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.

Welcome to our visitors from the Middle East.

Good afternoon.

**Colombia

We'll start with the situation in Colombia.  Yesterday, the Secretary-General’s Acting Special Adviser on International Assistance to Colombia, James Le Moyne, had been on his way to the demilitarized zone for talks with the FARC rebels, accompanied by ambassadors from the 10 countries involved in the peace process.  However, the hijacking that took place at the same time complicated the situation, and Le Moyne and the other officials were not able to arrive in the zone.

After that, as you’re aware, the President of Colombia, Andres Pastrana, announced an end to the peace negotiations.

Le Moyne has since gone back to Bogotá, where he is supposed to be talking to the press shortly, and he will deliver a message on the situation in Colombia that I will also issue from here simultaneously, at around 1 p.m. New York time. And, then this afternoon, Le Moyne is expected to return to New York to brief the Secretary-General on the breakdown of the peace process.

I have a statement on that situation attributable to the Secretary-General:

“The Secretary-General deeply regrets the breakdown of peace talks between the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).  He recognizes the extraordinary efforts President Andres Pastrana has made over the last four years in search of peace.

“There had been advances in the peace talks in the last month.  But continued FARC attacks and their hijacking of a civilian airliner yesterday, during which a member of Congress was kidnapped, are clear violations of international humanitarian law and the kidnapping of thousands of Colombians and others, including children, are unacceptable.  The Secretary-General calls on the FARC to release all those kidnapped, including former governor Alan Jara, who was seized at gunpoint from a UN vehicle.

“The Secretary-General urgently calls on all armed actors to respect international humanitarian law and the lives of civilians by ending all forms of violence against Colombians.  He urges that special measures be taken to protect civilians in the former demilitarized zone that is today being re-occupied by the Colombian military.  The tolerance and rapid growth of paramilitaries are cause of great concern, and require that the Government take urgent and effective measures to address the problem.

“The Secretary-General reiterates his conviction that Colombia's 40-year conflict will only be resolved by a negotiated solution that addresses its deeply rooted social and political causes.  His good offices remain at the disposal of the parties, if so requested.”

**Security Council

Security Council members have just wrapped up their closed consultations on the Middle East.  They will reconvene at 3 p.m. for a public meeting where they'll receive a briefing from the Secretary-General on the Middle East.

No other speakers are expected to take the floor, although the President of the Council, Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser of Mexico, will respond on behalf of the other members.  Another formal meeting on this issue is expected to be scheduled later next week, once the Council delegation that is currently visiting Ethiopia and Eritrea returns.

**WFP/Sudan

Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the World Food Programme, condemned yesterday’s attacks on civilians in the southern Sudan as "an intolerable affront to human life and to humanitarian work.”

Seventeen civilians were killed and many others injured during yesterday’s attack, which was the second in two weeks.  Helicopter gunships fired five rockets into an area adjacent to the WFP compound in the village of Bieh, as people had gathered to receive food assistance from WFP staff.

Ms. Bertini said, “such attacks, deliberately targeting civilians about to receive humanitarian assistance, are absolutely and utterly unacceptable.” 

The food distribution -– which followed the regular procedures for humanitarian interventions in southern Sudan under the Operation Lifeline Sudan agreement –- had been cleared by the Government of Sudan and had the agreement of the other sides involved in the conflict.

You can pick up the WFP press release upstairs for more information.  And we also have a joint statement by Bertini, by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Kenzo Oshima, and the UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy strongly condemning the attack, which they describe as “shocking.”

**Afghanistan/Humanitarian

On the humanitarian front in Afghanistan, the World Food Programme is gearing up to launch a countrywide food-for-education programme, which will feed hundreds of thousands of school children.

A workshop which recently wrapped up in Islamabad and included WFP staff, NGO representatives and officials from Afghanistan’s education ministry, concluded that this programme is an invaluable tool for repairing Afghanistan's nearly non-existent education infrastructure.

The WFP's comprehensive programme will assist children and adults alike.  The programme aims to bring nutritional support to children, while helping to keep kids, especially girls, in the classroom.  It will also give food incentives to teachers and provide food rations and wages to labourers who will help to physically reconstruct schools.

It was also announced during the regular UN humanitarian briefing in Islamabad that the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is launching a locust control programme for northern Afghanistan.

Last year, parts of northern Afghanistan saw 40 per cent of its crops destroyed by locusts.  This year, the problem is expected to be even greater because the swarms of adult locusts were not adequately controlled.  For more information on this and other items, please pick up the Islamabad briefing notes in my Office.

**SG to travel to London, Berlin

The Secretary-General is going on the road again.  He is leaving this Saturday for the United Kingdom and Germany.

His first stop is London, where on Monday he will meet with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Secretary of State for International Development, Clare Short, among others.

In the afternoon, he will deliver an address at the London School of Economics, arguing that this year's Conferences on Financing for Development in Mexico and the one on sustainability in South Africa are part of a coherent plan to implement the Millennium goals.

On Wednesday, he will leave for Germany, where he will meet with President Johannes Rau.  The following day, he will address the Federal Parliament in Berlin before having a working luncheon with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.  He will hold a press encounter after his meeting with the Chancellor.

Later that day, he will meet with Defence Minister Rudolph Scharping and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

On Friday, he will meet with German businessmen and civil society representatives.  The German businesses represented are the six which are members of the Global Compact.  And, then he'll leave Berlin to return to New York later that day.

**Kosovo

From Kosovo, today in Mitrovica, UN police arrested two Kosovo Serbs who are suspected of involvement in the murder, nearly two years ago, of a Kosovo Albanian man.

A demonstration by Kosovo Serbs in Mitrovica protesting the arrests followed today, in which some demonstrators threw stones and damaged cars.  One UN police officer was slightly injured in that demonstration, but the UN Mission in Kosovo now reports the situation there as calm.

**East Timor

From East Timor, there's news that more than 25,000 copies of the draft of East Timor’s Constitution were distributed today in the territory.  This comes prior to next week’s nationwide public consultation on the legal framework of an independent East Timor.  An additional 35,000 copies will distributed next week. These copies will be in English, Indonesian, Portuguese and Tetum –- East Timor’s lingua franca.  For more, pick the briefing notes today from Dili.

**Bolivia

The President of Bolivia, Jorge Quiroga, has requested that the UN Development Programme (UNDP) coordinate international efforts to help the country after a powerful rainstorm killed 70 people in the capital, La Paz.  On Tuesday, many people were drowned by flash flooding in the city.

At least 150 people were injured and damages are estimated in the millions of dollars.  The Bolivian President has declared a state of emergency in La Paz.

The UNDP will coordinate efforts to receive financial aid from donors, and will design a communication campaign to inform the population about risks from the floods and measures to be taken.  Five experts from the UN Disaster Assessment Team will travel in the coming days to Bolivia to assess the damage and to support the cooperation efforts.  We expect UNDP to come out with a press release on this later today.

**UNESCO

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reports that about half of the roughly 6,000 languages spoken in the world today are in danger of disappearing.

The UNESCO, in a second edition of the Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing, which has been presented today, shows some 3,000 languages that are endangered -– that is, they face a situation where at least 30 per cent of the children brought up under those languages no longer recognize them.

In a message to commemorate International Mother Language Day, which takes place today, UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura says that all languages are given equal recognition today because “each is a unique response to the human condition and each is a living heritage we should cherish.”  We have a press release on that.

**Budget

Budget news:  Brunei Darussalam became the 49th Member State to be paid in full with its regular budget payment for this year.  And that's with a check for more than $366,000.

**Press Releases

Two press releases that we want to flag.  First, from ICAO -- the two-day ministerial meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on improving security in the air ended in Montreal yesterday with an endorsement for a global strategy to strengthen aviation security worldwide.

The Plan of Action agreed to as the central part of that strategy will include regular, mandatory and systematic audits to evaluate aviation security in the Organization’s 187 Member States and to develop an effective global response to emerging threats.

We have a press release on that.

The second release is from the World Food Programme, which started its first emergency food distributions in Zimbabwe yesterday, delivering one-month rations of maize to 40,000 people threatened by serious food shortages in Hwange.

Over the next two weeks, WFP intends to hand out one-month food rations to more than 100,000 people, and then it intends to resume food distribution to the worst hit areas in Zimbabwe after the March election period.  We have a press release on that.

**The Week Ahead

Tomorrow, as you know, is a holiday, so we have the "Week Ahead" for you.  So, you can plan to work harder next week, which will have five work days and not three like the one we are just finishing now.

Any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Can you tell us the names of those two Serbs who were arrested?

Spokesman:  No, they're not people I personally know.  We'll have to look into the documentation to see if we have their names.  Check with me after the briefing.  Yes, David?  [Following the briefing, the Spokesman's Office announced that the UN Mission does not release the names of suspects until they have been charged.  They have not been charged.  They're Kosovo Serbs, but their names cannot be released.]

Question:  Are you postponing your meeting here with grouches?

Spokesman:  No, the grouches meeting, I think, is still scheduled for 3:15 today.

Question:  There's a Council meeting this afternoon.

Spokesman:  At 3 o'clock.

Question:  Right, so, and I speak for myself, that's certainly going to prevent this grouch from being here.

Spokesman:  Okay.  Well, we'll have to look into whether we should postpone it.  I'll squawk that later.  [Also after the briefing, the Spokesman announced that the 3:15 meeting among grouches correspondents -- the complaint session about security access and other matters -- has been postponed until further notice because of the Security Council meting this afternoon.  He’ll advise correspondents of a fresh date once one is agreed.]

Question:  What point does the Secretary-General hope to make in the briefing today to the Council.  And, just as a reminder, would you lay out what he sees as the path to peace in the Middle East?

Spokesman:  That's a big question.  I haven't seen his talking points for the meeting today; they're probably still being worked on, so you're just going to have to listen. 

To repeat his position, which I've stated many times:  left to themselves, the Israelis and the Palestinians are not likely to put an end to this cycle of violence that is continually escalating.  That the international community has to act in a cohesive, coherent way, and he has been coordinating with the United States, European Union, the Russian Federation and others to bring pressure on the parties to return to the negotiating table. 

He feels that security is not a sufficient basis for discussion, although he feels that the Mitchell Commission Report is the best path to a return to security, but you have to start talking about the big issues, the political issues, the economic issues.  And, so that would be his appeal to the international community –- let's place some creative, fresh ideas on the table. 

He already praised earlier the effort by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to put some ideas on the table.  He finds the ideas that have been floated on the op-ed pages by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia also of interest.  This is the idea -– to do some creative thinking.  He's glad that some people are doing it and he thinks that strong international support for some kind of comprehensive approach to negotiations will be needed to bring an end to the violence that's currently plaguing the whole region.

Question:  Fred, in today's New York Times, there's a piece that the World Bank and the European community are driving the poor countries into a ditch.  I'm sure you've read it.  Does the Secretary-General have any opinion on that?

Spokesman:  I would let the World Bank respond to that, certainly before the Secretary-General chose to respond, if he does.  So, I defer your question to the World Bank.  Jerome?

Question:  The situation in Liberia worsens by the day.  Does the Secretary-General have any initiative to try to bring the Government and the rebels together?

Spokesman:  You know he's got a representative in Liberia and Liberia has been getting the very close attention of the Political Affairs Department here.  I don't think he sees a specific initiative at this time that could help, apart from his general call to the parties to respect civilians' rights and to return to some kind of dialogue.  But, I don't think that's the end of what we might say about Liberia, but that's all I would have to say today.  Lee?

Question:  Will you be joining the SG on this trip?

Spokesman:  Yes.  Until I get a new deputy, I'm going to be doing a lot of travelling.

Question:  Are you referring to London and Germany?

Spokesman:  Yes, we'll put out -– I sketched out the programme just now, but we'll put out in written form a few more details later today.

Question:  Do you know yet about Central America, around Mexico, what will happen?

Spokesman:  No, we're not ready to announce any further travel plans.  For security reasons, we've been tending to delay the official announcement of travel until the very last minute.  I know that doesn't help you with your plans to cover these trips, but it's how it's got to be.  I'm sorry.

Question:  Along the lines of security, regular mail to the United Nations seems to be unbelievably slow.  Is mail still going through an irradiation process?

Spokesman:  Yeah, haven't you noticed it kind of tingles when you pick it up?  As far as I know, we're still sending our mail well south of here to a location in the United States, where it's irradiated before it's delivered.  So, I apologize for the delays. 

Question:  Do you envisage any direct intervention of the Secretary-General in the Colombian situation?

Spokesman:  Direct intervention?  No.

Question:  Because I remember that the last time the President of the Security Council was there, we asked this question.  Now that we have a new situation, what do you think is going to be done?

Spokesman:  Now, we have a tragic situation…

Question:  We always have a tragic situation, for years . . . .

Spokesman:  No.  The breakdown of this peace process today has enormous consequences for the people of Colombia.  It's a disastrous development, and we'll have something to say from Bogotá at 1 o'clock that we will echo here. 

This is a terrible setback and a tragic development for Colombians.  The Secretary-General, through James Le Moyne, has done what he could with a lot of support from other actors, but it hasn't been enough to save this peace process.  We'll have more on that at 1 o'clock. 

Thanks very much. 

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