24 January 2003

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, and Richard Sydenham, Spokesman for the General Assembly President.

Deputy Spokesman

Good Afternoon.

**Secretary-General in Paris

At noon today in Paris, the Secretary-General conferred with his Special Representative for West Africa, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah.  After that, he travelled to Elysee Palace, where he met with French President Jacques Chirac, who was accompanied by the Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin.  They reviewed progress that had been made to date on the Côte d’Ivoire talks taking place in Paris under the auspices of the French Government and plans for the Summit Meeting on Côte d’Ivoire, which will take place tomorrow and Sunday.

The Secretary-General then met privately with President Chirac and the Foreign Minister de Villepin.

**Côte d’Ivoire

Carolyn McAskie, the Secretary-General’s Humanitarian Envoy dealing with Côte d’Ivoire, met yesterday in that country with representatives of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to discuss the economic and humanitarian effects the crisis is having on their countries.

Some 140,000 nationals of those West African States have been forced to flee the country, and many have lost their jobs as the Ivoirian economy falters.  McAskie noted, “Even if a political agreement for Côte d’Ivoire is reached in the short run, the humanitarian crisis will require long-term attention”.

She also met yesterday with humanitarian donors in Abidjan to underscore the importance of the situation, saying, “With war looming in Iraq, the world may lose sight of the fact that this conflict could destabilize the whole of West Africa”.  We have more details in a press release upstairs.

**Security Council

The Security Council is scheduled to meet shortly, at 12:30 today, for a brief formal meeting, in which it will vote on a resolution requesting a new six-month mandate for the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).  In that mandate, according to the draft resolution, the Panel would, among other things, make recommendations on measures that could be taken to ensure that the DRC’s resources are legally extracted, on a fair commercial basis to benefit the Congolese people.

**Security Council -- Monday

Just to let you know about Monday, the Security Council is set to start with an open meeting at 10:30 a.m. to hear from both the Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC, Hans Blix, and then the Director-General of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, who will provide the 60-day update on the inspection process so far.  The remarks of both Blix and ElBaradei will be made available to the press, but not on an embargoed basis.  No Member State will take the floor during the open meeting.

Following the two presentations, the Council will move into closed consultations on Iraq.  The Secretary-General will be present at the open meeting, but he is not expected to speak.  He will also attend the closed consultations.

On the logistical side, the Media Liaison office issued a note to correspondents yesterday laying the details of access to Security Council stakeout area.  As you know, that will be limited to about 220 journalists for safety reasons.  An overflow room for visiting press will be set up in Conference Room 1, so they can view the proceedings on closed-circuit TV.

There are also 100 seats reserved for press to gain access to the public gallery of the Security Council.  Those tickets can be picked up from the Media Liaison office on Monday morning.  In addition to the Security Council, another stakeout area will be set up in the Secretariat lobby.

United Nations TV will be providing feeds of the Council’s open meeting, as well as the Council and Secretariat lobby stakeouts.

**Cyprus

This morning in Athens, the Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, met with the Greek Prime Minister, Costas Simitis.  He later met with the Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, who was on a visit to the Greek capital.

De Soto returned to the island in the afternoon, where he hosted another meeting between the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, and the Greek Cypriot leader, Glafcos Clerides. 

**Morris in Southern Africa

James Morris, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, left Lesotho yesterday, ending the first leg of a five-nation, one-week tour.  He warned that while international aid has helped to prevent tragedy in the country in the last six months, food shortages continue to affect a population already weakened by HIV/AIDS.

“I have been moved by the struggle that the people of this country, especially women, face every day to survive and support their families,” he said, after meeting some of the hardest hit families in highland villages.  Morris left Lesotho yesterday for Zimbabwe.  He goes to Malawi tomorrow, Zambia on Sunday and South Africa on Tuesday.  We have a press release with more information.

**ILO

The International Labour Organization (ILO), in a new report, argues that two years of economic slowdown have pushed the number of unemployed to new heights worldwide, with the number of unemployed around the world growing by 20 million, to a new total of 180 million, since the year 2000.

Women and youth have been particularly hard hit, while by the end of last year the number of working poor -- workers living on less than one dollar a day -- rose to 550 million, the first time it had been that high since 1998.  Latin America and the Caribbean were hardest hit, with recorded joblessness rising nearly 10 per cent.

ILO Director-General Juan Somavia warned, “While tens of millions of people join the ranks of the unemployed or the working poor, uncertain prospects for a global economic recovery make a reversal of this trend unlikely in 2003”.  We have a press release upstairs with more details.

**Bangladesh

Two special rapporteurs of the Commission on Human Rights -– Asma Jahangir, who deals with executions, and Theo Van Boven, who deals with torture -– expressed serious concern about a proposal in Bangladesh to have an ordinance that would exempt soldiers from investigation for actions committed during a crackdown on crime that took place in that country since last October.

Several people are reported to have been tortured or killed during the crackdown, called “Operation Clean Heart”.  The two United Nations experts called on Bangladesh’s Government to ensure that all allegations of torture and death in custody are promptly, independently and thoroughly investigated.

**Rwanda

Earlier this morning, Bishop Samuel Musabyimana died after a long illness in Moshi, Tanzania, becoming the first accused suspect to die while in the detention of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.  The Bishop had been charged with genocide and crimes against humanity by the Tribunal, and had pleaded “not guilty” to all charges in his initial appearance before the court in 2001.  The Tribunal offers its condolences to his family.

**Cyclone in Fiji

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said that the Government of Fiji yesterday appealed for international assistance in the wake of tropical cyclone Ami which hit the islands on 14 January.  Parts of the second largest island, Vanua Levu, are still without electricity and much of the infrastructure has been damaged.  The immediate assistance needed for affected communities includes shelter, water supply and food.  Over the long-term, the Government has identified the rehabilitation of rural housing, schools, health centres and infrastructures as a national priority.  We have a press release with more information.

**UNHCR

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that nearly 500 indigenous people from Panama fled to that country’s Central Darian region this week after their villages were attacked by Colombian paramilitaries, following an attack last weekend in which four indigenous community leaders were reportedly killed.  The attack signals the growing impact of the Colombian conflict on Panama and other neighbouring countries.  We have more details in a press release upstairs.

**Budget

Three more member States have paid their 2003 regular budget contributions in full.  Cape Verde and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines made payments of more than $13,000 each, and Singapore more than $5 million.  We now have 28 fully paid up Member States.

**The Week Ahead at the United Nations

And we have the “Week Ahead” available in the office upstairs.

Any questions before we move on?  Yes, please?

Questions and Answers

Question:  Dr. Blix will be speaking before Dr. ElBaradei?

Deputy Spokesman:  I don’t know the order of who will speak first yet.  But, both of them will be speaking on Monday.

Question:  Do you know when you will know?

Deputy Spokesman:  We can check that after the briefing.  Yes, please.

Question:  You indicated that the Secretary-General will not make a statement at the public meeting of the Security Council on Monday.  Could you explain the reasons why?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, as you know, it’s very much Council business and the Secretary-General will be present to hear what Dr. Blix and Mr. ElBaradei will report to the Council.  And he has been in touch with both of them -– has been having meetings with both of them.  But on Monday, on that particular day, he will just be there to listen to their reports.

Question:  On Monday, are we going to have a meeting with the people who are coming from Baghdad?  Is there any press conference on Monday after the meeting?

Deputy Spokesman:  No press conferences have been planned.  But you can try to talk to them at the stakeout, if you get the ticket in time.

Question:  Can you be more specific on the… will there be a document handed out to the press after the meeting, or are you likely to make it?

Deputy Spokesman:  As soon as their speeches or their talking points are made, we will make them available to the press.  But, not before they speak.  Yes, please.

Question:  Did the Secretary-General speak about the Iraq issue to President Chirac?

Deputy Spokesman:  Sorry?

Question:  Did the Secretary-General speak to President Chirac about the Iraq issue?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, as I have said, they held a formal meeting on the Côte d’Ivoire talks.  And after that meeting the Secretary-General met again with the President and the Foreign Minister of France in a private meeting.  Whether they talked about Iraq in that meeting, I don’t know.

Spokesman for the General Assembly President

Good afternoon.  As this is my first briefing of the New Year, a very happy New Year to all.

Just a few words on the General Assembly meetings for next week.

Next Monday, President Kavan will hold an organizational meeting of the ad hoc working group on integrated follow up to the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic and social fields.  This meeting will be in the Trusteeship Council at 3 p.m. next Monday afternoon.  On Wednesday, 29 January, the open-ended working group on the question of equitable representation on and increased membership in the Security Council and other matters related to the Security Council will hold a brief organizational meeting in the General Assembly at 10 a.m. to announce the appointment of two vice chairs and adopt their programme of work.

Immediately following this meeting, at 10:15 on Wednesday, the General Assembly plenary will elect 11 judges to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda from a list of 23 nominations forwarded from the Security Council.  The present judges terms of office ends on 24 May 2003 and the term of office is for four years.

Questions and Answers

Question:  (Directed at Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Hua Jiang) I have a question.  I’m sorry I missed the last presentation.  I’m trying to find out what the thinking was to decide to release the texts from Mr. Blix and Mr. ElBaradei after their remarks were made?  What would be the point of not doing it at the time, for instance, of their making them, or even before?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, I can certainly relay your question to Blix’s office and see what reply they come up with.

Question:  Was it Mr. Blix who made the decision to wait until after he spoke to release the texts?

Deputy Spokesman:  It will be their decision at what time the texts will be made available.

Question:  You said the decision had already been made.

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, we can certainly talk to the man and see what kind of reason was behind it.

Question:  Because in the past the Security Council members have been given copies of the speaker notes, I believe, before they spoke or certainly at the same time they spoke.  And so have many, members of the media also.  I think the last

time this might not have been the case.  But, at the time that speeches were made, obviously to help the press provide accurate reports of what’s being said, it’s always nice to have those things at the time we use them, rather than after the speeches have been made.

Deputy Spokesman:  To give you some inside information, he’s still working on the report.  And he will be working on the report over the weekend.

Question:  I understand when he walks into the room he will have completed texts at the beginning for members of the Council, and it’s just a point.  It’s obviously very helpful to us, as well as to the members of the Council, to be able to follow on, if we have the texts.

Deputy Spokesman:  Okay, I can certainly relay your request to his office.

Question:  It’s just that to hang on to a whole mountain of them until after, for an arbitrary reason, it seems…  I’m done now.

Deputy Spokesman:  Have a nice weekend.

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