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:

**Secretary-General

The Secretary-General, after consulting with members of the Security Council, has arranged for the Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Hans Von Sponeck, to give an informal briefing to Council members this afternoon. The briefing will take place at 5 p.m. in the Secretary-General's conference room on the thirty-eighth floor.

**Ambush in Serbia

We have word of an incident involving an ambush of a United Nations staff member in Serbia that happened earlier today. The details are still sketchy. But according to preliminary information that we've received, Marcel Grogan of Ireland, a staff member of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, was wounded while on a humanitarian assessment mission and travelling in a United Nations marked vehicle near the town of Bujanovac, on the Serb side of the border with Kosovo. That happened around 12:15 p.m. In other words, midday today, local time.

The vehicle was stopped by several men. One of the men discharged his weapon and Grogan suffered a leg wound. He is presently being treated at a U.S. Army hospital.

**Security Council

The Secretary-General, as I mentioned, is in the Security Council, where he just concluded a “tour d'horizon” to inform the Council about his recent Asian tour. He highlighted the need to support East Timor's reconstruction, noting that, at present, the UN Trust Fund there has received only $22 million. The Secretary- General added that although the Council could choose to form a tribunal to judge violations of human rights in East Timor, “Indonesia should be given the chance to demonstrate its capacity to do a credible and transparent job of holding people accountable for their crimes”.

He also said that the United Nations would continue to discuss with the Cambodian Government its concerns about a tribunal to try the Khmer Rouge. Any trial, he said, must meet international standards by guaranteeing the arrest and surrender of all indictees, by excluding any amnesty for genocide or crimes against humanity and by including an appropriate international element among prosecutors and judges. The Secretary-General's comments are available upstairs and he is expected to take a few questions at the stakeout on his way out of the Council chamber.

Before the Secretary-General's appearance, the Council held consultations to discuss his proposals on arrangements for Iraqi Muslims to make the annual hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, using some funds from the UN escrow account. A meeting of experts will discuss that topic further at 2:30 this afternoon.

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 29 February 2000

The Council also unanimously approved, in a formal meeting, a resolution on the three-month extension of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). The Council also expressed support for the efforts of the Secretary-General's Personal Envoy, James Baker, to consult with the parties on that dispute.

**Cyprus

This statement is attributable to the Spokesman concerning Cyprus: “The Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, is on his way to the island. The main purpose of his visit is familiarization with Cyprus and with the United Nations Mission's work on the island, that's UNFICYP. It is not to further the process of the proximity talks, although Mr. de Soto will be meeting with both Mr. Clerides and Mr. Denktash towards the end of his stay. Proximity talks are due to resume, subject to confirmation, on 23 May here in New York.

“Mr. de Soto has just concluded a two-day visit to Brussels to meet with officials of the European Union. After departing Cyprus on 8 March, he will go to Ankara and then to Athens for meetings with the Greek Foreign Minister, George Papandreou, in Athens, and the Turkish Foreign Minister, Ismael Cem, and other officials in Ankara.”

**Mozambique

From Mozambique, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that the situation for hundreds of thousands of Mozambicans, stranded by recent floods and cyclones, is worsening. Also, people will increasingly run the risk of illness and starvation if humanitarian assistance is not immediately expanded. There's a press release upstairs outlining efforts under way to reach those in most need of assistance.

WFP is using a fleet of seven helicopters to run search and rescue missions, to pluck survivors from waters and to deposit them on higher ground. The Agency says it is afraid that rooftops may collapse due to the strain of overcrowding by those seeking refuge. The UN's Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ross Mountain, is leaving today for Mozambique to oversee and support the UN team on the ground, as the Secretary-General's Special Humanitarian Envoy. Mr. Mountain coordinated the humanitarian effort in East Timor, you'll recall.

**East Timor

President Abdurrahman Wahid of Indonesia paid a visit to East Timor today. On arriving, he said that both Indonesia and East Timor had been victims of past regimes. He signed a communique with the UN Transitional Administrator, Sergio Vieira de Mello, establishing, among other things, a border regime for the passage of people and goods between East Timor and Indonesia, cooperation on legal matters and continued support for East Timorese students wanting to study in Indonesian universities.

A copy of the communique, as well as today's briefing note from Dili are both available in my Office. I recommend you take a look at them.

**Chechnya

The first UNHCR convoy carrying humanitarian aid to Chechnya arrived in the center of Grozny -- that happened at about 12:15 this afternoon, midday Tuesday -- and is currently offloading in a warehouse operated by UNHCR's Russian partner, EMERCOM. The supplies will be stored overnight and then distributed in the center of the city tomorrow. UNHCR local staff will monitor the distribution. No security incidents were reported. The 10-truck convoy is carrying 45 tons of food and other supplies. The convoy is viewed by UNHCR as something of a pilot project to give us an idea of the security and logistics involved in getting aid into Chechnya.

**Payments

We received two payments today from China and Tunisia. They became, respectively, the fifty-ninth and sixtieth Member States to be paid for their regular budget dues in full for the year 2000. China's payment was close to $10.5 million and Tunisia's was just under $300,000.

**Miscellaneous Press Releases

From UNICEF, Carol Bellamy, the Executive Director of UNICEF, said today, in a keynote address to the World Bank's annual Conference on Human Development, that a global movement is needed to uphold children's rights and reduce child poverty. She said that childhood poverty is “a disabling condition that often leaves permanent scars”. We have a press release from UNICEF with more information.

And then, we have the weekly humanitarian update on Afghanistan, which notes efforts to provide food and other assistance to tens of thousands of internally displaced people currently living in Kabul. Among other UN agencies, the World Food Programme is providing regular food aid to some 3,000 vulnerable families living in the former Soviet Embassy in Kabul.

**Press Conferences

This afternoon at 3 o'clock, Jacques Klein, the Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Then tomorrow morning, also in this room, Jerry White and Ken Rutherford, who are landmine survivors and co-founders of Landmine Survivors Network, will be joined by John Wack, a World War II landmine survivor. That's on the anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction. In other words, the Ottawa Convention, for short.

Then at 11:15 tomorrow, “Women at the Peace Table: Making a Difference”. This is a new book being launched by UNIFEM and the speakers will include Hanan Ashrawi, Director of the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, Mary Brownell of Liberia and Senator Piedad Cordoba Ruiz of Colombia.

And our guest at the noon briefing tomorrow will be Hans Blix, the Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq (UNMOVIC), and he will stay as long as you have questions for him.

**Question and Answer

Question: Fred, two things. Is there a press conference scheduled with Hans von Sponeck and also, any update on Bernard Kouchner's trip here -- the dates?

Spokesman: Mr. Kouchner will be here next week. I don't have the specific dates.

I believe that Mr. von Sponeck will talk to you sometime after the 5 o'clock meeting. I'm waiting to hear from him, what he would decide. It might also be useful to have your views on whether something at 6 o'clock tonight would be useless in terms of tomorrow's deadlines and you'd prefer to put it off till tomorrow. You've seen that we have a heavy programme of press conferences tomorrow, right through the noon briefing with Blix, so I would think that if he doesn't do it late tonight, tomorrow afternoon would be the next opportunity. So I would seek the press's guidance on when would be best for you and then we'd also have to consult Mr. von Sponeck.

Follow-up Question: Any reason why Mr. von Sponeck is not addressing the Security Council in an official meeting? It looks a bit scaled down in the informal briefing.

Spokesman: Well, I think you must have been aware of the discussions among Council members, although these discussions did take place behind closed doors. There was no agreement among them on the format of the meeting. In view of the deadlock, the Secretary-General offered this formula as a way of bringing him before them, and they have accepted it.

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