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, and Shirley Brownell, Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly.

**Mozambique

Good afternoon. The Secretary-General has been on the phone with President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique concerning the international response to the floods in that country. He also spoke with President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, which has played a leading role in airlifting victims from treetops and rooftops to safety.

One problem is the shifting needs. Yesterday, as we announced, the priority was helicopters. Today, there is talk of the need for small boats. The longer- term needs will most likely include farm implements and seeds.

South Africa will host a meeting in Pretoria tomorrow with participants not only from Mozambique, but also from other countries affected by the heavy rains and flooding, namely Botswana and Zimbabwe, in order to take a regional approach. The Secretary-General mentioned that on his way into the building this morning. Ross Mountain, whom the Secretary-General designated earlier this week as his humanitarian coordinator for this emergency, will attend the Pretoria meeting.

The Secretary-General has also been in touch with potential donors. He had discussions with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer yesterday and then with US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke later in the day. Once the Pretoria participants identify the priority needs, it is hoped that targeted assistance will follow.

Amid weather forecasts of a fresh cyclone threatening flood-stricken Mozambique, the most urgent task on the ground remained the search and rescue of victims clinging to tree branches and stranded on rooftops and small bits of land.

The World Food Programme is conducting search and rescue missions with 14 helicopters and six fixed-wing aircraft. Seven of the helicopters are from the South African Defence Force and seven are from Great Britain. According to WFP, there are a total of 37 light aircraft, including 16 helicopters, in the region today.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that more helicopters, as well as other critically needed equipment and supplies, were arriving in Mozambique. The Coordination Office also flagged the need for boat operations to reach the estimated 800,000 to 1 million victims. Four inflatable boats with engines and emergency medical kits, provided by the World Health Organization, were among the relief items airlifted today from the Coordination Office's warehouse in Pisa, Italy.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has launched an urgent international appeal to help more than 300,000 farmers and their families. OCHA has also flagged the need for assistance to victims of flooding in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Swaziland and fielded a disaster assessment team to work with authorities and UN agencies already on the ground.

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 2 March 2000

**Security Council

The President of the Security Council for the month of March, Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowdhury of Bangladesh, began today with bilateral consultations with other Council members. At 3 this afternoon the Council will go into consultations on its programme of work for the month. Then, at 5 p.m., the Council will go into a formal meeting to elect a candidate to fill the vacancy left at the International Court of Justice by retiring Judge Stephen Schwebel of the United States. The candidate being considered is Thomas Buergenthal, who is also from the United States. The Council's action will be followed by the General Assembly's consideration of the candidacy immediately afterwards.

Tomorrow the Council is expected to hold consultations on Haiti.

**Haiti

The latest report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council is out on the racks today. It deals with the work of the UN Civilian Police Mission in Haiti, which is gradually reducing its presence in preparation for the transition to an International Civilian Support Mission in Haiti. That transition will take effect on 15 March.

The Secretary-General notes some problems in voter registration for Haiti's elections scheduled for later this month. Although voter registration began on 24 January, the report notes that registration started late in some areas where there was electoral violence, and fraud and irregularities were reported in several areas. However, the report also notes that more than 3 million voters have been reported to have been registered by mid-February, and the Secretary- General calls the progress of the electoral process encouraging.

He also says that, while the security situation in Haiti remains of concern, the police force has been able to work with increased efficiency in recent months. Still, as the Police Mission withdraws its personnel there have been problems with unrest. The Police Mission reported that a crowd of several thousand Haitians hindered efforts to move equipment out of the UN offices in Port-au-Prince's Cite Soleil on Monday and badly damaged UN vehicles before local police restored calm. There are currently more than 200 UN police in Haiti, but they plan to complete their repatriation by 15 March, when the Civilian Support Mission begins.

**Iraq

The Government of Iraq has informed the United Nations Secretariat this morning of its response to the arrangements for Iraqi Hajj pilgrims, which the Security Council's Sanctions Committee on Iraq approved yesterday afternoon. The Secretariat is now translating a letter transmitted by the Iraqi Mission on this matter. But the Iraqi response essentially seems to be "no" to the proposed arrangements, as these were too late for this year's pilgrimage. We'll give you more details on the contents of the letter as soon as it is translated and sent to the Council.

**UNHCR

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees today expressed alarm at reports of rising tensions between Serbs and minority ethnic Albanians living in southern Serbia, resulting in a noticeable increase in displaced people arriving in neighbouring Kosovo. An estimated 60,000 to 70,000 ethnic Albanians still live in the Presevo-Bujanovac area along southern Serbia's provincial border with Kosovo. There have been increasing reports of instability along the border in recent weeks, including accounts from displaced Albanians of harassment and intimidation by Serb police and military.

Dennis McNamara, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, says the increasing harassment of Albanians in southern Serbia may also be linked to recent ethnic unrest in the northern city of Mitrovica. At the same time, there has been an upsurge in attacks on non- Albanians, namely Serbs and Roma, across Kosovo. There is a UNHCR press release on this subject upstairs and Mr. McNamara will be my guest at the noon briefing on Monday.

Also on Monday, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, is expected to brief the Security Council. He'll be accompanied by the KFOR Commander, Klaus Reinhardt. This will be the first joint briefing of the Council of a Special Representative and a NATO Commander. They will talk to you here in the afternoon.

**East Timor

We have news that an advance party of 15 Portuguese police officers, who will form the core of the Rapid Response Unit of the Civilian Police component of the UN Transitional Administration there, arrived in Dili yesterday. They are part of the 120-strong Portuguese contingent, which is expected to be deployed by 13 March. They'll be joined later by the second contingent coming from Jordan, whose strength is also 120. The officers serving with the Rapid Response Unit will carry sidearms and short rifles. They are expected to respond to major security threats and other large-scale emergencies.

**Bosnia and Herzegovina

Today in Sarajevo, the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Wolfgang Petrisch, announced that former public officials who had been dismissed by him would also be barred from holding any "positions of public trust". Those positions include all directly or indirectly elected, or appointed, public offices, as well as all positions in companies in which the Government accounts for more than 25 per cent of the company's capital or business activities.

The High Representative's Office said he took that step after learning that some of the 22 officials whom he had dismissed last year were being considered for appointment to some public companies, judgeships or other positions of public trust. Some dismissed officials have continued to hold positions on steering boards and other high bodies following their dismissal. We have a press release from the High Representative's Office with more details.

**Mano River Union Summit

The Presidents of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia met together today in Bamako, Mali, to attend the Mano River Union Summit, in which the three leaders discussed cooperation on economic and security matters. The recent wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone had posed problems for the Union, so today's meeting heralds something of a revival. When the Secretary-General visited that area last year, he promoted the idea of reviving this concept of the Mano River Union as a way of increasing stability in the region.

**Press Releases

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy, in a press release, thanked US President Bill Clinton for his help in an initiative to save the lives of nearly 3 million children a year who die from vaccine-preventable diseases.

We also have a fact sheet from the World Health Organization on food safety, and a release from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on a visit by the Chairman of the Upper House of the Russian Parliament.

That's all I have for you. Any questions for me before we go to Shirley?

**Question and Answer

Question: Does the Secretary-General have any comment on the British decision to return Augusto Pinochet to Chile?

Spokesman: No, I have nothing new to add to what he has said, which I don't think changes as a result of the action taken by the British Government today. This case, as well as some others -- and here I'm thinking of former President Hissene Habre of Chad -- indicate the evolution of international human rights law, which he finds very interesting and it will be something we'll be watching closely as time goes on. Something is moving, something is changing out there and this whole case of Mr. Pinochet is just emblematic of the broader changes taking place in the international community.

Question: Have you seen a figure on the number of homeless people estimated in Mozambique? Is there a figure on the death toll?

Spokesman: I don't think we have a reliable figure yet. I think there is concern that there may be a significant number of people buried in the mud. Until the waters recede and we can take a closer look, I don't think anyone's in a position to make an intelligent estimate.

Question: On the floods, Maputo itself is pretty high up on cliffs. How has the capital survived? Is it still pretty much functioning?

Spokesman: I don't know. I'll have to check. I know that our people seem to be able to get in and out of there by commercial flights, so I assume life in the capital is not substantially disrupted. But let me ask our humanitarian people for a specific report on Maputo and I'll get back to you.

[Later: There's no problem in Maputo. Most of the flooding is in central Mozambique, so Maputo is fine.]

Press Briefing by Spokeswoman for General Assembly President

Good afternoon. The General Assembly will meet this afternoon, simultaneously, or almost, with the Security Council, to elect one member of the 15-member International Court of Justice. The Assembly will also approve the appointment of the new Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, on the recommendation of the Secretary-General. Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab, who returned to New York last night after spending two weeks in Namibia, will preside.

The meeting is being held later today, at about 5 p.m., to accommodate the UNIS-UN 1999-2000 Conference that is taking place in the General Assembly Hall today and tomorrow. The theme of the two-day Conference, which brings together students from all over the world, is “A Changing World: Examining Global Interdependence and Inequalities”.

Addressing the students this morning, the President said, “Your generation is a product of an extraordinary age of knowledge and information on a global scale unlike anything ever known to humankind. You are born with computers in your brains and the Internet and website.com in your mouths. You are standing at the crossroads between a somewhat unremarkable past and shattering breakthroughs, brought about by science and technology, biotechnology, cyberspace and mind- boggling inventions in medicine, animal husbandry, explorations in space and the seabed”.

He went on to say, “But let us not forget today’s real world out there, the world of hunger, poverty, disease, illiteracy and man’s inhumanity to man. I wish it were otherwise, but you will inherit this mess". The President said, "Each generation has its moment under the sun and is given an opportunity to make its own history. Now is your time and opportunity". Copies of that statement will be made available as soon as possible after the briefing.

The sole candidate for the International Court of Justice post is Thomas Buergenthal of the United States, who has been nominated by the national groups of 15 States parties to the Statute of the Court. If elected, Mr. Buergenthal would fill the vacancy in the Court caused by the resignation, effective 29 February, of Judge Stephen M. Schwebel. He would serve out the remainder of Judge Schwebel’s term, through 5 February 2006. Mr. Buergenthal is the Lobinger Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence, and Presiding Director of the International Rule of Law Center at the George Washington University Law School. He is also Vice-Chairman of the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland. His curriculum vitae appears in document A/54/752; other related documents are A/54/750, 751 and Add. 1 and 2.

The Assembly will also act on the recommendation of the Secretary-General that it approve his appointment of Dileep Nair of Singapore as Under-Secretary- General for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) for one fixed term of five years, effective 24 April. Mr. Nair, who is Managing Director of the Development Bank of Singapore, the country’s largest, would replace Karl T. Paschke of Germany, whose term of office expired last November. The note of the Secretary-General is in document A/54/109.

The Assembly will take up the Secretary-General’s request on the allocation of the agenda item on the financing of the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That request is contained in document A/54/237.

The President is also expected to comment, at the outset of the meeting, on the disastrous floods that have hit southern Africa, particularly Mozambique, and to urge the international community to respond promptly and generously to any request for assistance from the affected countries. He will also make an announcement concerning the law of the sea and ocean affairs.

Further, the President is expected to draw attention to the updated list of Member States in arrears in the payment of their financial contributions to the Organization, under Article 19 of the Charter. That document is A/54/750/Add.1, which is still not out on the racks. It will show that eight more States have made payments since 31 January, thus reducing to 44 the number of countries still in arrears.

Next week will be a busy one for several General Assembly bodies. On Monday, 6 March, the second meeting of the Open-ended Informal consultations of the Plenary on the Millennium Summit will take place. On Tuesday, 7 March, the President will open the first session of the Open-ended Working Group on the Causes of Conflict and the Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa. And from 6 to 15 March, the Open-ended Working Group on the Question of Equitable Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council and Other Matters will hold meetings. Also next week, the President travels to Asia, for official visits to Japan and Singapore.

Spokesman: Any questions for Shirley? Okay, thank you very much.

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