DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
| Press Briefing |
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.
Spokesman for Secretary-General
Okay, good afternoon.
**Iraq
The Secretary-General had another session this morning with the Iraqi delegation headed by Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf. He started with a one-on-one meeting with the Foreign Minister that lasted less than 10 minutes and then the full delegations met for another 40 minutes.
Whereas yesterday was taken up with the Iraqi side making a comprehensive presentation of its grievances since the end of the Gulf War, this morning the Secretary-General said that what was required was to explore the way forward.
There will be a concluding session that will start this afternoon starting at 3:30. The Secretary-General will brief the Security Council on these talks either tomorrow or Thursday and the Foreign Minister has scheduled a press conference in this room at 10:15 tomorrow morning.
**Secretary-General’s Trip to South Asia
The Secretary-General will travel to South Asia in March, paying official visits to Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.
He will arrive in Islamabad, Pakistan on the evening of 10 March, where he will meet with the Chief Executive, the President and the Foreign Minister. He will also visit an Afghan refugee camp in Peshawar.
On the 13th, he will go to Bangladesh, where he will meet with the Prime Minister, the President and the Foreign Minister and deliver an address on an environmental theme.
On the 15th, he will go to India, stopping first at Bangalore, India's "Silicon Valley", for a meeting with business leaders. In New Delhi on the
16th and 17th he will meet with the Prime Minister, the President and the Foreign Minister, as well as members of the political opposition.
He will return to New York on the 18th. He may be travelling by private plane from London, returning to London, going commercial between London and New York. And we’ve asked for a few extra seats for journalists, and so if those come through we would welcome any expressions of interest by you in travelling with the Secretary-General on this trip.
**Afghanistan
The following statement concerns the Taliban and statues and non-Islamic shrines.
“The Secretary-General has learned with alarm of the edict issued yesterday by the Taliban supreme leader ordering the destruction of all statues and non-Islamic shrines in the country of Afghanistan. This follows reports of the recent destruction of a number of precious items in the National Museum of Kabul.
“The General Assembly has repeatedly called on all Afghan parties to protect the cultural and historic relics and monuments of Afghanistan which are part of the common heritage of mankind.
“The Secretary-General appeals to the Taliban leadership to abide by their previous commitments to protect Afghanistan's cultural heritage in general, and the two great Buddhist sculptures in Bamiyan in particular.
“The Secretary-General urges the Taliban to do all in their power to preserve the unique and irreplaceable relics of Afghanistan's rich heritage -- both Islamic and pre-Islamic -- as the strongest foundation for a better, more peaceful and more tolerant future for its people.
“Destroying any relic, any monument, any statue will only prolong the climate of conflict. After 22 years of war, destruction and drought, there can only be one priority for the Government: to rebuild the country, to renew the fabric of society, and to relieve the immense suffering and deprivation of the people of Afghanistan.”
Also the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, better known as UNESCO, today appealed for the preservation of cultural heritage landmarks in Afghanistan. And we have a statement in my Office.
**Security Council
The Security Council today voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Western Sahara, which was to have expired tomorrow, by another two months, until 30 April.
The Council, in its resolution, said that the extension had been decided with the expectation that the parties, under the auspices of the Secretary-General's Personal Envoy, James Baker, would continue to try to agree upon a mutually acceptable political solution to the Western Sahara dispute.
Earlier, the Council had held consultations to agree on the text of the Western Sahara resolution. And under "other matters", during those consultations, Council President Saïd Ben Mustapha of Tunisia informed the Council that he had met yesterday afternoon with the Foreign Minister of Iraq, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf.
**Kosovo/Yugoslavia
Today in Kosovo, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Gary Matthews, welcomed the approval by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's Parliament of an amnesty for more than 100 Kosovo Albanians who are detained in Serbia.
He said in a statement, copies of which are available upstairs, "Finally we can welcome back many of those who were held for too long in prison and with their return, a significant step will be taken towards healing some of the wounds of war".
However, he also noted that the United Nations Mission in Kosovo has demanded the return of all Albanian prisoners currently held in Serbia to Kosovo, where they would face judicial review by the United Nations Mission. The Mission called on the Belgrade Government to "return all the others who are detained as soon as possible".
Also on the Balkans, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees urged the European Union to deploy “an adequately staffed observer mission” in southern Serbia, to help contain mounting tension between ethnic Albanians and Serbs in the predominantly Albanian-populated Presevo area in Serbia proper.
The appeal was made by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers in letters addressed to Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, whose country holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, and Javier Solana, the European Union’s High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy.
**World Food Programme
The World Food Programme today issued an urgent appeal for support of its operations in the Palestinian Territories. The agency is seeking funds for a three-month emergency operation to meet the immediate food requirements of the Palestinians who have been hardest hit by the growing economic crisis in the territory.
On a related matter, we have available upstairs copies of the full report on the "The Impact on the Palestinian Economy of Confrontations, Mobility Restrictions and Border Closures, from 1 October 2000-31 January 2001". This is the full version of the summary which was released to the press on the 13th of this month by the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.
**UNICEF Airlifts Child Soldiers from Sudan
The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, announced what it described as the largest effort of its kind ever undertaken in southern Sudan. It said it had airlifted more than 2,500 child combatants out of conflict zones and into safe areas where a rehabilitation and family tracing process can begin.
UNICEF said the operation began on Friday and continued through the weekend. The agency said the children -– ranging in age from 8 to 18 -– were demobilized from military camps run by the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army under a personal commitment made by a rebel commander to UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. Bellamy made the announcement in a press conference earlier today in Geneva. You can pick up a press release with more details.
**Humanitarian News
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in its briefing in Geneva today, reported on the start of the food distribution effort in Guinea. The World Health Organization also has an update on the refugee situation there.
UNHCR also reported on a visit by former South African President Nelson Mandela, who is helping to broker a peace between Burundi’s warring factions, to Burundi refugees in Tanzania, and the continual arrival of refugees in Kenya from Zanzibar and Pemba despite a reported calm in the two islands.
The Geneva United Nations briefing notes also has an item on the Mozambique floods, on which the Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs says it will be launching an appeal.
**Iraq Oil Update
We have the Iraq Programme update reporting that there has been a revenue loss of over $2.2 billion or 2.4 billion euros to the programme since December 2000, as a result of reduced Iraqi oil exports and that’s according to this week’s update. The figures were provided by the United Nations oil overseers to the Security Council’s 661 sanctions Committee at a meeting yesterday. Should this trend continue, revenue generated in current phase IX could be around
$3.5 billion or 3.9 billion euros. However, if export levels return to “normal”, the expected income could rise to $5.7 billion which would be
6.3 billion euros.
Iraqi oil exports during the week of 17 to 23 February witnessed yet another modest increase, totalling 12.2 million barrels through seven loadings. The estimated revenue from these exports was 267 million euros at current prices. You can pick up the full report in my Office.
**Noon Guest
Our guest at the tomorrow’s noon briefing will be Kenzo Oshima, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, who will be briefing you on his recent trip to Afghanistan.
**UNCA Press Briefing
And the Correspondents Association asked me to announce that there will be a briefing concerning key issues to be addressed at the seventh Preparatory Commission of the International Criminal Court by members of the Coalition for an International Criminal Court and that will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow in the UNCA club.
That’s all I have.
Question: Could you tell us the outcome of the meetings between the Secretary-General and Iraqi delegation? Is the Secretary-General going to brief the Security Council before his departure?
Spokesman: Yes, I already said, I gave you all I can give you today. There may be something at the end of today in the way of a formal statement, but that’s not yet certain, and I have already said that he will brief the Council tomorrow or Thursday. We are still talking to the Council about what time would suit them best.
Question: When the Secretary-General was not at these meetings who was heading the United Nations delegation?
Spokesman: He has been at every meeting for the entire meeting. I realize that I announced initially that he expected only to go to the first and the concluding sessions, but he has been at every meeting.
Question: How would you interpret the brevity of the first session when yesterday Iraq talked, then today the United Nations wanted to discuss ways of looking forward?
Spokesman: The Secretary-General suggested yesterday afternoon that they meet briefly this morning to begin looking forward and then go to a concluding session at 3:30 p.m. So that was his suggestion that they meet for no more than an hour this morning.
Question: Has the United Nations got any comment or reaction to what’s been going on in Macedonia with clashes that have taken place between ethnic Albanians and Macedonian security forces?
Spokesman: We’ve been watching reports on what’s going on at that border, but at this point I have nothing to say. If you like I can go back to the Political Affairs Department to see if they might consider issuing a statement.
Question: Does the United Nations have a determination on whether Iraq is pumping oil through Syria?
Spokesman: No we don’t. We have asked both Iraq and Syria about these reports. They have both said to us no oil is flowing through this pipeline and we have no mandate to send inspectors to verify this. So it would really be up to the Council to take any additional action they might feel is necessary should they feel these assurances by Iraq and Syria are not enough.
Question: Is the only thing we can get from the Secretary-General, in terms of a one-on-one reaction at the conclusion of the talks, might be on his way out?
Spokesman: No. What I meant to indicate is that there could be some kind of formal statement that we would issue at the end of today. That’s one of the things being considered. You can always try to doorstep him on the way out to try to get something off the cuff.
Question: But there is no chance that he might be coming in here for example?
Spokesman: Right now that hasn’t come up in our discussions. I don’t think he intends to do that, no.
Question: Has the Secretary-General spoken to Secretary of State Powell today in the last hour regarding the meetings?
Spokesman: In the last minutes he may have had a call. There was one scheduled for 11:45 this morning. I wasn’t able to confirm that it actually took place. I’ll check for you after the briefing and squawk it. [The Spokesman later confirmed that the telephone call had taken place.]
Question Who initiated it?
Spokesman: From their talks here when the Secretary of State came to visit, they agreed that they would exchange views -- that the Secretary of State would report on his visit to the Middle East and that the Secretary-General would share his views on how the talks with Iraq were going. So I guess it was by mutual agreement. I don’t think the Secretary-General knew that the call would be coming this morning, but it happens that it did.
Okay. Thank you very much.
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