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

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of the daily press briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Spokesman for the Secretary-General

Good afternoon.  Today is the second anniversary of the entry into force of the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines.  Two years after its entry into force, the Ottawa Convention has been ratified by 111 countries, most recently by Uganda and Zambia, which both ratified it last week.

To mark the Convention's second anniversary, we will have with us at today's briefing Martin Barber, the head of the UN Mine Action Service, who is here to talk about his recent missions to Africa and Lebanon.

**Burundi

The following statement is attributable to the Spokesman on the subject of Burundi.

“The Secretary-General is deeply dismayed at the outbreak of renewed fighting in Burundi, in and around the capital Bujumbura, which has led to the displacement of as many as 50,000 civilians and the reported deaths of some 40 people.  He is concerned that this fighting will exacerbate a precarious humanitarian situation, in which the incidence of malaria and malnutrition has already reached alarming proportions.

“The Secretary-General calls for an immediate end to the fighting, and respect for international humanitarian and human rights law.  He underscores the need for the UN agencies, along with the International Committee of the Red Cross and non-governmental organizations on the ground, to have full and unfettered access to carry out assessments and provide humanitarian assistance to the affected populations.”

**Secretary-General’s Palestine Speech

Earlier today the Secretary-General addressed the opening of this year’s session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

The Secretary-General reminded the delegates that this was a particularly sensitive moment in the history of relations between the Palestinians and the Israelis. 

"It’s not just that the situation on the ground has deteriorated badly”, he said.  "Equally worrying has been the unraveling of the progress that had been made between Israelis and Palestinians in overcoming the mistrust and suspicion that had plagued their relationship for decades and in moving towards a comprehensive, just and lasting peace.”

He added that both Palestinians and Israelis must exercise maximum caution and restraint to halt a deepening of the crisis.  Of the leaders on both sides,

the Secretary-General said: “This is a time for statesmanship and vision, if ever there was one”.

The members of the Committee were told of the catastrophic state of the Palestinian economy caused by the current crisis which made international aid that much more important.  “Donor assistance”, he said, “is absolutely critical and should be made available without further delay”.

We have copies of that speech available in my office.

**Afghanistan

On Afghanistan, we spoke with Secretary-General’s Personal Representative there, Francesc Vendrell, who had just returned to Islamabad from Kabul, where he had met with the so-called Taliban Foreign Minister Muttawakil.  They discussed a number of issues, including the edict calling on the destruction statues. 

Vendrell said he expressed the strong concern of the Secretary-General and the member States of the international community over this edict.  He asked that the Taliban not carry it out and find a way not to implement it.

“If it is implemented”, he said, it will provoke outrage by the international community”.

Vendrell said he did not receive any assurances concerning the edict.

Meanwhile, UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura said in a press release issued today that he was shocked at the announcement that the destruction of statues had begun in Afghanistan, despite various initiatives undertaken since Monday to convince the Taliban to reverse their decision.

**Security Council

The beginning of a new month marks the beginning of a new presidency of the Security Council.  Ukraine holds the presidency for the month of March and, as usual, no meetings are scheduled for today.  Ambassador Volodymyr Y.  Yel’Chenko is holding bilateral talks with other Council members to establish the programme of work for this month.

**Mines in Lebanon

This morning in Beirut, Lebanon, the Secretary-General’s Personal Representative for southern Lebanon, Staffan di Mistura, joined the United States Ambassador to Lebanon, David Satterfield, and General Michel Swaya, the head of Lebanon’s National Demining Office, at a ceremony on the occasion of the consignment by the United States of eight mine-detecting dogs that will be used in the UN sponsored efforts to demine the southern part of the country.

The Ambassador also noted that the United States would be sending in a team of experts to train Lebanese personnel in demining techniques.

Di Mistura said that the United States assistance to Lebanon in this field is an important new phase in the growing effort of demining activities in south Lebanon.

It is estimated that 130,000 landmines still need to be found and removed in that area.

We have a full press release on that. 

**UNMOVIC

Out on the racks today is the fourth quarterly report of the Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission or UNMOVIC, as forwarded to the Security Council by the Secretary-General.

In the report, the Executive Chairman, Dr. Hans Blix, writes that in the absence of field operations for the commission due to Iraq’s refusal to accept Security Council resolution 1284, much preparatory work continues to be done.  This includes the completion of the third training course for UNMOVIC staff as well as a continuing review of unresolved disarmament tasks.

During the recent meeting of UNMOVIC’s College of Commissioners in Vienna, the College was presented with a draft of the UNMOVIC handbook which provides, among other things, guidance for the conduct of inspections in Iraq.

In conclusion, Dr. Blix writes that UNMOVIC continues to prepare for full operations and the commission will be able to “assess Iraq’s compliance with respect to its obligations under the relevant Security Council resolutions only when the reinforced system of monitoring and verification is in operation and there is cooperation from Iraq”.

**South Serbia

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today warned against an overly hasty change in southern Serbia’s ground safety zone – a buffer belt which separates Serbia proper from UN-administered Kosovo. 

UNHCR says the reduction of the 5-kilometre wide buffer zone must be accompanied by the deployment of a sufficient number of international monitors, as well as a set of confidence-building measures linked to political and administrative reforms in the area.  It says greatest importance must be attached to the security and protection of the civilian population in the zone itself, as well as in the adjacent towns and villages.

UNHCR was reacting to a NATO announcement this week of a “phased and conditioned withdrawal” from parts of the safety zone established under a 1999 agreement between NATO and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Ethnic Albanians account for 60 to 70 per cent of some 100,000 people living in the buffer zone and adjacent areas. 

**East Timor

From East Timor, the responsibility for the management of Dili airport, in East Timor, will be formally transferred from the UN Peacekeeping Force to civilian contractors tomorrow.

However, the new contractors, a Portuguese Government affiliated aviation consortium, began their operation today, taking over from the Royal Australian Air Force Combat Support Squadron which has been responsible for air operations at the airport since September 1999.

During the 18 months the Australian Air Force controlled operations, they handled 17,000 flights, 7 million pounds of cargo, and moved 200,000 passengers.

The management of the airport and its airspace by commercial firms, rather than by a military organization, brings East Timor into line with other nations.

**Secretary-General’s Speech to Geographers

In a speech he will deliver shortly at the New York Hilton Hotel, the Secretary-General will tell the members of the Association of American Geographers that their craft plays a crucial role in the work of the United Nations.

He will suggest to the geographers that they and the UN take advantage of this close affinity and work together to tackle some of the gravest challenges facing the world today: climate change, the perilous state of the global environment and the long-term goal of truly sustainable development.

We have embargoed copies of that speech in my office. 

**ICTY

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia confirmed today that Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte last week issued an indictment charging several individuals -- whose names have not been released -- with murder, attacks on civilians and other crimes committed in and around Dubrovnik in 1991.

Although an order limiting the public disclosure of the indictment was issued on Tuesday, the 16-count indictment broadly concerns war crimes and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions arising from the attacks by the Yugoslav People's Army on Dubrovnik between October and December of that year.

The Tribunal has a press release, which you can pick up in my office.

**Borneo Humanitarian Mission

We have available also in my office an update on the humanitarian situation assessing the needs of the victims of the outbreak of violence in Borneo.

Authorities continue to evacuate people from the crowded squalid displaced persons camp in the town of Sampit on Borneo, which we reported on yesterday.  The Government is in the process of evacuating the 25,000 people from the camp to better conditions on the island of central Java across the Java Sea.

**Mozambique

The Emergency 2001 International Appeal was launched today in Maputo, Mozambique, by the Government in collaboration with the United Nations for a requested $30 million.  Meteorological conditions and forecast continue to be of concern.  It’s raining upstream of the Zambezi River in Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe.  And the country of Mozambique continues to suffer from the latest flooding.

**Press Releases

Press releases.  Two to mention to you today.  First the UN Development Programme has started a global recruitment drive to energize its worldwide campaign against poverty, putting out ads in major international publications to find more than 60 specialists in such fields as governance, crisis prevention, energy, information technology and HIV/AIDS.  UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown, in a press release which is out on the racks today, said the recruitment drive is "a decisive moment for building our capacity to provide knowledge-based consulting services in priority areas of our work with developing countries".

And also today, the Food and Agriculture Organization issued a report saying that 60 million people in 33 countries are facing food emergencies, with 16 countries in sub-Saharan African particularly hard hit.  A press release summarizing the report, "Foodcrops and Shortages" is available in my office.

**Press Conference

And tomorrow there will be a press conference here at 11:15, in this room, on the subject of ageing.  I think some of you out there are ageing.  It is sponsored by the Development and Human Rights Section of the Information Department and it will feature Helen Hamlin, the President of the NGO Committee on Ageing, Aurelio Fernandez Lopez, the Commissary of the Organizing Committee of the UN Assembly on Ageing, and Alexander Sidorenko, the Focal Point for the Programme on Ageing in the UN Secretariat.  That’s all I have for you.  Before we go to Martin, any questions?

Questions and Answers

Question: How many dogs were sent to Lebanon to find landmines?

Martin Barber: As I understand it, seven dogs arrived last Sunday and they are the first of an anticipated group which should rise to 18 altogether. 

Question: How long do you think it will take to remove the 130,000 landmines?

Martin Barber: There will be many different programmes working together of which the dogs are just one.  We haven’t issued an estimate of how long it will take yet because the mine fields have not been surveyed in detail and so no accurate plan has yet been possible of exactly how long it will take.  Of course, how long it will take will depend on the level of resources that can be assigned to the problem.  If donors are generous and come up with a lot of resources, then it can be done more quickly.  It’s not going to take hundreds of years but it’s not going to be done in one or two years either.  I don’t want to be much more precise than that because otherwise it may sound like a commitment.

Question: What about the financing? Who is financing this operation?

Martin Barber: Well, the dogs programme is funded by the United States through USAID, but there are other programmes up and very close to running that are funded by the European Union and by a number of other donors both bilaterally and through the UN.  So there’s a good group of donors working on the problem.  It’s going to get started soon.  I’ll have some reference to that in my remarks.

Spokesman: Thank you.  Any other questions for me before we go officially to Martin?

Question: Fred, are there any further details on the developments in Bujumbura as to which faction might have started the violence?

Spokesman: No.  I don’t think we are in the position to say who is on the offensive.  It is one of the most serious offensives in recent years.  It does seem as if the Hutu rebels are on the attack but I really don’t want to get into the specifics.

Question: Is there going to be a UN investigation into allegations that Danish peacekeepers sexually abused a 13-year-old in Ethiopia or Eritrea?

Spokesman: That is standard.  Any time there’s an allegation of improper behaviour against a military or civilian member of a peacekeeping mission, there is a UN investigation.  In this case, the peacekeepers were [subject to a national investigation] which is already now completed.  They were fined, I believe, but not jailed.

Question:  How many soldiers were involved?

Spokesman: I don’t have the details in front of me, but now the UN is carrying out its normal investigation into this incident. 

Okay.  Now I think officially Martin we can go to you.  I think you probably have some opening comments for us.

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