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:

**Mozambique

Against the backdrop of more aid arriving in Mozambique and efforts to coordinate the various organizations and governments providing assistance, both on the ground and outside the country, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported that water is receding in many areas.

Ross Mountain, the Secretary-General’s special humanitarian envoy, stayed in Mozambique given the urgency of the situation on the ground. Originally, he was to have attended the meeting in Pretoria, called by President Thabo Mbeki, involving representatives of all of the countries in the region affected by the flooding. He made a helicopter assessment of the Save River basin -- one of the three river basins worst hit by the flooding.

Mr. Mountain has helped the Government to set up a mechanism on the ground in Maputo to coordinate the work of UN agencies, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations on the ground. Lead agencies have been identified for various pressing tasks. For example, the WFP is charged with logistics and food, and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will be taking the lead in water and sanitation issues.

In Geneva, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the WFP, UNICEF and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) met with donors today in a meeting that OCHA officials said helped coordinate the efforts of various governments sending in assistance. Before the meeting, some $50 million in contributions had been recorded and more is expected.

The UNICEF said today that it has received reports from some refugee camps in Mozambique indicating that as many as 30 per cent of children in some camps may have been separated from their families. The agency noted that rescue efforts have emphasized children first, which may explain how some children have been separated from family members.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said there was a need to ensure clean drinking water and separate water sources used for washing, latrine and other purposes.

**Chechnya

The spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, announced in Geneva today that the Russian Federation had indicated it would accept a visit by the High Commissioner to the northern Caucasus region, including Chechnya. Ms. Robinson had asked to go to Chechnya to assess first hand the human rights situation there.

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General is sending his envoy, Franz-Josef Homann-Herimberg, back to Moscow this weekend. He’ll have talks with the Russian Government starting on Monday on the extension of humanitarian operations in the northern Caucasus, including humanitarian access to Chechnya.

You'll recall that the Secretary-General first sent Homann-Herimberg, who is a retired official of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to Moscow last October to discuss the humanitarian situation in the northern Caucasus.

The UNHCR brought humanitarian supplies into the town of Grozny, Chechnya, for the first time earlier this week. The objective is to turn this pilot project into a sustainable relief programme.

We have today’s briefing notes from the High Commissioner for Refugees which details the first UNHCR convoy to Chechnya.

Judging from the initial reports from UNHCR monitors, who accompanied the convoy, the needs inside Grozny are great. The monitors describe a devastated and still insecure wasteland, where only about 21,000 civilians remain, that’s according to local registration lists. The monitors reported continued fighting in certain areas of Grozny. Bodies of civilian casualties are still being recovered from collapsed buildings, and mines and unexploded grenades are a problem in many areas.

According to official government sources, the number of internally displaced persons within Chechnya is more than 125,000, including an estimated 115,000 who are staying with host families and 10,500 others in camps. In neighbouring Ingushetia, officials say there are more than 176,000 internally displaced persons.

**Security Council

Today, the Security Council held closed consultations on Haiti, in which it heard a briefing by the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Bernard Miyet, on the transition under way from the UN Civilian Police Mission in that country to a new international civilian mission.

He noted the Secretary-General's report on Haiti, issued yesterday, which urged the parties in Haiti to ensure that their supporters "refrain from any violence, intimidation or any other act that could still put the holding and fairness of the elections at risk." Elections have been scheduled for later this month, but the Secretary-General noted reports of electoral violence and irregularities in parts of the country.

The Council is scheduled to have a private meeting on Monday on the subject of Kosovo, which will include briefings by the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Bernard Kouchner, as well as by General Klaus Reinhardt, the Commander of the Kosovo Force.

**East Timor

We have news that the Force Commander of the UN Peacekeeping Force in that Territory, Lieutenant General Jaime de los Santos, raised the threat level of the western region of East Timor, including Maliana and Suai, to “high” today, following several security incidents in the last 48 hours.

On Thursday night, a UN helicopter was shot at several times on the East Timor side of the border with West Timor. Most likely, the shots came from the West Timor side. The helicopter was not hit.

On Wednesday night, there were three deliberate incidents of harassing fire directed at, or close to, UN peacekeepers’ bases or observation posts. There were no casualties in these incidents.

The Force Commander expressed his concern to the West Timor Commander of the Indonesian military and urged him to take firmer action against the perpetrators and arrest them. Further details are in the note from Dili.

**Appointment of MONUC Force Commander

The Secretary-General has appointed Major General Mountaga Diallo of Senegal, as the Force Commander of the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC). That came out on the racks just this morning.

**ICTY

Today at The Hague, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced Tihomir Blaskic, a general in the Croatian Defence Council (also known by its Serbo-Croat initials HVO), to 45 years in prison for war crimes, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.

The sentence is the heaviest handed down to date by the Tribunal. Presiding Judge Claude Jorda said that Blaskic, who was a colonel in the Croatian Defence Council in 1993, bore responsibility for the killing, wounding and rape of Bosnian Muslims in the Lasva Valley on 13 April 1993.

In his summary of the case, Judge Jorda also noted that "the Republic of Croatia did not content itself merely with remaining a spectator on the sidelines, or even seek simply to protect its borders. It intervened in the conflict pitting the Muslims and Croats of central Bosnia against each other".

We have a press release from the Tribunal for more details.

**NPT Anniversary

We also have a statement by the Secretary-General on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the entry into force of the NPT, that’s the Non- Proliferation Treaty. I’ll read only the central paragraph. It’s a three- paragraph statement.

“On the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the NPT’s entry into force, the Secretary-General would like to stress that in order to achieve the ultimate objective of a world free of nuclear weapons, the international community should immediately start taking new and effective measures to achieve the inherently linked goals of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Efforts to seek the elimination of all nuclear weapons must remain a high priority”, he says.

**Sierra Leone

A special meeting on Sierra Leone, convened in Bamako, Mali, by Malian President Alpha Konare, concluded yesterday evening with a call for the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), of Sierra Leone, to remove obstacles to the deployment of the UN Mission in that country.

The meeting also urged the RUF to return large quantities of weapons and military equipment seized by its forces from Guinean troops, as well as weapons which the RUF and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, another rebel group, had taken from Kenyan UN troops. It also urged all parties in Sierra Leone to remove roadblocks throughout the country and asked the UN Mission to establish more disarmament centers.

The Bamako meeting, which began on Wednesday, brought together representatives from the Sierra Leone Government, the RUF, the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is currently chaired by President Konare.

RUF leader Foday Sankoh did not attend, but was represented by Mike Lamine, Sierra Leone's Minister of Trade and Industry. Sierra Leone President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah led the government delegation, while the United Nations was represented by Special Representative Oluyemi Adeniji.

Today, Mr. Kabbah also issued a statement, along with Presidents Charles Taylor of Liberia and Lansana Conte of Guinea, saying that none of their three countries should be used as a base to destabilize its neighbours. That pledge came at the end of a summit, also held in Bamako, of the Mano River Union, which comprises those three countries.

We have the text of the final communiqué, which you can pick up in my Office.

We also have the notes from Kosovo, which you can take a look at.

**Payments

We received a payment from Uzbekistan today, which became the sixty-second Member State to be paid in full for this year, with a payment of just over $260,000.

**Press Conferences

On Monday at 11:15 a.m., we have the launch of a survey prepared by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), entitled “Politics: Women’s Insight”. Angela King, the UN Special Adviser on Gender Issues, will be joined by two other persons.

Our guest at the noon briefing, as I mentioned yesterday, will be Dennis McNamara, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in Kosovo. Then at 3 p.m., a joint press conference by Bernard Kouchner and General Klaus Reinhardt, both, of course, of Kosovo.

**UNCA Announcement

The UN Correspondents Association (UNCA) asked me to tell you that today at 2:30 p.m. there will be a briefing in the UNCA Lounge on small arms. We don’t have further details. I don’t know who’s giving that briefing.

**Week Ahead

Finally, we have the week ahead. I’ll give you a few highlights. We expect the Secretary-General will give a press conference next week. We haven’t fixed a firm time. It may happen in the early part of the week. We’re looking at Tuesday, but once it’s firmed up, we’ll squawk it.

Wednesday is International Women's Day and to mark the occasion, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has proposed that women take control of the editorial content of the news for the day. The Secretary-General will deliver a message to commemorate the Day. The Security Council has scheduled consultations on Sierra Leone.

The Security Council, on Thursday, will hold an open debate on humanitarian action and the Council's role, which will focus on the role of UN peacekeeping and peace-building missions in humanitarian work.

The Secretary-General's report to the Council on the implementation of humanitarian programmes in Iraq is expected that day. And finally, the Council has scheduled consultations on general issues related to sanctions.

**Question and Answer

Question: Are there any details on Mary Robinson’s trip here? We understand she’s going to be here next week.

Spokesman: I don’t know. Do we have any details on that? No, we’ll look into that and let you know. I’m not aware that she’s coming here.

[Later: Mary Robinson will be at UN Headquarters for a series of meetings next week.]

Question: In his latest report on Haiti, I’ve noticed that the Secretary- General did not echo the grave concern over the drug-trafficking business in Haiti. Why didn’t he bring that to the attention of the Security Council?

Spokesman: This is a report on the winding down of the Police Mission there, which is a peacekeeping mission. I did say that the Secretary-General would be concerned about any place where there is a major UN presence, such as Haiti, where drug trafficking is on the increase. But I don’t think that he saw this as the place to introduce the drug issue. I don’t think this peacekeeping report is the place to discuss the drug issue. Follow-up Question: The International Narcotics Control Board made some recommendations to help this country in a quick way. Which organization is meant to do that?

Spokesman: I don’t know that, but this mission is winding down. It has just a few days left, and that was the purpose of this report. We should ask Mr. Pino Arlacchi, for example, who is Head of the Anti-Crime and Drug Unit of the UN, what he thinks about the problem and what his Unit might be intending to do about it.

Question: Any move from the UN to ease the new tensions between India and Pakistan?

Spokesman: Not that I’m aware of, no.

Okay, have a good weekend everyone.

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