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

Following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Stephane Dujarric de la Riviere, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.  Our guest today will be Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, who will brief you on his recent trip to Ethiopia and Eritrea.

**Secretary-General's Statement on Afghanistan Earthquake

Earlier today in London, there was a statement issued attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General:

"The Secretary-General was distressed to hear of the severe earthquake in northern Afghanistan, which has caused heavy loss of life.  He has asked the United Nations Mission in Kabul to do everything possible to help.  To that end, the Deputy Special Representative for the Secretary-General has already convened a meeting with UN agencies and with non-governmental organizations, with the aim of assisting the Interim Administration to deal with this tragedy in a country that has suffered so much in recent years."

**Afghanistan Earthquake

Continuing on the Afghan earthquake, we've been on the phone with the Mission in Kabul.  In response to the devastation wreaked by the earthquake, the UN and its partners have sent in various convoys transporting supplies, including over 2,000 tents and more than 1,000 blankets.  An advance UN team has already arrived by road from Mazar-i-Sharif to the devastated area.  Mazar, for your geographical knowledge is about 2 to 4 hours north by road of the epicentre of the quake.

The Afghan Interim Administration has informed us that they estimate that some 1,800 people were killed in the earthquake, with 1,200 bodies counted so far. It estimates that some 20,000 people were left without shelter, with some 90 per cent of the homes in the northern town of Nahrin estimated to have been completely destroyed.

As I just mentioned earlier, Deputy Special Representative Nigel Fisher, who heads the UN’s humanitarian and development effort in Afghanistan, convened a meeting in Kabul this afternoon that brought together representatives of the interim authorities, non-governmental organizations, the UN and donors to assess the needs of the region that was hardest hit.  They discussed ways to support the Afghan Government in its relief and recovery efforts.

As a result of that meeting, and in addition to sending in supplies which I've mentioned, a helicopter from the International Security Assistance Force, known as ISAF, was sent from Kabul.  On board were three UN staff -- one from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (or OCHA), as well as two

from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) -- one water engineer and one health expert who specializes in immunization.  They will assess the situation on the ground and return to Kabul this evening.

Also on the helicopter with them was a WHO medical kit with vaccinations, since children without shelter could be highly susceptible to communicable diseases.

As I mentioned, the team will be back in Kabul this evening.  Also, this evening, another meeting will be convened with the UN, the NGOs, donors and the Interim Administration.  Hamid Karzai, the Chairman of the Afghan Interim Administration, will be present at that meeting.

We have a number of reports from OCHA that are available upstairs with a lot more details and numbers on the Afghan quake.

**Security Council

The Security Council opened its public meeting on Afghanistan this morning with a statement from the President of the Council, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen, conveying the Council’s deepest condolences to the Afghan authorities and people following the earthquake.

Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette told the Council that UN agencies and non-governmental organizations have already sent relief items and assessment teams to the area.  She noted that the head of the Afghan Interim Administration, Hamid Karzai, and Nigel Fisher will visit the earthquake area tomorrow.

She then presented the Secretary-General’s report on Afghanistan, which was issued last week and which we flagged for you.  She noted that the security situation in Afghanistan has apparently improved somewhat over the past few weeks, but she said that there have been further violent incidents in some areas, including reports that Taliban elements are regrouping in southern Paktia Province for a guerrilla campaign against the Interim Administration.

She warned against complacency, adding, “The concerns about security expressed in the Secretary-General’s report remain all too pertinent.”  We have copies of her speech upstairs.

The Council is now continuing its meeting on Afghanistan, with all

15 Council members speaking and another 12 Member States scheduled to speak.  The open debate is expected to go on into the afternoon.  Then, tomorrow afternoon, the Council will discuss the report further in closed consultations.

Just to bring you up to date, yesterday afternoon, the Council met in closed consultations to consider a draft presidential statement on Somalia, but did not reach agreement on a text.  They intend to consider the matter further.

**Council Mission to Great Lakes Region

Yesterday, the Council set the dates for its mission to the Great Lakes region of Africa.  The Council team, which will be led by Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France, is set to depart New York on April 27th and will return home on May 7th.  In addition to visiting the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Council ambassadors are expected to travel to Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda, among other countries.  The mission’s essential objective is to give new impetus to the peace process and to the implementation by all parties of the Lusaka Accords.  There will be a limited number of seats available for journalists interested in travelling with the mission –- you can contact me for more details.

**Secretary-General

As we mentioned to you yesterday, the Secretary-General is on his way to Beirut.  We expect him to land in about 45 minutes or so.  His only appointment this evening is to meet with Amr Moussa, the Secretary-General of the Arab League. Tomorrow, he is set to address the opening session of the Summit.

**Kosovo

In Kosovo today, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Michael Steiner, announced that all Kosovo Albanians who had been detained in Serbian prisons and wished to return to Kosovo have now been returned, fulfilling one of the UN Mission’s top priorities.

Steiner said, “I am extremely happy that after extremely intensive talks in Belgrade, all Kosovo Albanian prisoners were returned to Kosovo today.”

He added that tomorrow, he will order the release of all prisoners whom the UN Mission’s officials have already determined to have legally invalid convictions.  Any prisoners determined to have legally valid convictions, however, will serve out the rest of their sentences in Kosovo.

We have a press release upstairs if you are interested.

**Human Rights Appointment

The Secretary-General today appointed Louis Joinet as the Independent Expert on Human Rights in Haiti.  Joinet, a French national, served as a judge and legal adviser in the Office of the French Prime Minister.  He also served on the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and as a member of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.  He replaces Mr. Adama Dieng of Senegal, who resigned in March last year.  We have a bio and more information on that available upstairs.

**Oil-for-Food Update 

From the Office of the Iraq Programme, the weekly update notes that Iraq’s oil exports declined steeply in the last week to 6.7 million barrels in the week ending 22 March 2002, averaging less than 1 million barrels per day.  Estimated revenue earned from the week’s exports was $150 million, while estimated revenue netted so far in current phase eleven of the programme is about $3.1 billion.  The full OIP weekly update is available upstairs.

**WFP

The World Food Programme today warned that countries in southern Africa will face a significant rise in food aid needs in the next few months.

The WFP says that natural disasters and high maize prices have forced thousands in the region to rely on food aid for survival.  Response to repeated appeals has been slow and $69 million is urgently needed to avoid a break in food supplies to Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  WFP estimates more than 145,000 tons of food will be needed to feed some 2.6 million people in the months ahead.

In the meantime, the Agency is continuing its food distribution programmes in the region where hunger continues to worsen for a growing number of people who cannot afford the high price of maize.  We have a press release with more details.

**East Timor

We also have the daily briefing notes from the United Nations Mission in East Timor.  Today, the territory’s Council of Ministers passed new regulations on public broadcasting and public transportation, which are considered key to the future of an independent East Timor.

**World Assembly on Ageing

Tomorrow, here in this room, Nitin Desai, Under-Secretary-General for Social and Economic Affairs, will hold a press conference at 12:30 as a curtain-raiser to the upcoming World Assembly on Ageing, set to take place in Madrid from 8 to

12 April.

The conference is to address the implications of the ageing of the world population, a profound "demographic revolution" whose impact has been compared to that of globalization.  I wanted to inform you that our colleague Paul Hoeffel of the Department of Public Information (DPI) has been appointed Conference Spokesperson.  He will be assisted by Edoardo Bellando, also of DPI.

**Ratifications

This morning, Switzerland became the 14th country to ratify the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

**Press Conference

Tomorrow, in addition to Mr. Desai, the Global Environmental Facility is sponsoring a press conference on how to stem continuing degradation of land and water resources and its impact on food security, especially in developing countries.  That will take place at 1:15 p.m. in this room.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Beside the United Nations, is there any other country trying to help the victims in Afghanistan?

Associate Spokesman:  I don't have the list of donor countries, which attended the meeting.  As you know, this just happened today, so I'm sure countries are mobilizing to help the Afghan Interim Administration, which has taken the lead in coordinating efforts.  Any more information I have, I'll get to you. 

Question:  Do you think the earthquake in Afghanistan will urge the international community to donate more money into the United Nations Development Programme over there?  Because the fund still lacks a lot of money.

Associate Spokesman:  It's hard for me to judge what impact the earthquake will have.  I think what we have to focus on right now are the needs of the thousands that have been left homeless and all the victims of the earthquake.  That's the urgent need.  It obviously doesn't push aside the more long-term need for financial aid to the country.