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

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

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.

Spokesman for Secretary-General

Good Afternoon.

**Noon Guest

Our guest today at the Noon briefing will be Nitin Desai, the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, and he’ll be here to talk about Monday’s meeting between the Economic and Social Council and the Bretton Woods institutions.  This follows the Spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington this weekend.

**Humanitarian

On humanitarian developments in Iraq, the absence of any real improvement in the security situation in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities continues to cause great alarm, a UNICEF spokesman in Amman, Jordan, said this morning.  When chaos and lawlessness rule, the most vulnerable segment of the population –- the country’s children -– are certain to suffer, he said.

The World Health Organization added that without civil order, it is virtually impossible for hospitals to function effectively.  The agency urges the military forces and the remaining civilian authorities to act quickly to restore law and order and to ensure the safety of hospitals and hospital staff.  The looting of hospitals and medical supplies is totally unacceptable and must be prevented, he said. 

A WHO truck containing some 13 metric tonnes of medicines has arrived in Baghdad, but the lack of law and order is preventing the distribution of those supplies.  WHO is working with national staff and other partners in the Iraqi capital to ensure that the supplies are secured and available for delivery to the hospitals, where they are needed as soon as it is safe to do so.

However, UNICEF was able to report one encouraging development.  The drivers of four UNICEF water tankers dispatched to Zubair yesterday said the local population had organized itself to ensure an orderly distribution of relief supplies.  More tankers have left Kuwait for southern Iraq today, while others were travelling from Turkey to areas in the north.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says that large groups of Iraqis and other foreign nationals are reportedly still moving from Baghdad and other cities, trying to find security and safety. 

A UNHCR team dispatched to the Iranian border town of Mehran met at the border with representatives of the 30,000 displaced Iraqis and was told that they have no immediate intention of crossing into Iran.  Iranian authorities have sent food, water and medicine to them.  The full text of the Amman briefing is available in my office.

**Security Council

The Security Council is holding a public meeting entitled:  “The Security Council and Regional Organizations -- Facing the New Challenges to International Peace and Security”.

The Secretary-General addressed the meeting with six regional organizations, telling them “The feeling of global insecurity has seldom, if ever, been greater than it is today”.  He went on to say, “Equally, there has never been a more keenly felt desire among peoples and nations for a peace and security framework based firmly on the international rule of law”.

He concluded:  “We need to move towards creating a network of effective mutually reinforcing mechanisms -- regional and global -- that are flexible and responsive to the reality we live in today” and that “the meeting today promises to inject new momentum” into the partnership between the United Nations and regional organizations.

In addition to the 15 Council members, representatives of the African Union, the Organization of American States, the European Union, the League of Arab States, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Economic Community of West African States are speaking during the meeting, which is designed to encourage an inter-active dialogue.

The meeting is chaired by Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez in his capacity as President of the Security Council.  He will speak at the stakeout after the meeting.  The list of speakers and the Secretary-General’s statement are available upstairs.

**IAEA -- Iraq

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has taken note of media reports that US forces in Iraq have gone to the Iraqi nuclear research facility at Tuwaitha, and claimed to have found radioactive nuclear materials there.

The Agency, in a press release that we will be putting out shortly, said that most of the nuclear material at Tuwaitha is placed under safeguard, and was not required to be removed following the 1991 Gulf War because it was not ready for use in nuclear weapons.  The IAEA has requested the US Government to take adequate measures to ensure the safety and security of nuclear materials which are under IAEA seal at Tuwaitha until its inspectors can return to Iraq.

IAEA inspectors have visited the facility several times in recent months, and document higher-than-normal radiation levels in some of the buildings because of past Iraqi nuclear activity there.  The IAEA has also completed its latest semi-annual report on Iraq, and will be giving the Secretary-General a copy this afternoon.  The Secretary-General transmits these reports to the Security Council, and we would expect to be able to provide you with copies once the Council members have received them.

**DRC

Our colleagues at the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) inform us that yesterday, the International Committee for support to the transition in DRC held its first meeting at the mission’s headquarters in Kinshasa.  Members include the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Belgium, Canada, Angola, Mozambique and the European Commission.  There is a press release upstairs with more information.

**Liberia -- Humanitarian

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Liberia reports that attacks on two camps for internally displaced persons in Liberia have killed four civilians and displaced thousands more. 

OCHA says it is also receiving reports of fighting between Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebels and government forces in Ganta, near the border with Guinea.  Thousands of civilians in that area have been cut off from humanitarian assistance.

**World Food Programme

The World Food Programme made an urgent appeal today for $205 million to provide food relief in Ethiopia over the next year.  The agency said it would need 480,000 metric tonnes of food aid to cover the needs of 4.6 million people affected by drought.  WFP has received 70 per cent of the food aid it requires for Ethiopia for this year and has stock to last until August, but said additional aid is needed to avoid a break in food supplies and to extend the programme until March 2004.

In other news, WFP announced today the creation of a supply base located in Cambodia that will serve all of Asia.  The Asia Regional Response Facility will receive, store and dispatch stocks that can be rushed to any humanitarian crisis in Asia within hours of the outbreak.  The warehouse is modelled on the WFP facility in Brindisi, Italy.

Finally, WFP today expressed gratitude for the donation by the Government of Japan of $84.5 million to be used to assist refugees, internally displaced people and victims of natural disasters in Africa, Asia, the Near East and Latin America.  The donation comes at a time when WFP is concerned that the Iraq crisis would divert donor attention and funds from other areas, particularly Africa.  We have press a releases on all those items.

**ICTY

Naser Oric, the commander of the Bosnian forces in Srebrenica during the Bosnian war, was arrested yesterday in Tuzla by NATO’s Stabilization Force and then transferred today to the detention unit in The Hague of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.  Oric was indicted by the Tribunal on charges that Bosnian military police in Srebrenica abused several detained Bosnian Serbs, subjecting them to physical abuse and even killing some, between September 1992 and March 1993.  We have a press release on that.

**UNDP

In a letter to the General Assembly, which is out on the racks today, the Secretary-General says that, following consultations with members of the UN Development Programme’s executive board, he is requesting the General Assembly to confirm the appointment of Mark Malloch Brown for another four-year term as UNDP Administrator, beginning this 1 July.  Malloch Brown was previously confirmed to an initial four-year term as UNDP Administrator, which began on July 1, 1999.

**SARS

In an update on the global outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, the World Health Organization said today it is working with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other partner agencies on the possibility that SARS may be caused by contact with animals.

As there is no epidemiological information on transmission through goods, products or animals available yet, WHO said that at present it cannot conclude that any goods, products or animals arriving from SARS-affected areas pose a risk to public health.  However, WHO will continue to monitor closely the evolution of SARS, in collaboration with ministries of health, the FAO and other partner agencies.

We also have an overview on the status of the global SARS outbreak by WHO’s Executive Director of the Communicable Disease Programmes, Dr. David Heymann.  He outlines the status of the epidemic, what is known about the disease and what causes it, and how outbreaks in the “hot zones” around the world are evolving.  Dr. Heymann will be our guest next Tuesday to answer your questions, after which he will deliver a briefing in Conference Room 1.  You can get more information in several press releases available in my office.

**Press Releases

A few other press releases to highlight for you today.  The United Nations Environment Programme unveiled a new plan to use “hot rocks” to produce electricity in Eastern Africa.  Geothermal power uses the steam produced by hot rocks deep within the earth to generate electricity and is a promising form of renewable energy.  A meeting of energy experts, scientists, engineers and private sector representatives taking place in Nairobi set the challenging, but achievable target, of providing 1,000 megawatts of electricity from geothermal sources.  This is enough to serve several million people.

The second press release comes from the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the arm of the World Health Organization operating in the Americas.  PAHO yesterday launched a Virtual Public Health Campus which will provide a variety of distance learning courses in health policy making for individuals, as well as institutions throughout the region.  Through the virtual campus, health workers will be in constant contact with experts to discuss specific situations to improve the quality of health care.

**World Chronicle Television programme

Another World Chronicle TV programme to announce for you, No. 888, will feature Olara Otunnu, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, and you can see that at 3:30 p.m. today on in-house television channels 3 or 31. 

**The Week Ahead at the United Nations

And we have The Week Ahead at the United Nations to help you plan your work for next week.

Any questions before we go to Richard?

Questions and Answers

Question:      According to the speech of Amre Moussa, the Secretary-General of the Arab League this morning, he blamed the Security Council for not being able to stop the war in Iraq and doing nothing.  The question is, why can’t the United Nations at this moment at least have some way to stop that anarchy that is in Iraq?  The stealing of material that belong to the people or burning of the houses and all the things that we’re learning?

Spokesman:  First of all, you’re talking about a war.  So, the people that can respond in the way that you’re suggesting they should respond are the military forces in the region, particularly the coalition forces.  What can the United Nations do?  Well, that question you should put to the Security Council.  But, in circumstances of war, where the United Nations has no involvement and indeed gave no authorization, there’s little if anything that we can do, apart from providing the kind of humanitarian assistance that I outlined to you earlier in this briefing.

Okay.  Richard, welcome.

Spokesman for General Assembly President

Thank you. Good afternoon.

At this morning’s meeting of the General Assembly, the General Committee’s recommendation for inclusion of a new agenda item “Global Road Safety crisis” was adopted by consensus for debate in plenary.

The plenary then discussed the draft resolution entitled “The role of diamonds in fuelling conflict:  breaking the link between the illicit transaction of rough diamonds and armed conflict as a contribution to prevention and settlement of conflicts”.  This was introduced by South Africa.

A little background.  The fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly requested the countries participating in the Kimberley Process to submit a report to the 57^th General Assembly on progress made with regard to the implementation of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme for rough diamonds.

In brief, the Kimberley Process was established through initiatives of southern African diamond-producing countries in 2000 to:  stem the flow of rough diamonds used by rebels to finance armed conflict aimed at overthrowing legitimate governments, thereby making a substantial contribution to international peace and security; protect the legitimate diamond industry, upon which many countries are dependent for their economic and social development; and achieve the above through the creation and implementation of an international certification scheme for rough diamonds, based primarily on national certification schemes and on internationally agreed minimum standards.  After meetings in Windhoek, Brussels, Moscow, United Kingdom, Angola and Botswana in 2001, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) was adopted at the ministerial meeting held at Interlaken, Switzerland, in November 2002.

14 countries spoke at this morning’s meeting.  The draft resolution will be voted on at the plenary meeting on Tuesday, 15 April.  Also at the meeting next Tuesday, the General Assembly will discuss appointment of a member of the Committee on Conferences, Confirmation of the appointment of the Administrator of UNDP and hear reports of the 5^th Committee.

Any questions?

Thank you.

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