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.

Okay, the guest at today’s briefing will be Hans Blix, the new Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq (UNMOVIC). He’ll be here in a few minutes. I have a few other items for you starting with Mozambique.

**Mozambique

On efforts to reach flood victims in Mozambique, the World Food Programme (WFP) said it will begin today delivering by helicopter high- energy biscuits to families marooned on rooftops to keep them going as they wait to be rescued. There is a desperate need for more helicopters.

WFP said the focus today will continue to be on saving people in trees. Thousands of people are said to be stuck among the branches. The food agency says the area currently covered by flood waters is greater than the State of Switzerland.

Meanwhile, the UN’s Mine Action Service says that it’s very concerned about the impact of the flooding on the work undertaken in the heavily mined areas affected. Many of the markings and the work in progress have been seriously impeded. There is also likely to be a shift in the mines. In addition, there is concern about the loss of local community knowledge of the location of mines. The full extent of the damage will, obviously, not be known until the flood waters have receded, but the Service is consulting with donors on how to respond and send in a team as soon as possible.

UNICEF says it is currently working to establish a radio network between the capital, Maputo, and about a dozen shelter locations in the provinces.

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy today issued an urgent appeal to support the Mozambican relief efforts. She said a “humanitarian disaster” could be developing without adequate relief support from world governments.

**Iraq

Today, new procedures take effect under which the UN Secretariat will be able to speed up the rate by which contracts for some food and educational items requested by Iraq under the “oil-for-food” programme are approved.

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You'll recall that, in Resolution 1284, the Security Council directed the Council's Sanctions Committee on Iraq to allow the Secretariat to notify the Committee of the expedited approval for several groups of items -- namely, foodstuffs, and medical, agricultural and educational supplies.

The lists of food and educational items to be approved on an expedited basis has been approved by the Sanctions Committee, and the United Nations can begin approving contracts for those items starting today. Lists of medical and agricultural supplies to be approved on the same expedited basis have been drawn up by the Office of the Iraq Programme, and the Sanctions Committee is still considering them.

Also on the subject of Iraq, you know that this afternoon at 3 p.m., we will have Hans von Sponeck, the Humanitarian Coordinator, here in this room to give you a press conference.

**Landmine Ban Convention

This is the first anniversary of the entry into force of the Landmine Ban Convention. I have the following statement attributable to the Spokesman: “The Secretary-General wishes to congratulate the parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, as well as their partners in civil society on the first anniversary of the entry into force of this treaty. Their commitment to the total eradication of anti-personnel mines has brought us thus far in an astonishingly short period of time.

“The world as a whole and especially, the people of mine-affected countries will benefit from the full implementation of the Convention. The United Nations, through its various components, is deeply engaged in this work. The Secretary-General, as depository, is gratified that 91 States have ratified the Convention. He takes this opportunity to call upon those States that have not yet signed to accede and those who have not yet ratified, to do so without delay so that it may achieve universalization as soon as possible.”

**Security Council

On this first day of March, the Security Council is not in session, and the new Council President for this month, Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowdhury of Bangladesh, holds bilateral consultations with the other Council members.

Earlier this morning, the Council President received a courtesy call from Hans Blix, the new Chairman of UNMOVIC, who will be here shortly and whose duties officially begin today. Dr. Blix also met with the Secretary-General at 9:45 this morning.

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Tomorrow, the Council is expected to hold consultations on its programme of work for March. In the afternoon, it is expected to hold a formal meeting to fill a vacancy on the International Court of Justice.

**Ambush in Serbia

We now have a more thorough account of the security incident in southern Serbia that we reported yesterday.

As you recall, a United Nations vehicle was ambushed by a group of armed and uniformed men near Bujanovac in southeastern Serbia, near the Kosovo border. As a result of the ambush, a Humanitarian Affairs Officer of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Marcel Grogan, who is an Irish national, sustained two gunshot wounds to the legs. Grogan was subsequently medivaced by KFOR troops from the Kosovo border to Bondsteel Military Base, where he received medical treatment and is now in stable condition.

After recognizing that they had attacked a UN vehicle, the attackers were apologetic, stating that it was a case of mistaken identity. The attackers then directed the UN staff to a KFOR checkpoint west of the site of the ambush.

The area of Serbia in which this ambush took place has remained lawless since the end of the conflict last year and has seen increasing insecurity in recent months. The perpetrators identified themselves as a splinter group from the Kosovo conflict and indigenous to the predominantly Albanian populated villages in the area.

**East Timor

At a press briefing in Dili today, Peter Galbraith, the UN Director of Political Affairs in East Timor, explained the significance of the communique signed in Dili yesterday between visiting Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid and UN Transitional Administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello.

The transcript of that press briefing is must reading for anyone following East Timor closely, and it is available in my Office.

Also, the UN Children's Fund today launched the first major immunization campaign in East Timor since last August's referendum on independence. Twenty thousand infants are to be immunized against six childhood diseases and for more details, you can see the Briefing Note from Dili in my Office.

And finally, Francis Deng, the Secretary-General's Special Representative on Internally Displaced Persons, concluded a visit to Timor with a press conference in Dili today. He said that the

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internally displaced were coming back to looted and destroyed homes, to total devastation, while refugees in West Timor were being intimidated by anti-independence militia. The text of that press conference is also available in my Office.

**Sudan

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in a statement issued in Khartoum, as well as Nairobi, Geneva and New York, said that 149 staff members of non-governmental organizations, working under the umbrella of Operation Lifeline Sudan in areas of southern Sudan controlled by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, have been evacuated.

The evacuation comes after an agreement regarding the text of the Memorandum of Understanding could not be reached with the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SRRA), the humanitarian arm of the Movement, after nine months of negotiations facilitated by the UN and donor governments. The evacuation encompasses 11 of the 35 NGOs affiliated with the operation and it represents the temporary loss of a significant proportion of the humanitarian resources to the region.

**Film Screening

Gillian Sorensen asked me to tell you that you are all invited to a special screening of the HBO film documentary “Children in War” today at 6 p.m. in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium. The Academy Award-winning makers of the film will be present for a Q & A session after the screening. Be there early, seats are limited.

**Payments

Cyprus has become the sixty-first Member State to be paid in full for this year's regular budget. Today, they made a payment of just over $350,000.

**Question and Answer

Question: Could you describe the vehicle that was attacked in Serbia? You said it was a case of mistaken identity. What kind of vehicle was he traveling in?

Spokesman: My understanding was that it was a UN-marked vehicle. It had UN license plates.

Question: I was wondering if the United Nations had any comment on the report in the National Post about three Tutsi informants revealing to the United Nations that they were part of an elite strike team that assassinated the Hutu President in 1994?

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Spokesman: No, we checked with the Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, and as a matter of policy, she would not comment on any information that might have been leaked concerning ongoing investigations.

Question: What’s your understanding on the hajj deal and where we are with that?

Spokesman: No agreement was reached. I understand it was reported, anyway, that there was a flight that went to Mecca from Iraq today. That is permitted under the latest resolution on the condition that Iraq notify the Sanctions Committee. As of midmorning, we had not received such notification.

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