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 Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon. I’d like to welcome our guest today, Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict. He’ll be talking to you shortly about Child Protection Advisers.

**Paschke’s Replacement

After a 10-month search, the Secretary-General today nominated Dileep Nair of Singapore to replace Karl Paschke of Germany as head of the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services. The appointment is subject to the approval of the General Assembly, which received a letter from the Secretary- General last night. That letter came out as a document this morning.

Mr. Nair is currently the Managing Director and head of the Development Bank of Singapore. He studied engineering at McGill University in Canada, where he received a Most Promising Student award, and took a Master's Degree in Public Administration at Harvard University in the United States. He has done national service as a member of Singapore's Housing and Development Board, as well as in the Ministries of Finance, Trade and Industry and Defence.

He also served in 1996 as a member of the United Nations Efficiency Task Force, made up of prominent management experts, which advised the Secretary- General on aspects of United Nations reform. We have a bio on him, which is available in my office.

**Secretary-General Concludes Official Visit to Australia

The Secretary-General concluded his official visit to Australia today, beginning with a meeting with Australian aid officials and members of the East Timorese community in Australia. They reviewed humanitarian assistance to East Timor.

He addressed the National Press Club in Canberra, and then took questions from journalists. We are still waiting for the transcript of the Q & A, and, I think, although we had a text of his opening address, he departed significantly from the text, we’re told. So, we have to wait for a revised version of the address as well. He then departed for the last leg of his Asian tour, which is an official visit to New Zealand, arriving in Wellington about midnight. He gets back to New York around midnight Thursday, and most likely will not be in the office until Monday, for obvious reasons.

**Security Council Holds Consultations on Democratic Republic of Congo

The Security Council this morning continued its closed consultations on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in which it has been discussing a draft resolution on the expansion of the United Mission Mission in that country to some 5,500 personnel, including 500 military observers. Yesterday, the Council made some progress on the text of the draft resolution, and also held a meeting at the expert level on the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the afternoon. However, it is still too early to tell if the Council will be ready to hold a formal vote on the resolution by tomorrow.

At 4 p.m. today, there will also be a meeting of an informal working group dealing with Security Council documentation and other procedural questions. The informal consultations on Somalia, which were to have been held this morning, were postponed until tomorrow.

**Passionate Plea from Del Ponte to Prosecute Barayagwiza

This morning in Arusha, Tanzania, Carla Del Ponte, the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, urged the Appeals Chamber to change its decision to release Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, which was taken on the grounds that his prolonged pre-trial detention had violated his rights. Mrs. Del Ponte emphasized that the crimes with which Barayagwiza was charged, namely genocide and crimes against humanity, were also a violation of the rights of the victims of the genocide. She said: "On their behalf, I pray you to allow me to prosecute Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza. Give me the opportunity to bring him to justice."

Barayagwiza's lawyer argued that the Appeals Chamber had no jurisdiction to review the Tribunal's decision, because such an appeal would apply only to a convicted person. She also pointed out that the Prosecutor had submitted no new facts to justify the reversal of the decision.

The Prosecutor General of Rwanda also appeared before the court and said that the Tribunal should either hold a trial or surrender Barayagwiza to Rwanda, which would be willing and able to prosecute him. No date has yet been set for the Appeals Chamber to render its decision on that case. Notes from the press briefing from the Tribunal are available in my office.

**Iraq Update

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Hans von Sponeck, will be leaving Baghdad for New York via Geneva tomorrow. He is expected to arrive in New York on Sunday, and we expect he’ll be meeting with the Secretary- General the following day, Monday 28.

The new Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), Hans Blix, is also expected to arrive in New York this weekend. He will formally take up his duties on 1 March, and he has 45 days from that date to set up a new Commission.

On oil-for-food, last week Iraq exported 18.9 million barrels of crude oil for an estimated revenue of $502 million. The Security Council Committee overseeing the sanctions on Iraq has approved a total of 96 oil sales contracts, with a total volume of 268 million barrels. Other details can be found in the Weekly Update on the oil-for-food programme, which you can pick up in my office.

**UNHCR and East Timor

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported out of East Timor today that militiamen stoned a team of UNHCR and International Organization for Migration (IOM) personnel in the West Timor border town of Atambua today, damaging an IOM vehicle and disrupting a move to repatriate more than 1,000 East Timorese refugees. No one was injured, but only 179 of the 1,000 refugees managed to repatriate from Atambua.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, Catherine Bertini, visited East Timor today to see how the food programme is going, what the needs are, and how the food aid can be used to help self-sufficiency. She met in Dili with the United Nations Transitional Administrator, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and the President of the National Council of Timorese Resistance, Xanana Gusmao.

The WFP is now feeding half of the population of East Timor. Ms. Bertini said: “There will be a reasonable harvest this year, not enough to feed everyone, but a good harvest of corn and rice. Hopefully by next year we will see some sufficiency.” The efforts of the WFP and other agencies, as well as non-governmental organizations, to help East Timorese farmers to plant corn and rice seeds at the beginning of the rainy reason seem to have paid off. We have in our office today’s media briefing note from Dili.

**World Food Programme and Mozambique

Also from the World Food Programme, they say today that they are reaching those people most affected by flooding and cyclone-induced rains in Mozambique. Each day the WFP makes use of four South African Defence Force helicopters, which were donated to the Government of Mozambique, and which carry approximately 2 metric tons of food each, including corn, flour, beans, sugar and oil. The WFP is making up to 21 flights each day, bringing the full food basket to tens of thousands in the Gaza and Maputo provinces.

The WFP is very concerned about the likelihood that more rain can be expected, since the rainy season usually lasts until the end of March. This means the further destruction of roads, infrastructure and an increase in the number of people affected. A humanitarian appeal for Mozambique is expected to be issued tomorrow, for about $13 million. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says an estimated 300,000 people may be affected by the floods and the cyclone.

**Secretary-General’s Report on Trade and Sustainable Development out

On the racks today, you'll find copies of the Secretary-General's report on economic growth, trade and investment, submitted prior to the next session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, which is to meet here on 24 April. The report focuses on ways that trade and environmental concerns can be mutually supportive. It suggests strengthened cooperation between the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the United Nations Environment Programme on a broad-based agenda on trade, environment and development. **Press Release

We also have a press release on Afghanistan from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

**Budget Matters

On budget matters, we have the Status of Contributions document as of 31 January. This chart indicates that, as of the end of January, Member States owed approximately $3.4 billion -– that’s to the United Nations regular budget, peacekeeping missions and the two International Tribunal budgets.

**Press Conference Tomorrow

At 11:15 a.m., Ambassador Herbert Okun will be back for his annual briefing to you as a member of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). He’s the United States member, and he’ll be discussing highlights of the INCB Annual Report, usually something of interest to you.

**Guest at Tomorrow’s Noon Briefing

And, finally, the guest at tomorrow’s noon briefing will be Bill Paton, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the Republic of the Congo. He’ll be talking about the current situation in that country, particularly, about population displacement.

That’s all I have. Any questions, before we go to Olara?

**Question and Answer

Question: Is Hans von Sponeck scheduled to address the Council any time within the next week or so?

Spokesman: I don’t know yet that a decision has been made on that. If that’s your request, we’ll be glad to forward it to him from you.

Question: Anything further on the appointment of Mr. Nair as Inspector General? It has been a months-long process. How did the Secretary-General arrive at his name? Did it just come out of the blue, or is it someone who had been around for a while in the Secretary-General’s mind and, finally, settled on him?

Spokesman: I do not know at what point his name came up. You know the difficulties we’ve had. We went through, I think, three rounds of candidates before we found someone that we thought was right for the job, and also was available to take the job. And so, it was a happy ending to a long, torturous 10-month process. I think, if you look at his resumé -- some of the details I wasn’t able to mention here -– you’ll see it looks quite impressive, and we’re looking forward to his turning in a strong performance.

Okay, Olara, over to you.

* *** *