DAILY PRESS BREIFING 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.

**Security Council

Good afternoon.  The Security Council has quite a heavy schedule today. Council members first heard a briefing in closed consultations this morning by Hans Blix, Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) dealing with Iraq.  He said that the Commission is prepared to move fast if the Government of Iraq gives the green light for inspections. 

Consultations on Iraq were interrupted at 11 a.m. for Council members to hear a briefing, under the Arria formula, from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)Secretary-General George Robertson, which is likely to address the situation in southern Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Mr. Robertson will speak at the Security Council stakeout around 12:30 p.m., following his meeting with the Secretary-General.

The Arria-formula meeting was to wrap up at noon, at which time the Council will resume its consultations.  It is then expected to conclude discussion on Iraq and take up Afghanistan.  Kenzo Oshima, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, and John Renninger, Asia-Pacific Director in the Department of Political Affairs, are expected to brief Council members, who may then also discuss the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia under "other matters".

In the afternoon, the Council will discuss in consultations the draft resolution on Liberian sanctions that went into “blue”* on Friday.  And at

4:15 p.m. today, the Council will hold a private formal meeting to hear from the Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Zoran Zizic, on the situation in Kosovo and southern Serbia.

**Afghanistan

As we just mentioned, the United Nations’ top humanitarian official, Kenzo Oshima, will be making his first appearance in the Security Council and is scheduled to brief on his recently concluded visits to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Mr. Oshima, who has already briefed you, is expected to report on the further dramatic deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, efforts to halt the destruction of pre-Islamic statues by the Taliban continued.

Pierre Lafrance, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) special envoy to Afghanistan, who is in the region, is expected to travel to Kandahar, the main residence of Taliban leader Mullah

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*     A late-stage draft resolution printed in blue, for circulation to Council

members.

Mohammad Omar, tomorrow or the next day, after the Eid al-Adha holiday.  After meeting with the Taliban's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, Mr. Lefrance said that contacts are continuing and new consultations are taking place among theologians in Afghanistan.  The UNESCO has also launched an international petition for the safeguarding of Afghan heritage.

**Kosovo-Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Over the weekend, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative [in Kosovo], Hans Haekkerup, met with top officials of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, known to us as FYROM, in Skopje to offer his concern and support to FYROM’s attempts to reduce tensions across the border from Kosovo.  Mr. Haekkerup said that he and the United Nations mission would do everything possible to help stabilize the situation and encouraged FYROM officials to seek a political solution to the tensions.  He also expressed concern over the closing of the border crossing points between the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo, and was assured that FYROM would re-open the crossings soon.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Minister of FYROM, Srdjan Kerim, has, in a letter, requested an emergency session of the Security Council during which he said he would present an action plan from his Government to deal with the violence and to stabilize the border.

**Bosnia and Herzegovina

Over the weekend in Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than 500 police officers -- from the Bosnian Federation, the Republika Srpska and the District of Brcko -- participated in a raid, under the guidance of the United Nations Mission there, of 38 nightclubs in Brcko.  The early Saturday morning raids -- code-named Operation Makro -- led to the release of 177 women who had been subjected to human trafficking.  The United Nations Human Rights Office and the International Organization for Migration (IMO) are now in the process of helping any of the women who have requested assistance to return home.

The Secretary-General's Special Representative, Jacques Klein, said over the weekend that the actions taken by the police "clearly demonstrates to all of us that police training has paid off, professionalism has been enhanced and the ability to work constructively together, regardless of entity or ethnic origin, is possible".

We have his comments on the raid and today's press briefing from Sarajevo available upstairs.  Also available is a statement that Mr. Klein delivered on Saturday, criticizing efforts by some Bosnian Croat politicians to set up a separate Croat National Assembly.  Mr. Klein said that the United Nations Mission in Bosnia has removed parallel structures where they impede progress in policing and justice, and will continue to do so.

**Iraq:  ‘Oil-for-Food’ Programme

The Secretary-General’s “90-day” report on the implementation of phase IX  of the “oil-for-food” programme is out on the racks today.  Phase IX began on     6 December 2000.

According to that report, there has been a consistent decline in chronic malnutrition in children under the age of five in the three northern governorates.  However, chronic malnutrition rates remain higher overall in the central and southern governorates of Iraq, with increases especially in rural areas.  While health conditions in Baghdad and throughout the country have improved over the past four years, the situation still remains precarious.  Shortages of some basic medicines, such as antibiotics, vaccines, and drugs used in the treatment of diabetes and heart diseases, persist. 

With regard to the implementation of paragraph 18 of resolution 1330 (2000), requesting the Secretary-General to report on proposals for the use of additional oil export routes, the Secretary-General “regrets” that he is unable to submit such a report, since, in a letter dated 23 January 2001, the Government of Iraq had informed him that the establishment of additional oil export routes was not “among Iraqi’s current priorities” and that the Government of Iraq saw no need for an expert mission to be deployed to Iraq to study the matter. 

The Security Council is scheduled to take up this report in closed consultations on Thursday morning of this week.

**Zimbabwe

In a statement released today in Geneva, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, announced that she has sent a letter to President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe drawing his attention to the international concern over peoples’ inability to fully exercise their human rights in his country.

In the letter, which was delivered last week to President Mugabe, the High Commissioner makes a particular appeal to the President to use his “best endeavours for the well-being of the Chief Justice and other judges and magistrates”.

The full text of the press release is available upstairs.

**Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Also from Geneva, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is meeting from today until 23 March to review anti-discrimination efforts undertaken by the Governments of Algeria, Argentina, Bangladesh, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Japan, Portugal and the Sudan.

A full background note is available on the High Commissioner’s Web site.

**East Timor

From East Timor, we have news that more than 600 East Timorese refugees from West Timor arrived safely in Dili by boat yesterday and on Saturday, in a joint operation involving the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Mission in East Timor.  The returnees are currently being taken back to their home villages.

Meanwhile, two additional preliminary hearings on serious crimes are scheduled to start tomorrow in East Timor.  They are on the so-called “single cases”.  The defendants are two former pro-autonomy militia members accused of murder and attempted murder in September 1999.  These hearings follow the sentence last week of a former pro-independence fighter who was found guilty of murder and sentenced to seven years in prison.

There is more available in the briefing notes.

**Secretary-General on ‘Everything but Arms’ Initiative

The Secretary-General wrote an opinion piece, published in yesterday's Financial Times, which praised the European Union for adopting the “everything but arms” initiative last week, by which it agreed to give full duty and quota-free access to its markets for all products from the least developed countries, other than weapons.

He wrote that the European Union nations "got their priorities right, and by so doing gave a vital political signal.  Their decision shows that Europe really does want a fair international trade system, in which poor countries have a real chance to export their way out of poverty".

Providing market access to products from the least developed countries, he added, is "a crucial first step" to helping them out of poverty.  The Secretary-General appealed to the other industrialized countries -- starting with the United States, Japan and Canada -- to follow Europe's lead, without restrictive provisions or reservations. 

From 14 through 20 May in Brussels, Belgium, the European Union will be hosting the third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries.  The Secretary-General said that the Brussels conference must mark a turning point in the battle to rid the world of poverty.

We have copies of the full text in my Office.

**Commission on Status of Women

The Commission on the Status of Women opened its forty-fifth session today in New York. This session, which runs through 16 March, will focus on two thematic issues:  Women, girls and HIV/AIDS; and gender and all forms of discrimination.

Detailed background notes for journalists on this meeting is available in the High Commissioner for Human Rights Web site.

In a related event, Noeleen Heyzer, the Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), will be chairing a panel discussion in Conference Room 2 at 1:15 p.m., entitled “HIV/AIDS:  The Women’s Leadership Challenge”.  You are all invited to attend that.

And then today, at 4 p.m., here in room S-226, Angela King, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, and Margareta Winberg, Sweden’s Minister for Gender Equality Affairs, will hold a press conference to discuss the role of men in achieving gender equality and the growing trafficking in human beings for labour and sexual exploitation.

**Information Technology in United Nations

The Secretary-General's report on the use of information technology in the Secretariat is out on the racks today, and in it, he notes that United Nations satellite capacity is insufficient for communication between Headquarters in New York and the duty stations in Bangkok, Beirut and Nairobi, in particular.

At the same time, the report notes, the United Nations’ information technology infrastructure has been upgraded in recent years.  The number of personal computers in offices away from Headquarters has risen from a little more than 3,000 at the end of 1992 to more than 7,800 last November.

The report notes that a detailed inventory of the United Nations’ information technology infrastructure is close to completion, and that a coordination body to deal with the matter is to be established here at Headquarters.

**Convention against Transnational Organized Crime

The Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of a Convention against Transnational Organized Crime agreed, on Friday in Vienna, Austria, on a “protocol against illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts and components and ammunitions”.  The protocol will now come to the General Assembly for adoption.  This is expected to happen sometime in April.

If adopted, the protocol will be the first binding legal instrument for the control of illegal activities in the field of firearms.  It is not a disarmament document.  It is a part of the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and, as such, is intended to operate in the context of crime control.

**Climate Change

The third and final report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was released yesterday in Accra, Ghana.  The report outlines effective policies and technologies in the fight against global warming.

We have a press release on that upstairs.

**Harold Stassen

I have the following statement attributable to the Spokesman, concerning the death of Harold Stassen.

“It was with great sadness that the Secretary-General learned of the death of Harold Stassen, the American statesman and the last surviving member of the United States delegation to the San Francisco conference in 1945 at which the United Nations was founded.  Mr. Stassen played a key role not only in drafting the Charter, but in ensuring the support of the Republican Party when the Charter was ratified by the United States Senate.  Well into his later years, Mr. Stassen continued to work for world peace and to speak out on behalf of a strong and effective United Nations.  The international community has lost one of its most dedicated servants, and the Secretary-General extends condolences to Mr. Stassen's family, friends and all others touched by this loss.”

**Security Council

I have one other element here related to Security Council documents.

Out in the racks today is a letter from the President of the Security Council, addressed to the Secretary-General, on the Council’s open meeting to be held tomorrow.  The session is to follow up to the September 2000 Council Summit on “Ensuring an effective role of the Security Council in the maintenance of international peace and security, particularly in Africa”.  It is expected to evaluate the progress achieved in the implementation of the Summit’s declaration.

The letter attaches a working paper, which is meant to be a basis for tomorrow’s debate. 

**Press Releases

Let me just run quickly through a few press releases.  I am sorry this has taken so long.

The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Kosovo, Hans Haekkerup, today launched the first meeting of a working group that is to develop regulations to define a legal framework for dealing with provisional self-government for Kosovo.  Once that legal framework is completed, Mr. Haekkerup will announce a date for general elections.

The working group is composed of seven Kosovar and six international members, and is chaired by Johan van Lamoen.  The United Nations Mission in Kosovo has a press release with more details.

Today's briefing notes from the UNHCR says that United Nations convoys have reached nearly 29,000 people scattered around the Parrot's Beak area of southern Guinea.  Once food has reached all the areas of the Parrot's Beak, the UNHCR will start to transfer the refugee population to the interior of Guinea.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today that adverse weather in recent months has hurt harvest prospects in southern Africa.  Crops fell victim to a prolonged dry spell in January in parts of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa and Zimbabwe.  Subsequent rains have caused flooding in low-lying areas of Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.  We have a press release with more details.

**Press Conferences

Tomorrow, at 11:15 a.m. in this room, Zoran Zizic, the Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Right after the noon briefing, Joan French, Chief of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Gender, Partnerships and Participating Section, will launch UNICEF’s study on “Early Marriage:  Child Spouses”.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  What is the meeting of theologians in Afghanistan about, and where are they from?

Spokesman:  I assume that they are Afghan theologians, but I am not entirely sure.  This is information that, I believe, we got from UNESCO this morning.  Check back with my Office -- Marie Okabe got this information -- to see if we know anything more about these theologians.

Question:  Do you know of any special events that triggered the letter of Mary Robinson to Mr. Mugabe?

Spokesman:  I think it is an accumulating number of incidents, probably –- and I’m just guessing now -– culminating in the threats to the security of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and other justices.

Question:  Will the Security Council meet on Iraq again this afternoon?

Spokesman:  I gave you everything I had on the Security Council.  There is nothing on Iraq this afternoon.  They met on Iraq this morning and were to come back at noon to resume Iraq if they hadn’t finished, and then take up [Afghanistan and] the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.  Those are the [three] things they would take up at noon.  I am not quite sure where they broke off when they interrupted at 11 o’clock.

Question:  Regarding the report on information technology at the United Nations, can you find out if there is any radio-frequency allocated to United Nations here in New York or in Geneva, and if we ever use these frequencies?

Spokesman:  I’ll look into it.

Thank you very much.

[Later it was announced that the United Nations radio broadcasts 15 minutes of news every day in partnership with 155 radio stations around the world.  The news is sent by e-mail and telephone to those stations.  In addition, there are short-wave broadcasts on various frequencies to Africa and the Middle East in English, French and Arabic.]

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