PRESS CONFERENCE BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

The President of the Security Council during March, Anwarul Karim Chowdhury (Bangladesh), at a Headquarters press conference Friday afternoon told correspondents that during his presidency he had two objectives: to make the Council more open, transparent and widely participative by a larger membership of the United Nations; and to make the Council more proactive.

He was proud to say that during March there had been as many as 10 public meetings. Those meetings provided an opportunity to a larger membership to come up with their views, ideas and suggestions. The briefings he had given to members of the United Nations who were not members of the Council after every closed consultation were another contribution towards openness. He had recommended to his successor, Robert Fowler (Canada), that he continue that practice. He had also made available to all Members of the United Nations any draft document and had set up a Web site, open to the world as a whole. That openness had been appreciated by all, he said.

In order to be more proactive, he had tried not only to address the conflict areas that came up, but also to address areas where there was a need for Council attention. Peacekeeping operations had humanitarian components that had to be included in the peacekeeping resolutions that the Council was adopting and in the peace agreements that the Council was overseeing.

There had also been a debate on the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process of ex-combatants, he continued, based on the Secretary- General's report on that subject (document S/2000/101), whose recommendations had been incorporated in the presidential statement (S/PRST/2000/10). The humanitarian situation in Iraq had also been debated in an open briefing -- the first one on that subject in many years. The Secretary-General, the Executive Director of the Office of the Iraq Programme, Benon V. Sevan, and the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, had been present.

The Council had issued a statement on 8 March on the United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace [International Women's Day], since the role of women in peace-building and peace negotiations had been very important. Women were also the worst victims in any armed conflict, he said. It was his intention to have a full-fledged meeting scheduled on the role of women in armed conflict and peacemaking.

The Council's statement on the floods in Mozambique had been issued because the fact that mines had been washed away was a matter of post-conflict peace- building operations, he said. There had also been debates on the peace-building process in Haiti and Guinea-Bissau, where peacekeeping operations were coming to an end and where there was a need for the building of democratic institutions, the rule of law and the establishment of an administrative structure for the observance of human rights. Helping countries where peacekeeping operations came to an end was an area where the Council could be proactive.

Security Council Press Conference - 2 - 3 April 2000

Among the Council’s other activities, Mr. Chowdhury mentioned focused discussions on the proposed Security Council missions to Kosovo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Members wanted to see first-hand how the operations were going and wanted to send a strong message to the parties concerned: cease hostilities and engage in bringing back law and order.

He had initiated discussions about a possible Security Council summit, that would be held concurrently with the Millennium Summit, when Mali will hold the presidency of the Security Council, he said. The last such summit took place in 1992. Also, on the last day of the month, he had convened a wrap-up session in which, in closed consultations, the Council members interacted with each other and with the Secretary General.

To a question about the Council's trip to Washington, D.C., he said that it had been an interesting day. It had been the first time that 15 Members of the Security Council had gone out of New York together, albeit in their national capacity. "This is a day of dialogue", he said, a dialogue that had started in January with the visit of United States Senators Jesse Helms and Joseph Biden. There had been meetings with the Executive and the Legislative branches.

The basic point of the discussion with the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee was that, despite difficulties, the relationship between the United Nations and the United States should be based on a very strong foundation. The United Nations had been born in the United States, the United States was a Charter Signatory Member, and it contributed 25 per cent of the regular budget and 31 per cent of the peacekeeping budget. "There was no confrontation, no hard line taken by anybody”, he said. “The respect and mutuality for each other's position was there. This is a good beginning. As we are changing, and looking into the role of the United Nations in the next decade, in a post-cold-war situation, we need to have everybody aboard."

Senator Helms would always be welcome at the United Nations, he said in response to another correspondent's question. Initially, the President of the Security Council, Richard Holbrooke (United States), had invited him in January, but such formality was no longer necessary. Many of the Council members had established a good rapport with him and his colleagues.

Asked about dates for the Council missions to Kosovo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he said that no definite dates had been set, but that he expected them to occur by the end of April for Kosovo and early May for the Democratic Republic.

"I'll go to any capital whose country pays 25 per cent of the contribution and owes $1 billion", he quoted Secretary-General Kofi Annan as saying, when asked whether the Council might entertain invitations from other capitals. The Council was open about it, he said. If it was necessary to interact with the legislative branch of a country in order to establish a stronger and more effective United Nations, it would be worth it.

Security Council Press Conference - 2 - 3 April 2000

He welcomed the suggestion of one of the correspondents to add a "people's chat room" to the Council's Web site, and said that the number of daily "hits" was remarkable.

As the most pressing issues facing the Security Council, he saw the missions to Kosovo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but also some broader issues like the streamlining of peacekeeping operations, the involvement of civilian police, funding, and creating an appropriate ground situation for deployment of peacekeeping operations.

The Council missions would be composed from among the members of the Council, he added. The Council tended not to be very selective. For Kosovo he expected a team of 5 to 7 members.

To a question about the time-frame for deployment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he said, "The deployment process is on. It is not up in the air." On Wednesday morning he had talked to the six ambassadors of the countries who had signed the Lusaka agreement and had asked them to advise their governments not to let hostilities flare up, preventing deployment. But, total peace would not be there before the United Nations would go in. The United Nations had to take that risk.

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