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.

**Noon Guest

We’ll have a guest later on.  Carolyn McAskie, the UN’s Deputy Relief Coordinator and the Secretary-General’s Humanitarian Envoy for the Côte d’Ivoire Crisis, will be joining us to talk about her upcoming mission to the region.

Statement Attributable to Spokesman for Secretary-General

The following is a statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General:

“The Secretary-General regrets the announcement by the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea of its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and strongly urges reconsideration of this decision.  The NPT is the lynchpin of the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime, and with 188 States parties is the most widely subscribed to multilateral treaty in this area.

“No State party to the NPT has ever withdrawn from the Treaty in the

33 years since its entry into force.  While noting the denial by the DPRK of any intentions to acquire nuclear weapons, the Secretary-General stresses the importance of adhering to treaties and their legal obligations in achieving international peace and security in accordance with international law.  He takes this opportunity to reiterate that the problems regarding DPRK’s nuclear programme must be resolved through peaceful dialogue.”

**IAEA

IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said today that the decision by the DPRK to withdraw from the NPT was “a continuation of a policy of defiance and was counter-productive to ongoing efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula”.

He reminded the DPRK of the international community’s readiness to engage the DPRK in a dialogue towards a peaceful settlement once the DPRK had shown signs of readiness to come into compliance with its international non-proliferation obligations, but not under the threat of nuclear blackmail.

We have copies of both statements upstairs.

The Director General of the IAEA, Mr. ElBaradei is in Washington today and he will be meeting with Senator Richard Lugar, Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser; and Colin Powell, United States Secretary of State.

We don’t have details of these meetings.

**Inspections

According to the regular UN briefing in Baghdad, teams for the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) continued their work in Iraq.

Sites inspected today include a medical import company and a polyester plant.

Also, UNMOVIC missile team witnessed a static test firing of the Al Samoud missile engine late in the afternoon yesterday, 9 January, after the morning test was postponed for technical reasons.

Aerial inspections could not take place today due to weather conditions.

**Security Council

The Security Council is holding closed consultations on Sierra Leone today.

Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hedi Annabi presented the Secretary-General's latest report on Sierra Leone, which we reported to you on Monday.

A press statement is expected to be read by the Council President, Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sablière of France.

And for the record, in a statement to the press following consultations on Iraq yesterday, the Council President said members of the Council reiterated their full support for the work and action of Dr. Blix and Dr. ElBaradei and to the continuation of inspection activities of UNMOVIC and IAEA pursuant to resolution 1441 in order to achieve the disarmament of Iraq.

This afternoon at 3:30 p.m., the Security Council Committee on Counter-Terrorism is expected to meet.

**Cambodia

The Cambodian and United Nations delegations met again today at 11 a.m. for a technical meeting.  They have agreed to meet again tomorrow at 3 p.m.  This was their fourth meeting aiming at establishing Extraordinary Chambers to deal with the prosecution of crimes committed during the period of Democratic Kampuchea.

UN Legal Counsel Hans Corell led the UN delegation. The Cambodian delegation is led by Senior Minister Sok An, head of the country's Council of Ministers.

**Côte d’Ivoire

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, will lead a UN team to the French-government organized talks in Paris starting on 15 January on Côte d'Ivoire.

Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Tuliameni Kalomoh will also attend the talks expected to bring together the political parties and rebel groups.

Meanwhile, UN agencies working on the ground worked to assist the victims of the conflict in the country, where more than 1 million have been reported to have been displaced by the fighting.

In Geneva, the World Food Programme said the humanitarian situation continued to deteriorate and noted that it had invited the parties to the talks in Paris to include humanitarian matters on their agenda and to bring up the issue of allowing access for humanitarian agencies to conflict zones and insecure regions of the country.

Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees expressed increasing alarm over the desperate plight of tens of thousands of Liberian refugees in the country, particularly in the west, where tensions remained very high.

The World Health Organization said an emergency health coordinator had been dispatched and was expected to arrive today.  I am sure Ms. McAskie will elaborate on that.

**UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Welcomes Release of NGO Staff Member

  in Russian Federation

In a statement today, Kenzo Oshima, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator, welcomed the release of Nina Davydovich, head of the Russian non-governmental organization Druzhba, who had been abducted while working in the Republic of Chechnya, Russian Federation, on 23 July.  Russian authorities had confirmed her release on 9 January.

We have a press release on that available upstairs.

**UNDOF

A brief update on Wednesday’s shooting incident in the Golan.

The UN Observer Mission in the Golan, UNDOF, was in touch with both Syrian and Israeli authorities. 

Yesterday, UN observers were able to get to the site of the incident and recover the body of the deceased Syrian.  Israeli forces then handed over to the UN the Syrian they had captured.  He was then transferred to the custody of Syrian authorities.  The IDF also handed over one AK47 with live ammunition.

The UN mission’s investigation into the incident is ongoing.  The situation on the ground has since returned to normal and both sides are cooperating with the mission.

**Cyprus

The Secretary-General Special Adviser on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, met today in Ankara with the Under-Secretary of the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

He will be returning to Cyprus early next week.

**Guatemala

United Nations human rights experts today condemned the assassinations of two prominent Guatemalan indigenous leaders whose bodies were found in December.

Hina Jilani, Special Representative of the Secretary General on the situation of human rights defenders, and Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of indigenous people, said the deaths of Antonia Pop Caal and Diego Velásquez Brito constituted “an enormous loss for the Guatemalan people”.

You can find more details in a press release upstairs. 

**New Civilian Police Adviser

The Secretary-General announced today that Kiran Bedi of India has been appointed as the new Civilian Police Adviser in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.  Prior to this appointment, she served as Special Commissioner for Intelligence with the Delhi Police and has also served as Joint Commissioner for Police Training and Inspector General of Prisons in Delhi.  We have a note and her bio available in my Office.

**UNIKOM Appointment

The Secretary-General has appointed Major-General Franciszek Gągor of Poland as Force Commander of the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) with effect from 17 January 2003.

Major-General Gągor is a 34-year veteran of the Polish Armed Forces.  In addition to several command posts with the national forces, he also served in a number of UN missions.  His last assignment being as deputy sector Commander with UNIKOM.

We have upstairs the full press release.  Also available are the exchange of letters between the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council on this appointment.

**Republic of Congo

We have an update from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on population movements in the Republic of Congo’s Pool region due to bombing, fighting, banditry and attacks on villages late last year.

**Conference of Heads of Missions

The 2003 Conference of Heads of Missions organized by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations takes place just outside New York next week.  The 13 heads will meet from 15 to 18 January to discuss management and leadership matters.  For more information and requests for interviews, you can contact David Wimhurst at extension 6318, and we have the list of participants in my Office.

**Budget

The Russian Federation became the 16^th Member State to pay its 2003 regular budget contributions in full with a payment of more than $16 million.

**The Week Ahead at United Nations

And we have the “The week ahead” available in the Office upstairs.

Any questions? 

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Do you have any details about the planned, possible press conference with the Secretary-General on Tuesday?

Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  We are finalizing that arrangement.  It’s scheduled for Tuesday, 11 a.m.  But as I have said, we’re still finalizing that one.

Question:  These Cambodian talks, any idea how long they might stretch onwards, ’cos they seem to be just going on and on and on?  Is there a target date for them to be finished and will there be a news conference to explain what’s happened?

Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  These talks are exploratory, as we said at the beginning.  So, there is no fixed agenda and to be honest, we don’t know how long it’s going to last.  As I have just announced, tomorrow is Saturday, they are still going to meet.  And they have been quite obliging, I must say.  At the end of each talk, they were willing to talk to journalists.  Unfortunately, yesterday I arranged something, but all the concentrations, all the attentions were on the Security Council.  So, no journalists appeared.  But we will try to arrange something.

If you have any specific questions, I am happy to pass them on to

Mr. Corell.

Okay.  Ms. McAskie, you’re welcome again.  So, the floor is yours.

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