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.

**Secretary-General to Paris

At the invitation of the French Government, the Secretary-General will leave for Paris on Thursday evening to join summit talks over the weekend on Côte d’Ivoire.  He will return to New York Sunday afternoon.

**Security Council

The Security Council is holding consultations this morning on Georgia, with a briefing by Secretary-General’s Special Representative Heidi Tagliavani on the latest report.  He has asked for a six-month extension of the mandate.

Tagliavani also updated the Council on the main developments in the political process on the ground.  She told the members that the focus of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia remained on bringing about substantive negotiations with the support of the Council and the friends of the Secretary-General for Georgia.  And that group of friends, of course, is composed of the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Bulgaria.

Then, at 3:15 p.m., the Council has scheduled a meeting with troop- contributing countries on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).  At 4 p.m., the Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee has a meeting scheduled.

**Iraq

We’re waiting for the daily briefing of activities from the UN weapons inspectors in Iraq.  And as soon as it arrives, we will make it available to you.  And on a related note, UNMOVIC’s Executive Director, Hans Blix, is making his way back to New York today.  On Thursday, UNMOVIC’s College of Commissioners will meet here at United Nations Headquarters.

**Oil-for-Food

According to the regular update from the Office of the Iraq Programme, Iraqi oil exports under the oil-for-food scheme totalled 15.1 million barrels for the week ending January 17th.  That brought in an estimated $424 million in revenue.

The Office of the Iraq Programme also announced that $61 million in savings on its administrative and operational costs for phase XII of the programme will be redirected to the purchase of humanitarian goods for Iraq.  This brings the programme’s total savings on administrative and operational overheads to $272 million since September 2000.

**AIDS and Southern Africa

In a statement today, the heads of the world’s major humanitarian agencies called on the international community to respond appropriately to the human tragedy now unfolding in southern Africa as a result of a combination of severe drought, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and growing poverty.

It notes that, failing decisive action now and large-scale funding, an estimated 20 per cent of the total adult population of 60 million people -- or 12 million people -- will die prematurely just due to HIV/AIDS alone.  This number will increase due to food shortages, malnutrition and poor health services.

The agencies also welcomed a joint mission to southern Africa by James Morris, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, accompanied by Stephen Lewis, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for HIV/AIDS in Africa.  The mission will consult widely with humanitarian and development agencies to determine how best the United Nations system and international community can assist those at risk, especially women.  It will also examine strategies to support governments in the region in their efforts to improve the provision of social services.

**Ethiopia

Morris, meanwhile, in his capacity as Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), at the end of a five-day mission to Ethiopia today, welcomed generous new contributions.  However, he warned there was no time to lose, as available food aid supplies would start to run out during the peak of the drought crisis.  Upon his departure from Ethiopia today, Morris will travel to Johannesburg, from where he will commence a seven-day mission to the southern Africa region we just mentioned.

**Côte d’Ivoire-Humanitarian

Carolyn McAskie, the Secretary-General’s Humanitarian Envoy for the Crisis in Côte d’Ivoire, has highlighted in her talks the need for authorities to continue to send a message of tolerance and solidarity with all Ivorians.

McAskie departed this morning for a two-day tour of northern and western areas of Côte d’Ivoire.  Today, she will visit Yamoussoukro, where she will meet with the humanitarian community and visit a transit centre for displaced persons, as well as to meet with local authorities.  She will also travel to Bouake, where she will meet with a rebel group MPCI to impress on them the need to sustain their policy of allowing safe and unhindered access to those providing humanitarian relief.

**Western Sahara

The Secretary-General, in his latest report on Western Sahara, which was circulated today to Security Council members, notes the travels last week by his Personal Envoy, James Baker, to meet with the Moroccan Government and POLISARIO Front leadership, as well as with officials in neighbouring Mauritania and Algeria, to explain a proposal for a political solution of the Western Sahara conflict.

On the basis of Baker’s visit, the Secretary-General says that he and his Personal Envoy will provide to the Security Council in due course their views of the options available regarding Western Sahara.  He adds, “Every possible option has been presented to the parties, aimed at reaching an agreed solution.”

To give the parties time to consider the proposal presented by Baker, the Secretary-General recommends that the Security Council roll over the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission there, known as MINURSO, for two months, until the end of March.  The Council intends to hold consultations on Western Sahara on Thursday.

**SG’s Message to Conference on Disarmament

International peace and security continue to face profound challenges in the form of weapons of mass destruction, and the continued development of new weapons systems, the Secretary-General warned in a message to the 25th session of the Conference on Disarmament.

In the message, which was delivered by Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the UN Office in Geneva, the Secretary-General again expressed his serious concern over the announcement by the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea of its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.  He underscored that “the only viable solution to this latest setback for disarmament and non-proliferation is through peaceful means, dialogue, and a spirit of mutual interest”.

In the past four years, the Conference was not able to reach agreement on a programme of work and so was unable to start work on substantive issues.  The Secretary-General expressed his hope that 2003 would mark a turning point in the history of this Conference, and it should redouble its efforts to overcome its current impasse, “so as to enable it to discharge faithfully and effectively its mandate as the sole multilateral disarmament negotiating forum”.  The Secretary-General’s message and a press release on the Conference are available in my Office.

**ICJ/Mexico

Today at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, oral arguments began in a case submitted by Mexico against the United States for violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

In an application submitted on 9 January, the Mexican Government says that officials in 10 States of the United States have “arrested, detained, tried, convicted and sentenced to death no fewer than 54 Mexican nationals”, following proceedings in which the competent authorities failed to comply with their obligations under the Vienna Convention.  Mexico says it has intervened in numerous judicial proceedings on behalf of its nationals, but has not received adequate relief.  The oral arguments will continue throughout today, and a verbatim transcript of those arguments will be available afterward on the Court’s Web site.

**UNHCR

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has asked the Chinese Government for access to a group of 48 North Korean asylum seekers, including children, arrested last Saturday as they tried to board fishing boats in the port of Yantai, Shandong Province.  In a note verbale sent to the Chinese authorities in Beijing today, UNHCR also urged China not to send the North Koreans back to their country.  The UNHCR says it is ready to assess the asylum claims of the group jointly with the Chinese authorities.

**UNIFEM-UNHCR Report

The UNHCR announced today that High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, and the UNIFEM Executive Director, Noeleen Hezyer, will launch tomorrow in Geneva a report prepared by the Independent Panel of Experts on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and the Role of Women in Peace-building.

**World Health Organization

The Executive Board of the World Health Organization has reduced the number of candidates for the post of Director-General to five.  Included in the short list are Julio Frenk of Mexico, Jong Wook Lee of the Republic of Korea, Pascoal Manuel Mocumbi of Mozambique, Peter Piot of Belgium, and Ismail Sallam of Egypt.

Early next week, the Board will nominate one of the candidates, who will have to be confirmed by the World Health Assembly when it meets in May.  The new Director-General will take over from Gro Harlem Brundtland on 21 July 2003.  We have a press release in English and also in French and in Spanish, with more details.

**Other Press Releases

Two other press releases to mention today, and that’s the end of my briefing.

The first is on the launch of the State of the Environment reports for South Asia.  This year, two reports were issued.  The first, targeting policy-makers, highlights five key environmental issues for the region:  security of livelihoods; environmental disasters; industrialization; urbanization; and the loss of biodiversity.  The other is the youth version of the report “Children of the Monsoon”, and was written by members of youth organizations which make up the South Asia Youth Environment Network.  Both are available on the UNEP Web Site and the press release has the details.

Klaus Toepfer, the Executive Director of UNEP, met today with Kenya’s new Environment Minister, Newton Kulundu, to discuss a project on water resources in the Mount Kenya region.  The project aims to tackle soil erosion in the Tana River, which is clogging up dams and reservoirs.  The project will work with local communities and farmers to balance the needs of agriculture with those of wildlife in the area.

That’s my news for today.  Yes?

Questions and Answers

Question:   Fred, will the Secretary-General attend this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland?

Spokesman:  No.  No, he does not intend to go.  He will be represented by a Secretariat official, but I don’t know who’s going to be going in his place.  If you like I can try to find out after the briefing.  Yes?

(The Spokesman later announced that the senior-most United Nations official attending this year’s Forum would be the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, Mark Malloch Brown.)

Question:   On Côte d’Ivoire, one of the issues being discussed is early elections.  What is the position of the Secretary-General on this issue?

Spokesman:  He does not, at this point, when you have delicate negotiations going on in Paris, want to inject his views.  It is hoped that by the time this set of talks reaches the summit level on the weekend, there will be agreement between the Government and the opposition, and that he will be there to witness the signing of that agreement.  So, if you don’t mind, I don’t want to present his personal views at this time.

Thank you very much.

Question:   The White House is really sort of stuck in saying how Iraq has been deceiving the country.  Supposedly, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is going to talk about that and release a document within the hour.

Spokesman:  I haven’t seen the document.  I doubt that the Secretary-General has seen it.  And in any case, this would be a matter really for UNMOVIC to react to, rather than the Secretary-General.

Thank you.

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