PRESS CONFERENCE BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

“My intention is to make the Council’s business progressively more transparent”, the Security Council President for the month of April told correspondents this afternoon at a Headquarters press conference.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations, said that while it would be a cumulative process, he would try to make the Council’s work more accessible to the media than it had been in the past.  Where there were sensitive issues, obviously, the Council would still need not to be in front of the media.

At the outset of the press conference, Sir Jeremy gave an overview of the Council’s programme of work for the month of April.

He said that the United Nations Expert Panel on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo had asked for more time to get their report ready, and therefore discussion of the report might be delayed –- from 6 to around 20 April. 

The discussion of Sierra Leone and West Africa, scheduled for 18 April, might be brought forward, he continued.  Kishore Mahbubani, Chairman of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 985 (1995) concerning Liberia, would be paying a familiarization visit to West Africa between 13 and 21 April, and the Council would like to have a discussion of the region before he left.  Mr. Mahbubani would probably make a report upon his return.

Sir Jeremy said there had been a multi-disciplinary United Nations mission in West Africa headed by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahima Fall, who would report to the Council possibly on 10 April.  A discussion of Angola might be moved from the last week of the month to the middle, he added.

Addressing the issue of transparency, he said he was going to make an effort during the month to bring some briefings out from informal consultations into the main Council Chamber.  Some of them would be private and others not.  Some would involve the non-Council membership and others would not –- that would be decided on an ad hoc basis. 

One topic he would like to see taken up in an open meeting was his initiative to get the Council talking to the Economic and Social Council about the grey areas of conflict management, conflict prevention, peacekeeping and post-conflict peace-building.  Subject to agreement by the Council members, he intended to hold a meeting on 27 April with the Economic and Social Council’s bureau to discuss coordination of conflict management where there were overlapping responsibilities. 

In that context, he said, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration and its relationship to peacekeeping operations, conflict prevention, and the

“hand-over” from peacekeeping operations to those running economic and

social programmes would be discussed.  The United Nations Development Programme

(UNDP) might be there.  He would be advising the Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly of the meeting.

Turning to the Middle East, he said that as one of the Europeans who had recently sponsored a draft resolution that had not been taken forward, he would not want to see the issue coming back to the Council unless there was “some pretty solid pre-cooking”.  Over the next couple of weeks there would be some discreet discussion among delegations as to what the potential was for taking action.  Members of the United Nations, the Arab Group, the Non-Aligned Movement, and others would want to take a decision on where the issue should go –- back to the Council or to the General Assembly, or to bilateral or multilateral deliberations outside the United Nations. 

Correspondents should not expect the issue to come back to the Council automatically in April unless there was a complete “bust-up”, or movement forward towards something that was achievable, probably at a less ambitious level than the last time.

There would be a public meeting on 25 April on protection of civilians in situations of armed conflict –- which would not be an occasion to revisit the thematic debate.  Rather, it would be an occasion to discuss what decisions should be taken on the practical handling of the issue.

Western Sahara was an important subject for the end of the month, he said.  The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) had been “rolled over” for the past couple of months, with, each time, the Council saying, “this will be the last time”.  While he was not sure if this would be the last time, there would be a deeper discussion, particularly if the Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy, James A. Baker III, had something to offer on it.  It might be quite a heavy debate on what the Council did with MINURSO and what happened in Western Sahara in the next phase.

While he didn’t have a specific theme for the presidency -- as permanent members on the whole didn’t feel the need to push themes for the sake of it –- he did want to work on improving the time and agenda management of the Council, to try and get more value for time.  It would be an uphill struggle, but he had the backing of the other Council members to have a go at it.

He would be available to talk to journalists after each session, he said.  Other members of the United Nations would be briefed in room 226 and arrangements would be made to provide background briefings to correspondents.  He said an effort would be made to make his Mission’s Web site -– www.ukun.org

-- as informative as possible.

A correspondent asked what the obstacles might be to holding the discussion with the Economic and Social Council Bureau in an open meeting.  Sir Jeremy said, “I hope none”.  He would like to hold it in front of anyone interested.  It was the kind of transparency he wanted.  Unless there was an objection from a member of the Council –- which there hadn’t been so far –- it would be an open meeting.

Responding to another question, he said the Security Council was conscious that the Economic and Social Council was a less operational institution.  It didn’t meet year round, was much larger and it was a more difficult management job for the Presidency to get it to respond in an operational way.  That would be discussed on the day.  It was also the Council’s intention to signal to the specialized agencies and other parts of the United Nations that it was open to discussions on coordination.  In those areas where there was an operational capability, the Council hoped that the relevant bodies would meet it half way.  The Council thought that was the right way to start a practical discussion on coordination.

In response to another question by the same correspondent, he said he was not expecting to have a decision this month that MINURSO would come to a halt.  It was more whether there were ideas from Mr. Baker or the Secretary-General on a broader approach to the problem that were worth following up.  Part of it would depend, perhaps, on whether the parties themselves were interested in broadening the discussion beyond the referendum and the settlement issues.  The Council would be dependent on a Secretary-General’s report that wanted it to discuss a broader range of issues.  For two months people had been saying, “we can’t go on just rolling it over, and we’ll see whether they mean that or not”.

A correspondent asked if during the month there would be any behind the scenes consultations on Iraq policy.  In response, Sir Jeremey said that during recent bilateral consultations, he had been telling Council members not to expect discussions in the Council on follow-up to resolution 1284 (1999) until the periods of review in certain capitals had produced some conclusions.  If they didn’t, then the absence of review proposals could be discussed.  He expected that discussion outside the Council would be brought inside in May, rather than April.  The Secretary-General was scheduled to have another round of talks with the Iraqis, probably before the Council was through discussing its general policy. 

Responding to a follow-up question, he said it was unlikely that the Council would have a unified policy toward Iraq prior to the Secretary-General’s dialogue with Iraq.  He hoped some forward movement on policy would come during the course of the summer.

On the United States plane forced to land in Chinese territory, he said he thought it was a matter for bilateral consultation.

Asked for further comment on the draft resolution on the Middle East, he said he thought a change of general approach was needed before anything really useful could come out of the Council, otherwise “it becomes a fall room for rhetorical antagonism again”.  The Europeans were not eager to get back to the draft.  New thoughts could help bring the issue forward.  It would be left to private discussion for the next couple of weeks.

Responding to another question, he said he did not foresee mad cow disease, foot and mouth disease, food security or related issues coming up on the Council’s agenda in April.  AIDS was a subject where the Council had shown a peace and security link.  Health, education, disease were development subjects

-- as development and conflict were brought together they began to fall into a grey area.  That was why the discussion with the Economic and Social Council would be held.

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