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 Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

**Press Briefing

Immediately after this briefing, Ambassador Herbert S. Okun, a member of the International Narcotics Control Board, will be here to brief you on the Board's annual report, and his briefing will be embargoed until midnight GMT.  The embargoed copies of the report have been made available by the Information Department at the documents' counter.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Secretary-General, upon entering the building this morning, said he had a very good conversation by telephone yesterday with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, who called to inform him that his troops would be withdrawing from Pweto in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that they would withdraw

200 kilometers in the direction of Rwanda.

The Secretary-General said he had instructed the United Nations observers and his Special Representative for the Congo, Kamal Morjane, to get the observers ready to work with the Rwandans on their withdrawal plans.  Morjane, who is in New York to attend two days of Security Council meetings with the Political Committee of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement, just told us that his force commander had given instructions for a reconnaissance and advance team to go immediately to Pweto.

The Secretary-General described Kagame's decision as a very important one. He said he hoped it would set the tone and lead others to take the same initiatives, and eventually have all sides withdraw from the Congo.  The Secretary-General also said that another significant development concerning the Congo was the decision by President Kabila to accept former President Katumile Masire of Botswana as the facilitator for the Inter-Congolese dialogue.  He said:  “If you make progress on the dialogue, and those who are fighting have a sense that they have a role to play and they can participate in national politics, you may be able to persuade them to stop the fighting.”

Masire is also here in New York for the meetings that begin tomorrow, and he will be meeting with the Secretary-General later today.

**Security Council

The Security Council held consultations this morning on the draft text of a presidential statement on “peace-building:  towards a comprehensive approach”.    You will recall that this subject was on the Council's agenda during a public meeting earlier this month.

Council members then went into a formal meeting to adopt the presidential statement, immediately following the end of consultations.  In the 23-paragraph-long document, the Council, among other observations, “reiterates its willingness to consider ways to improve its cooperation with other United Nations bodies and organs directly concerned by peace-building, in particular the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council which have a primary role in this area”.

This afternoon, at 4, the Council will hold consultations on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in preparation for the meetings on the DRC organized by the Council for tomorrow and Thursday.

The Council’s open debate on the monitoring mechanism on Angola sanctions, originally scheduled for today, has been postponed until Friday, 23 February.

[Following the briefing, the Spokesman announced that among the highlights of the schedule for the next couple of days was a public meeting of the Security Council Wednesday morning with the members of the Political Committee during which the Secretary-General would speak.  That would be followed by a private meeting of the Council as well as a luncheon hosted by the President of the Security Council for the members of the Political Committee.  On the following day, the Security Council has scheduled a formal meeting for the adoption of a resolution on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Thursday afternoon, the Council has scheduled a private meeting with Mr. Masire.]

**AIDS

In the Secretary-General’s report for the General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, which was issued earlier today, the Secretary-General called the AIDS epidemic "the most formidable development challenge of our time".

According to the report, by the end of last year 21.8 million people had died from AIDS, while 36.1 million people were currently living with HIV.  Seventy per cent of adults and 80 per cent of children worldwide who are living with HIV live in Africa, and nearly three-quarters of the AIDS deaths so far had occurred there.

In his report, the Secretary-General called on governments to secure a global commitment for intensified and coordinated action.  He said that "leadership is fundamental to an effective response", and the report noted that an expanded prevention effort, steps to make medicines more affordable, and focused international research on microbicides and vaccines were all needed.

The report has been issued in preparation for the General Assembly's special session on HIV/AIDS, which will take place in New York from 25 to

27 June.  The first round of substantive negotiations for that special session is set to take place here next week, starting on Monday, February 26.

There will be a press briefing on the report today at 1 p.m. by Kathleen Cravero, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS.  That’s here in Room 226.  Press materials and copies of the report are available at the counter, and the report is also out on the racks.

**Iraq Letter

We expect, out on the racks later today, a letter addressed to the Secretary-General from the Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohamed Al-Sahaf concerning last Friday’s bombing raid carried out by the United States and the United Kingdom.  In the letter, Al-Sahaf calls for condemnation of the attack, and points out that the attack comes a few days before the beginning of talks between himself and the Secretary-General on the question of Iraq and sanctions.  The letter also criticizes the United Nations mission along the Iraq-Kuwait border for not doing enough in its mandated task to report these types of attacks.

**Palestinian Committee

This morning in Vienna, Kieran Prendergast, Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, delivered a speech on behalf of the Secretary-General at the opening session of the United Nations seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People.

In this speech, the Secretary-General expressed his “utmost concern at the deepening spiral of violence in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory that began in September”.  He also appealed “strongly to all concerned to exercise maximum restraint so as to prevent a further escalation, which could have very serious consequences for the entire region”.  In light of the rapid deterioration of the Palestinian economy with its possible catastrophic consequences, the Secretary General called on the international community to renew its efforts to assist the Palestinians in both their long-term as well as short-term development needs. 

The seminar, which is organized by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, will close tomorrow afternoon.  The text of the Secretary-General’s speech and a press release are available in my Office.

**Statement on UNHCR Scandal

Coming into the building today, the Secretary-General was asked a number of questions by correspondents.  One of them concerned reports of extortion of money from refugees at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Office in Nairobi, Kenya.  The Secretary-General responded:  "... The moment we had a hint that some wrongdoing was going on, the local Office started an investigation which was inconclusive, and now we have the office of Internal Oversight Services with authorities from other governments and we are determined to go to the bottom of this and deal with those who are responsible."  He added: "I think it is abominable that refugees who are already suffering, who are displaced, whose lives have been uprooted, should be exploited in this manner. And those responsible should be dealt with harshly."

**IFAD's Governing Council

Today in Rome, the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, or IFAD, began a two-day session, to which the Secretary-General delivered a video message in which he took note of the Fund's Rural Poverty Report 2001, issued earlier this month.  The report, the Secretary-General said, "reminds us that if we do not focus on the rural areas where three-fourths of the world’s poor live, work and struggle to support their families, we will not achieve our targets for eradicating abject poverty".

We have copies of the Secretary-General's message to the Fund's Governing Council in my Office.

**Other Announcement

Today’s briefing notes from the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone report on the continuing contacts with the Revolutionary United Front, including a scheduled meeting with non-governmental organizations.

The World Health Organization, meanwhile, has a news release on the health care needs of areas in Sierra Leone faced with large numbers of returning refugees and displaced persons.

The High Commissioner for Refugees said that High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers had returned to Geneva on Monday, ending an eight-day mission to five West African nations in which he had enlisted the support of regional leaders for ensuring safe access to and passage for tens of thousands of refugees.

And finally, the World Food Programme (WFP) said that the organization was continuing to transport food and other supplies in Guinea.

**Press Releases

We have a lot of press releases here.  First, today in Geneva, Kenzo Oshima, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, gave a press conference on his recent trip to Afghanistan, in which he said that about 1 million Afghans, half of whom are internally displaced within the country, are at risk of famine.  He said the situation could become a major humanitarian catastrophe and would require more assistance from the donor community.

Asked about the effects of the closure by the Taliban of the United Nations office in Kabul, Oshima said he saw few effects so far for the United Nations humanitarian, as opposed to political, activities.  You can find further details in the press release from Geneva.

Among other press releases today, the WFP noted concerns about rising malnutrition in Burundi.

We have several press releases from the World Health Organization (WHO), including one concerning a conference on alcohol and youth that began yesterday in Stockholm.  According to a WHO survey of 30 European countries, binge drinking and the frequency of drunkenness are on the rise in many countries, while illicit drug use is up in almost all the countries surveyed.

And finally, a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) press release today said UNICEF had found 163 child soldiers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who had been found in a political education school in Uganda.  The children -- who were between the ages of 9 and 17 -- said they wanted to return to their families in and around the Congolese town of Bunia, and UNICEF is making arrangements for their return.

**Forum on Forests

Late Friday afternoon, the newly established United Nations Forum on Forests decided to locate its secretariat right here in New York.  We have a press release on that upstairs as well.

**El Salvador

And finally, on El Salvador:  Abby Spring, spokeswoman for the WFP based in New York, is in El Salvador until March 1.  If you need any information on aid efforts to the latest earthquake victims, please contact her.  We have her phone number for you.

Any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  On the way in this morning, the Secretary-General indicated that there might be some action on Iraq today.  Did I understand that correctly?

Spokesman:  He said, let us wait and see what the Council does, and I haven't heard that they have taken that up this morning.  Under other matters on its agenda, there is always an option that any member may wish to raise this issue for them to discuss in closed consultations.  I didn't hear from the President, I do not know if he came out to the stakeout at the time when I came in here, but he would be the one to ask if it ever came up.

Question:  Is the Secretary-General making himself available on the AIDS report?

Spokesman:  He was there this morning to take questions. 

Question:  Is there going to be a formal presentation?

Spokesman:  No.

Question:  Are there talks today regarding the Congo in the building?  Who will be leading United Nations efforts on the DRC?  What will be happening in the next two days and when?

Spokesman:  I do not have the exact time.  I have already mentioned a number of meetings.  There is the facilitator, the former President of Botswana Masire, who is on the Secretary-General's programme.  I think you can assume that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations will have consultations of its own throughout the day.  In essence, the whole building is gearing up for this meeting tomorrow in the anticipation that we will be able to move forward.  [See announcement of details mentioned above.]

Question:  What is the number of the Rwandan troops involved in the withdrawal?

      Spokesman:  To my knowledge, President Kagame did not mention a number.  At least, the Secretary-General did not say to me that he had mentioned a number.  But as I said, we are just sending military observers there to monitor the withdrawal and they will estimate the number of troops withdrawing, once they get there. 

Question:  Is there any indication of the timing of this withdrawal?

Spokesman:  No.

Question:  Can you give us an authoritative list of exactly who is coming to this Congo meeting and who is going to be here?

Spokesman:  Yes, just check with my Office right after the briefing, and I will give you a list of invitees.  You might have heard the Secretary-General say this morning that as far as he understood, everyone was coming.

Question:  We talked about it a few weeks ago:  is it too soon to announce who is leading the United Nations talks with Iraq?  Will the Secretary-General be in on every meeting, what departments will participate? 

Spokesman:  I do not have the list of who will be on his delegation, and I have nothing to add to what I said before, which is that the Secretary-General intends to be present at as many of these meetings in the two-day period as he can.  For him, it is clearly a priority for these two days. 

Question:  Is the Secretary-General awaiting the Iraqi Government to submit a preliminary agenda of the issues that it wants to raise in the discussions?

Spokesman:  No.  As I mentioned, there was some discussion of that in Doha, Qatar, when the Iraqis first informed the Secretary-General that they were coming here.  I think he thinks that the most significant thing is that they are coming here to talk.  He has asked them for an agenda of what they wanted to accomplish.  The fact that he has not gotten anything, I think, does not diminish his hopes that he can take another crack at breaking the existing impasse in the United Nations relations with Iraq.

Question:  So is it clear that there is not going to be an agenda submitted this week?

Spokesman:  No, what the Iraqis said was that they wanted to have a comprehensive discussion, and he said, sure, come on over.

Question:  Is the Secretary-General going to be in contact over the phone with Prime-Minister Blair and President Bush regarding the outcome of their talks before the discussions with Iraq start?

Spokesman:  I do not know what he plans to do in terms of telephone contact in the future.  If something happens, I will let you know.

Question:  Are there any indications if the Secretary-General will be meeting with President Bush before the Iraq talks?

Spokesman:  We are still waiting for the White House to give us a date for a meeting between the Secretary-General and the new United States President.  Our expectation was that it would happen this month, but the Secretary-General has some time into March before he goes on a trip that we have not announced yet.  We are just waiting for the White House to confirm a date. 

Question:  Do you feel that the White House has been "stringing you along in some way"?

Spokesman:  No.  This is unusual, I think, to have a meeting so early in the United States Administration.  We are quite happy that they have told us that they would like to schedule a meeting, and we'll just wait for them to give us a date.

Question:  Is there any indication when the new Iraqi Ambassador is going to present his credentials?

Spokesman:  I do not know, whether he did.  And if he did not, I do not know when he will.  [He later said that its new Ambassador, Mohammed Al-Douri, presentials on 8 February.]

Question:  Has the Secretary-General ever met the potential United States Ambassador, John Negroponte?

Spokesman:  I do not believe he has. 

Okay, now we will end this briefing and go to the embargoed briefing with Ambassador Herbert Okun, who is right here.

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