DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
| Press Briefing |
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, and Richard Sydenham, Spokesman for the General Assembly President.
Briefing by Spokesman for Secretary-General
Good afternoon.
**Secretary-General on Iraq
The Secretary-General was asked by the Associated Press this morning as he came into the Building about yesterday’s discussions in the Security Council on Iraq, and he noted that the discussions would continue, with everyone looking forward to US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s visit to the United Nations next week. He said he suspected that many foreign ministers would come for that meeting, and would discuss Iraq further following the evidence Powell brings to the Council.
He added, “Whether that will change the minds of some members of the Council will depend on the material he puts before them.”
As for evidence, he added that the inspectors have made it clear for some time that they would appreciate receiving “actionable information” from governments, and he hoped they would use any helpful information that it is presented next week.
We have a transcript of that exchange upstairs.
**Weapons Inspections
From Baghdad, the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) sought two more private interviews today. In both cases, the Iraqi individuals requested to be interviewed in private showed up with a person at the agreed hotel and insisted on having the individual with them during an interview. Consequently, no interviews took place.
Meanwhile, field inspections continued with UNMOVIC visiting two private distilleries and an infectious disease diagnostics laboratory.
Teams from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited a precision casting facility and conducted a motorized radiation survey in areas south-east of Baghdad.
Also, air-sampling equipment has been installed by the IAEA and is operating on the roof of the Canal Hotel, the operations base for IAEA inspections in Iraq. This is the initial step in the reinstallation of both fixed and mobile air samplers as part of wide-area environmental monitoring in Iraq.
**Statement Attributable to Spokesman for Secretary-General
We have the following statement attributable to the Spokesman concerning developments in Nepal:
“The Secretary-General warmly welcomes the announcement of a ceasefire yesterday by His Majesty’s Government of Nepal and the forces belonging to the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and the Government’s intention to convene all-party talks. He is encouraged by these developments which he hopes will facilitate an early start of talks between the two sides and lead to the peaceful resolution of Nepal’s internal conflict.
“The Secretary-General wishes to reiterate his readiness to provide assistance from the United Nations system in sustaining a process of national reconciliation and reform in Nepal”.
**Security Council
The Security Council began its work today with consultations on Burundi, with Assistant Secretary-General Tuliameni Kalomoh briefing on political developments, as well as the military, security and humanitarian situation.
The Council President is expected to read a press statement on Burundi afterwards.
Following consultations, the Council has on its agenda four back-to-back formal meetings to adopt resolutions on children in armed conflict and extensions of the UN peacekeeping missions in Georgia, Lebanon and Western Sahara, whose mandates are scheduled to expire tomorrow.
**Statement Attributable to Spokesman for Secretary-General
On the late side last night, in fact after we put the lid, we issued the following statement that has in it a reference to “yesterday”. So, you should understand that as meaning now the day before yesterday.
“The Secretary-General was very pleased to learn of the signing yesterday in Kiev of an Agreement between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on the Ukrainian-Russian State Boundary”. He extends his congratulations to H.E. Mr. Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, and H.E. Mr. Leonid Kuchma, the President of Ukraine, on this important development which will enhance the security and stability of both nations.”
**Afghanistan
The UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has sent its Senior Human Rights Adviser to the province of Herat to look into the issue of girls’ education. There have been reports that the province had banned male teachers teaching female students.
At a meeting, attended by representatives of the UN and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, the Herat Education Department explained that they were in fact implementing a decree issued by the Ministry of Education. The authorities reportedly took action after receiving letters of complaint from the parents of female students protesting against their daughters being taught by male teachers.
According to the Herat Education Department, the measure will not affect the access of girls to education as there is a sufficient number of female teachers in the province.
The UN Mission maintains that though in the Herat district itself female teachers allegedly outnumber male teachers, the situation might be different in the rural areas where the number of female teachers is smaller, and also in specialized courses such as English language or computer courses where the number of female teachers is particularly low.
The UNAMA and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will follow up the meeting by approaching the Ministry of Education about the decree and how it is being implemented, if at all, at the national level and to assess its impact in other parts of Afghanistan.
UNDP -- Afghanistan
More news on Afghanistan: the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Afghan Ministry of Housing and Development signed an agreement today in Kabul to facilitate planning, management, and implementation of urban reconstruction projects that have already created employment opportunities for over 30,000 local Afghans in Kabul.
Additional programmes have benefited 15,000 Afghans in Jalalabad and
30,000 in Kandahar.
The programmes under the agreement are funded by the Government of Japan and the European Commission.
**Cyprus
I’m going to follow up on the report of the mysterious white powder that was sent to the offices in Nicosia of the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto. This morning, the UN mission was informed that more in-depth tests on the powder show that it is harmless and poses no danger to anyone.
As a result, UN staff are now returning to their offices. Therefore, the Technical Committee meetings scheduled for this afternoon will take place at the Nicosia Conference Centre venue, as usual.
**Côte d’Ivoire
Out as a Security Council document today is a letter from Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sablière of France transmitting the agreement on Côte d’Ivoire reached last week at Linas-Marcoussis, France, and conclusions adopted after the weekend Conference of Heads of State.
The Secretary-General’s Humanitarian Envoy for the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire, Carolyn McAskie, meanwhile, continued her visit to the region with a stop in Ghana today. In Accra, McAskie met with the UN Country Team, Ghanaian authorities and representatives of humanitarian organizations. She plans to visit Burkina Faso tomorrow and then go on to Guinea, Liberia and Mali.
**Peacekeeping
Two background notes, one on UN peacekeeping operations and the other on political and peace-building support missions are now available at the documents counter and on the UN Web site. Among other basic facts, the notes point out that there are currently 13 peacekeeping operations, with a budget of about $2.63 billion, and 13 political and peace-building support missions. Some
89 countries are currently contributing military and civilian police personnel.
**Press Releases
We have three press releases to highlight for you today, two from the World Health Organization. The first is an update on the Roll Back Malaria programme, which was launched in 1998 by Gro Harlem Brundtland in her first months as Director-General. The Roll Back Malaria Secretariat today announced the appointment of its first Executive Secretary, Dr Fatoumata Nafo-Traoré of Mali.
The second announces the publication of a new document on Mad Cow disease. The booklet aims at providing governments and consumer-protection groups with information on the disease and how to prevent its spread. The press release includes answers to eight common questions about Mad Cow disease and its human counterpart.
In our last press release, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announces a new policy of publishing highlights from its Food Outlook a week before the full issue is published. We have copies of the preview of the February issue in my Office and it is available on the FAO Web site.
**Budget
On budget contributions, today, Switzerland became the 34th Member State to pay its 2003 regular budget contribution in full with a payment of more than
$17 million. This is the first time that Switzerland, which joined the Organization last year, has paid its contribution as a full Member.
**Press Conferences
This afternoon, at 3 o’clock, Feride Acar, the Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and others, will brief you on the work of the Committee’s 28th session, which began on the 13th of this month and ends tomorrow.
And a press conference tomorrow at 11 a.m.. The Mission of Jordan will be sponsoring a press conference by the Coalition for the International Criminal Court on the Assembly of States parties meeting in February and the International Criminal Court judicial elections.
**UNCA
And finally, the Correspondents’ Association asked me to announce a meeting today at 1 p.m. in the UNCA Club featuring two members of the US Congress, John Conyers, Jr., and Jimmy McDermott. And they will be briefing you following their meeting with the Secretary-General to discuss Iraq and US-UN relations.
That’s all I have for you. Any questions before we go to Richard? Yes?
Questions and Answers
Question: Fred, two questions on the scheduling of this. On the meeting on the 5th. Is there already a time when it begins, and is there any chance or a danger whatever that it might last till the 6th? Just for planning purposes, I mean?
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: It will be a morning meeting. I don’t know if it will be 10 or 10:30. We’ll try to get that information for you if it’s available. I’m not sure all the decisions have been made about the format of the meeting at this point. And I don’t think we can speculate now how long it would take. I am assuming it would end on the same day, but I can’t exclude that it would carry over. Yeah?
Question: Secondly, with regard to the meeting you have just talked about, Monday, Tuesday and the following days on the Criminal Court. Do you have a more precise schedule for that? When exactly the elections will take place, is it true it’s supposed to be the first full meeting? And does it mean on Monday already?
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: I don’t have those details with me. But if you check with me in my Office afterwards I’ll get them for you. [He later said that the election of judges will come up tentatively on Tuesday.]
Question: Two things Fred: one, a detection of a little labour unrest. It seems that there is group of people down in the -- what do you call it down there? -- conference and distribution and reproduction is now amassed into one department. Anyway, there was a meeting this morning. There’s a threat of a job action because there have been some changes and shifts and hours. But the accusation on the table that’s come to me is that there were changes made without –- their allegation is that, once again, without consultation, or dialogue with the employees? Has any of that come before the Secretary-General from that department?
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: No. Are these workers in the printing area?
Question: Printing and Distribution.
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: No. It’s the first I’ve heard of it. I can look into it for you.
Question: There was a meeting down there this morning.
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: I can look into it for you.
Question: Of course, you know I was thrown out of there this morning, so I had to come to you.
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: Well, you’re not a UN staff member.
Question: Well, I have no problem with that. My second question is: do you have any knowledge of who in the UN exercised the Phase One security advisory against Trinidad and Tobago?
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: Well, we don’t discuss security phases. But the UN Security Coordinator has told us that UN staff in Trinidad and Tobago have been issued a warning relating to criminality in the country. So, we’ve been informed that our security concerns for Trinidad and Tobago are not related to anything more than that.
Question: Not terrorism?
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: Nothing to do with terrorism. Richard?
Question: I just want to get on the record here. What is the Secretary-General’s response to President Bush in his State of the Union (address) saying that he’s ready to lead a coalition outside of the UN plus challenging the UN to be more than an empty debating society?
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: The inspections that are taking place now I think he feels are being carried out in a professional manner and should continue until the inspectors can bring to the Security Council a report of non-cooperation or something else that might trigger Council action. And so, he favours continuation of the inspection process. I have already said he’s looking forward to the briefing next Wednesday by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, and any information that is brought forward that might help the inspections become more focused, he would welcome.
Question: You mentioned the installation of monitoring IAEA equipment. Has Iraq agreed to let that equipment remain indefinitely?
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: I don’t know about “indefinitely”, but it seems that they have raised no objections to setting up this environmental monitoring system.
Question: On Wednesday next, are we going to have the same special passes for the stakeout or regular? This is one. Secondly, I wonder if your Office could arrange a press conference with Secretary Colin Powell so we can ask him a few questions, which are very important. There (the stakeout) we don’t have a chance. Here (room 226) he might be able to answer our questions more.
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: On your first question, I think it would be a recommendation of my Office that we have a pass system. I suspect that the press presence here will be at an all-time high next Wednesday, and we will have the usual safety concerns, crowd control concerns. So I suspect we will do what we did last week, namely, having Conference Room 1 as an overflow room where journalists can watch live via in-house television the goings on at the stakeout, and the stakeout position might have to be moved again to the centre of the Guernica. On your second question, we can relay your interest to the US Mission. But it will be their call, of course, whether the Secretary will give a press conference or just speak at the stakeout as we would expect other Council members to do.
Question: One other question. Has the Secretary-General made any comment on Sharon’s refusal to speak to or meet with Arafat?
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: No. Richard?
Question: I know you made a comment on it yesterday. But did the Secretary-General’s dinner with the President of the United States payoff regarding his concentration on AIDS funding and help for AIDS victims in the State of Union address? Was there any contribution?
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: We don’t want to talk about what was discussed at that dinner, which was a private affair.
Question: This may be too early, but is Secretary-General Annan meeting with Colin Powell the night before or the morning of his visit here? Is there anything established yet?
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: We don’t have anything set up yet or I haven’t been informed of that. But we’ll be keeping an eye on that. We’ll let you know if anything is set up. Yes?
Question: On these same dates and who is here or not, since the dates
Mr. Blix had originally planned and the meeting in another capital is now coming for obvious reasons. Can we expect that he will be here and be present at the meeting?
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: Yes. Dr. Blix did say that he had been planning to go to Germany. And now that Foreign Minister [Joschka] Fischer will be here, he said he will be able to see Mr. Fischer here in the margins of the meeting on Wednesday. So, there are two things: (a) Blix will be here;
(b) he plans to meet with Fischer in the margins of the meeting.
Question: His being here, is he going to participate in the meeting also?
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: I assume that he would be present. But again, I don’t think that the Council has worked out all of the organizational details. I assume the Secretary-General will be there. I don’t know yet whether the Secretary-General intends to speak or whether he would ask the Council President if he might speak. These are all details that haven’t been worked out. Richard?
Question: As a veteran of this institution, or place that’s often disparaged and you hinted at the press interest. How would you describe the significance in historical terms the visit by Secretary Powell providing intelligence information before a potential war?
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to comment on a Council meeting before it takes place. The media are on a feeding frenzy on Iraq. It’s hard for us to get attention for anything else on our agenda. So, first and foremost, we’re concerned about maintaining access for you while looking after our security and safety concerns for you because I think the numbers are likely to be unprecedented. What happens in the Council Chamber, let’s wait and see. I don’t want to prejudge it. I don’t think I should.
Question: Is there going to be an open meeting?
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: That’s my understanding, yes.
Question: Do you have any idea if there are negotiations between the Government of Hamid Karzai and the Hekmatyar because this guy he was against the Taliban. At this moment, it seems to me that there are some negotiations?
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: We’ll check with the desk officer after the briefing and let you know if there is anything we have on that subject.
Richard?
**Briefing by Spokesman for General Assembly President
Good afternoon.
Yesterday, the General Assembly held a day-long meeting to consider the nominees to fill 11 seats for the permanent judges on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, but it will have to hold the voting again after it was determined that one of the voting States had not made sufficient dues payments to allow it to vote.
Earlier in the meeting yesterday morning, the Assembly had taken note that five States had made necessary payments to reduce their arrears below the amount specified in Article 19 of the Charter.
Pursuant to that decision, the States concerned participated in the three rounds of balloting.
President Kavan announced to the Assembly, in part, that in view of this situation “I have extensively consulted with the Office of Legal Affairs”, and he “deeply regretted” to inform representatives that the balloting had, therefore, become invalid. He went on to say “In view of this highly unfortunate situation, I proposed to the Assembly that the election should commence anew tomorrow, Friday, 31 January, at 10 a.m. to allow delegations to receive instructions from their capitals.”
So, the voting, again, will take place tomorrow to fill the seat of judges on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
Thank you.
Question: Who were the countries? Has this ever happened before, and how did it happen?
Spokesman for the Assembly President: The countries that were announced in the General Assembly were Antigua and Barbuda, Cape Verde, Mauritania and Kenya. And I understand that Mauritania had not made the necessary payments. Whether this has happened before, I don’t know, and I’ll check that up.
Question: How did this happen?
Spokesman for the Assembly President: I don’t know. I’ll check that up.
Question: Do you know the sum involved for Mauritania?
Spokesman for the Assembly President: I don’t know that. I can find out.
Question: How many of the rules had applied for the election of the judges to the criminal court? Rwanda had also applied to the election of the judges of the International Criminal Court. The interesting question comes up whether this rule of who’s eligible to vote because of having or not having paid the dues. Does it also apply to the election coming up next week for the International Criminal Court?
Spokesman for the Assembly President: I don’t know specifically. I can find that out.
Question: Do you have any update, or speculation if you’d even dare to go beyond that working group in the General Assembly on Security Council reform? Anything coming out from them at all?
Spokesman for the Assembly President: I know that they’re going to start their deliberations soon, and a series of meetings on that. But I can’t speculate as to what progress might be made, if any. I know this is high on the President’s agenda for the coming months, but I can’t speculate on what’s going to come out of that.
Question: Is anyone been overly vocal that you know of? Any nation or Member State that’s really been vociferous about this?
Spokesman for the Assembly President: I am not aware of that, no.
Spokesman for the Secretary-General: Thank you very much.
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