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

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 Hua Jiang, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

We will be joined today by General Lamine Cissé, the Representative of the Secretary-General for the Central African Republic and head of the United Nations peace building office in that country, who is scheduled to brief the Security Council tomorrow.  And for those of you who are interested, we have in our office copies of that latest report of the Secretary-General on the situation in the Central African Republic and the activities of the United Nations mission in that country.

**Iraq Inspections

From Baghdad, we can report that the first airborne inspection took place today.  A team from the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) left the Al Rasheed Air Base in Baghdad on three Bell-212 helicopters at 7 a.m. today and flew roughly two hours, 300 kilometres north-west, to inspect the Al Qaim State Company for Phosphate. 

This company is primarily a fertilizer plant.  Two Iraqi helicopters accompanied those of the United Nations.  The team spent about six hours at the site and then returned to the Al Rasheed Air Base at about 5:15 p.m.  It was a successful use of helicopters in support of an inspection activity.  

Meanwhile, land based inspections continued both by UNMOVIC and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).  Sites visited include a missile plant, a genetics cancer research centre and a cement factory.  As of today there are roughly 200 international staff in Baghdad and Mosul.  The total number of inspectors is 105 (97 from UNMOVIC and 8 from the IAEA).  The rest are support staff, including aircrew.

**Security Council Note

The Security Council is holding consultations on the Secretary-General's most recent report on the UN mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea.  The Council was briefed by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hedi Annabi and a press statement is expected to be read by Council President, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere of France.  Members are also expected to finalize the chairs and co-chairs of the Council's various committees.  Tomorrow, the Council will be briefed by General Cissé on the Central African Republic, and he is with us today to give you a preview.

**Côte d’Ivoire

The latest humanitarian update on Côte d’Ivoire reports an extremely tense situation and continued ceasefire violations.  It also reports that the crisis is taking an increasingly heavy toll on the country’s economy.  Due to fighting

in the western part of the country and recent violations of the ceasefire in the north, more than 400,000 persons have fled the central and northern regions towards the south.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), meanwhile, renewed its appeal to neighbouring countries to grant temporary asylum to some groups of Liberian refugees presently in Côte d'Ivoire.  UNHCR is urgently seeking authorization to evacuate at least 5,000 terrified Liberian refugees from a camp close to the front lines, to a safer coastal area further to the south.  UNHCR reports that Liberians, Ivorians and small numbers of other nationalities continue crossing the borders into Liberia and Guinea.

**DRC

UNHCR reports that a resurgence of fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) South Kivu region has sent a new wave of more than 8,500 Congolese refugees into neighbouring Burundi over the past 12 days.

**North Korea Food

The World Food Programme says 80,000 tons of food aid are needed in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to meet the needs of the most vulnerable section of the population over the next three months; current stocks and anticipated donations amounted only to 35,000 tons.  Without some fast new contributions, the organization would not be able to resume food distributions to some 3 million people retained on its aid lists from the autumn, says the WFP.

**Cambodia

Preliminary talks opened yesterday between the United Nations and the Government of Cambodia. The talks are to prepare for the resumption of negotiations to conclude an agreement on the establishment of Extraordinary Chambers within the existing court structure of Cambodia for the prosecution of crimes committed during the period of Democratic Kampuchea.  The two delegations exchanged views on how to go about preparing an agreement.  The delegations have agreed to meet again at 5 p.m. today.  (It was later announced that the talks had been postponed to tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. at the request of the Cambodian delegation.)

**Cyprus

Today in Nicosia, the members of the two ad hoc technical committees in Cyprus met today under the chairmanship of the United Nations to discuss procedural aspects and chart a course for the technical work ahead.  It was agreed that the committee on treaties will meet tomorrow, the committee on “common state” laws will meet on Thursday, and the committee on treaties will meet again on Friday.  In view of the workload of the committees, it is envisaged that the schedule will further intensify starting from next week.

**OIP Update

The Secretary-General has approved the phase 13 distribution plan submitted by the Government of Iraq for the delivery of food and other humanitarian supplies through the United Nations “oil-for-food” programme.  The approved plan was forwarded to the President of the Security Council yesterday, 6 January.  It contains a humanitarian budget of $4.93 billion.

Also in this week’s update, Iraqi exports under the oil-for-food programme totaled 13.1 million barrels for the week of 28 December to 3 January.  The total value of exports for the week was $369 million at current prices and exchange rates.  The average price of Iraqi crude for the reporting period was $26.90 a barrel.  The full text of the oil-for-food update is available upstairs.

**Budget

Today Norway became the 13th Member State to pay its 2003 regular budget contribution in full with a payment of more than $8.7 million.

**Press Releases

We have one press release to highlight for you today:  the Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization has endorsed a plan by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund to reduce child deaths from measles.  The strategy saved the lives of more than 130,000 children in Africa last year and seven African countries were able to reduce measles deaths to near zero since the year 2000.  The press release has more details.

**Noon guest tomorrow

Our guest at the noon briefing tomorrow will be Stephen Lewis, the Secretary-General’s special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa who will talk about his recent visit to southern Africa. 

So, that’s all I have for you today.  Any questions before we move on to our noon briefing guest?  Yes, please?

Questions and Answers

Question:  Do you have anything on Mr. de Soto’s schedule?

Deputy Spokesman:  Mr. de Soto will be returning to Cyprus early next week and stopping on the way in Turkey and Greece for consultations.

Question:  Will he have anything tomorrow while in New York?

Deputy Spokesman:  We don’t have any details on that.  Yes, please?    

Question:  President Hussein of Iraq openly accused the United Nations inspectors of spying on his country.  Is there any comment from the Secretary-General?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, these inspectors are in the country to carry out their work under the authorization of the Security Council under resolution 1441.  They are there to do their jobs and they are doing their jobs in a very professional way.

Question:  There is a situation developing in the last few weeks in Venezuela.  Will we hear from the Secretary-General regarding that country?

Deputy Spokesman:  At the moment I don’t have any guidelines on that yet.  But, I expect that something will come up, maybe tomorrow.

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