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 Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

**Cyprus

We’re going to start with Cyprus today.  This morning at 11:30 in Cyprus, His Excellency Glafcos Clerides, the Greek Cypriot leader, and His Excellency, Rauf Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot leader, met in the UN area in the presence of the Secretary-General’s Special Advisor, Alvaro de Soto.

The discussions continued over lunch, which ended at 2:30 p.m. and a United Nations note-taker was present throughout.  The leaders reiterated their commitment to negotiate on the basis of the Secretary-General’s revised proposal of 10 December 2002, with a view to completing an agreement by the end of February so that informed decisions can be taken by the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots in separate referenda on 30 March.

The leaders have agreed to meet again, together with their advisers, on Friday, 17 January 2003, at 4 p.m.  A programme for intensive negotiations in the coming weeks would be agreed then.  The work of the technical committees will continue in parallel.

**Congo

From the Congo, this morning in Kinshasa, the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) said that a preliminary report confirms human rights abuses by soldiers of the Congolese Liberation Movement and the Congolese Rally for Democracy/National in Mambasa and in the villages on the Mambasa/Mangina main road, in the north-east of the country.

On 31 December 2002, the UN sent an investigation team to the area following the serious allegations of human rights abuses.  The team interviewed 368 people -– victims and witnesses alike -– over a period of two weeks.  The investigators were told of systematic looting and rape, as well as summary executions and abductions.  The report also confirms that among the people executed, mutilated and cannibalized, were members of the Pygmy community forced to leave the forest.

The exact number of the victims is not determined to date.  The preliminary report was presented to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was in Kinshasa -- and I’ll tell you more about his visit in a few minutes.  And this morning Hedi Annabi, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, shared some of the information contained in the report with members of the Security Council during closed consultations.  A full press release is available upstairs.

**Security Council

The Security Council has consultations scheduled this morning and this afternoon.

This morning’s consultations are on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as I just mentioned.  Mr. Annabi provided the members with a comprehensive update on the situation in the DRC.  In addition to the human rights abuses in the north-east, Annabi updated Council members on the political situation, including the upcoming inter-Congolese dialogue, and on the ongoing disarmament and demobilization process.

A press statement on the DRC is expected to be delivered by the President of the Council.  The Council President, Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sablière of France, is expected to read a press statement following the consultations.

And then this afternoon at 3:15, the Security Council has consultations on the follow-up of resolution 1390 of 16 January 2002 on the sanctions against Al Qaeda.  In that resolution, the Council decided that the measures set out should be reviewed a year later to decide whether to continue or improve them.

**Human Rights

On human rights, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, traveled to Angola today, where he is to meet with President José Eduardo dos Santos and other senior officials on a three-day visit, during which he will receive information on the current peace process and draw attention to the importance of human rights in achieving national reconciliation.

Earlier, Vieira de Mello was in the DRC, where he met yesterday with President Joseph Kabila and expressed his concern about the fate of 30 people recently sentenced to death by a military court on charges that they were involved in the assassination of the previous President, Laurent-Desiré Kabila.

Yesterday, two UN special rapporteurs -– Asma Jahangir, who deals with summary or arbitrary executions, and Iulia Antoanella Motoc, who deals with the DRC –- also expressed their serious concern about those death sentences, as well as by reports that 15 people had been executed recently following a military tribunal judgment. They said that, according to the information they had received, the military tribunals’ trials had been unfair.  We have copies of their statement upstairs.

**Blix

On Iraq, the Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), Dr. Hans Blix, will be stopping off in Brussels, Paris and London before heading off to Baghdad.

He’s expected to meet tomorrow in Brussels with, among others, the European Union High Representative for Common Foreign Security Policy, Javier Solana, as well as Chris Patten, the European Commission’s External Relations Commissioner.  He will be traveling to Paris then, where he’s expected to meet with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin.

Following Paris, he will be in London to meet with senior officials of the British Government.  As soon we have more information on his London appointments, we will pass them along to you.  Blix will be in Cyprus over the weekend and then travel on Sunday to Baghdad, along with the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei.  The two are expected to leave Baghdad on Monday night. 

**Iraq Inspections

Meanwhile, on the ground, the inspections continue, including airborne inspections.  Teams from both IAEA and UNMOVIC visited a variety of sites, including agricultural facilities, a heavy machinery design plant and a missile propellant factory.

In terms of numbers, there are now 264 people working for UNMOVIC and IAEA in Iraq, including 114 inspectors.  The rest are support staff.  Also, UNMOVIC’s seventh training course for inspectors gets underway next Monday in Vienna.  Fifty-eight people, from 21 countries, including three Arab States, are set to participate.

**Lebanon

On Lebanon, out on the racks is the Secretary-General’s latest report on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon –- known as UNIFIL –- in which he recommends that its mandate be extended a further six months until 31 July 2003.  In it, the Secretary-General says that since his last report six months ago, the situation on the ground has returned to one of general stability, with some sites of tension.

The hostility prevailing between the parties has been tempered by willingness -– bolstered by international pressure -– to exercise restraint, the Secretary-General observes.  Tensions, however, do remain, notably along the “blue line”.  In the report, the Secretary-General reiterates his call to all concerned to respect that line, as each violation and any provocation from either side could lead to confrontation.

On an operational note, the Secretary-General says the reconfiguration of the peacekeeping force was completed at the end of last year and that, at this stage, no further reduction of the force is planned.  The full report is available upstairs.

**Tobacco Convention

The Inter-Governmental Negotiating Body for the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control today made public its draft text for the Convention. 

The draft contains articles on methods to reduce the demand for tobacco and tobacco products, including the control of price and taxes, advertising of tobacco products, health warnings and packaging.  It also addresses ways to reduce the supply of tobacco by curtailing the illicit trade in tobacco products and the targeting of minors.

When adopted, the Convention will create a global regulatory system to control tobacco and protect public health.  The draft will be considered at the Negotiating Body’s next meeting in February and the final text will be presented to the World Health Assembly for adoption in May.  We have a press release with more information and for the full text of the draft, please see the WHO Web site.

**Economic Commission for Africa

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) announced today that effective implementation of the development cooperation agenda will be the subject of its informal “Big Table” consultation that will take place between African finance ministers and their counterparts from the Organization for Economic Cooperation in Development (OECD) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this weekend.

The meeting will bring together finance and planning ministers from

11 African countries and development cooperation ministers and aid agency heads from 10 Western European and North American countries.  We have details in a press release.

**DPKO

From the Peacekeeping Department, we have word that the first conference of heads of missions, organized by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, opened today at United Nations Headquarters.  This morning, 13 heads of missions held discussions on administrative and logistics support to peacekeeping operations.  And in the afternoon, they will depart to an off-site DPKO seminar on management and leadership.  The Conference will end on 18 January.

**Press Releases

Press releases today:  we have one to flag for you from the United Nations Children's Fund, which announced today a contribution of $2.5 million to support the Kenyan Government’s primary education programme.  The funds will be used for learning and teaching materials and other support in schools in eight districts and Nairobi, and will benefit 450,000 children.  We have a press release on that.

**Budget

Budget news:  Kuwait became the 18th Member State to pay its 2003 regular budget contribution in full, and that’s with a payment of more than $1.9 million.

**Press Conferences

And finally, on press conferences.  You know that the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, will meet with the Secretary-General tomorrow morning at 11:30.  And after that meeting, President Chavez will come down here to Room 226 to give a press conference right after my noon briefing.  We think that might be around 12:15. 

That’s all I have for you.  Yes, Jim?

Questions and Answers

Question:   The Advisory Council on the Global Compact, that meeting, how’s that being structured?  Is it all private?  It is open?

Spokesman:  It is private.  I think we announced that it starts tonight over dinner and then it goes for most of tomorrow.  I think it ends around

4 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.  We have put out a list of the attendees and the 38^th floor has told us that, should any of you want to interview any of them, please let us know and we will try to arrange that for you.  So, just work through my office if you want to set up any interviews.

Question:   Is there an agenda for that meeting?

Spokesman:  I’ll have to ask whether they will make the agenda public.  We’ll let you know after the briefing.

Question:   And where is the meeting?

Spokesman:  It’s in this building, but I don’t know exactly where.  I’ll have to find… Why? Do you want to door-step them as they come and go?  [He later said it would take place in this building, in Conference Room 6.]

Question:   No, no. I want to do a story about it.  I am interested because those six Egyptian companies joined recently, you know?

Spokesman:  Yes.  A good source on that would be Georg Kell, who handles the programme from an administrative point of view.  His office is on the 38^th floor.  I don’t know his number off the top of my head, but I’m sure he will be busy with the arriving guests this afternoon.  But, you might try to give him a call and he can fill you in.  Yes?

(The Spokesman’s office later announced that correspondents seeking further information or clarification may direct their inquiries to Gavin Power on Ext. 4891)

Question:   Regarding the Security Council meeting scheduled for next Monday at the level of foreign ministers.  Do you know the names, the list of people, the names of the people who will…

Spokesman:  We don’t yet.  The Council President has not released the list.  We understand it will be something like a dozen, maybe even 13, delegations represented at the ministerial level.  But they haven’t told us which 12 or 13 they have received confirmation from.

Question:   Will there be a press conference after the meeting?

Spokesman:  I don’t know that they have planned a press conference.  We can ask the President if that would be of interest to you.  Whether he would do a press conference or just speak to you at the stakeout afterwards.  Jim?

[He later announced that French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin would give a press conference Monday, at a time to be determined.]

Question:   Concerning the consultations on resolution 1390.  Whatever decision they make would have to be done with a new resolution.  Is that correct?  In other words, there would have to be a formal meeting following up on this?

Spokesman:  That’s a good question.  Procedurally, I don’t know.  I mean, what you say sounds reasonable.  But rather than me speculating, let me find out for you and get back to you.

(He later confirmed that a new resolution was expected to be introduced later in the afternoon.)

Spokesman:  Thank you very much.

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