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

The following is a near-verbatim record of today's noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.  Thank you for coming.  We'll have a short briefing, although a little bit longer than yesterday.  As I said, we’re picking up bit by bit. 

We already have a guest today.  The first guest of the New Year --  Stephen Lewis, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for HIV/AIDS in Africa.  He will brief you about the Twelfth International Conference on Sexually Transmitted Diseases, which took place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, earlier in December, and on his official visit to Nigeria.

**Afghanistan

I'll start with a note on Afghanistan, and start by making reference to the note of yesterday when I told you that some Afghans were crossing back into Pakistan.  The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today that they had moved about 1,000 refugees into camps in Pakistan.  A number of families told UNHCR officers that they were fleeing the coalition bombings.  Some of the families said they had been on the road for twenty days.

However, the majority of them traveled from the Internally Displaced Persons camp at Spin Boldak where they complained of lack of assistance.  Others also mentioned the continuing drought as a reason for leaving Afghanistan.

The UNHCR feels that if there is assistance inside southern Afghanistan, this influx may stop.  Unfortunately, insecurity in southern Afghanistan continues to hinder delivery of much needed humanitarian assistance.

Meanwhile, UNHCR also reports 3,000 people were traveling in the other direction returning into Afghanistan.

In Kabul today, the UN spokesman said that the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, is concerned at reports of civilian deaths during bombing raids on 29 December in eastern Afghanistan.

Meanwhile today, Mr. Brahimi met with Dr. Sohaila Siddiq, Minister of Public Health.  The Minister shared with him the many problems facing the health sector in Afghanistan.  Mr. Brahimi noted that the public health situation is desperate and hopes that the international community will pay attention to this issue.

This afternoon, he also met with Mr. Abdurrahim Karimi, Minister of Justice and Haji Muhammad Mohaqqeq, Minister of Planning.

The trend towards a return of United Nations international staff and the reopening of field offices is continuing.  The World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that its international staff will be returning to Kabul effective today

and that its offices in Jalalabad, Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat and Kandahar will be strengthened.  The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations-Habitat offices in Bamyan will also be reopened, and also a number of non-governmental organizations are going back to their offices.  More details, of course, you can get in the transcript of the Kabul briefing, which is available upstairs.

**Security Council

Moving now here to New York.  The President of the Council for the month of January, Ambassador Jagdish Koonjul of Mauritius, is holding bilateral consultations today on the programme of work for January. 

**Sierra Leone

In a letter to the Security Council, which is available on the racks today, the Secretary-General says that he has been persuaded that States have the political will to commit themselves to the success and continued viability of a Special Court to try crimes committed in Sierra Leone.

As a result, the Secretary-General decided to authorize the start of the Court’s operation, beginning with a planning mission that is to leave from New York to Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, next Monday, 7 January.  The mission, which will be headed by the Office of Legal Affairs, will be in Sierra Leone through 18 January and is expected to conclude its work by signing an agreement with Sierra Leone’s Government to establish a legal framework for the establishment and operation of the Court.

The mission will be headed initially by Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Ralph Zacklin, and the United Nations Legal Counsel Hans Corell will join the mission in Freetown.

Despite the progress, the Secretary-General says in his letter that the shortfall for pledges for the second and third years of the Court’s operation remain quite high.  As a result, he reserves the right at any time in the Court’s operation to revert to the Security Council and request it to consider financing any residual shortfalls through assessed contributions or any other means.

As I said, you can get the full text of the letter upstairs on the racks as it came out as document today.

**Western Sahara

Moving from Sierra Leone, where we have a mission, to another United Nations mission, this time in Western Sahara, the mission there today issued a press release noting the announcement, made yesterday by the Polisario Front, that

115 Moroccan prisoners of war will be released as a goodwill gesture.

The United Nations Mission, in a press statement which is available upstairs, added that the continued detention of prisoners of war is a serious humanitarian issue and supported the call by the Security Council for the parties to release, without delay, all those held since the start of the conflict.

**Racism Conference

Yesterday, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, announced the publication of the Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Conference against Racism.

The publication of the Declaration and Programme of Action had been delayed due to a difference of views mostly regarding where to place several paragraphs of text drafted as the Conference drew to a close in Durban in September. 

South Africa, which presided over the Conference and the European Union have indicated that all outstanding issues had been resolved. 

The General Assembly will now consider the report of the Conference, including the Declaration and Programme of Action, in the near future.

You can pick up in our office the press release from the High Commissioner, and the final text can be found on the United Nations Human Rights Web site.

**Budget

Today, two more Member States paid their 2002 regular budget contributions in full, bringing the number to 12.  We received payments of more than

$899,000 from Egypt and more than $5.8 million from Finland.

**Press Releases

Press Releases.  I wish to bring to your attention two of them.  Actually, one is not a press release; it’s the briefing note from the United Nations mission in East Timor, where they note that the Constituent Assembly resumed its work today on the draft Constitution after the New Year’s break.  The Assembly passed five more articles today.  So far it has adopted a total of 79 out of the

151 articles of the draft Constitution. 

Another aspect I would like to bring to your attention is a press release by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), as you know the arm for the Americas of the World Health Organization.  They launched a new strategic plan for the prevention and control of AIDS in the Caribbean.  At the launch, the Director of PAHO, the Pan American Health Organization, Dr. George Alleyne, said the plan included “improving access to care and quality, humane treatment”.  There are 360,000 people in the Caribbean infected with HIV/AIDS.  The press release is available upstairs.

There are no press conferences scheduled for today, nor for tomorrow.

That's all I have.  As I promised, a short briefing.  But before our guest comes up, do you have any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Is there any belated response from the Secretary-General in relation to the budget?  I know he was happy with the way the process was finished, but was there any further discussion on whether or not some of the things that the Secretary-General and the United Nations itself wanted to do, could be accomplished?

Deputy Spokesman:  I don't have any further comments.  I have not heard any further discussion.  The budget process has been concluded and I'm glad, because then we have the necessary resources to do what we have to do.

Question:  Anything from Department heads who now look at what they have to work with?

Deputy Spokesman:  They will do their job with what's given to them.

Thank you very much.

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