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.

We are going to start with Cambodia.

**Cambodia

On Monday, preliminary talks will take place at United Nations Headquarters with a Cambodian delegation on the establishment of a special court to try Khmer Rouge leaders.  United Nations Legal Counsel Hans Corell will lead the United Nations delegation, and we understand that Sok An, Senior Minister in charge of the Council of Ministers, will head the Cambodian delegation.

Last week, we informed you that the Secretary-General had invited Cambodia to send a delegation to New York for an exploratory meeting to prepare for the resumption of negotiations.  The Cambodian Mission to the United Nations then informed us that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had accepted the invitation.

The talks are expected to start at 10 o’clock Monday morning.

**Security Council

The new Security Council President for January, Ambassador Jean Marc de la Sabliere of France, is holding bilateral consultations with other Council members on the programme of work for January, which the Council will take up in consultations on Monday.  Also on Monday’s consultations agenda is an item on the bureaux of the various Security Council sanctions committees.

Following consultations, the Council President will present the January programme at a briefing here in room 226.  At that point, the programme will be posted on the Internet.

There are no Council consultations or meetings scheduled for today.

**Inspection Activities in Iraq

A United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) team of missile inspectors inspected the Al Mamoun plant, which belongs to the Al Rasheed company.  The site is located roughly 60 kilometres south of Baghdad.  The team tagged several pieces of declared equipment, which Iraq had manufactured between 1998 and 2002.

An UNMOVIC multidisciplinary team drove more than 200 kilometres west of Baghdad to inspect a former ammunitions depot used as a chemical weapons storage facility prior to the Gulf War, and an adjacent area used in the 1980s for chemical weapons munitions tests.  Both locations were inspected by the United Nations Special Commission in the past and are located in the middle of the desert.

An UNMOVIC chemical team inspected the Al Basil Narawan, which is located 20 kilometres east of Baghdad.  This facility is part of the Al Basic Centre, which produces several chemicals, including sodium carbonates.

**North Korea

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) governing board will meet next Monday for consideration of a report from IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei about North Korea, and a press briefing by Mr. ElBaradei is also planned that day at IAEA headquarters in Vienna.

The last two IAEA inspectors in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) left the country on Tuesday and traveled to Beijing.  The IAEA will keep an office in North Korea, and its equipment there has been placed in storage after an inventory of all its remaining equipment was completed.

**Solomon Islands

In response to extensive damage caused by Cyclone Zoe -- a category 5 tropical storm that passed over the Solomon Islands at the end of December -- the United Nations deployed a United Nations Disaster Assistance and Coordination team to that country today.  The two-person team will liaise with national and international agencies responding to the emergency, and will assist in the determination of further requirements for humanitarian assistance to the 1,200 people affected by the cyclone.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has already provided an emergency grant of $10,000 for the purchase of emergency relief supplies and will continue to provide updates on the situation.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo

Displacement is increasing in the province of North Kivu in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, with over 70,000 people newly displaced, in addition to 33,000 previously displaced. 

This week, an assessment mission by United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations toured the area, though not all population centers could be accessed because of a lack of security.  Many displaced persons are headed for Beni and southern parts of North Kivu province.  The results of an assessment mission to these locations are expected soon. 

As of mid-2002, total displaced persons in the Democratic Republic of the Congo numbered 2.27 million, while there were 346,000 refugees from Angola, Sudan, Rwanda, the Central African Republic, Burundi and the Republic of the Congo, among other places.  The total general population affected by conflict and insecurity was 20 million out of a total population of 56 million. 

**Rwanda Refugees

From a peak of more than half a million in the mid-1990s, the last Rwandan refugees in the United Republic of Tanzania have now returned home, marking the end of one of the most dramatic refugee exoduses in the turbulent history of

Central Africa.  The announcement was made by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the story is on its web site.

**Afghanistan

Despite the fragile infrastructure and persistent security problems in parts of Afghanistan, more than 1.8 million refugees returned in 2002, according to UNHCR in a year-end update.  The report also says that in addition, more than 250,000 internally displaced persons went home.

However, the report notes that there are still some 4 million Afghans outside the country, including an estimated 2 million in Iran and 1.5 million in Pakistan.  Despite the strong will of the Afghans to finally return to their homes, UNHCR stresses that security and living conditions in the country are not yet sufficient to encourage all refugees to return at this time. 

You can find more detailsin UNHCR’s Update in my office.

**The Week Ahead

And then we have got the week ahead for you, which you can also pick up at my office to help you plan for next week.

This is all I have for you.  If you have nothing for me, have a good weekend.  Thank you very much.

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