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 Hua Jiang, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon and a very happy New Year to all of you.

**Security Council

As of yesterday, five new non-permanent members joined the Security Council.  Angola, Chile, Germany, Pakistan and Spain began two-year terms as Colombia, Ireland, Mauritius, Norway and Singapore ended their time on the Council.

1 January also marked the changeover in the Presidency of the Council. Ambassador Jean Marc de la Sabliere of France will preside for the month of January.

There are no meetings scheduled for today, and tomorrow will be devoted to bilateral meetings between the Presidency and the members.  The Security Council is scheduled to hold closed consultations on its programme of work on Monday morning.  Ambassador de la Sabliere will hold a press briefing on Monday following consultations.

**Iraq

The United Nations weapons inspections are continuing in Baghdad. Yesterday, New Year’s Day, the inspectors worked as on any other day.  Visits were conducted to, among many sites, a chemical plant, a missile propellant factory and a brewery.  The full reports are available upstairs.

**UNMIBH

Yesterday, the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina ended its work, having successfully completed the most extensive police reform and restructuring mandate ever undertaken by the United Nations.  It transferred its duties to a European Union Police Mission, but the United Nations will remain engaged in furthering the country’s post-war development and recovery through the work of its agencies.

In a statement we put out on Tuesday, the Mission asserted, “A platform now exists from which the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with continued help from the international community, can build a society based on the respect for the rule of law and functioning democratic institutions”.

**Côte d’Ivoire

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned today that time is running out for thousands of terrified Liberian refugees who are stranded in camps just 40 kilometres away from the line separating government and rebel forces in Côte d’Ivoire.

The Nicla camp, located in volatile western Côte d’Ivoire, currently holds some 8,000 people.  Yesterday, a reported rebel attack south of the nearby town of Guiglo sparked fears among the camp’s population.  UNHCR has repeatedly urged the Ivoirian Government to identify a new site for the Liberian refugees that would be in the south of the country, which is relatively safe.

We have a press release from UNHCR with more details.

**Joseph E. Connor

Tuesday was the last day on the job for Joseph E. Connor, who since May 1994 has been the United Nations top manager.  For eight years, as Under-Secretary-General for Management, he has built up the United Nations’ reputation as a well-run organization by relentlessly pursuing the goals of the United Nations reform agenda, improving efficiency and maintaining no-growth budgets.

In response to a decision by the Secretary-General, he introduced results-based budgeting, which emphasizes achieving strategic goals, not just the bottom line.  When the United States Congress passed the Helms-Biden legislation outlining a path for the payment of United States’ arrears to the world organization, he engineered the meeting of the required benchmarks, allowing the United States to curtail nearly two decades of withholding practices.  He introduced a centrally computerized system for all United Nations administrative processes, revised United Nations personnel practices to emphasize merit over tenure and designed the plan for the refurbishment of the 52-year-old Headquarters complex, which has now been given the go-ahead.

Mr. Connor also assisted the Secretary-General in establishing the office of the first United Nations “Inspector-General” (the Office for Internal Oversight Services), which conducts internal audits, while monitoring, inspecting, evaluating and investigating all United Nations activities.

Joe Connor’s impact on the United Nations over these past eight years has been marked, and will continue to be felt many years into the future.

**World Chronicle

World Chronicle programme No. 876A with Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General, will be shown today at 3:30 p.m. on in-house television channel 3 and 31.

That is all I have for you.  Any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Does the Secretary-General have any programme?  Is he in New York?

Answer:  At the moment, as you may know, he is on vacation and he won’t be back at the office until 13 January.  Even though on vacation, he has been meeting people on various subjects. 

Some of you have raised the question about him giving a press conference at the end of the year, and I remember Fred saying that at the beginning of the year, when he is back at the building, he might give a press conference in the week of 13 January.  But we don’t know the exact date yet. 

Have a very nice afternoon.  Thank you.

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