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.

Good afternoon.  The guest at the briefing today will be Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.  She will be talking to you about the World Conference against Racism, which is scheduled to take place in South Africa, in late August of this year. 

**Regional Groups Open High-Level Peace-building Segment at Headquarters

This morning, starting at 10 a.m., in Conference Room 6, the Secretary-General began the Fourth High-level Meeting of the United Nations and Regional Organizations, in which 18 regional organizations are participating.

Eleven of those organizations are represented by their heads and three are attending for the first time.  They are:  the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Pacific Islands Forum and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The meeting today and tomorrow morning focuses on peace-building, in which field the Secretary-General, in his speech to open the meeting, said that "the need to work together has never been greater".

He said that he saw great potential to work with regional organizations in five key areas:  negotiating and implementing peace agreements; promoting security and stability; working for good governance, democratization and human rights; promoting justice and reconciliation; and combining emergency relief with longer-term development assistance.

He emphasized that "peace can only be built and sustained on a strong foundation, brick by brick, law by law, institution by institution.  Our common challenge", he said, "as always, is to mobilize resources and political will".

We have copies of his speech available in my Office, as well as a list of participating organizations and United Nations agencies and departments.

The meeting -- which comes one day after the Security Council's own debate on peace-building -- will continue into tomorrow morning.  We expect that, once tomorrow's session concludes, the Secretary-General will come to this room to talk to you about the meeting.

[Following the briefing, the Spokesman announced that because of a change in the Secretary-General's programme for tomorrow, he would be unable to brief the press on the outcome of this meeting.  However, at the Secretary-General's request, Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Keiran Prendergast, will brief correspondents.]

**Secretary-General, Rwanda's President Kagame to Address Security Council

Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. -- some of you will have to get up early -- the Secretary-General will be meeting with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda.  Afterwards, President Kagame and the Secretary-General are both expected to address an open meeting of the Security Council.

President Kagame will hold a press conference -- we think that will be around 11 a.m. -- after his appearance at the Council.

Today, of course, the Council has no meetings scheduled.  The President of the Council, Ambassador Said Ben Mustapha of Tunisia, is attending the meetings of heads of regional organizations.

**United Nations to Launch Relief Plan for Earthquake Victims in India

The United Nations is expected to launch in New Delhi tomorrow a plan of assistance to the victims of India’s devastating earthquake.  According to the latest information from the field, more than 220,000 homes have been destroyed. If each household averages five people, that would mean more than 1 million have been rendered homeless and in need of assistance.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said today, meanwhile, that the food agency had launched an appeal for $4 million to help for four months

300,000 particularly vulnerable victims.  The WFP said the main aim was to prevent a deterioration of the health conditions of these victims.  The majority are women and children. 

**Ethiopian, Eritrean Officials Move towards Establishing Security Zone

In Nairobi, Kenya, today, the Ethiopian and Eritrean delegations attending the third meeting of the Military Coordination Commission of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), agreed to move forward with establishing a Temporary Security Zone.

That Zone is a 25-kilometer-deep buffer zone that is to separate the Ethiopian and Eritrean armed forces.  In his last report to the Security Council, issued last month, the Secretary-General noted that the Zone is intended to avert the risk of incidents between the respective troops and any redeployment "will in no way prejudge the final status of the contested areas".

Under today's agreement, Ethiopia is to begin to re-deploy its forces to the southern boundary of the Zone on 12 February, while Eritrea is to begin to rearrange its forces to the northern boundary on 17 February.  The United Nations Mission will monitor and verify the establishment of the zone.  We have more details in a press release in my office.

**New Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar

Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro of Brazil, was named today as the new Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, replacing

Mr. Rajsoomer Lallah of Mauritius, who resigned in November of last year.  Professor Pinheiro was appointed by the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, Ambassador Shambhu Ram Simkhada of Nepal.

Professor Pinheiro is currently a member of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.  He has formerly served as a member of the International Commission of Inquiry on Togo, and as the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on the situation of human rights in Burundi.  Following today’s announcement, Professor Pinheiro said:  “I am very encouraged by recent positive and constructive developments in Myanmar, especially with regard to the progress in the field of national reconciliation.”  We have the full press release available in my Office.

**UNTAET Prosecutor Names Five Suspects in Indictment for Crimes against Humanity

In East Timor today, the United Nations Mission's (UNTAET) Prosecutor General filed an indictment naming five persons -- including an officer of the Indonesian Army, one Indonesian civil servant, two members of a Timorese militia and a local village chief -- with crimes against humanity during the violence in 1999.

The five persons are suspected of murder, rape, torture, unlawful deprivation of liberty, inhumane and degrading treatment and persecution, in crimes that allegedly occurred in the district of Bobonaro between April and October of 1999.  The indictment alleges that attacks were directed in particular against women whose husbands were believed to support the pro-independence movement.

Two militia members and a village chief are already in detention in East Timor.  A Second Lieutenant of the Indonesian Army and the Indonesian civil servant are at large and are believed to have left East Timor.

For further details, you can pick up today's briefing notes from Dili, which also include information on the trial, which began today in Dili's District Court, of a pro-independence activist charged with murdering a militia member.

**UNHCR Expected to Move Thousands of Guinean Refugees to Safety

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today that it was starting the relocation of tens of thousands of refugees from a camp in a volatile area of Guinea into the interior of the country,

200 kilometers away.  The UNHCR also had plans to relocate around

250,000 persons who were currently in the so-called parrot’s beak area in Guinea.

The situation along the borders of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is expected to be taken up in the Security Council, which has invited a delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) late this week or early next week.

**Iraq Programme Update

The Office of the Iraq Programme, in its weekly update, notes that the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization, citing changes in crude oil market prices, has proposed to revise its earlier submitted and approved prices for Kirkuk grade sold in the European and United States markets, as well as for United States-destined Basrah Light grade, during the month of February.  The revised prices were approved this morning by the Security Council's

661 Sanctions Committee for Iraq, on the recommendation of the United Nations oil overseers.  The earlier approved prices for Basrah Light sold in the European and Far Eastern markets remain unchanged.

During the week 27 January to 2 February, Iraqi oil exports under the United Nations "oil-for-food" programme totaled 13.2 million barrels, earning an estimated 317 million euros in revenue.  Of the eight loadings, six were at Mina al-Bakr and two at Ceyhan, Turkey.  So far, Iraq has exported 53.7 million barrels of oil for approximately 1.2 billion euros in estimated revenue in the current phase -- Phase IX -- which began on 6 December.

Currently, over 238.1 billion barrels of oil await to be lifted against

95 contracts, which include 141.4 million barrels of Basrah Light and

96.6 million barrels of Kirkuk.  You can get the full text in my Office -- that's already a mouthful.

**UNHCR Update on Colombian Refugees Available

The UNHCR also reported an influx of around 400 indigenous people from Colombia to Venezuela.  You should see their briefing notes for more details on that.

**UNEP, Joint Scientific Team Announce Rare Find in China's Desert

We have an exotic item here from the Environment Programme.  A joint Chinese-British team, backed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), may have discovered a previously unknown species of wild camels inhabiting the sand dunes of China’s Xianjiang province.  This species has adapted to survive in these conditions, in part, by drinking the salt water which bubbles up from beneath the desert in this very inhospitable part of China.  The scientists estimate that the total population in Asia number less than 1,000, making these animals more endangered than the giant panda.  For more information, see the UNEP press release in my Office.

**Budget Update

Finally, on 3 February we finished the honour roll for Member States that have paid their regular budget dues in full, with 40 States paid in full.

But we received two more payments today:  One from the Lao People's Democratic Republic for $10,000, and one from Bahrain with $186,000.  So we're now at 42 Member States for 2001.  That's not quite as good as last year, when we had 43 States paid in full by this time.

So that's all I have for you.  Are there any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  What's your response to the demonstrations against the Lockerbie verdict going on outside the United Nations headquarters in Tripoli?  Do you feel that the United Nations should not be targeted for the outcome of the trial?

Spokesman:  I think we'd just like our people protected by the Libyan authorities, which I hear they are doing.  I don't want to comment on who should be targeted in these demonstrations.

Question:  Can you give us any further details on the assistance plan for India?

Spokesman:  I can give you that if you come up to my Office after the briefing.  We probably have some details from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Question:  Pardon me for being repetitive, but can you tell us again why the Secretary-General has chosen to shut down the Mission in Haiti (MICAH), particularly at a time when the Organization has become so vocal about peace-building and long-term economic recovery initiatives?  What sort of message does this send to the people of Haiti?

Spokesman:  Well, the United Nations and the international community made a major effort to help Haiti rebuild its institutions and return to the rule of law.  Despite those efforts, there was not sufficient cooperation, the situation in the country remained unstable and the Secretary-General, therefore, decided that the United Nations mission be shut down.  And as I said yesterday, with the scheduled inauguration of Jean-Bertrand Aristide tomorrow, we can only hope that the political situation will improve.  Meanwhile, our economic and social development efforts in the country will continue.

Question:  In light of the visit by [Democratic Republic of the Congo] President Joseph Kabila last week, what will the Secretary-General be expecting to hear from President Kagame tomorrow.

Spokesman:  As you know, Rwanda is one of the countries with a substantial military presence inside the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The peace plan for the region calls for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from the Congo.  Following the installation of Joseph Kabila as the new President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Secretary-General sees a window of opportunity.  So, the idea now is to push forward with the existing peace plan and, of course, Rwanda's cooperation with that would be key.  

Question:  Is the League of Arab States meeting today on Libya sanctions?  Does the Secretary-General plan to tell the League that, regarding any sanctions on Libya, it's not up to him?

Spokesman:  Well it's not up to the Secretary-General, as you know.  I have nothing to say about that particular meeting. 

Question:  As the United Nations turns to focus more and more on peace-building, will there be any movement to revise the Charter?  Peacekeeping is not mentioned anywhere in the Charter.  How will the Organization reconcile this?

Spokesman:  I think you must be a strict constructionist.  The Charter is a flexible document.  In fact, the evolution of peacekeeping within the context of the Charter -- even though it is never mentioned explicitly -- is one of the things often cited when the flexibility of the document is being discussed.  So, I think that there would at least be a school of thought here that says that everything that the United Nations is now doing in the way of peace-building is consistent with the Charter even though the words “peace-building” and “peacekeeping” are not mentioned [in it].

Question:  So you're saying that these peace-building initiatives can proceed without revising the Charter?

Spokesman:  That's a subject for the Member States, but it’s Member States who are taking these actions, and no one, to my knowledge, has raised the issue of inconsistency with the Charter.  So, as long as the Member States are happy, we're happy.

Question:  Will the Secretary-General take questions other than those related to the meeting of the regional organizations at his press conference tomorrow?

Spokesman:  I think he probably would.  I'd have to double check with him first.  Maybe we’ll do what we've done in the past and take questions on the event first and then when those are exhausted, go to other subjects.

Question:  How does the United Nations grade itself on the handling of the mission in Haiti?

Spokesman:  I think we give ourselves “A” for “effort”.

Question:  There's a new movie out, I think called "Left Behind", which is a religious film that appears to portray the United Nations in a negative light and the Secretary-General as the anti-Christ.  Are you aware of that film and do you deny that charge?

Spokesman:  Are there black helicopters in the film? [laughter]  No, I haven't seen the movie nor am I aware of it.

Can we go to Mary Robinson now? [laughter] Thank you very much. 

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