DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETRAY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETRAY-GENERAL
20000324The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
Good afternoon.
**Secretary-General to Security Council: Humanitarian Situation in Iraq Poses Serious Moral Dilemma for UN
Today's Security Council open briefing on Iraq began with a presentation by the Secretary-General of his recent report on the humanitarian situation in that country. He told the Council that, although the "oil-for-food" programme has undoubtedly brought the people of Iraq some relief, "many of the essential needs of the population remain unsatisfied". In particular, he said that a mechanism is needed to review "holds" that have been placed by the Iraq Sanctions Committee on contract applications for Iraq, which the Secretary- General said had a direct negative impact on the humanitarian programme.
He warned that Iraq's oil industry remains seriously hampered by a lack of spare parts and equipment, and he recommended a "significant increase" in the allocation of resources under the Office of the Iraq Programme for spare parts purchases.
In closed consultations just prior to the open meeting, the Council considered a draft resolution that would allow an increased allocation to purchase spare parts for Iraq's oil industry, and the Secretary-General commented that he would "very much welcome that".
Most of all, the Secretary-General said, the humanitarian situation poses a serious moral dilemma for the United Nations. "We are in danger of losing the argument, or the propaganda war -- if we haven't already lost it -- about who is responsible for this situation in Iraq, President Saddam Hussein or the United Nations."
The meeting is continuing now, with Benon Sevan, Executive Director of the Office of the Iraq Programme, and Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), on hand to answer questions from Council members.
**Secretary-General's Travel Itinerary: Geneva, Rome, then Havana for South Summit
Just to give you a heads-up on the Secretary-General's travel programme. The itinerary has been firmed up now for visits to Geneva, Rome and Havana.
The Secretary-General will leave New York for Geneva on Monday, 3 April, and will address the Commission on Human Rights on the 4th, on the subject of how to strengthen implementation of human rights instruments.
He will then go to Rome that same day where he will begin a bilateral visit to Italy beginning on the 5th. On the 6th and 7th, he will chair the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC), which pulls together twice a year all the heads of United Nations funds, programmes and agencies. The agenda will focus on the impact of globalization, but will also include HIV/AIDS, staff security and safety, the World Conference on Racism and other matters, including the Secretary-General's media guidelines that we issued about a year ago and which other agencies of the United Nations system have an interest in emulating.
While in Rome, the Secretary-General will have an audience with the Pope. On his bilateral programme will be meetings with senior government officials and an address to the Italian Parliament.
On the weekend of 8-9 April, he will travel to Florence, Italy, where he will be made an honorary citizen. That's a nice place to be an honorary citizen of.
He will then leave for Havana, Cuba, on Monday 10 April, where he will have an official visit on the 11th. He will then attend the Group of 77 Summit on the 12th and 13th, returning to New York Friday the 14th.
We'll give you a somewhat more detailed version of the programme sometime next week.
**Notes from East Timor: Police Training College Opens Today; Vieira de Mello Opens Public Service Commission
From East Timor, we learned today that the East Timor Police Training College will open on Monday with its first class of 50 cadets. Those 50 were chosen as top scorers from among some 16,000 who applied to take the course.
Over the next three months, the cadets will be trained in human rights, community policing, criminal law, police techniques, even traffic rules, as well as investigative techniques and driving.
The recruitment of the required 3,000 police officers in East Timor is expected to take three years. Three years to recruit 3,000.
Also from East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations Transitional Administrator, today opened the Public Service Commission in Dili.
The Commission is an independent body, with three Timorese and two international members. It is responsible for overseeing the proper functioning of the East Timorese administration.
Mr. de Mello stressed the Commission's independence. He said, "It cannot favour one group or another." He also emphasized that merit will be the principle of any promotion within the civil service.
The first priority of the Commission will be to establish a permanent pay scale.
**WHO Targets Fight against TB on World TB Day
There have been a number of events around the world today to mark the occasion as World TB Day.
A new report released today in Amsterdam by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Union against TB and Lung Disease warns that multi- drug resistant strains of tuberculosis that have hit New York City and Russia could emerge in other parts of the world. In response, top government officials of 20 countries meeting today in Amsterdam have pledged to work harder to combat multi-drug resistant TB.
"For the first time, we have evidence that the drug-resistant TB outbreaks that have shaken New York City and Russia are increasing elsewhere", said Gro Harlem Brundtland, WHO Director-General. Resistance to at least one TB drug has increased by 50 per cent in both Denmark and Germany since 1996, and it has doubled in New Zealand, according to this report.
We have copies of the report, as well as of its executive summary, in my Office. We also have from the WHO a press release praising United States President Bill Clinton for marking World Tuberculosis Day by administering the WHO-recommended "direct observed treatment" to TB patients in Hyderabad, India, where he is visiting. India has the highest number of reported TB cases in the world, with more than 1,000 people dying from the disease each day, according to the WHO.
Tuberculosis is also one of the main public health issues in East Timor, where the WHO estimates between 10,000 and 15,000 people are infected. The national TB programme of East Timor has been working since February under the Interim Health Authority on immunization and treatment. The programme expects that all regions will have clinics and hospitals equipped to work on TB by the end of this year.
**Hague Tribunal Appeals Chamber Increases Sentence of Croat Prison Overseer
This morning in The Hague, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia increased to seven years the sentence of Zlatko Aleksovski. Aleksovski, a Bosnian Croat, had been previously sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment after the Tribunal had found him guilty of violations of laws or customs of war, namely, outrages on personal dignity committed in 1993 in a prison, in central Bosnia, of which he was the overseer. According to the indictment, "Many of the detainees under his control were subjected to inhumane treatment."
The Appeals Chamber found that "the Trial Chamber had erred in not having sufficient regard to the gravity of his conduct" and that "his offences were not trivial". This prison term is to run from today.
**Rwanda Tribunal: Kamuhanda Pleads Innocent to Charges of Genocide
This morning in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania, Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda pleaded not guilty to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity brought against him by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The indictment alleges that Kamuhanda, a former member of the Interim Government of Rwanda in 1994, personally led attacks of soldiers and Interhamwe militia against Tutsis who had taken refuge in a church. He is also accused of having distributed firearms, grenades and machetes to the militia. Kamuhanda was arrested in France last November and transferred to Arusha earlier this month.
We have a press release available in my Office.
**Donor Meeting on Mozambique Held in Geneva
A donor meeting on Mozambique took place this morning in Geneva. Ross Mountain, Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator for the United Nations, presented the appeal, which was launched this week in Maputo, seeking $102 million for ongoing emergency and rehabilitation activities directed at 650,000 victims of the floods.
Mr. Mountain stressed the importance of funding the World Food Programme's portion of the appeal for $10 million for emergency transportation. This is the requirement for one month of air transportation for rescue and deliveries after the imminent withdrawal of the military presence on the ground.
The Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations is also making arrangements to ensure a continued presence in Mozambique. The situation in other countries affected by the floods was also reviewed at the meeting this morning, including Madagascar, Zimbabwe, and Botswana.
**Payment
On budget news, Morocco became the seventy-fourth Member State to be paid in full for the regular budget for the year 2000 with a nice big check of just over $430,000.
Finally, we have the week ahead for you. I'll give you just a few of the highlights:
**Monday, 27 March
The Secretary-General intends to deliver a speech to defence ministers from nations participating in the Shirbrig arrangements, which are intended to establish a High Readiness Brigade on a standby basis for use in United Nations peacekeeping.
Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette will deliver a speech to a donor conference for Sierra Leone that will be held in London. The meeting will focus on reintegration, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
The Under-Secretary-General for Management, Joseph Connor, will come here to the noon briefing to give you the latest on United Nations finances.
**Tuesday, 28 March
The Security Council will hold consultations on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in which Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bernard Miyet will deliver a briefing based on his recent trip to that country.
From today until Thursday, there will be a meeting among representatives of various United Nations departments and agencies, as well as outside observers, on cartography and geographic information science. That's a little- known but useful work of the United Nations.
**Wednesday, 29 March
The Security Council will hold consultations on Guinea-Bissau, Somalia and Bougainville.
**Thursday, 30 March
The Security Council will visit Washington, D.C. We'll be following that event for you from Headquarters.
**Friday, 31 March
There will be a background briefing on the Secretary-General's upcoming Millennium Report. The Secretary-General will launch that report at a press conference here in this room on Monday, 3 April, just before he leaves for Geneva. Before the press conference, he will address the General Assembly and present the report to them.
That's all I have for you. Do you have any questions for me?
**Questions and Answers
Question: Tomorrow, there will be an observance of the 15-year anniversary of the tragic incident with Alec Collet, the journalist who disappeared somewhere in the Middle East. Since he was working as a member of the United Nations agency there at that time (UNRWA), does the Organization have any new information on his whereabouts?
Spokesman: No, unfortunately, we have nothing new and haven't had for years and years on Mr. Collet, who, as you pointed out, is both a colleague of yours and a colleague of ours. It's a very sad situation, but I'm afraid I have nothing new to report.
Question: In light of his briefing before the Security Council this morning, does the Secretary-General have any comment on The New York Times article today about the amount of illegal oil flowing from that country and whose pockets the article asserts the money is going to?
Spokesman: No. That would be a matter for the Sanctions Committee. I think you may have also seen a report that the Committee was briefed yesterday by an American in charge of the patrolling and interception operation in the Gulf which was not a United Nations-authorized action, but which does operate in support of the United Nations regime in Iraq. So the Committee has been briefed before on efforts made to interdict these illegal shipments and on the estimate of their volume. But I think, for any comment, you should probably ask Ambassador Peter Van Walsum, the Chairman of that Sanctions Committee.
Question: While in Rome, will the Secretary-General speak to the Pope about Iraq?
Spokesman: I don't have the agenda. Normally, there isn't a formal agenda, so I can't tell you what might come up in their exchange.
Question: Has he taken note of the comments the Pope has made about sanctions in Iraq?
Spokesman: I think the Secretary-General has been following the Pope's various comments, particularly during this historic visit to the Middle East. Yes, those comments on Iraq were noticed.
Question: Who supervises the health aspects of the food services here at the United Nations?
Spokesman: I don't know. I would have to find out if the kinds of inspections that New York City conducts for eating establishments in the City are also conducted on our turf.
Question: Why is the contract with [the company that supervises] concessions and food services at the United Nations not made public?
Spokesman: You're in an obscure area now. I will look into it for you, but we have a policy on contracts. So I'll have to check to see if it is our policy to make public contracts with our suppliers.
Question: Do you have any comment on the press conference here this morning by Ambassador Li Hyong Chol, Permanent Representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea?
Spokesman: No. I was focusing on the Secretary-General's comments and the debate in the Security Council, so I have nothing to say about what he might have said this morning.
Question: Can you give some details about the Security Council's visit to Washington, D.C., and the Secretary-General's visit to Havana?
Spokesman: On the visit to Washington, I did announce that it would take place on Thursday of next week. We do have an information centre in Washington, so if you can get there under your own steam, I'm sure they would be more than happy to help you cover the event.
On Havana, the Secretary-General will be flying from Madrid, so if you wanted to cover that event from here, it's not a question of flying with him. But, of course, if you get down to Havana and want to cover him, I will be there, so Ill look after you and take care of your every need. [laughter] Question: Can you speak to the Secretary-General about making special arrangements for journalists in Havana? There have been some problems with trying to cover events there in the past.
Spokesman: I will be sure to relay your concerns to him.
Thank you very much.
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