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.

Good afternoon.

It's a pleasure to have with us Eric de Mul, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Angola, who will brief you on the humanitarian situation in Angola in just a minute.

**Secretary-General - Washington

The Secretary-General returned from Washington, D.C., this morning and went right to his office.

In the space of a few hours in the United States capital yesterday, he managed to discuss Afghanistan and other security issues with President George W. Bush and the global fight against AIDS with 11 members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He also had dinner with James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank.

**Secretary-General - Middle East

He just finished a meeting a few minutes ago with the Deputy Foreign Minister of Israel, Michael Melchior, with whom he discussed the latest peace plan being put forward by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

The Secretary-General said he would support Mr. Peres in his efforts, despite widespread scepticism at this time, because, he said, we all need to strive for durable, long-term peace in the Middle East.

**Security Council - Middle East

The Security Council is meeting this morning in closed consultations to receive one of its regular briefings on the Middle East, including on the question of Palestine.

Today’s briefing was given by the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast.  Mr. Prendergast updated the Council on the situation on the ground, which he said had not improved since the Council was last briefed on the issue on 30 January by Terje Roed-Larsen, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

The Council President, Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser of Mexico, is expected to speak to you afterwards.

**Security Council - Angola

Yesterday afternoon, after the open meeting on Angola, Council members were briefed in closed consultations on the situation in Liberia by Youssef Mahmoud, the Director of the Africa II Division of the Department of Political Affairs.

In a statement made to the press afterwards, the President of the Council called upon the Government of Liberia to respect human rights and the safety of civilians, and called on the armed insurgents to respect human life.

Ambassador Aguilar Zinser said Council members also called on President Charles Taylor to “honour his pledge not to use the declaration of a state of emergency to curtail civil liberties in Liberia”.

**World Food Programme

Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf announced today their appointment of James T. Morris as Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP).  The announcement came following consultations with WFP’s executive board of 36 member countries.

The board earlier today expressed its congratulations to the new Executive Director and informed him of their desire to work with him.

Mr. Morris is a citizen of the United States and was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IWC Resources Corporation, the parent company of the Indianapolis Water Company.  He also serves as President of the Indiana University Board of Trustees.  Formerly, he was President of the Lilly Endowment.  The Lilly Endowment, one of the largest charitable foundations in the United States, was established in 1937 by members of the Lilly family to pursue philanthropic interests.

Mr. Morris succeeds Catherine Bertini, the first United States national to head the WFP.  Ms. Bertini’s second five-year term will end in March.

We have a press release on the appointment and a bio of Mr. Morris upstairs.

**Cyprus

I have something that just came in on Cyprus, if I can read it. 

His Excellency Glafcos Clerides, the Greek Cypriot leader, and His Excellency Rauf Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot leader, met today.

They will meet again tomorrow as earlier planned.  They will have one more meeting on Tuesday, 19 February 2002, before breaking in light of the Bayram (Id Muslim holiday) and for a brief reflection period.  During this break, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, will travel to New York to report to the Secretary-General and to brief the members of the Security Council.  Talks will resume on Friday, 1 March.

Mr. Clerides and Mr. Denktash also reviewed the pace of their work so far.  They have decided that it would be more effective to have longer meetings with more time in between, so as to concentrate efforts and allow more time for preparation.  Accordingly, as of 1 March, they will be meeting on Tuesday afternoons and Friday mornings, except as otherwise agreed.

**Kosovo

The Secretary-General’s new Special Representative for Kosovo, Michael Steiner, arrived today in Pristina to begin his assignment.

Mr. Steiner told reporters that the economy, law and order, along with security -- not just within Kosovo but in the region -- were the three biggest challenges ahead that needed to be tackled.

A press release from the United Nations mission in Kosovo is expected shortly.

As you know, yesterday afternoon, the Security Council President, Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, read out a presidential statement that voiced its backing for the new representative.

**Afghanistan

I would like to draw your attention to a few developments reported today by United Nations humanitarian agencies working in Afghanistan.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is set to begin a survey of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases in Afghanistan.  At present, there is little information on the number of HIV and AIDS cases in Afghanistan, nor amongst the refugee population in neighbouring countries.

To date, 10 cases of HIV/AIDS inside Afghanistan have been reported to the WHO.  Although this is a limited number, health officials recognize the need to start early in developing activities to contain AIDS because of the rapid speed at which the disease multiplies.  Every day, 14,000 people around the world are infected with the deadly virus.

By the end of the year 2003, a national plan of action on infection control of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections, such as gonorrhoea and syphilis, is expected to be completed, according to the WHO.

The WFP says its teams are moving into remote mountain villages, where extremely vulnerable inhabitants are suffering the ravaging effects of a punishing three-year drought and years of conflict.

One team travelled to the isolated village of Chakanak by road from Mazar-i-Sharif.  It took five hours for the teams to reach their destination because of slippery, muddy and snowy roads.  Initial findings show that inhabitants were living in highly precarious conditions, suffering from lack of clothing, medicine, soap, sanitation and clean water.

The WFP is using these findings to streamline its plan of action for delivering more food to the people of this village and others that will be assessed by helicopter mission.

**Financing for Development

The United Nations welcomes the call made yesterday by the European Commission for all European Union member States to increase substantially their financial aid to developing countries.

The Commission’s call is a step in the right direction towards the Secretary-General’s efforts to ensure that financing for development, and particularly official development assistance (ODA), increases significantly, a cause he intends to push further at next month’s Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico.

**Budget

Libya today became the forty-seventh Member State to pay its regular-budget dues in full for this year, with a payment of nearly $685,000.

**Treaty Signings

Yesterday afternoon, Jamaica signed the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants, which supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and it became the ninety-eighth signatory to that Protocol.

**Press Conferences

Press conferences -- none for today.

Tomorrow at 1:15 p.m., the Permanent Mission of Peru is sponsoring a press conference by Goodluck Diigbo, the President of Partnership for Indigenous Peoples Environment and United Nations Main Representative of the International Oil Working Group.  He will discuss the Indigenous People's Global Conference, which is being held in New York on 21 to 24 of this month.

At 2 p.m., His Excellency Philippe Djangone-Bi, the Permanent Representative of Côte d'Ivoire, and Ms. Shazia Rafi, the Secretary-General of Parliamentarians for Global Action, will brief on the Subregional Parliamentary Seminar on Integration, Immigration and Naturalization in Côte d'Ivoire.

**Deputy Spokesman

Finally, a word on my deputy, Manoel de Almeida e Silva.  He's been my deputy, as you know, since 1998, except for a six-month absence when he was the spokesman for the United Nations Mission in East Timor.

Now, he is being tapped once again for a special assignment, this time to become Lakhdar Brahimi's spokesman in Kabul, Afghanistan.

He has been a loyal and effective deputy to me, and I believe he has also been an effective source for you.  And I believe he's also been a friend to all of us.

I hope you will join me in the Spokesman's Office at about 6 o'clock today to have a toast to see him off.

Thank you very much.  Questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Did the Secretary-General discuss the latest peace plan or does he intend to discuss the latest peace plan with the Palestinian representative, the Arab League and the Europeans?  And also, United States Vice-President Dick Cheney is heading to the Middle East next month.  Is the Secretary-General planning to visit the Middle East soon?

Spokesman:  I think on your question about a trip to the Middle East, I simply have nothing to announce at this time.  This reaction to the Peres peace plan came rather spontaneously from a meeting that ended at just five minutes to twelve.

The Secretary-General continues to try to encourage what he calls the quartet, which includes the United States, the European Union, the Russian Federation, as well as the United Nations, to put their combined weight behind any serious effort to move towards a long-term solution in the Middle East.  And I think you can tell from what he said this morning in response to the Paris Plan that he considers that a serious effort.

Question:  On the same question on the Middle East, after meeting with President Bush, the Secretary-General said both parties need a vision of peace and international help to implement that.  Could you give us more details on that?

Spokesman:  Oh, I don’t think that needs any elaboration.  The Secretary-General’s assessment is that the Palestinians and the Israelis left to themselves will just continue on a spiral of violence, and that the international community must step in.  He’s called for fresh, creative thinking.  But he also continues to emphasize the Mitchell Plan as the best path to a ceasefire, which, of course, is the first step towards resumption of negotiations.  That’s the big picture.  Whether the Middle East can move down that path is really the question we’re all asking.  Jim?

Question:  On Liberia, a few things.  Is this Council going to have an open meeting on Liberia any time soon?  Are they giving any serious consideration to Taylor’s demand and request that the arms embargo be lifted?  And is there any indication where the rebels are receiving their arms from?

Spokesman:  I can’t answer any of those three questions.  I’ll have to ask or ask you to ask a staffer in my Office who follows the Security Council whether the person in the Council can answer any of those three.  Yes?

[The Spokesman's Office later announced that there were no plans to hold an open meeting on Liberia.  It also said the Security Council was not considering lifting the arms embargo on Liberia.]

Question:  Sierra Leone, very quickly.  The Secretary-General is supposed to be appointing people to work in high positions in the planned tribunal there -- a prosecutor and several judges.  Any idea when that will happen?

Spokesman:  I’ll have to find out for you.  I don’t know off the top of my head.  Serge?

[He later said that the first appointment are not expected to be made for a few months.]

Question:  The Secretary-General has called for a lifting of restrictions on Chairman Arafat.  Did this question come up?

Spokesman:  Yes it did.  In his meeting with President Bush, yes.

Question:  You mentioned the assistance for Afghanistan.  As of today, the village of Pushtan still has received no support at all and many people,

especially old people and children, are dying because they don’t have any access to food or anything else.  Is there any possibility that you can give us some more details?

Spokesman:  I don’t have details on the specific village that you mention.  But, of course, the WFP has admitted for some time that there are isolated parts of Afghanistan that they are still not reaching.  The examples that we gave in today’s humanitarian briefing illustrate WFP’s efforts to reach these outlying areas, and I am sure those efforts are going to continue until we get the food to every place that it’s needed.  Today, I think we can say it’s not getting every place where it’s needed, but every effort is being made.

Question:  There is some good news coming out of Madagascar; namely, that the Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) has succeeded in having both parties -- the Government and the opposition -- postpone the elections.  What role did the United Nations play in achieving this result?

Spokesman:  We already reported to you that the Secretary-General has been on the phone with both the President and the leader of the opposition.  Recently, the Secretary-General sent the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Ibrahima Fall, to Madagascar. He is there now supporting Mr. Essy's efforts -– the OAU's efforts.  So the Secretary-General has been coordinating with, primarily, the OAU in efforts to nudge Madagascar on the path to a constitutional and peaceful resolution of the standoff between the President and opposition over the results of this latest election.

Very well, Eric de Mul.  Welcome to the briefing, sir.

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