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 Hua Jiang, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
**Secretary-General Addresses European Conference
The Secretary-General met with French President Jacques Chirac this morning before the opening of the European Conference in Athens. The President raised the situation in Côte d’Ivoire before turning to Iraq. They discussed approaches to post-conflict Iraq and the prospects for the broader region.
At a press encounter afterwards, the President affirmed France’s support for a central UN role in restoring stability to Iraq and to the region. The Secretary-General said that he hoped that, in a short while, details of the UN role in Iraq could be defined and that the Security Council would work together to help the Iraqi people rebuild their country and a peaceful future.
The Secretary-General then joined some 40 European leaders for the opening of the European Conference. Referring to the war in Iraq, he said, “No issue has so divided the world since the end of the cold war”. But, he added, “The world cannot afford a long period of recrimination”.
He proposed defining a set of principles around which all could rally in order to advance the well-being of the Iraqi people: the sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity of Iraq; the right of Iraqis to determine their own system of government and control their own natural resources; the need to help Iraqis end their isolation and return to normal life; and the need for any UN role to be established by the Security Council and given the necessary resources.
In his speech, he also told the EU leaders that he shared their disappointment that Cyprus is entering the Union as a still-divided island, but he added that he did not doubt that there will eventually be a settlement, and that “all that is lacking is the necessary political will”. We have copies of his statement upstairs.
Costas Simitis, the Prime Minister of Greece, who chaired the meeting as EU President, then read out a Presidential Statement approved by EU members, which said, in part, that “the UN must play a central role, including in the process leading towards self-government for the Iraqi people, utilizing its capacity and experiences in post-conflict nation building”.
In the margins of the European Conference, the Secretary-General met with the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and then with the Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi. Iraq dominated both of those discussions.
The Secretary-General attended an official luncheon hosted by Prime Minister Simitis, and then, in the evening, was to have a meeting with him and his Foreign Minister, George Papandreou. The Secretary-General and his wife Nane are later to be the dinner guests of Mr. and Mrs. Simitis.
**Secretary-General Travels
Although his official work in Athens concludes today, the Secretary-General’s travels in Europe will continue through the end of this month. On Monday, the Secretary-General will leave Greece to travel to Vienna, where he will have an official visit, at the invitation of the Austrian Government, on 22 and
23 April.
Next Tuesday morning, he will meet with the Director-General of the UN Office in Vienna, Antonio Maria Costa, and with UN staff in Vienna, before having a meeting with Austrian President Thomas Klestil. Then on Wednesday, he will meet with Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, and also will visit the Austrian Parliament.
Later that day, he will travel to Geneva, where, on Thursday the 24th, he will address the Commission on Human Rights before leaving for Paris. On Friday and Saturday in France, the Secretary-General will attend the two-day spring session of the Chief Executives Board, which brings together the heads of all UN departments, agencies and programmes. This session of the Board will focus on follow-up to the Millennium Summit, and the challenge of sustainable development.
The following Sunday, 27 April, the Secretary-General will travel back to Switzerland, for an official visit, which will include meetings in Bern on Tuesday the 29th with Swiss President Pascal Couchepin and other senior officials. He is scheduled to return to New York on Wednesday, 30 April.
**Iraq -– Humanitarian Assistance
A spokesman for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Amman said that, according to UNICEF national staff in Baghdad, all civic services have essentially ceased to exist in the capital. There is no garbage collection, and this means that refuse is piling up all over the city, further adding to the risks of disease. Even at hospitals, there is no one to collect the refuse, with stacks of bio-waste piling up outside hospitals. UNICEF is now looking into ways to contract trucks and drivers to begin collecting refuse in the worst hit areas. The World Health Organization (WHO) also reports that security continues to be an issue in the health sector.
Clean water continues to be a priority need. UNICEF staff in Baghdad are contracting water tankers to begin hauling clean water to hospitals. Also, tankers from Kuwait carrying 400,000 litres of water went to Basra. Other tankers went to Az Zubair and Umm Qasr.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) today opened its first humanitarian lifeline into Baghdad since the start of the Iraq crisis, when a food aid convoy rolled out of Jordan headed for the Iraqi capital. Some 50 trucks loaded with 1,400 metric tons of urgently needed wheat flour crossed the Jordanian-Iraqi border at Al-Karama early this morning and are expected to reach Baghdad later on Thursday or tomorrow depending on road conditions.
The convoy’s departure establishes WFP’s second and, potentially, most important humanitarian corridor into Iraq in less than two weeks. Food aid is already flowing into the northern governorates through Turkey, but Aqaba in Jordan is expected to become a key port of entry for food being shipped to central and southern Iraq. For more information, please pick-up the Amman briefing notes upstairs.
**Iraq - UNESCO
On a related note, Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) told experts meeting in Paris today that the fate of Iraqi heritage lies in the hands of the international community. “The only way that we will be able to safeguard these treasures and give them back to humanity”, he said, “is if we can count on the cohesion, coordination and determination of all concerned, at every level”.
He added that he intended to ask the Secretary-General to submit the question of the illicit traffic in Iraqi artifacts to the Security Council for the adoption of a resolution imposing an embargo, over a limited period, on the acquisition of all Iraqi cultural objects and calling for the return of any items to Iraq that may have already been acquired.
At the end of the meeting, the assembled experts issued a statement in which they called for Iraq’s cultural assets to be guarded by the military forces in place and also supported an immediate ban on the trade of Iraqi cultural objects. We have a press release with more information and after this briefing, at
12:30 p.m., UNESCO experts in Paris will be available to talk to you via video phone.
**Security Council
The Security Council is holding consultations on the Central African Republic and the Central African region. The Secretary-General’s Representative General Lamine Cissé, who heads the UN Peace-Building Mission in the Central African Republic (BONUCA), briefed Council members on the latest developments in that country and the work of his mission.
Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Tuliameni Kalomoh then briefed on the regional situation in Central Africa. Kalomoh proposed that the Secretary-General would like to dispatch a multidisciplinary mission to the Central African region to assess needs and challenges and to consult with governments and subregional institutions on how best to tackle these issues. Details of such a mission and dates are still being worked out.
Security Council President, Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser of Mexico, is expected to read out press statements on both subjects. And for the record, the Council President early yesterday evening read out a press statement on Burundi in which members paid tribute to the upcoming political change in Burundi. They underlined the importance of President Pierre Buyoya’s commitment to the 1st of May handover.
**Secretary-General’s Report on Kosovo
In his latest report to the Security Council on Kosovo, which is out on the racks today, the Secretary-General says that, in the first three months of this year, a significant process of transferring further responsibilities to the Kosovo Provisional Institutions of Self-Government was launched. However, he adds, “Kosovo still has some way to go in establishing representative and functioning institutions”.
At the same time, the Secretary-General says, the transfer must proceed, so that the Provisional Institutions become accountable to the people of Kosovo. Yet he also calls for all local leaders to work together to consolidate these institutions by focusing on substance and practical results instead of holding institutional developments hostage to political or ethnic differences.
The UN Mission in Kosovo notes an apparent increase in organized crime, and ethnic violence and crime seems to be on the rise again after a decline in December 2002. The Security Council has scheduled an open meeting on Kosovo next Wednesday.
**Kosovo
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Kosovo, Michael Steiner, yesterday visited the municipality of Zvecan, where a railway bridge had been blown up on 12 April, and he said that bombing was “an act of terrorism and not an ordinary crime”.
Speaking to reporters at the bridge site, which was severely damaged in the bombing, he said, “This is what the whole world is trying to combat”. Two people, suspected to have been behind the bombing, also died in the explosion. Steiner said that UN police and the Kosovo Force peacekeepers would increase their presence in the area, and on bridges connecting Kosovo to Serbia. We have a press release with more details.
**Afghanistan
The UN Mission in Afghanistan confirmed that all troops aligned to Jumbesh and Jamiat have withdrawn from the centre of Maimana City in Faryab to the outskirts of the city, according to the agreement signed by the two on Friday,
10 April, following the recent outbreak of fighting in that part of the country on 8 April.
An agreement was also reached on the evening of 14 April to form a neutral police force with names of nominees to be submitted to the Governor. UNAMA will provide a police advisor and a military advisor to the force. Calm has returned to the city, people are getting on with business and United Nations and non-governmental organization offices are open for business. You can pick up the press briefing note from Kabul with more about Afghanistan.
**Afghanistan -- Insecurity
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers expressed serious concern over the deteriorating security situation in parts of Afghanistan, saying it was hampering efforts to support returning refugees and internally displaced people. UNHCR urged that concrete action be taken to improve the security situation in southern Afghanistan. Large areas of south-eastern Afghanistan remain off limits to aid agency staff. There’s a press release with more information.
**Sudan –- Human Rights
The Commission on Human Rights yesterday afternoon passed resolutions expressing concern at the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Turkmenistan and Myanmar, but rejected resolutions concerning Sudan and Zimbabwe.
In the case of Sudan, a resolution on that country’s human rights record was rejected by a vote of 24 in favor, 26 against and three abstentions. As a result of that vote, the mandate of the Special Rapporteur dealing with Sudan has been terminated.
**UNDP in Nigeria
As Nigeria’s nearly 61 million registered voters prepare to head to polls this weekend to elect a President, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is managing a $10.5 million effort to help strengthen the country’s capacity to run the polls effectively.
The project, a partnership between UNDP and the UN Electoral Assistance Division, includes the fielding of some 10,000 Nigerian election observers and providing transportation and other assistance to 120 election observers from the European Union. UNDP has a press release out with more details.
**Secretary-General Message on the Black Sea
Tomorrow, in Armenia, the eighth meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization is taking place, and we have a message out from the Secretary-General welcoming the work that the regional group performs in fighting organized crime and terrorism and in pursuing wide-ranging economic, social and democratic reforms.
In his message, the Secretary-General welcomes the efforts by the Black Sea nations to establish closer relations with the European Union, and says he looks forward to bringing even more constructive ties between the Organization and the United Nations.
**Budget
The United Kingdom today became the 75th member state to pay its 2003 regular budget contribution with a payment of more than $74 million.
**Coalition for the International Criminal Court
At 10 a.m., on Monday, the Mission of Jordan will be sponsoring a press conference by William Pace of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, together with other members of the Coalition’s Steering Committee.
We have the week ahead available for you to pick up in the Spokesman’s Office. That’s all I have before we move on to UNESCO’s activities.
Questions and Answers
Question: On the whole issue of lifting sanctions against Iraq, from a UN perspective can you address what the UN feels needs to happen before those sanctions are lifted and what options are available to the Security Council?
Spokesman: Sanctions are dealt with by the Security Council. So, I’m afraid that whatever the Security Council will decide on that matter, it will be up to them. They are their own masters of deliberation. So, I am afraid I don’t have any comments to make on that.
Question: Is there any news from WHO on SARS?
Spokesman: We had some news yesterday, but today there is no update. I don’t know whether you have already read yesterday’s story. If you haven’t, we can get a copy of the press release from WHO for you.
Question: If the sanctions on Iraq are lifted, then the “oil-for-food” programme may be changed or lifted too, right?
Spokesman: “If” -- that’s a hypothetical question. I’m afraid at this stage I can’t make any comment on that. It will be up to the Security Council.
* *** *