. They provided details of UNITA's financial network, its use of diamonds as currency for purchasing weapons, and the role of weapons brokers and of mercenaries used for training soldiers.

The interviews also attributed responsibility to UNITA for the shooting down of two UN aircraft in December 1998 and January 1999. Twenty-three people died in those incidents.

Ambassador Fowler will be here at 1 p.m. to discuss Angola with you.

**WFP Seeks Funds for Food Airlift to Zambia

The World Food Programme (WFP) meanwhile announced today what it described as the desperate need for $100,000 for the airlift of 300 tons of food for the 7,000 newly arrived Angolan refugees in Zambia, along the Zambezi River. The WFP says it needs to airlift the food because the roads can't be used during the rainy season, nor is the river high enough to use barges for transport.

**Security Council to Meet on Iraq, Burundi

At 3 p.m. today, the Security Council will hold closed consultations on Iraq. This follows the lack of consensus in the Council on the nomination by the Secretary-General of Ambassador Rolf Ekeus of Sweden as Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC).

This afternoon's consultations will also include discussions on Burundi. As you know, there is a formal meeting tomorrow on Burundi, which will begin with a briefing from former South African President Nelson Mandela, who is the Facilitator of the Arusha Process.

We are talking with the South African Mission and hoping that President Mandela will be able to meet with you after briefing the Council either at the stakeout or in room S-226.

**Guatemala

The Secretary-General has issued a statement on Guatemala, where Alfonso Portillo was inaugurated as President last week. The Secretary-General welcomes President Portillo's statements on taking office, including the promotion of national reconciliation, reparations to the victims of the civil war, and the urgency of addressing the needs of those most affected by poverty.

The full text of the statement is available in my Office.

**Iraq

The Secretary-General has written to the President of the Security Council, submitting a detailed list of parts and equipment that Iraq proposes to buy under Phase VII of the "oil-for-food" programme.

In the letter, the Secretary-General repeats his recommendation from last year that the allocation for the oil sector in Phase VI should be increased from $300 million to $600 million, and notes that funds are available for such an increase.

On Iraq's request to spend $600 million in the current phase, the Secretary-General says he wants first to see the report of the group of experts currently in Iraq assessing the state of the oil industry.

The Secretary-General says that, unless contracts for key items of oil equipment are approved and arrive within a short time frame, the production of oil is likely to drop.

Last week, Iraq exported 14.1 million barrels of oil. Total oil exports since the beginning of Phase VII on 12 December now stand at 54.3 million barrels, for an estimated revenue of $1.3 billion.

**Chechnya

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that the situation on the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia continues to be somewhat confusing.

The UNHCR says the initial restriction of movement of males between the ages of 10 and 60 years, announced by the Russian military commanders last week, has since been officially lifted, but all those crossing in and out of Chechnya are thoroughly checked by Russian special police units. Young males are often body searched.

The daily numbers of those leaving Chechnya have remained low since the fighting intensified last week. All escape routes out of Grozny now seem to be cut and only very few people make their way out. The situation of civilians trapped in Grozny and deprived of any humanitarian aid is believed to be worsening by the day, causing more and more concern.

Meanwhile, the twenty-third UNHCR relief convoy arrived in Ingushetia’s capital, Nazran, this morning.

**East Timor

Today in East Timor, UN Transitional Administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello signed his approval of two projects, to be executed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with funding from the Government of Norway.

Mr. de Mello approved the projects in a signing ceremony in Dili, in which Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta and representatives of the Norwegian Government and the UNDP were also present.

The two projects, which cost a total of about $1 million, are for road repairs in Ermera District, and for training farmers in long-term rice production in six East Timorese districts. The road repair project is expected to create about 100 jobs for East Timorese workers in its first phase.

Mr. de Mello said today's signings were the first time that the United Nations has approved projects in East Timor that are "directly related to reconstruction and rehabilitation."

We also have a press release from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which says that in West Timor malnutrition affects 25 per cent of refugee children under the age of five.

**Conference on Disarmament

In Geneva today, Vladimir Petrovsky, Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva, delivered a message from the Secretary-General to the opening of this year's session of the Conference on Disarmament. We have copies of the Secretary-General's message available in my Office.

In it, the Secretary-General praised progress in the fight against landmines, in the negotiations on a verification protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention, and in increased recognition of the problem of small arms. But he warned that progress has slowed on issues of nuclear disarmament and non- proliferation.

The Secretary-General warned, "One of the more disturbing trends in 1999 was the emergence of new tensions between the major players over disarmament and international security issues."

**Kosovo

We have two press releases from Kosovo.

One is on the meeting today of the Interim Administrative Council for Kosovo which allocated an additional nine administrative departments to political parties and independents, bringing the total number of departments allocated so far to 15 out of the 19 originally proposed.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Bernard Kouchner, briefed the meeting participants on the security situation, noting that despite the cold weather, which normally decreased the incidents of crime, the past 10 days had seen several violent incidents, especially targeting minority groups in Kosovo. Reviewing the cases of brutal murders, arson and bombings against various minority communities, Mr. Kouchner stressed that such levels of violence continued to be unacceptable. He called for more help from the local population and the local leadership to uncover information about these crimes.

The second press release issued in Pristina today is on a United Nations- hosted meeting last week of the international donors and agencies involved in the efforts to repair and reconstruct houses in Kosovo.

**Afghanistan

We have the weekly humanitarian update from Afghanistan. It contains an item on some new agricultural projects by the United Nations International Drug Control Programme involving orchard establishment and pest management on land previously used for opium poppy production.

**Background on World Trade Organization

We have available for you a two-page background note concerning cooperation between the United Nations and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Also, we'd like to remind you that Mike Moore, the Director-General of the WTO, will meet tomorrow with the Secretary-General and other senior UN officials to discuss cooperation between the two organizations. We hope to make him available to answer questions from the press at the Security Council stakeout at about 11:15 a.m. tomorrow. He will leave the Building at 11:30 to catch a plane.

**Signing of Terrorism Convention

At 11:30 this morning in the UN Treaty Section, Ambassador Abdallah Baali of Algeria signed the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, making Algeria the ninth country to sign the Convention since it was opened for signature this month. The treaty will need to be ratified by 22 countries before it can enter into force.

**Budget Matters

On budget matters, we now have the status of contributions as of 31 December. You can pick it up in my Office. The chart indicates that, as at the end of the year, Member States owed just over $244 million to the regular budget, approximately $1.48 billion to the peacekeeping budget, and just under $32 million to the budget for the international tribunals.

That’s all I have for you.

**Questions and Answers

Question: Concerning Ambassador Fowler’s allegations in his briefing that UNITA rebels shot down two United Nations planes, does the Secretary-General find those allegations credible? And is there any legal recourse that the United Nations can or intends to take against Jonas Savimbi [leader of UNITA] for having apparently shot down two United Nations planes?

Spokesman: I think we are still assessing the report that the Ambassador gave this morning. He will be here in room S-226, as I mentioned, at 1 p.m., and you will have a chance to ask him further questions about it. As to United Nations legal recourse, I would have to confer with the Legal Department and get back to you.

Question: Following that question, what were the results of the investigation of the [Special Representative to Angola Alioune] Blondin Beye accident? Do we know who shot down the plane? We don’t talk about it anymore.

Spokesman: I don’t think that was a case of the plane having been shot down, but rather that it crashed. I’d have to check with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. I don’t know that they ever provided the ultimate results of their investigation. I will ask for you. [The Spokesman later announced that the investigation by the International Civil Aviation Organization was still not complete.]

Question: When Ambassador Brahimi was here a few months ago, he clearly indicated that he had no business in Afghanistan any more, as the situation had not improved. I notice that the Secretary-General has just designated a special envoy. What triggered this nomination?

Spokesman: His nomination?

Question: Yes. Because Ambassador Brahimi said there was no need to have anything there because his mission was over.

Spokesman: He [Mr. Brahimi] said that he considered his role in Afghanistan to be frozen because he didn’t see anything else of use he could do there. And in response, the Secretary-General said he would replace the head of the United Nations Mission for Afghanistan, which is based in Islamabad, so that a certain level of political activity could continue. And he did that just yesterday with the announcement of Francesc Vendrell’s appointment. Mr.Brahimi still has another hat that he wears for the Secretary-General -- a very broad one -- for special assignments in support of preventive and peacemaking efforts of the Secretary-General. In that capacity, he is here at the Secretary- General’s request to discuss possible future assignments.

Question: This morning, I heard the word “troika” in the Security Council, a word which you know in the 1960s was one of the biggest problems here. Does the Secretary-General welcome the comeback of the “troika” business? Because I heard that Ambassador Holbrooke is using the word “troika” now.

Spokesman: I don’t know what he was referring to. I didn’t hear the comment. I hope we are not talking about three secretaries-general as they were in the 1960s. That would be a problem, I would think. [laughter]

Question: In cases where the Security Council has to endorse an appointment by the Secretary-General, how common is it for the Security Council to then reject an appointment by the Secretary-General?

Spokesman: First of all, it is very unusual for there to be language in a Security Council resolution saying the Secretary-General will nominate, but the Council will approve. I can’t say it is unprecedented. It is hard to look back at over 50 years’ worth of records. But I can say it is certainly unusual. So we are in what is an unusual situation. As far as rejection goes, we’ll have to see. I realize that a number of letters have come in to Ambassador Holbrooke that were made public, but the discussion on those letters is not going to begin until 3 p.m. today. The matter is now in the hands of Council.

Question: Is Mr. Vendrell going to be based in Afghanistan?

Spokesman: Yes, he will be based in Islamabad, where UNSMA [United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan] is based.

Question: So he is giving up his other responsibilities here?

Spokesman: Yes.

Question: Taking the question back a step, what is the Secretary- General’s reaction to what is obviously a rejection of Ambassador Ekeus?

Spokesman: His hope -- even though he realized that his nominee did not have the full support of all five permanent members -- his hope was that they would see it in the context of the large number of candidates who had already been considered and rejected, and that he [Ambassador Ekeus] might be seen by Council members as a reasonable compromise candidate. I don’t think, in his own mind, he has excluded -- at least as of early this morning, he had not excluded -- the possibility that there might still be some understanding reached in the Council in support of his nominee. If the Council comes back to him and says that “the candidate which you have submitted is unacceptable to the Council as a whole, would you please resume your consultations”, I’m not sure he knows where to begin. Twenty-five candidates already considered and rejected doesn’t suggest that there are many names left to consider.

Question: Are you saying there is still some hope on the part of the Secretary-General that it will perhaps not be a total rejection?

Spokesman: Yes, as of early this morning, that was how he felt. Now we will see how it plays out in the Council this afternoon.

Question: Given the possibility that this nomination might be rejected, what does it mean for the future of the resolution being that UNMOVIC [United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission on Iraq] is the cornerstone of the resolution on Iraq?

Spokesman: The rejection of the nominee is not the end of the process. It is not the end of the Council’s efforts to set up a new inspection regime. They will, I assume, continue looking for a candidate acceptable to all of them.

Thank you very much.

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Note: The second sentence of the second paragraph of the section on East Timor in yesterday’s transcript should read as follows: “In the violence, one international force soldier was hit in the face by a stone thrown from the crowd, and a number of applicants were also hurt.”]