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.

**Head of United Nations Office in Geneva

Good afternoon.

The Secretary-General has decided to appoint Sergei Ordzhonikidze of the Russian Federation as Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva.  He will replace Vladimir Petrovsky, who is retiring from United Nations service after 10 years, the last nine of which were in that post.  The appointment will become effective on 1 March.

Mr. Ordzhonikidze is currently Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Moscow, where he headed the Ministry's Department of International Organizations from 1996 to 1999.  He's familiar to many of you from his stint as Deputy Permanent Representative at the Russian United Nations Mission here in New York from 1991 to 1996.  In fact, his Foreign Ministry career started here in New York when he was attaché at the Soviet United Nations Mission from 1970-1975.

The Secretary-General would like to pay tribute to Mr. Petrovsky for his contribution to the United Nations for the last decade, during which he significantly strengthened the United Nations Office in Geneva.

**Afghanistan

The acting head of the United Nations Mission in Kabul, Carl Fischer, met earlier today with interim Interior Minister Yunus Qanooni, who said a ministerial commission had been set up to investigate the killing of the interim tourism minister yesterday at Kabul airport.

Qanooni also told Fischer that some arrests had been made in connection with the killing.

Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that UNHCR was gearing up to repatriate up to 1.2 million Afghans, who voluntarily opted to return to their homeland from Pakistan and Iran this year.  So far, 143,000 Afghans have already gone home.  At the same time, in the south-west of Pakistan, there was a new exodus of Afghans who had been fleeing banditry and reprisals by rival groups.

**Security Council

The Security Council will be meeting in closed consultations this afternoon at 4 p.m. to receive a briefing on the situation in Ethiopia and Eritrea by Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations.

This is part of the Council’s preparation for the mission to the region that they will undertake next week.

Next Wednesday, Ambassador Ole Peter Kolby of Norway, who will be leading that mission, will brief you.  We’ll let you know when time and location have been set.

**Secretary-General

This morning, the Secretary-General attended a seminar organized by the International Peace Academy, at which a report titled “The Responsibility to Protect” –- concerning the protection of civilians –- was launched.  He noted the report’s shift away from debates about the right to intervene, and towards the assertion of a responsibility to protect civilians from violence and war.

In his remarks to the seminar, the Secretary-General noted that the events of last 11 September have shifted the debate away from military intervention on behalf of others and towards intervention in self-defence.  That shift, he said, has sparked concern about what the new environment may mean for human rights and a universal commitment to human protection.

He posed the questions, “How much freedom do you give up for security and safety?  And if you give up too much, do you in the end have security and safety?”

We have copies of his remarks in my Office.

**Burundi

On Monday, in Pretoria, Berhanu Dinka, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region of Africa, will deliver a message on his behalf to the participants of the Burundi cease-fire talks.

These talks are organized by the Office of the Facilitator for the Burundi peace process.

In the message, the full text of which is available under embargo in my Office, the Secretary-General will urge the participants to engage fully in these talks in a spirit of reconciliation, tolerance and compromise.

Mr. Dinka also serves as the Chairman of the Implementation Monitoring Committee of the Arusha peace accords.

**Sierra Leone

A delegation from the Revolutionary United Front Party (RUFP) yesterday met with Behrooz Sadry, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Operations and Management in Sierra Leone, to discuss a number of political issues affecting the party.

The RUFP requested the United Nations, through the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), to lift the travel ban on the party’s leaders.  According to the party, the travel ban was hindering the activities of the RUFP, as the country moves closer to the presidential and parliamentary elections set for 14 May.  He said the ban was putting the RUFP at a disadvantage, since other political parties in Sierra Leone do not face similar travel restrictions.

See today’s briefing notes from more details.

**Liberia

In Liberia, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was preparing to move either late this afternoon or early tomorrow a second group of Sierra Leonean refugees joining UNHCR's first organized repatriation from Liberia into Sierra Leone.  Around 430 Sierra Leonean refugees were expected to join the second convoy from a camp in Liberia.  The plan was prepared before the current situation in Liberia developed.

**Kosovo

We have the transcript of the first press conference in Pristina by the Secretary-General’s new Special Representative for Kosovo, Michael Steiner.

Steiner says he will meet with the main political leaders tomorrow.

On the matter of good governance, Steiner points out that time has elapsed between the elections and the nomination of the government which is still outstanding.

He said, “This happens also in other places in Europe, but I think it is now becoming high time for the parties to get their act together”.

**East Timor

Earlier this week the Secretary-General approved the re-establishment of the five-member Board of Commissioners to supervise the presidential elections in East Timor.

The elections are set for 14 April.  The Board will remain in session until 20 April, when the certified results will be announced.

The three Timorese members of the Commission are Mr. Benjamin Corte Real, the Director of the University of East Timor; Mr. Antero Benedito da Silva, the former head of the non-governmental organization (NGO) forum; and Ms. Maria Aurora dos Reis, Director of the Christian Children’s Fund in East Timor.

The two international members are Mr. Horacio Boneo from Argentina, and former director of the United Nations Electoral Assistance Division and currently an electoral and governance consultant, and Mr. Walter Rigamoto, who currently serves as the Supervisor of Elections in Fiji.

**Human Rights

High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson will be visiting several Middle Eastern countries, as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan, starting at the end of this month.

She’ll begin her travels by visiting Egypt on 27 and 28 February.  Then she will visit Bahrain during the first three days of March and after that, she will visit Lebanon from 3 to 5 March.  Then, she is expected to be in Kabul from 7 to 9 March before travelling to Pakistan on 10 March for a three-day visit.

We have more details in today’s press briefing notes from Geneva.

International Court of Justice Ruling

Yesterday in The Hague, the International Court of Justice, by a vote of 13 votes to 3, ruled that Belgium failed to respect the diplomatic immunity of former Congolese Foreign Minister Adbulaye Yerodia Ndombasi when it issued an arrest warrant against him.  By 10 votes to 6, the world court ruled that Belgium must therefore cancel its arrest warrant against Yerodia.

Details on the reasoning behind the Court’s decision are available in a press release upstairs in my office.

**Signings

We had two treaty signings this morning.  Bulgaria became the twenty-sixth signatory to the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing and Trafficking in Firearms, and Syria became the 115th signatory to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

**Budget

One payment today.  Malaysia became the forty-eighth Member State to pay its regular budget dues for this year in full, with a payment of some $2.6 million.

The Department of Public Information (DPI) has issued another background note or an update on its familiar background note on political and peace-building support missions, which is available in English and in French at the documents counter and you can also get it on the Web site.

**Press Releases

Among the press releases out today is one from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which says that mountain dwellers are among the world’s largest populations of undernourished and hungry people.

FAO says that about one out of every 10 people -– or some 600 million people in all -– live in mountain areas, and, outside of some industrialized countries, the majority of mountain people are chronically undernourished.

We have a press release on that.

**Press Conferences

As I mentioned to you yesterday, there are two press conferences this afternoon -- at 1:15, sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Peru, and then at 2 p.m., by the Mission of Côte d'Ivoire.

Our guest at the noon briefing on Monday will be Carolyn McAskie, the Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, to discuss her recent visit to Somalia.  Tuesday, I'm sorry, that must be Tuesday.  Monday is a holiday.  By the way, happy three-day weekend.

We also have the Week Ahead, which you can pick up in my Office if you're interested.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  I've heard reports that the Secretary-General had ordered the evacuation of non-essential staff from Liberia?

Spokesman:  That is not exactly true.  I believe that the current security level for United Nations personnel in Liberia permits only essential staff, which means humanitarian staff.  I think there has been some thinning out of that humanitarian staff, but there's been no evacuation order.

Question:  The incident in Kabul speaks to the security lapse that United Nations officials have warned recently.  Is this the type of thing that might prompt a new request by the Security Council to try to beef up the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)?

Spokesman:  I don't know what the Council will do on expansion of the Security Force.  At the incident at the airport, the United Nations itself did not have anyone present.  I understand there were ISAF troops there, but I don't know any of the circumstances, because we didn't have any witnesses.

Question:  There were ISAF troops there?

Spokesman: I believe so, but again we didn't have witnesses.

Question:  Can you tell me the reason for the Secretary-General's meeting with Benon Sevan, the Executive Director of the Iraq Programme?

Spokesman:  I assume he's going to brief the Secretary-General on his extended visit to Iraq, and on recommendations he's making for revision of the “oil-for-food” programme, but if you like we'll try to get a readout for you on that meeting.

Question:  The Secretary-General saw the Mayor this morning.  This was at whose request and what was the subject?

Spokesman:  I don't have a readout of that meeting.  This was the second meeting he had with Mayor Bloomberg.  At the first meeting, they discussed the relations between the United Nations and the host country, including the Capital Master Plan, which includes plans for expansion of our office space.  This meeting today was a follow-up to that first meeting and I'll see if I can get a readout for you.

Question: I don't know whether you talked about Bill Graham, the Foreign Minister of Canada and Mr. Annan.  They met this morning, I believe.

Spokesman: I don't have that readout.  If you want one, we'll try to get one.

Okay, enjoy your weekend.  Thanks very much.

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