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.

**Iraq

According to the regular update from Baghdad, inspectors from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) visited a farm and a chemical plant today.

For the record, I’ll mention that yesterday –- after the briefing -- we announced that the inspectors had discovered 11 empty 122 mm chemical warheads and one warhead that requires further evaluation.  The warheads were in excellent condition and were similar to ones imported by Iraq during the late 1980s.  The team used portable X-ray equipment to conduct a preliminary analysis of one of the warheads and collected samples for chemical testing.

On a related note, the Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC, Dr. Hans Blix, met in Paris today with President Jacques Chirac of France.  And with him was also the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammed ElBaradei.  They then travelled to the United Kingdom, where they will be meeting Prime Minister Tony Blair.

And as we’ve already told you, Dr. Blix and Mr. ElBaradei will be making their way to Cyprus.  And from there, they will be travelling to Baghdad Sunday for two days of talks with Iraqi officials.

**Vorontsov Arrives in Baghdad

The UN High-Level Coordinator, Yuli Vorontsov, should be arriving in Baghdad just about now for two days of talks on missing persons and seized Kuwaiti property, at the invitation of the Iraqi Government.  Mr. Vorontsov travelled overland from Amman, Jordan, where, some days ago, he followed from the margins a meeting of the new technical subcommittee on missing persons of the Tripartite Commission.

On this trip, he also visited Cairo, Egypt, on the 11th and 12th of this month, where he met with Amre Mousa, the head of the Arab League, and Ahmed Maher, the Egyptian Foreign Minister.  Also, on the 13th, he met with the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Abdelouahed Belkeziz, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

He will be in Baghdad through Monday, and he will then travel to the headquarters of the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission at Um Qasr, and from there to Kuwait City for more official meetings.

He will return to Amman on the 22^nd of this month, when the second meeting of the technical committee will take place.  He is expected back in New York on the 24th, and will report to the Secretary-General.

**Security Council

The Security Council is having consultations on Liberia.  Africa II Division Director Youssef Mahmoud of the Department of Political Affairs briefed on security, humanitarian and human rights aspects, as well as on preparations for elections in Liberia.

There is also a letter from the Secretary-General to the Security Council in which he says that the Government of Liberia is still studying the proposed revised mandate for the UN Peace-Building Support Office in that country.  The Council President is expected to read out a press statement on Liberia.

Also scheduled today is a formal meeting following consultations on the item “Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts”.  Up for a vote is a draft resolution on sanctions against Al Qaeda.

This afternoon at 3:15 p.m., there will be a Council meeting with the troop contributors to the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG).

**Security Council -- Monday

Turning to Monday, the ministerial meeting of the Security Council on the issue of combating terrorism will take place in an open session.  Non-Council members who wish to participate in the discussion of this issue have been invited to an open meeting to be held on 20 February.

At 12:45 p.m. Monday, the French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, who will preside over this meeting on Monday, will hold a press conference, and he will be joined by Renaud Muselier, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

**Cyprus

Earlier today the Turkish Cypriot leader, His Excellency Rauf Denktash, and the Greek Cypriot leader, His Excellency Glafcos Clerides, met in the presence of the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, in the UN Protected Area in Nicosia.  They’ve agreed to continue their meetings on thrice weekly basis.

**Côte d’Ivoire -- Humanitarian

On the second day of her mission to Côte d’Ivoire, Carolyn McAskie, Humanitarian Envoy of the Secretary-General for the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire, met with government leaders and stressed the importance of the Government’s role in the provision of emergency relief to those in need regardless of their location.

She also reminded the Government of its responsibilities regarding the protection of civilians, including some 1 million internally displaced persons, the 50,000 Liberian refugees living in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as the humanitarian personnel working to bring aid to vulnerable populations.

Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says it is about to begin to repatriate thousands of Liberian refugees in western Côte d'Ivoire.  The return will require both bus transport and canoes.  UNHCR has requested a police security escort following days of negotiations with local villages for safe passage.  Ivorian authorities have worked hard over the past week to calm tensions between the local population and the Liberian refugees.

**Somali Children

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has released the results of a study on Somali children prepared by its independent humanitarian news service, known as the Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN).

According to the report, Somali parents are paying smugglers up to $10,000 to take their children abroad, as part of a lucrative and exploitative international child-smuggling business.  Faced with desperate choices, many parents who see no future in their own country allow their children to be abandoned by "agents" at airports and railway stations in European and North American countries.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), commenting on the reports of children being smuggled into Europe from Somalia, says the reason for this phenomenon was largely related to education at the secondary level -- Somalis had always placed a high value on education, UNICEF says, and currently secondary education was not easily available in that country.

**Roma

In Brussels, Belgium, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) yesterday launched its Roma Human Development Report, "Avoiding the Dependency Trap", which points out that the literacy, infant mortality and basic nutrition rates of most of Europe's four to five million Roma are closer to levels in sub-Saharan Africa than those for other Europeans.

Nearly half of the Roma surveyed are unemployed, and close to one in six is "constantly starving".  Only six out of 10 households have running water, the report says, and fewer than half have toilets in their homes.  It adds that only a third of the Roma surveyed completed primary school, while only 1 per cent attended college.

"The international community needs to consider Roma issues from a broader developmental perspective and ensure that Roma people have equal access to education and job opportunities," said Kalman Mizsei, UNDP Director for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, who supervised the survey.  The survey was carried out in five countries:  Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia.

**Afghanistan -- Food

The World Food Programme (WFP) took over responsibility today from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for the distribution of food aid to 288,000 Afghan refugees in Pakistan, as part of a test project that could be extended to all areas of the world.  Previously, the WFP provided the food to the UNHCR, which then distributed it to the refugees.

**Sri Lanka -- Humanitarian

UNHCR officials have been meeting with of Sri Lankan government representatives and Tamil Tiger rebel leaders this week to determine the refugee agency’s possible role in returning an initial group of over 100,000 internally displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka.  Also discussed during the meeting, which was held in a rebel-controlled town, was the future return of some 84,000 refugees living in the southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu.

**Press Releases

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today in a press release that 43 new countries have been given low cost access to health journals.  The 43 countries, all with a per capita gross national product (GNP) of between $1,000 and $1,500, will pay $1,000 annually for access to 2,200 high-quality medical journals.  These countries will join the 69 low-income countries already participating at no cost in the Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI).

**Signings

Two treaty actions took place here this morning.  The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and Their Destruction was ratified by Cyprus, bringing the number of parties to 131.  And Nicaragua acceded to the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, which now has 79 parties.

**Budget

We got two more payments in full of 2003 regular budget contributions today.  Canada paid more than $34 million and Hungary more than $1.6 million.  That brings the total number paid in full for this year to 20.  This time last year, there were 27.  We’ll never get up to 191 by the end of the month.

**UN Works TV Programme

As we told you in December, the first episode of a 10-part television series called “What’s Going On?”, co-produced by UN Works, will air on Sunday here on the Showtime Cable network.  The first episode will feature UNDP Goodwill Ambassador Danny Glover and will profile children in the Caribbean living with HIV/AIDS.  The series was developed in collaboration with UNICEF, UNDP, International Labour Organization and the UNHCR.  There is more information on the UN Works Web site, which is www.un.org/works.

And I have another reminder for you.  This afternoon at 6 o’clock in the Visitors’ Lobby, the exhibition on the 100 best typeface designs of the past five years will be formally opened. 

**The Week Ahead at United Nations

And we have the Week Ahead for you to help you with your coverage of the UN for the next week.

Questions and Answers

Question:  The missiles that have been found in Baghdad.  Where were they from?  Is that included in the ... or separate

Spokesman:  Warheads.  Warheads.  They were warheads, not missiles found in southern Iraq.  At a depot in southern Iraq.  Yes?

Question:  Fred, on Mr. Vorontsov’s mission, tell us, Mr. Vorontsov and the UN inspectors that are visiting Baghdad.  Does it mean more pressure on Saddam Hussein or any relationship between the two missions?

Spokesman:  I am not aware that there is any relation between the two other than that Iraq’s invitation to Mr. Vorontsov to visit represents more openness on their part and fuller compliance with Security Council resolutions.  But, I don’t think there’s any other link between the timing of the visits.  I assume it’s coincidental.

Question:  As you know, yesterday, I interviewed Colin Powell.  He said that he was going to be providing more information about Iraq’s WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction] programmes in the next few days and clearly he feels it’s going to be enough to help convince the Security Council to pass a second resolution.  I was wondering, is the Secretary-General aware of this?  Has anything come from the State Department to let you know that this information was on its way?

Spokesman:  I doubt it would come to the Secretary-General.  It would go to either the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)or to Hans Blix’s UNMOVIC, and Blix, as you know, reports directly to the Security Council.  I’d have to ask the Secretary-General if this information has been conveyed to him in any conversations he might have had with the Secretary of State.  But at this point, I don’t know.  I am not aware that it was discussed.

Question:  Presumably, the Secretary-General would welcome it?

Spokesman:  Well, Hans Blix has said he would like, first, more intelligence that might be in the possession of Member States to help him do his work, and more information generally from the Iraqis on their reporting.  So, I think anything that helps fill in the gaps, he’d appreciate.  But, I really can’t speak for him.

Question:  Sort of like related to this.  It sounds as if the Secretary of State is planning to seek a second resolution, which I am sure would come as a relief to a lot of people, because we’ve heard, or at least a number of people are concerned, that the US might go it alone without another authorization from the Council.  The Secretary-General spoke about this the other day.  I was wondering if he has commented at all on these analyses, these comments out there, that if the US were to go it alone without a second resolution from the Security Council it would cripple this Organization and render as useless as the League of Nations.  Has he said anything on it?

Spokesman:  I think he’s commented on that quite a bit.  But not in the negative way you put it.  But, rather that, first, by going through the Security Council the US has strengthened not only the United Nations, but the rule of

law.  And that his hope is that the Council can act in a united way in dealing with Iraq, as well as with other issues.  He’s said that on many occasions that a united Council was a strong Council, and a strong Council is good for the United Nations as a whole.  So, I think probably if you get on our Web site and do a search, you’ll find quite a few comments on these lines.

Question:  Can you then just speculate about what the consequences would be of action without a second resolution?

Spokesman:   No. Okay, enjoy your weekend.  Thank you.

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