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.

Briefing by the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

Good afternoon.

**Security Council

Shortly after 10:30 a.m., in the presence of the Secretary-General, the Security Council began an open briefing on Iraq, with chief weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei providing updates on the status of inspections.

All Council members, including 11 foreign ministers, and Iraq, are inscribed to speak.

Following the meeting, the Secretary-General is hosting a luncheon with Security Council members.

The Council has scheduled closed consultations on Iraq later this afternoon.  The program states a start time of 4:00 p.m., but we understand now that the Council President will be announcing a new time this afternoon at the end of the open meeting.

**Blix

The Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), Hans Blix, formally presented his twelfth quarterly report to the Security Council this morning.

This twelfth report is the first one that actually describes three months of inspections, Blix said.  In addition, he updated the Council on developments since the publication of the report.

Most notable in those recent developments is the destruction of the

al-Samoud missiles.  Blix noted that, while until today 34 al-Samoud missiles had been destroyed, he has been informed that no work on the destruction took place today.  “ I hope this is a temporary break”, Blix said.

The destruction of those missiles is a substantial measure of disarmament Blix told Council members, the first since the middle of the 1990s.  “We are not watching the breaking of toothpicks.  Lethal weapons are being destroyed”, he said.

Blix also highlighted movement on a number of other fronts, notably information relating to chemical and biological weapons.  He cautioned against a rush to judgment on the accelerated pace of initiatives from the Iraq side since January.  “This is welcome”, he said, “but the value of these measures must be

soberly judged by how many question marks they actually succeed in straightening out.  This is not yet clear.”

“How much time would it take to resolve the key remaining disarmament tasks?” Blix asked.  In answering his own question, he said that while cooperation can and is to be immediate, disarmament, and at any rate the verification of it, cannot be done instantly.

“Even with a proactive Iraqi attitude”, he said, “induced by continued outside pressure, it would still take some time to verify sites and items, analyze documents, interview relevant persons, and draw conclusions.”  The full text of his remarks is available upstairs.

**ElBaradei

In his presentation to the Security Council, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said that nuclear inspections in Iraq are moving forward.

He told the Council there is no indication of resumed nuclear activities at any inspected sites or in buildings that have been identified as reconstructed or newly built since 1998, nor is there any indication that Iraq has attempted to import uranium since 1990.

ElBaradei said, “After three months of intrusive inspections, we have, to date, found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq”.  He added that, over the past three weeks, possibly as a result of ever-increasing international pressure, Iraq has been forthcoming in its cooperation, including private interviews and the provision of evidence.

**UNMOVIC

Today in Iraq, a biological team from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC)inspected the maintenance department of the railway station in Mosul, among other sites in that city.

Another biological team returned to the al-Aziziyah Airfield and Firing Range to continue supervising the excavation of R-400 aerial bombs and they took samples from the remainders of containers that Iraq said had been used to transport biological agents.

**Iraq – Humanitarian planning

The High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers has returned to Geneva after completing a 10-day, three-nation visit to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.

In Iran yesterday, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) noted that Lubbers visited possible new campsites for Iraqi refugees in the west of the country.  Lubbers said that while war is not inevitable, it is important that governments in the region and the humanitarian community work to be prepared.  He said the Iranian government has been exemplary in its efforts to handle a possible Iraqi influx.

The UNHCR said 10 sites, each designed to accommodate about 20,000 people, were being planned.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) said that 60 per cent of the population in Iraq depended totally on the oil-for-food programme to survive.  If the programme was interrupted, this would cause serious problems.  The population had about six weeks of supplies.  The WFP was pre-positioning food in the region, which could help 900,000 persons for 10 weeks.

**Secretary-General’s Hague Trip

This Sunday the Secretary-General will arrive in The Hague in the Netherlands.

On Tuesday, he will be present at the inauguration of the International Criminal Court, which will include the swearing in of the court’s first

18 judges.

He’s expected to deliver a speech at the ceremony in which he’ll say how important it is that the judges and the States parties to the Statute do everything possible to make sure the court sets a shining example of the highest standards of impartiality.

The Secretary-General will also be meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Jaap G. de Hoop Scheffer.

As you know, the Secretary-General has also invited the Turkish Cypriot Leader, Rauf Denktash, and the Greek Cypriot Leader, Tassos Papadopoulos to come to The Hague as a follow up to the recent discussions he had with them in Nicosia.

The Secretary-General is expected to hold a press conference in The Hague late on Monday afternoon.  He will be back in New York on Wednesday.

**UNRWA

In a press release issued by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the agency’s

Commissioner General Peter Hansen said he was deeply distressed and saddened by the loss of life in Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza strip, and by the “indiscriminate and excessive use of force by the Israeli military in densely populated residential areas.”

According to UNRWA, during an eight-hour incursion by Israeli military that began shortly before midnight on 5 March, 11 Palestinians were killed, including three youths under fifteen years of age.  Some 140 Palestinians were injured.

The relentless cycle of violence had only the day before claimed the lives of 15 Israelis, many of them children, in a suicide bombing on a bus in Haifa, Hansen said.  “With each succeeding attack and counter-attack, the will to peace is weakened”, he added “and the prospect of a just solution to the conflict made ever more tenuous.”  The full press release from UNRWA is available upstairs. 

**Democratic Republic of the Congo

We have a statement attributable to the Spokesman on the subject of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  I will read only a part of it here.

“The Secretary-General was pleased to learn that the parties to the

inter-Congolese dialogue reached agreement in Pretoria on 6 March 2003 on all outstanding issues relating to the draft transitional constitution, military and security issues.  He commends them for the spirit of cooperation and compromise they showed in the interest of peace and stability in their country.

“At the same time, he is deeply concerned by the heavy fighting over the control of Bunia which took place recently and the threat it poses to the civilian populations, who have already paid an unacceptably high price in the many years of the conflict.  It is extremely disquieting that the fighting could result in a new round of inter-ethnic violence and massacres.

“The Secretary-General urges all parties in the strongest possible terms to cease hostilities immediately and stop any acts of violence against civilians, including humanitarian personnel.”  We have copies of the complete text available upstairs.

**Refugees from Central African Republic

The UNHCR says it is checking reports of new refugees from the Central African Republic turning up in the Republic of the Congo.  This reported new influx into the Republic of the Congo from the south-westernmost part of CAR comes amidst a continuing outflow of Central African refugees and former Chadian immigrants from the north of the country into southern Chad.

**Liberia - UNHCR

The UNHCR expressed its extreme sadness at the news that two aid workers for one of its implementing partners, the US-based Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), were killed in Liberia.  The workers had been missing since last week's rebel attack in Toe Town, in the eastern part of the country.  There were no details on the whereabouts of a third ADRA worker who had gone missing.

The UNHCR says it remains extremely concerned about the fate of some

2,500 Ivorian refugees and other West Africans who had been staying in their Toe Town transit centre and scattered into the surrounding forest in the wake of the attack.

**Al-Qaeda Sanctions List

The 1267 sanctions committee has reformatted its consolidated list on individuals and entities linked to Al-Qaeda.  It is available on the Web.  In a press release announcing the reformatted list, the Committee also strongly encourages Member States to provide it with any information currently missing on the list.

**Kyrgyzstan

Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan finished a three-day visit to Kyrgyzstan today, in which he met with President Askar Akaev and other senior officials, to discuss recent initiatives advancing human rights in the country and stressing the importance of actually implementing human rights.  He urged that the recently revised Constitution, as well as relevant laws, be interpreted and applied in the letter and spirit of international human rights norms.  We have a press release on that.

**International Women’s Day

Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette addressed the discussion to mark International Women’s Day, which will be observed tomorrow.  She said that the Millennium Development Goals made it clear that gender equality was not only a goal in its own right, but critical to the ability to achieve all the others.  She went on to say that the focus must be on the education of girls and that women must be at the centre of the fight against HIV/AIDS.

“There is no time to lose”, she said, “if we are to reach the Millennium Development Goals by the target date of 2015.  Only by investing in the world’s women can we expect to get there.”  We have the full text of her speech upstairs.

**Press Releases

To mark International Women’s Day tomorrow, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is calling attention to the large number of women and girls who die in childbirth in developing countries.  More than half a million women and girls die each year giving birth, 99 per cent in developing countries.  The UNICEF says in sub-Saharan Africa a woman has a one in 13 chance of dying in childbirth, while in developed countries the figure is one in 4,085.  We have a press release with more details.

And one more press release to highlight for you, also on International Women’s Day.  Tomorrow, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Koichiro Matsuura, delivers his message on the day at a training centre for girls and women.  He will also present the UNESCO bronze medal to

Pauline Kabore, one of the first women to benefit from the UNESCO literacy programme in Burkina Faso, and who is now a trainer herself.

**The Week Ahead at the United Nations

And since it’s Friday, we have the week ahead to help you plan your coverage of the United Nations next week.

Questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Could you clarify?  You mentioned about Al-Qaeda, the list that was reformatted that will be available on the Web.

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  Yeah.  You want the Web?

Question:  Do you have an address or what is it pertaining to?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  I don’t have it with me.  But if you come up to my office we’ll give it to you and we’ll give you more details.

Question:  I have another question.  Have you received a response to reports of violations along the Iraq-Kuwait border?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  No.  We did report to the Security Council yesterday and I am not aware that the Security Council has taken up this matter.  We will be reporting further developments today.

Question:  When today?  Later on today or…?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  I believe it’s just in the process of going to the President now.

Thank you very much.

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