DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Farhan Haq, Acting Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**International Criminal Court

Good morning everyone.  Happy New Year.  Midnight on Sunday night was not just the start of the New Year.  It was the deadline by which countries could sign on to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court at United Nations Headquarters.  Before the deadline passed, three more countries signed the Statute on Sunday afternoon -- Iran, Israel and the United States -- bringing the number of signatories to 139.  So far, 27 countries have ratified the Statute, with 60 ratifications needed before it enters into force. 

On Sunday evening, we put out a statement attributable to the Spokesman on the signings to the Statute, copies of which are available upstairs.  I'll just read out part of it, and you can pick up the full text in the Spokesman's Office. 

"The Secretary-General is greatly encouraged by the fact that so many States took the decision to sign the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court before the 31 December 2000 deadline.  He considers this a promising demonstration of the breadth of support for this new international institution, which can help to end the culture of impunity and make the twenty-first century qualitatively different from the twentieth. 

“The Governments that have made this enlightened move clearly understand that the Court represents no threat to States with an organized criminal justice system.  On the contrary, it is designed only to protect those most vulnerable people whose own Government, if they have one, is unable or unwilling to prosecute those who violate their most fundamental human rights."

The statement concludes:  "The Secretary-General wishes to express his particular satisfaction at the signature of the Statute by the United States of America.  He is well aware of the difficulties that the President of the United States faced in reaching this decision, and warmly congratulates him on his courage and far-sightedness in overcoming them."

And, to repeat, copies of that are available upstairs. 

**Cambodia

The United Nations Secretariat has been informed that on 2 January, which is today, the National Assembly of Cambodia, in the presence of 92 Members of Parliament, approved the draft Law on the Establishment of Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea.  The Senate of the Cambodian Parliament is expected to deliberate on the draft bill soon.

The United Nations Legal Counsel, Mr. Hans Corell, has been in telephone contact today with his Cambodian counterpart, Mr. Sok An, who verified the constitutional details.

For the United Nations, it is of utmost importance to be able to ascertain that the law, as ultimately adopted by the Cambodian Parliament, is in fact in accordance with the understanding that was reached between the United Nations and the Government of Cambodia in July last year.  Only when the Secretariat has an official translation into English of the legislation as adopted will it be possible to make a final assessment whether the United Nations can enter into a formal agreement with the Government of Cambodia on this important matter.

**Security Council

The New Year brings with it a new Security Council, with five rotating members joining the Council to serve in 2001 and 2002.  The five new members are Colombia, Ireland, Mauritius, Norway and Singapore.

Singapore, in fact, takes over the rotating Presidency of the Council this month, with Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani of Singapore replacing Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov as Council President.  There are no meetings of the Council scheduled for today, but Ambassador Mahbubani expects to hold bilateral meetings with other Council members tomorrow to help develop the Council's programme of work for January.

**East Timor

New Year's Eve was a busy time for the civilian police of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), who dispersed crowds who contributed to two violent incidents in Dili, at a local restaurant and at a mosque, respectively.

Shortly after midnight on early Monday morning, a crowd of about 50 East Timorese gathered outside a restaurant where a fight had broken out between a Singaporean businessman and a local commander of the Falintil (national liberation) movement.  The crowd began throwing stones at the restaurant, and five United Nations vehicles were also damaged.  United Nations civilian police brought the situation under control and arrested two international businessmen, and are investigating the incident.

In the second incident, a group of about 40 Timorese threw stones at a mosque in Dili, which is home to some 200 Muslims, on Monday morning.  United Nations police dispersed the crowd after firing two warning shots into the air.  No arrests have been made, but an investigation is continuing.

And if you want further details they are available in today's briefing notes from Dili.

**Sierra Leonean Refugees

Sierra Leonean refugees continue to arrive at the transit centre in Conakry, Guinea, fleeing camps in southwestern Guinea, says the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).  There are more than 2,400 refugees currently in the centre, and because of the continuing demand there, the capacity is being increased by three thousand to five thousand spaces.  The Office of the UNHCR is also seeking a second chartered vessel to assist in returning refugees to Sierra Leone.  The total number of refugees returned so far is about 1,600.  We have more information in an update available from UNHCR in the Spokesman’s Office.

**Press Releases

In a press release, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia announced a contribution of $32,000 by the government of Norway to the Tribunal’s Outreach Programme.  The Programme aims to strengthen contacts between the Tribunal and communities and operates in all the languages of the former Yugoslavia.  The press release is available in the Spokesman’s Office.

**Iraq Oil Update

The next oil update from the Office of the Iraq Programme will come out tomorrow.  It has been a fairly quiet week.   Aside from one loading of oil last week at the port of Ceyhan and another at Mina al-Bakr, last week was a quiet one for Iraqi oil exports.  More detailed information, including all the numbers and financial facts, will be available when the update comes out tomorrow.

**Payments

We do have some more financial figures regarding the budget of the United Nations.  Four countries -- Bangladesh, Gabon, Grenada and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya -- made their full payments for the year 2001, which brings the number of Member States who have paid in full for 2001 to four.  Bangladesh paid a little over $103,000; Gabon paid about $144,000; Grenada paid a little over $10,000, and Libya paid a little over $692,000.

That is all I have for you.  Any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  The United Nations and Iraq were supposed to be entering into a dialogue one of these days.  It is now past Ramadan, which is when we were told that this would start, and yet we have not heard anything since.  Can you tell us what the status of that is and when these talks are going to get underway?

Acting Associate Spokesman:  We, actually at this stage, do not have a date for the talks.  We hope we will be getting one shortly.  The Secretary-General, as you know, is not actually at Headquarters today, but will be at the residence possibly for the course of this week.  And he also will be traveling later in the month, in the second half of January.  So, possibly if an appointment is made, one would expect it to be maybe between the eighth and fourteenth of this month.  If an appointment is not agreed to by then, it may be a little bit later.  But so far, we are still awaiting some further information on when these talks might be held.

Question:  Have you gotten the proposed agenda items from the Iraqi side, which the Secretary-General said he was asking for? 

Acting Associate Spokesman:  Not as far as I know.

Question:  On Cambodia, has Corell given you any indication how long it is going to take for you to get this translation and to make a determination? 

Acting Associate Spokesman:  Well, we first need to get the text and get it translated.  Hopefully, it won't take that long.  The text, as you know, is in Khmer.  So depending on how quickly you can translate, we'll try to get that done.

Question:  Is there any indication that it looks like it's the real thing? 

Acting Associate Spokesman:  We need to see the document.  Of course, as you are aware, last year's negotiations were very involved, very delicate.  And we would like to make sure that the language of this particular document that was approved in the National Assembly is in keeping with what was agreed to last summer.  So we need to see the document and we need to have it translated.  Hopefully, it will not take that long.  But we do not have an indication of a timetable on that.  But once we get further information, we will certainly have that for you.

Question:  Thank you.  I wish you Happy New Year.  My question is regarding Ms. Biljana Plavsic, former President of a Serb entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina.  Apparently, according to the Beta News Agency in Belgrade, she has been invited as either a witness or an accused at the Hague Tribunal.  What can you tell us about that?

Acting Associate Spokesman:  Well, the United Nations has seen the reports that you are referring to.  However, the Office of the Prosecutor makes it very clear that as a long-standing policy it will not comment on future prospective witnesses or future indictees until an official announcement has been made.  And in Plavsic case there has been no official announcement made about either whether she would appear as a witness or as an indictee.  So until we get that sort of official announcement we do not have any comment.

Question:  But she did not appear at all at the Hague Tribunal.  Never.  There were even reports that she is going to appear today. 

Acting Associate Spokesman:  I don't have any information on that.  If she speaks as a witness presumably we would make an announcement on that.  But, certainly if it is simply an appointment for her to appear as a future witness or future indictee, there's nothing we can say about it.  For right now, there's nothing we can say about it. 

Question:  I see that [Mayalsian Prime Minister] Mahathir Mohammed is going to Burma shortly.  I was just wondering whether it was entirely coincidental that he is going just a couple days before the Malaysian United Nations Envoy, Razali Ismail, is also going to Burma to promote dialogue, or whether there is any hope on the part of the United Nations that this visit might also be helpful in that same regard?

Acting Associate Spokesman:  Well I have no comment about what the effects or the impact of Prime Minister's Mahathir's visit is.  You're quite right that on the fifth, which is Friday, Ambassador Razali Ismail, who is the Secretary-General's Special Envoy, will begin his third visit to Myanmar.  And that's expected to last from the fifth to the ninth.  And over that time he's expected to meet both with Government figures and with opposition figures, including Daw Aung Sang Suu Kyi.  Of course you're right that Ambassador Razali is Malaysian and was in fact, Malaysia's Ambassador to the United Nations fairly recently.  But whether there's any connection, I certainly don't know.  In any case, Ambassador Razali is not going there as an emissary of the Malaysian government; he's going there as the Secretary-General's Special Envoy.  

Question:  On the Iraqi oil release, you mentioned that it was a quiet week.  I'm wondering is this because of a holiday slowdown, or is there any indication that they stopped loadings for any reason? 

Acting Associate Spokesman:  I don't have any reason.  Last week was a holiday week.  In the Islamic world, for example, it was the Eid holiday, in addition to, of course, being holidays for all kinds of other religions and countries.  But in general, activity was slow for a while.  What the reasons for it are I don't know.  But one can assume that the holiday did contribute to that.

Question:  I know you talked about the International Criminal Court but I don't know in what terms you commented on it.  United States Senator [Jesse] Helms said that the Treaty will not stand.  Do you have a reaction? 

Acting Associate Spokesman:  I don’t think we have any particular reaction to Senator Helms.  Obviously the Treaty was signed by the United States Government.  And we hope over time that the Governments that have signed this Treaty will go on to ratify it.  Certainly, we're very pleased that as many as 139 countries signed.  Even if only half that number goes on to ratify, this Treaty will in fact enter into force.  It needs 60 ratifications.  As for concerns, obviously there have been a number of concerns voiced in this country and in some others about the Court.  I just want to refer you back to the Secretary-General's statement that came out over the weekend, in which he said very clearly, "The Governments that have made this enlightened move clearly understand that the Court represents no threat to States with an organized criminal justice system."  And he added that only States whose Governments are unable or unwilling to prosecute those who violate their most fundamental human rights would be affected by the Tribunal.  Hopefully, over time, more Governments and more countries will have whatever their remaining concerns are about the Court resolved. 

As you are aware, the United States has continued to be involved in the process of the negotiations on everything from the rules of procedure and evidence, to other aspects of the Court's functioning.  Over time hopefully they, along with the other Governments, will come to support this Court wholeheartedly.  Certainly the signature by the United States Government on Sunday was a tremendous step forwards in terms of showing United States support for this Court, and we hope that that continues.  In fact, a few hours before the signing I got a couple of questions from people who were fully expecting that the United States would not sign -- would never sign.  You can never tell what the future holds.

Question:  Back to what you said on Iraq and the possibility of a meeting, will the Secretariat make any attempt to have any kind of contact with the United States Presidential transition team on this matter in order to work out all the various parameters that they'll be operating under in the future?  Obviously if they have an early meeting then the situation may shift in terms of Iraqi policy.

Acting Associate Spokesman:  Well, the Secretary-General in his last press conference of the year a couple of weeks ago actually made it clear that he would be willing to talk with President-elect Bush and members of his team, hopefully soon after the inauguration, to discuss key concerns that the United Nations and the United States share, including the question of Iraq, as well as the Middle East and other important international issues.   As far as that goes, whether this meeting occurs early or late, hopefully whenever it’s held, the United Nations and the United States will be also discussing the relevant matters as they arise, and being sure that everyone understands what's going on. 

Question:  Will that be moved back until the twentieth, the inauguration, on the United States side?

Acting Associate Spokesman:  As far as I know there are no plans to contact President-elect Bush's team until after the inauguration.  Whether there will be any contact with President Clinton prior to that point, I can't say at this stage.  There's nothing scheduled right now, but whether or not something like that may happen in the future, it could.  It's not something that we would rule out.

Question:  On Cambodia, once the United Nations receives this translation, would it then be up to Corell or members of the legal team to then go back to Cambodia to negotiate the final agreement between the two? 

Acting Associate Spokesman:  I think first, once they've read it, they'll make an assessment about whether the United Nations can enter into a formal agreement.  Depending upon what that assessment of the document is, and where it stands, on the basis of that, I assume they will make their further plans.  But for now, we haven’t scheduled any trips back over to Cambodia.  It will all really depend on an assessment of what the document says. 

Question:  Probably early, but [are there] any plans [or] dates for the Washington visit by Secretary-General Annan to the new President in February? 

Acting Associate Spokesman:  That is a bit early.  We don't have any dates right now.  Hopefully that will become clearer later on down the line.

Question:  What kind of Ambassador would the United Nations high echelon like to see from a new administration to be sent here?

Acting Associate Spokesman:  I have no comment.  Obviously whoever is sent here, we'll work with.  Hopefully we'll have as productive a relationship with whoever the new ambassador would be as with the current one. 

Question:  Was he one of the people calling you with a question on Sunday to find out if the United States was signing? 

Acting Associate Spokesman:  No.  Is that it?  Good afternoon. 

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