DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

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

Good afternoon. We'll have Dr. Alexandre Kalache as our guest at today's noon briefing. Dr. Kalache is the Chief of the Ageing and Health Programme at the World Health Organization (WHO), and he will be here shortly to talk to you about global ageing.

**Secretary-General Begins Official Visit to Singapore

The Secretary-General began his official visit to Singapore today with a meeting with Foreign Minister Shanmugam Jayakumar.

They discussed Indonesia's democratic transition and it's effect on the region. They also touched on Myanmar, East Timor and other regional issues.

The Secretary-General also met this morning with President S.R. Nathan and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. After the meeting with the Prime Minister, in response to a question from a journalist, he said that he had accepted “with regret” the resignation of the head of the United Nations humanitarian programme in Iraq, Hans Von Sponeck.

After a lunch hosted by the Foreign Minister, The Secretary-General delivered the eighteenth annual Singapore Lecture on the Rule of Law. “All States”, he argued, “but small States especially, have an interest in maintaining an international order based on something better than the grim maxim the 'might is right'. Based, in fact, on general principles of law which give the same rights to the weak as to the strong”, he went on, “every society must have a language. The language of global society is international law.”

In the late afternoon, he met with Lee Kwan Yew, Singapore's first Prime Minister and now its Senior Minister. Again, their discussions focused mainly on the situation in Indonesia.

The Secretary-General gave a press conference before attending a dinner hosted by the Prime Minister. We also have remarks from a press encounter he had earlier in the day.

Tomorrow morning, the Secretary-General leaves for Jakarta.

**UNIFIL Reports Four Soldiers Dead, Others Wounded in Car Crash

We have some sad news from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL): Four Irish soldiers were killed and four were wounded in a traffic accident near Damour on the coastal highway in Lebanon. The vehicle they were travelling in slid on an oil spill and crashed. The soldiers were on their way to Beirut airport to travel to Ireland on their leaves. This brings to 233 the total number of United Nations peacekeepers who have lost their lives in UNIFIL's service since 1978. Seventy-seven of the deaths were by hostile action.

**Secretary-General Appoints High-Level Coordinator on Iraq

The following is a statement attributable to the Spokesman: On 10 February, the Secretary-General sent a letter to the President of the Security Council informing him of his decision to appoint Ambassador Yuli M. Voronstov of the Russian Federation as the high-level coordinator pursuant to paragraph 14 of resolution 1284 of 1999 -- that resolution concerns Iraq's obligation to return remains, prisoners of war, archives and properties seized from Kuwait.

Mr. Voronstov will serve at the level of Under-Secretary-General, and on a when-actually-employed basis. He will be asked to come to New York to discuss the plan of action with the Secretary-General in mid-March.

We have his bio upstairs for those of you who are interested.

**Kouchner, KFOR Leader Issue Joint Strategy to Quell Violence in Mitrovica

Last night in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, and General Klaus Reinhardt, the Commander of the Kosovo Force (or KFOR), issued a joint statement saying that the violence in Mitrovica would not be tolerated. They said that those who are found guilty of participating in the violence would suffer the full force of the law.

Although details on the violence are still being investigated, the statement noted that two French peacekeepers have been hospitalized for gunshot wounds in yesterday's violence, while at least one Kosovar is dead and many more injured. In the joint statement, the United Nations and KFOR leaders urged all sides not to let extremists “succeed in ruining this, your one chance for peace and a prosperous future”.

Today, Kouchner followed that statement by presenting a package of special measures to re-establish security in Mitrovica at a special session of the Interim Administrative Council. The package of measures will be made public at a press conference tomorrow, and we expect to release copies of that plan here at that time.

Kouchner has already announced some special measures taken along with KFOR, including expanding the safety zone on either side of the Ibar River and beginning the redeployment of 300 additional United Nations police to the Mitrovica area. About 100 police officers are expected to arrive in Mitrovica by the end of the week.

In a telephone conversation just a few minutes ago, the situation in Mitrovica this evening was reported as calm so far.

We have copies of the joint statement and today's briefing from Pristina available upstairs.

**Notes From East Timor: Central Sector Handed over to UNTAET Peacekeepers in Ceremony Today

From East Timor, the Command of the Central Sector of East Timor, which covers the area from the capital Dili, to Same in the South, was handed over to the United Nations Transitional Administration for East Timor (UNTAET) Peacekeeping Force in a ceremony in Dili today.

The Central Sector is now commanded by Colonel Lima Pinto of the Portuguese battalion. It will also have a Kenyan company and a unit of military police from Brazil.

Speaking to reporters about the Portuguese battalion yesterday, Special Representative of the Secretary-General Sergio Vieira de Mello said that the configuration of the Portuguese battalion is “original and unprecedented”. Three hundred out of the battalion's 800 troops are specialized in areas that have more to do with the reconstruction of the infrastructure than with exclusive military activities.

Tomorrow, INTERFET will hand over the enclave of Oecussi to the Jordanian battalion of the UNTAET Peacekeeping Force.

The President of Portugal spent the last day of his four-day visit to East Timor in Baucau. Yesterday, the United Nations Special Representative and the Portuguese President signed a Memorandum of Understanding, formalizing Portugal's current assistance in the fields of electricity, water and power.

**Security Council

The Security Council has not scheduled any meeting for today. It is expected to hold informal consultations tomorrow on Cyprus.

**UNEP Balkans Task Force Scientists Answer Call for Assistance in Deadly Cyanide Spill

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has received a number of requests from governments for technical assistance concerning the cyanide spill in the rivers Tisza and Danube. As an immediate response, the UNEP Executive Director, Klaus Toepfer, has instructed Balkans Task Force scientists who are currently working in the area to take water samples from the river Danube and to keep him updated on the situation in the region.

UNEP is working closely with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and has also been in contact with the Chemical Accidents Group of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

**Rwanda Tribunal Completes First Case; Fifteen Year Sentence for Sherusago Confirmed

This morning in Arusha, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda dismissed the appeal of Omar Sherusago and confirmed the sentence of 15 years of imprisonment imposed on him for genocide and crimes against humanity. This is the first case completed by the Tribunal.

Please see the press release upstairs for more details on this case. **Notes from Sierra Leone

We have two items from Sierra Leone: The Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, met with Chairman Foday Sankoh of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) Party on Saturday to discuss the impediments placed in the way of the peacekeepers in Sierra Leone. Adeniji raised the issue of the weapons seized from the Guinean and the Kenyan troops, and stressed the urgent necessity to return them all. He said that these practices are in contravention of the Lomé agreement and insisted that they must cease or would invite forceful response.

There is a press release from the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) available in Room 378. We also have an update on the situation of the disarmament in Sierra Leone, and you can pick that up in our office as well.

**Reports Out Today

We have out on the Documents Counter today embargoed copies of the 1999 report of the International Narcotics Control Board. The reports are embargoed until next Wednesday, 23 February, and we expect to have some additional press materials available later this week.

We also have a note from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) offering some highlights for its February food outlook, which will be issued this Wednesday, 16 February.

That's all I have for you today. Before we turn to our guest, do any of you have questions for me?

**Questions and Answers

Question: What were the reasons for [Hans Von Sponecks's] resignation?

Associate Spokesman: As you know, over the weekend, Mr. Von Sponeck's Spokesman in Baghdad announced that he had asked for his release as of 31 March. I don't believe that there was any comment beyond that. What we mentioned earlier was that the Secretary-General said -- and these are his words – “Mr. Von Sponeck had served the United Nations well for about 36 years,” and that he had been his Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq for over a year and that he had submitted his resignation which he accepts “with regret”. The Secretary-General also said that he wished Mr. Von Sponeck all the best and every success in his future endeavors. Those are the remarks that we have today.

Question: Do you have any idea when a replacement [for Mr. Von Sponeck] will be announced?

Associate Spokesman: As I mentioned, his resignation was dated 31 March, so we have some time.

Question: Is Mr. Von Sponeck expected in New York any time soon?

Associate Spokesman: My understanding is that he is planning to come to New York at the end of this month. Question: Does the Secretary-General feel that Mr. Von Sponeck's resignation will have any impact on the inspection regime.

Associate Spokesman: Again, I'll refer to what the Secretary-General said in Asia, just a few hours ago, on this very subject: “With regards to the United Nations programme in Iraq, the [Security] Council resolutions are clear. We will continue to implement the humanitarian programme and do our best to make it as effective as possible in order to alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people. The Council itself realizes that sanctions can be a blunt instrument and that is the reason why they established their “oil for food” scheme, to be able to get assistance to the Iraqi people. I hope that in time, Iraq will cooperate with the Council and implement the Council resolutions so that the sanctions will be lifted.”

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