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 Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.   

**Secretary-General in Japan

The Secretary-General began his programme in Japan today with a meeting with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.

He then had a series of meetings with Japanese officials, including Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, and Foreign Minister Yohei Kono.

In these meetings, the Secretary-General praised Japan's contribution to international peace and security through development assistance, conflict prevention and humanitarian aid.  The discussions also focussed on UN reform, and in particular Security Council reform, follow-up to the Millennium Summit and African issues.

With Prime Minister Mori, who recently completed the first visit to Africa by a Japanese Prime Minister, the Secretary-General explored ways to strengthen Japan's contribution to meeting Africa's needs.

The talks with Foreign Minister Kono focused on peace and security issues, including the Middle East, the Gulf and the Korean Peninsula.  And with the Finance Minister, he reviewed global and national economic trends.  He also met with a few parliamentarians.  One of them, Akihiko Kumashiro, said that he had clicked on the UN Home Page today for the first time, where he read of the Secretary-General's recent travels.  He said:  "I've now added the Home Page under ‘Favorites’."

**Lebanon

Out on the racks today is the Secretary-General’s Report on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

In the document, the Secretary-General reports on the activities of the Force and in southern Lebanon for the past six months and recommends that its mandate be extended a further six months to 31 July 2001.

Despite a small number of serious incidents, the Secretary-General says, the situation in southern Lebanon has remained calm.  The majority of violations of the Blue Line were quickly corrected by one side or the other after being raised by the mission.

However, according to the Secretary-General, the “reckless behaviour of Lebanese demonstrators on the Blue Line continued, drawing, at times, an overly harsh response from the Israeli soldiers on the other side and leading to casualties that could have been avoided”.  The Secretary-General also underscores that the most serious area of concern remains the attacks across the Blue Line at

the Shaba Farms.  The attacks are in direct breach of the decisions of the Security Council.

In his recommendations to the Council, the Secretary-General suggests that the United Nations mission’s troop strength be lowered to about 4,500, which is the level it had before last year’s increase, from the current level of about 5,800 soldiers.  In the context of the continuing tensions in the region, this would leave the mission with sufficient strength to carry out patrols and observations along the Blue Line.

**Security Council

This morning, in an open meeting, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the Central African Republic, Cheik Tidiane Sy, presented to the Security Council the Secretary-General’s latest report on that country.

In his presentation, Mr. Sy told Council members of the troubling situation in the Central African Republic due to growing political tensions and the deteriorating economic situation.  Adding to those issues is the negative effect of the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mr. Sy concluded by telling the Council that all previous investments made for peace and stability in the country would be for naught, if urgent assistance were not given to the Government.

A presidential statement is expected to be issued at the end of this meeting.

This afternoon, the Council is scheduled to meet in closed consultations to hear a briefing by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast, on the latest developments in the Burundi peace process.

Over the weekend, the Implementation Monitoring Committee held its first substantive session under the chairmanship of Berhanu Dinka, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Great Lakes.

Immediately following those consultations, the Council is to hold a formal meeting to vote on a six-month extension of the Monitoring Mechanism for sanctions against the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

**ICTY

The Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Carla Del Ponte, is in Belgrade today, where she is meeting this afternoon with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica.

Ms. Del Ponte is expected to talk to Yugoslav officials during her three-day trip about the need to hand over suspects indicted by the Tribunal.  Yesterday at The Hague, Judge David Hunt of the Tribunal re-issued arrest warrants for several key Yugoslav suspects, including former President Slobodan Milosevic and four others who were indicted on May 24 1999, in connection with war crimes committed in Kosovo.

In his re-issuance of the warrants, Judge Hunt directed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to determine whether the five accused have assets located in its territory, and, if so, to adopt provisional measures to freeze such assets.  He also noted that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is obliged to cooperate fully with the Tribunal.

**Iraq

According to the weekly update from the Office of the Iraq Programme, a pricing mechanism is now in place for the purchase of Iraqi crude oil during the month of February under the United Nations “oil-for-food” programme.  The prices proposed by the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization have been approved by the Security Council’s 661 Sanctions Committee for Iraq, on the recommendation of the United Nations oil overseers.

During the week of 13 to 19 January, Iraq exported 5.7 million barrels of crude oil through three loadings at Mina al-Bakr terminal, earning an estimated €132 million (euros) in revenue.  Although, once again, there were no activities at Ceyhan terminal in this period, loadings did resume on Sunday, 21 January, after a three-week pause.  The figures for Ceyhan loadings will be reflected in the subsequent weekly update. 

In the current phase IX [of the oil-for-food programme], which began on

6 December 2000, Iraq has exported 28.1 million barrels of oil for an estimated €558 million (euros) in revenue.

The total value of contracts placed on hold by the 661 Committee as at

19 January was $3.15 billion, consisting of $2.7 billion for humanitarian supplies and $435 million for oil industry spare parts and equipment.

The full text of the OIP weekly update is available in my Office. 

**Disarmament Conference

Today in Geneva, the Conference on Disarmament began its annual session, and the Secretary-General, in a message delivered by the Director-General of the United Nations in Geneva, Vladimir Petrovsky, urged delegates to take firm action and create a political climate conducive for progress.

He noted that, although the Conference last year did not reach consensus on a comprehensive programme of work, it did make progress on dealing with nuclear disarmament and the prevention of an arms race in outer space.  The Secretary-General urged delegates to follow up on those issues and to "overcome the disturbing lack of political will" that has hindered its work.

We have copies of the full message upstairs.

**Afghanistan

A nutritional survey of Mazar Al-Sharif in northern Afghanistan shows that almost half of the children surveyed suffer from chronic malnutrition.  The survey, conducted by Action contre la Faim, in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), also shows the rate for severe malnutrition requiring immediate medical attention at 20 per cent.  The WFP had accelerated its food aid distribution throughout the country, including the Mazar area, and plans to distribute some 20,000 tonnes of food per month.  At this rate, the current stocks will be exhausted by April.

The WFP estimates that 172,000 tonnes of food worth about $80 million will be needed for operations for another year starting in April.

We have further information in a press release put out by the United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan.

**Environment

We have a couple of press releases available upstairs from the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).

The first is on the environmental dimensions of the UN Year of Dialogue among Civilizations, and the second announces that a UNEP-sponsored retreat for international youth leaders which will take place later this month in Mombassa, Kenya.

**Signings

We have a couple of signings today.

This morning, India signed the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity.  We had initially announced that was to take place last Thursday.  It did not, but it happened this morning.

And also this morning, Seychelles signed the Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, on Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, as well as the Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, as well as the Cartegena Protocol.  Three signings by Seychelles.

**Budget

Budget news today.  Namibia became Member State Number 26 to be paid in full for this year, paying just over $72,000.

**Press releases

Other press releases:  The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that the first meeting of the Global Alliance for the Elimination of Leprosy will take place in New Delhi, India, on 30 and 31 of this month.  The meeting is expected to adopt a declaration urging signatories to implement the Final Push strategy designed by the WHO and supported by all the Alliance partners.  Leprosy is still endemic in Angola, Brazil, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal and the Niger.

**Guest at Noon Briefing

Our guest at the noon briefing tomorrow will be Carolyn McAskie, the Emergency Relief Coordinator of the UN ad interim, and she will join us to talk about her recent visit to Mongolia, and then another press conference tomorrow. Mia Farrow, the Special Representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), will be here at 1 o’clock to talk about her recent visit to Nigeria, where she helped launch a countrywide polio vaccination campaign.  That’s it on my side.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  According to press reports, a UN technical team is going to Baghdad in mid-February to assess how to spend money allocated by the Council for rehabilitation of the oil industry.  Do you have any details on that?

Spokesman:  I don’t. I’ll have to look into that, I’m sorry.  [He later informed the correspondent that while such a team has been ready to travel to Iraq since early this month, Iraq has not as yet officially notified the UN that they could go.]

Question:  I know it’s only been a day, but have they decided who will speak for the UN and lead the delegation to meet the Iraqis in late February?

Spokesman:  No, I don’t think I have anything to add to what I said yesterday, which was that the Secretary-General would like to participate as fully as possible.  It’s just not clear if he’ll be able to spend two full days with that delegation.  We’ll have to see.

Question:  Regarding that trip to Washington, is it still unclear about the Secretary-General?

Spokesman:  No dates yet.  Generally, some time in February is the target, but we still have nothing firm to announce.

Question:  On Afghanistan, can you tell us if Francesc Vendrell has been able to establish dialogue between the two sides since the imposition of new sanctions?  Is there any update?

Spokesman:  I have no update on the political side on Afghanistan at this time.  But in response to your question, I’ll see if we can get some additional information.  [He later said that in the wake of the imposition of additional Security Council sanctions last Friday, the Taliban had stated publicly that it would withdraw from the political dialogue.]

Question:  You talked about 26 Member States having paid their dues in full.  How does that compare with previous years in terms of the swiftness -– that’s not a good word to use, but -- at this time last year how many Member States had paid in full?  Do you have any comparisons?

Spokesman:  I don’t have that number, but it’s easy enough to get.  Financial regulations say, I believe, it’s 30 days from the time of receipt of the letter from us informing them of how much they owe for the coming year.  We really had to scramble to get those letters out by the end of December because the negotiations on the scale of assessments went so deep into December.  So, I can’t tell you the precise date, but some time around the end of this month, the 30 days is up.  Last year, I think, we had a record number of countries to be paid in full at the end of the year.  Whether this pace is ahead of last year, or any other

year, I’ll have to let you know.  But I have a sense that the general trend is more countries paying in full, more countries paying on time.  And now that there’s agreement over the scale, we hope that that record will continue.  [He later said that last year at this date there were 25 Member States paid in full.]

Question:  Fred, at the end of the 30 days, what procedure kicks in for those who have not paid?

Spokesman:  At the end of the year, there’s a calculation of how much governments which are in arrears owe, and if it’s more than or equal to the previous two years’ assessments, they would be denied a vote in the General Assembly on the following 1 January.  So, basically, if you fall two years behind, you lose your vote in the General Assembly.

Question:  Is the Congo summit still on?

Spokesman:  I don’t have anything specific on that.  We have noted the endorsement by the various parties of the idea of the resumption of dialogue.  We are hopeful that the inter-Congolese dialogue can get under way and we can get this peace process rolling again.  But I’ll have to look into that specific date.  [He told the journalist afterward that the Security Council is organizing a meeting at the Foreign Minister level on 21 and 22 February.]

Question:  Fred, yesterday President Bush outlawed United States taxpayers’ funds going to organizations that discuss or perform abortions.  Any chance that this would impact on UN programmes or funding?

Spokesman:  No. I asked the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and their view is that this does not apply to them.  As I said yesterday, they do not endorse abortions as a means of family planning.  They don’t fund it; they don’t counsel it.  So, in their view, this would not apply to them, but we’re waiting to see how this policy would be implemented by the Administration and the Congress.

Question:  Can you give us some more information concerning the Dialogue among Civilizations?  Who is going to participate, and what is the whole thing going to be about?

Spokesman:  We have a press kit on that.  This is the Year of Dialogue among Civilizations.  The Secretary-General’s head of the programme is Giandomenico Picco, and the activities planned for this year, I think, are in the press kit that you can pick up at the documents counter, or my Office might have one, as well.  Thanks very much.

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