DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

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.

Good afternoon.

**UNMOVIC

The twelfth quarterly report by the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) was distributed to Security Council members on Friday afternoon and is now available on the racks.  The report covers events only up to 26 February.  Developments after that date will be mentioned when UNMOVIC’s Executive Chairman, Hans Blix, briefs the Council some time this week.

In the report, Blix writes, "Iraq could have made greater efforts to find any remaining proscribed items or provide credible evidence showing the absence of such items….  It is hard to understand why a number of the measures, which are now being taken, could not have been initiated earlier”.  Blix also notes that Iraq has been cooperating on matters of process, providing prompt access to any site.  “There have thus been no sanctuaries in space”, Blix says, “nor has there been any sanctuaries in time, as inspections have taken place on holidays as well as week days.”

On the ground in Iraq, the destruction of the proscribed Al-Samoud 2 missiles has been going on since Saturday, under the supervision of UN weapons inspectors.  So far, 16 missiles and two warheads have been destroyed.  Inspectors are also supervising the destruction of the casting chamber.  One has been totally destroyed and work on the second will be concluded this evening.

A technical meeting was held between UNMOVIC and Iraqi officials at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry last evening, regarding the Iraqi proposals for the quantitative verification of VX and anthrax that Iraq declared it had unilaterally destroyed at specific locations.  Iraq indicated that it would soon provide UNMOVIC with their proposed approaches.

The UNMOVIC conducted a private interview with an Iraqi scientist in the afternoon.  In addition to two private interviews, which were conducted by UNMOVIC on Friday evening, two more interviews had been requested that day.

One interviewee, an Iraqi biological scientist, insisted that his interview be

tape-recorded, which was not acceptable to UNMOVIC, and as for the other requested interview, Iraqi authorities informed UNMOVIC that the interviewee was no longer in the country.

Teams of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and UNMOVIC are continuing their regular visits to numerous sites.  For more information, you can pick up the briefing note from Baghdad.

**Security Council

Guinea has assumed the Security Council presidency for the month of March.  No meetings or consultations on the whole are scheduled for today.

Council President Ambassador Mamady Traoré is holding bilateral talks today with other members on the programme of work for the month.  Following consultations on the programme tomorrow, he will brief you here in Room 226.

Today at 3:30 p.m., the Security Council sanctions committee on Liberia is scheduled to meet in Conference Room 7.

**Liberia

Late Friday, the International Contact Group on Liberia issued a statement to the press after wrapping up discussions here.  The Group urged the Government of Liberia and the rebel movement Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) to enter immediately and without preconditions into negotiations on a ceasefire, as they have both committed to do.  In this regard, it urged both parties to accept Mali as mediator on behalf of the Economic Community of West African States.  The Group agreed to call upon the Security Council to consider authorizing a monitoring mechanism for the ceasefire.  The Group also concluded that the conditions for free and fair elections did not exist, and urged the Government of Liberia to act rapidly to create such conditions before elections are held.

Meanwhile, on the ground, more than 2,500 Ivorians and other nationals have been forced to flee a transit camp in eastern Liberia after fighting erupted, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.  You can read more about the situation on the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Web site.

**Middle East

On Saturday, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), an Israeli tank was fired upon near the Khan Younis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.  During the retaliatory fire by Israeli forces, a twelve-year-old girl was shot in the head while sitting at her desk in an UNRWA school.

On Sunday, 2 March, Peter Hansen, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, visited her and her family at the intensive care unit of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.  Hansen expressed his dismay at the Israeli military's indiscriminate use of force in civilian areas of the Palestinian territories.

**Human Rights/Burundi

High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello yesterday wrapped up a three-day trip to Burundi, during which he met with the President, Vice-President, and other senior officials, and strongly appealed to all parties to commit themselves to the peace process and the Arusha agreement.

The High Commissioner requested that civilians be protected by the army and the armed groups, and called for an end to the culture of impunity.  Trust can be restored through making accountable those who are responsible for gross human-rights violations, such as the massacre that took place in Itaba, and settling the issue of prisoners and detainees.

Mr. Vieira de Mello added that the recruitment of child soldiers and their participation in the conflict is unacceptable.

**HIV/AIDS

The G-8 Contact Group will hold a ministerial level meeting on food security here at United Nations Headquarters on Wednesday.  The

Secretary-General will address the meeting on the link between food security, HIV/AIDS and governance in Africa.

As you will remember, the Secretary-General announced on 20 February the creation of the Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa.  The Commission will look at the challenges to governance of the epidemic and design effective responses to the threats.  It will meet four or five times in its 18-month life and will be supported by a secretariat and task teams dealing with specific topics such as public services, food security and the family.  It will present interim reports and a final report based on the input from expert groups and the task teams. 

Commissioners will be chosen from a number of eminent Africans and

non-Africans who have offered their leadership and weight to the fight against HIV/AIDS, including prominent political, academic and religious leaders.  The secretariat of the Commission will be based at the Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa.

**Tobacco Control

Late on Friday, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body for the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control agreed on a text of the Convention governing tobacco taxation, smoking prevention and treatment, illicit trade, advertising, sponsorship and promotion, and product regulation.

Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), called the agreement a milestone, saying, “It means nations will be working systematically together to protect the lives of present and future generations, and take on shared responsibilities to make this world a better and healthier place”.  The final text will be presented to the World Health Assembly in May for adoption.  You can see the text on the WHO Web site and we have a press release with the details.

**Europe/Economic Report

The Economic Survey of Europe, put out by the Economic Commission for Europe, will be formally issued later today, providing details on the effects of rising geopolitical tensions, including the uncertainty over Iraq, on the region’s economies.

The report’s embargo will be lifted at 7 p.m. New York time today.  Press releases are available on the document counter.  For more information, or to obtain Internet access to the report itself, contact Tim Wall at 963-5851.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

Out on the racks is a letter from the Secretary-General to the President of the Security Council, informing him of his intention to reappoint Ambassador Mahmoud Kassem as the Chair of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for a period of six months.  The Council extended the panel’s mandate when it adopted resolution 1457 on 24 January.  The reconstituted Expert Panel is expected to reassemble in early March in New York for consultations, including with Member States, before proceeding to the Great Lakes region.

**Press Release

The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization today issued a report on diet and chronic disease.  The report aims to identify new recommendations for governments on diet and exercise to tackle the increasing number of people suffering from diseases such as diabetes, some cancers, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.  The report includes advice on reducing foods rich in saturated fats and sugars, such as snacks and fast foods, cutting the amount of salt in foods, increasing the intake of fruit and vegetables, and increasing daily physical activity.  We have both a press release and the executive summary of the report in my office.

**Budget

We have two more full payments of contributions to the 2003 regular budget today.  Brunei Darussalam made a payment of more than $445,000 and, for the first time, new Member Timor-Leste paid more than $13,000.  We now have 56 fully paid-up Member States.

**Press Conference

At 11 a.m. tomorrow, the Delegation of the European Commission will be hosting a press conference by Pernille Frahm of Denmark, Vice-President of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left, and three other members who will brief you on their efforts to obtain a peaceful resolution of the crisis in Iraq.

That’s all I have for you.  Any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Has the Secretary-General heard anything from the Pope about a possible visit by the Pope to the United Nations to appeal to the Security Council?

Deputy Spokesman:  I am certainly not aware of this.  I will check for you after the briefing.  [It was later announced that at this time no such information has reached the Secretariat.]

Question:  Do you have a date yet for when Hans Blix is going to do the briefing at the Security Council?  Is it going to be Friday or not?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, as I’ve said, the President is meeting the Members.  And tomorrow, there will be consultations on the programme of work for March.  Only then, we’ll know which date has been chosen for that briefing.  As I have said just now, the President will brief you in this room tomorrow afternoon.

All right.  Have a very good afternoon.  Thank you.

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