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
Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good Afternoon.

**Iraq - Humanitarian

The first United Nations security assessment team to Iraq made it to the southern city of Umm Qasr yesterday.  They will submit a report on their findings to the Secretary-General shortly.

Meanwhile, in what the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) hopes is an improving pattern of access in southern Iraq, a convoy of five trucks is traveling to the town of Safwan, south of Basra, with clean water and emergency health kits.  The trucks are carrying 35,000 liters of water each, and each one will also deliver kits to meet the health needs of 1,000 people for
three months.

The UNICEF also noted reports that humanitarian daily rations being handed out by United States and United Kingdom forces in southern Iraq are wrapped in bright yellow plastic wrap, a color that is identical to the color of a bomblet that has been used in air-drops in the fighting.  The UNICEF is urging coalition forces to use rations that are wrapped in other colors besides yellow, to avoid confusion.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that it has not seen any significant refugee arrivals, but continues to see small numbers of people crossing Iraq’s frontiers, mostly third-country nationals seeking to return home.

The World Food Programme (WFP) reported that it has concluded contracts to purchase 400,000 tons of food –- consisting of wheat flour, rice, cooking oil, sugar, pulses, cheese and milk -– to help support Iraq’s food distribution.
The WFP hopes the supplies can reach the region by the end of April and in May.  We have more details in the Amman briefing notes upstairs.

Meanwhile, at United Nations Headquarters, the Secretary-General is continuing his consultations on Iraq with the Member States’ regional group.  Yesterday afternoon, he met the Western European and Others Group, and told reporters afterward that he hoped the United Nations would be able to get aid into Iraq within the 45 days provided for in Security Council Resolution 1472.

Today, at 4 in the Trusteeship Council Chamber, he will meet with the Asian Group.

**Iraq –- Security Council

The Security Council has scheduled consultations on Iraq for tomorrow.  The first part of the consultations will be on the latest Secretary-General’s

report on UNIKOM, that is, the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission on which we reported yesterday.  The second part of the consultations tomorrow will be a humanitarian briefing by Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette.

**Security Council

The Security Council is holding consultations this morning on its programme of work for April.  In the afternoon at 3:30 the Council has scheduled a meeting with troop contributors to the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM). 

And then Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser of Mexico, the Council's President for the month, will brief you on the month’s programme after the morning consultations, at 12:30 p.m. before members attend a luncheon hosted by the Secretary-General.  The Security Council programme for April is posted on the Council web site.

And I would just comment that this luncheon with Council members is not the regular monthly luncheon.  It’s a special luncheon that the
Secretary-General has invited all members of the Council to.

**SARS Update

On the basis of new data on the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) from China and Hong Kong, the World Health Organization (WHO) has today revised its advice to international travelers recommending that persons traveling to
Hong Kong and Guangdong Province, China, consider postponing all but essential travel.  These measurers have been taken to try to prevent the further international spread of SARS.

This is the first time in the history of the WHO that such travel advice has been issued for specific geographical areas because of an outbreak of an infectious disease, as previously no global recommendations were necessary.

The Chinese Ministry of Health has further announced that a five-person WHO expert team currently in Beijing will be traveling immediately to
Guangdong Province, China, to investigate the SARS outbreak there and to confer with health officials.  The World Health Organization welcomed China as a full partner in the international effort to stop the epidemic.  We have more information in press releases and a transcript of a briefing held today in Geneva.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo

The final session of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue concluded today in
Sun City, South Africa.  Delegates from the parties signed a Final Act which endorses the Resolutions adopted last year in Sun City, the All–inclusive Accord and the Transitional Constitution.

“These agreements offer the Congolese people the best chance of restoring peace”, the Secretary-General said in a message delivered by Moustapha Niasse, the Special Envoy for the Inter-Congolese Dialogue.  He then warned that “no one should imagine that the All-inclusive Agreement will implement itself.  The most complex and difficult tasks still lie ahead.”

The Secretary-General called the parties to address urgently the continuing conflict in the east of the country, “where the population are in a situation that is arguably even worse than it was before the agreements were signed”, he said.

He pledged the United Nations’ continued support to the peace efforts, but he underscored that “our support will be of little value unless you yourselves are fully determined to implement your agreements”.  Today’s signing ceremony was witnessed by the heads of State of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.  We have copies of the Secretary-General’s message available upstairs.

**Côte d'Ivoire

The Secretary-General’s report to the Security Council on Côte d'Ivoire is out as a document today.

I would like to draw your attention to paragraph 88 of the report, in which the Secretary-General notes that the ministers nominated by the rebel movements have yet to take up their posts.  He urges the parties to overcome their differences, in order to allow the new Government to start functioning without further delay, and to address the bigger challenge of implementing the work programme set up in the Linas Marcoussis agreement.

He also mentions his serious concern about the logistical constraints facing the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) force in that country and urges donor countries to urgently provide the necessary material and financial support.  He says, “It would be unfortunate, if the troop contributors who came forward with offers to provide troops, on the basis of promises made by donor countries, were to find themselves facing the same circumstances that compelled other ECOWAS troops to put an end to their operation in Sierra Leone early in 2000.”

The Secretary-General also outlines how the United Nations can support the peace process in Côte d’Ivoire and proposes that a United Nations mission be established for this purpose.

**Viet Nam

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), along with the Governments of Canada, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, recently launched
two projects in Viet Nam that are intended to strengthen that country’s
National Assembly and provincial People’s Councils and allow the Assembly’s budgetary committee to play a more effective financial and oversight role.

One project is to train 350 newly elected deputies to the Assembly in preparing legislation and managing parliamentary affairs, while the other is to assist the Assembly and the People’s Council in playing a full role in the country’s fiscal decentralization.

The UNDP’s Resident Representative in Viet Nam, Jordan Ryan, said the effort provides the agency with a unique opportunity to empower the country’s highest legislative body, as well as local elected bodies, which, in turn, can foster transparent and accountable institutions.  We have more in a note from the UNDP.

**Press Releases

We have a couple more press releases to highlight for you today.
The first is from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Next Wednesday, 9 April, children and adults from more than 100 countries will attempt to break the world record for the largest simultaneous lesson.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, informs us that the lesson will be part of this year’s Education for All Week, with the theme “All for Girls’ Education”.  The current record, according to the Guinness Book of Records, was set in March last year when more than 28,000 children took part in a language lesson in the United Kingdom.  We will let you know how that turns out.

The second press release is from the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, on its Worldwide Air Transport Conference, which was held in Montreal last week and adopted a Declaration of Global Principles.
The declaration specifies the individual and collective roles of States in working towards giving international air transport as much economic freedom as possible, without compromising safety and security.

**Press Conference Tomorrow

And finally, a press conference to announce for tomorrow.  At 11:00 a.m. tomorrow, Professor Amartya Sen, the 1998 Nobel Prize Winner in Economics, and Dr. Paul Demeny, Distinguished Scholar at the Population Council, will be in this room to brief you on the thirty-sixth session of the Commission on Population and Development, which is taking place at Headquarters this week.

That’s all I have for you.

Questions and Answers

Question:  Fred, what’s the purpose of this special luncheon between the Secretary-General and the Security Council?

Spokesman:  I think it’s the continuing consultations he’s having with all Member States on the subject of Iraq. 

Question:  Where will it be?

Spokesman:  It’s going to be upstairs in his private office.

Question:  And can you shed any more light on (Deputy Secretary-General) Louise Fréchette, what she’ll be talking about specifically?  I know, you said

“humanitarian briefing”.  Is that just an update on where things stand, or is it sort of on future planning?

Spokesman:  Be careful on future planning now.  She’s talking specifically about the humanitarian situation.  I assume she’ll just be updating them on where we stand with adaptation for “oil-for-food”. 

Question:  And do you have anything more on this story about the aid packages wrapped in yellow paper that resemble, you said, bomblets, where they were being dropped or anything more than what you read?

Spokesman:  I don’t have anything here, but I’d refer you to UNICEF, which issued the warning and the recommendation to the coalition forces that they change the colour of the wrapping.  Serge?

Question:  Fred, do you care to comment on the letter from the
Foreign Minister of Iraq regarding the bias situation of the Secretary-General, which is being issued as a document of the Security Council?

Spokesman:  No, I have no comment on that letter.

Question:  Will he discuss this matter with the Security Council tomorrow?

Spokesman:  I don’t know what’s going to come up at that Council session.  If a Member State raises it, that’s possible.  But I am not aware that from the Secretariat side we intend to address it.

Question:  Would UNSECOORD, I guess, be doing the security assessment at any opening where aid would be coming in?  They’re doing it at Umm Qasr; would they be expected to do it wherever the United Nations would be moving in?

Spokesman:  Yes.  That would be standard procedure.  At Umm Qasr we’ll wait to see what the report says and what our reaction will be to it.
But should the security assessment be favourable, I assume that would mean the possibility of sending some international staff back to Umm Qasr.  I understand the World Food Programme has storage facilities there for grain, which would allow us to begin receiving shipments and putting them in storage in preparation for taking them further inland.  And then, as we had indications that other areas were secure for humanitarian operations, we would again send another assessment team and they would report.  If the report is positive, then we would creep in, step by step, inland to resume our humanitarian work at full speed.  Yes? 

Question:  Any assistance going to the north of Iraq...(inaudible)?

Spokesman:  I have nothing to add to what I have already told you -- that we have a large number of local personnel working for UNICEF and other agencies who continue operating in the north.  I think yesterday I talked about a first truck shipment of humanitarian supplies entering from Turkey.  So, the efforts continue using private truckers to try to get aid in and using local staff to distribute it.

Thank you very much.

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