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, and Richard Sydenham, Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly.

Spokesman for the Secretary-General

Good afternoon.  Stephen Lewis, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, who was scheduled to join us today, realized he was in a losing battle with your interests in Iraq.  So he will reschedule his appearance for perhaps some time later in January.  He intends to return to Africa in January, and maybe when he comes back from that trip he’ll come in to brief you. 

**Today in the Security Council

The Security Council today, of course, is conducting informal consultations on Iraq with briefings by Hans Blix, Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), and Mohamed ElBaradei, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The Secretary-General is in those consultations.  He will probably be leaving them any second now because he has an appointment at 12 p.m.  We do expect Dr. Blix and Mr. ElBaradei will talk to reporters after the consultations end.

Then this afternoon, the Council will receive a briefing in an open meeting by Ambassador Ole Peter Kolby of Norway on the Security Council’s mission to Kosovo and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, which he led.  That will be following consultations at 3 p.m. on that subject.

**Cyprus

Yesterday afternoon, the Security Council was briefed by the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto.  In a statement to the press afterwards, the President of the Council said the Council felt that revised proposals put forward to the two sides on December 10 offered a unique opportunity to reach a settlement in the coming weeks.

While regretting that the Turkish Cypriot leadership had not responded in timely fashion to the Secretary-General’s initiative, the Council welcomed the willingness of both sides to continue the negotiations in the period ahead.

Mr. De Soto also spoke to the press after briefing the Council.  He told journalists that the Secretary-General had written to the two leaders, his Excellency Glafcos Clerides and his Excellency Rauf Denktash and, as well as the leaders of Greece and Turkey, setting out the road ahead as he sees it, and the work that needs to be done. 

**Security Council Update

In addition to discussing Cyprus, yesterday afternoon the Security Council also discussed the situation in Guinea-Bissau and the Democratic Republic of the Congo during closed consultations. 

After receiving a briefing from the Secretary-General’s Personal Representative in Guinea-Bissau, the Council issued a press statement in which the members expressed their concern at the constitutional impasse and the increasing political instability in the country and stressed the need to organize early elections.

Council members also received a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Tuliemeni Kalomoh, on the recent agreement on political transition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Following the meeting, the Council President told the press that members welcomed the agreement.  They called upon the Congolese parties to ratify it as soon as possible within the framework of the inter-Congolese dialogue.

**Afghanistan

In Afghanistan yesterday at 2:45 p.m. local time, unknown, armed men hijacked a vehicle belonging to the United Nations Mine Action Centre (MACA).  At the time, the convoy -- two Mine Action and one United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) vehicles -- was on its way from Kabul to Kandahar.

After passing Ghazni, some armed men on the side of the road tried to stop the convoy.  Two vehicles continued, and the men fired shots in the air and stopped the third vehicle.  The armed men took the vehicle and drove it some distance before leaving the four staff members riding inside along the side of the road unharmed.  The hijackers then drove the vehicle towards the Pakistani border.

The Ghazni Police Department has launched an investigation, and so far there is no indication whether the attack was criminally or politically motivated.

**Conference on Justice in Afghanistan Opens Today

The Conference on Justice in Afghanistan opened today in Rome, Italy.  The Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the country’s top judicial officials, as well as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, attended.

In his address to the conference, Brahimi underscored the vital role that the judicial system has in Afghan society.  He said, “The security of Afghanistan will require that the judicial police extend the rule of law to areas which are now controlled by the rule of the gun”.  He added, “True security will mean that every Afghan, man and woman, must feel that the law is a refuge which is there to protect against the arbitrary rule of the strong”.  The Conference will last two days and will end tomorrow.

**Côte d’Ivoire

The latest United Nations humanitarian update on Côte d’Ivoire says people are continuing to flee the fighting in that country and that all activities to control the AIDS epidemic in rebel-held territories are blocked.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) notes that estimates based on countries that have experienced similar population movements and displacement, indicate that the risk of HIV infection is five times greater during such crisis periods due to erratic sexual behaviour, sexual violence and prostitution.  The note goes on to say that this means that the current crisis could cause the HIV infection rate in Côte d’Ivoire to increase from the current estimation of 10 per cent of the adult population to over 30 per cent in the next year.

Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees, Kamei Morjane, has been in the region to tackle the refugee dimensions of the Côte d’Ivoire crisis.

**Urgent Food Aid Needed to Save Millions in Angola, WFP Warns

The World Food Programme (WFP) warned that its ability to provide urgent food aid to a skyrocketing number of people in Angola will be seriously hampered unless new donations are received soon.

WFP conducted a study over the last few months that revealed that between 2.1 and 2.4 million Angolans may need food aid until the next harvest in April and May of next year.  This is up from the 1.5 million beneficiaries projected in the appeal launched last October.

WFP has so far only received one third of the $241 million it is seeking through the appeal and says the food stocks are dwindling, just as the number of people needing aid is growing.  If new donations are not pledged soon, WFP says its stocks of maize will run out by March -- putting nearly 2 million people at risk of starvation.  WFP is facing funding shortfalls throughout Africa, where 38 million people are at risk of starvation.  There are more details in a press release.

**Global Fund Monies for Haiti

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced today that Haiti is to receive $66.9 million over the next five years from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. 

The money will provide anti-retroviral therapy for a pioneering project for more than 1,200 people living with HIV/AIDS.  The new approach involves members of the wider community, who will help ensure the treatment regime is followed.  The project will also launch an awareness and prevention campaign and will distribute 15 million condoms.  More than 30,000 Haitians died of the disease last year and about six per cent of those aged 15 to 49 are living with the disease.

**International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Available upstairs is a press release from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which welcomes yesterday’s Security Council

Presidential Statement that stressed the importance the Council attaches to the full cooperation by all States, particularly those directly concerned, with the work of the International Tribunals.

The Tribunal’s registrar also announced the formal recognition of an Association of Defence Counsel for the Tribunal, in another press release we have upstairs.

**Prevlaka

The outgoing chief military observer of the United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP), is here and available for interviews today and possibly tomorrow.  He is Colonel Rudolfo Sergio Mujica of Argentina.

Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia signed a protocol on

10 December over the disputed peninsula, ending 10 years of the United Nations peacekeeping presence there.

**UNCA

Lastly today, some good news from the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA):  They’re gonna throw a party today.  You’re all invited.  It’ll be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the third floor in the UNCA lounge.  All UNCA Members and friends are invited.

That’s all I have for you.

Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly

Good afternoon.

Today the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) resumes its substantive session of the year taking action on draft resolutions on organizational matters, on non-governmental organizations, on the statistical commission and on public administration and development.  The Council will then hear a briefing by Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo of South Africa on the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Guinea-Bissau.

The next General Assembly plenary meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, Friday.  In the morning the plenary will consider reports of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) on a broad range of economic and sustainable development issues, and also the reports of the Fifth Committee (Financial and Budgetary), including pattern of conferences, financing of the International Tribunals and the programme budget for 2002-2003. 

In the afternoon, the plenary will take decision on remaining issues including appointments to fill vacancies; the Decade to Roll Back Malaria; final review of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa (UNNADAF); cooperation between the United Nations and other organizations and follow up on HIV/AIDS.  The final decision of this session will be on the Secretary-General’s report on United Nations Reform entitled:  “An Agenda for Further Change”.  The General Assembly President is then expected to adjourn the session.

Any questions?  Thank you.