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 –- SG Meetings

The Secretary-General this morning met with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, with whom he discussed the way forward in Iraq, and also touched on Liberia and the upcoming General Assembly session.  The two spoke to reporters afterwards, and the Secretary-General, in response to questions, said he did not exclude the possibility that the Security Council may decide to transform the current operation in Iraq into a UN-mandated multinational force, with other governments coming in.  He added that such a shift “would also imply not just burden sharing, but also sharing decision and responsibility with the others.  If that doesn’t happen, I think it is going to be very difficult to get a second resolution that will satisfy everybody”.

The Secretary-General added that he would be talking to all Security Council members, following the suggestions he gave to the British Foreign Secretary and, yesterday, to US Secretary of State Colin Powell.  He has recommended to Council members that these discussions take place behind closed doors.

Asked about the protection of UN staff in Baghdad, the Secretary-General said that a UN team is on its way to Baghdad now to assess the situation, and added, “There is no doubt that we will have to strengthen our security”.

He has since met with Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio, and, just now, with the UN Ambassadors of Cuba, Malaysia and South Africa, who were representing the Non-Aligned Movement.  Following that meeting, which has just concluded, the Malaysian Ambassador read a statement of support on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement to the United Nations following the Baghdad attack.  The Secretary-General thanked him and said, “This support, coming from your 116 members, is a source of strength to me personally and to the Organization”.  He said the United Nations would continue its mission to ensure that an Iraqi Government is set up as soon as possible, one established by the people and for the people.

** IRAQ -– Explosion Updates

The Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, flew to Baghdad and is now accompanying the body of Sergio Vieira de Mello from Baghdad to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, via Geneva where Vieira de Mello’s widow and children were to board the Brazilian plane.  A memorial service is expected to be held in Rio tomorrow.  Funeral and burial arrangements are still being worked out.

In remarks at the airport in Baghdad from where the plane took off earlier today, Benon Sevan, Executive Director of the Iraq Programme, who was in the building at the time of the blast, said Vieira de Mello was so committed to the United Nations until his last breath that even when he was pinned down under the rubble of his office, under the most extreme pain, he told the officer who was trying to rescue him, “Don’t let them pull the mission out”.

On the ground, meanwhile, the grim task of identifying the bodies of the victims of Tuesday’s bombing continues.  The number of dead remains unchanged.  The UN Security Coordinator’s Office has released 10 names, which is available to you.

UNICEF (the UN Children’s Fund) said a 100-metre security cordon had been set up around the UNICEF offices in Baghdad.  UNICEF’s estimated 300 staff members were staying in Iraq, including half of them in the capital.  The World Food Programme said its food distribution operations would continue through the 44,000 distribution agents of the Ministry of Trade.

** IRAQ –- Nabarro

Dr. David Nabarro, a World Health Organization representative who had been in Baghdad at the time of the explosion, described in Geneva today how he had been in the UN compound, just one floor below the office of Sergio Vieira de Mello, when the blast hit.  “I was about to go”, he said, “but I had not gotten up, and suddenly, there was this extraordinary thud.  I felt like I had been hit in the back of the neck”.  The people around him, he said, including Ramiro Lopes da Silva, had suffered glass wounds.  As he tried to leave, the corridors were blocked by fallen masonry, and people who were wounded lay scattered all around.

He added that when he arrived at the Canal Hotel that afternoon, security had been meticulous, and had in fact been stepped up because of security worries in general, not necessarily related to the UN.  We have a rather extensive summary of his comments in Geneva today available in my office.

** Oil-for-food

With some 13 weeks until the closure of the United Nations Iraq Programme on November 21, almost half the goods and supplies in the “oil-for-food” pipeline have been prioritized for delivery, as required under Security Council resolution 1483.

Consultations between the Coalition Provisional Authority, Iraqi experts and the United Nations have so far resulted in the prioritization of 2,422 contracts valued at more than 4.45 billion dollars, including 606.7 million dollars worth of food items.  Other sectors covered by prioritizations so far include:  oil industry spare parts and supplies –- that’s $1 billion worth; electricity ($844.5 million worth); agriculture ($530.4 million); water and sanitation ($481.4 million); medicine and health ($271.2 million); and transport and telecommunications ($212.1 million).  We have the full text of the oil-for-food update available upstairs.

** Iraq-Kuwait

The discovery in Iraq of mass graves and the subsequent identification of remains, including those of Kuwaiti missing persons, has brought a sense of closure for family members, the Secretary-General says in his latest report to the Security Council on missing Kuwaiti or third-country nationals in Iraq.  But it has also brought to light the atrocities perpetrated by the previous regime.

In the report, which is available on the racks today, the Secretary-General notes that the High-level Coordinator for Iraq, Yuli Vorontsov, expressed his view in April that the situation in Iraq is now favourable for intensifying efforts to search in earnest for such missing persons.

The Secretary-General strongly encourages continuing collaboration between Iraq and Kuwait within the framework of the Tripartite Commission and the Red Cross.  In light of the ongoing progress on the issue, the Security Council may wish to consider bringing Vorontsov’s mandate to an end by the time his next report is submitted in December.

**Iraq -- UNDP

The UN Development Programme says that it is expected that a reconstruction conference on Iraq will be hosted by the Spanish Government in Madrid on 24 October.  A preparatory meeting to that conference is to take place in Brussels on 3 September.  The work on the needs assessment, which will form the basis for the conference, has almost been completed, in consultation with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and consultations with the Iraqi people, including the Governing Council, are to be completed before the conference takes place.

**Liberia

As more relief supplies arrive in the Liberian capital today, the assessment of humanitarian needs by the UN team in Liberia continues.  Agencies reported that the security situation in the capital, Monrovia, showed signs of improvement but access to the rest of country was limited.  The World Health Organization reports that cholera remains the most pressing problem confronting its workers.

Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the first airlift of much-needed relief supplies for desperate populations in Liberia, among them refugees, is expected in Monrovia from nearby Ghana this weekend.  A cargo plane carrying six trucks and basic household supplies for an estimated 10,000 people is scheduled to arrive in Monrovia tomorrow, Saturday.  Additional supplies for an estimated 7,000 people are also expected aboard the MV Overbeck, the rescue ship chartered by UNHCR in July to evacuate Sierra Leonean refugees from Liberia.

A UN humanitarian mission that travelled yesterday to Tubmanburg, a town about 50 kilometres north of Monrovia, says health and education were the top areas of concern.  All schools were reported destroyed.  Today, another UN mission went to Buchanan, where the humanitarian situation is reported to be serious.

**Security Council

On the Security Council today, there are no meetings or consultations of the Security Council planned, so far.

**SARS

In China, a joint team of specialists from the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Chinese Government has issued a series of recommendations and actions necessary to identify a possible animal reservoir that causes SARS and to contain any future outbreaks.  If you’re interested in that, a press release is upstairs.  And we have the “Week ahead” for you as well, which you can get in my office.

Questions and Answers

Question:  How many security guards were on duty that day, Tuesday, and what are their nationalities?

Spokesman:  No, I don’t have that information on me now.  I’m not even sure I can get it.

Question:  What’s your reaction to today’s New York Times story on the guards?

Spokesman:  You heard what the Secretary-General said this morning in response to your question that investigations are at an early stage and he hadn’t even received a preliminary report, so he wouldn’t want to comment.  On questions like the nationalities of the guards and how many were on duty on a specific day –- that really has to be put to the people in Baghdad.  We don’t get that level of reporting here at Headquarters.

Question:  Will Vieira de Mello’s body be buried in Rio?

Spokesman:  We don’t know.   I think we said that funeral and burial arrangements are still being worked out, so we can’t answer that question today.

Question:  Do you know at this point who, from the UN, would be going to Brazil or from Europe, for the funeral?

Spokesman:  No, I don’t have that information, but as soon as we get it, we’ll squawk it for you.

Question:  The other bodies, where will they go?

Spokesman: The other bodies are subject to the procedures laid down by the coalition authorities for the issuance of a death certificate which requires dental records and other scientific means of identification.  So, that process is still taking place in Baghdad and we don’t know yet when it will be complete.  But the bodies may not be removed from Baghdad until those procedures have been carried out.

Question:  Will the United Nations send an airplane to take them?

Spokesman:  We’ll see.  We’ll make whatever arrangements we think might be necessary.  In the case of Sergio’s body, the Brazilian Government provided the aircraft.  Other governments may offer aircraft for their nationals and we are ready to help in any way we can.

Question:  Will there be a memorial service?

Spokesman:  There’s talk of such a service, but, I think, we want to identify all the bodies and allow all the funerals to take place, and then we’ll talk about some kind of a service here.

Question:  So, every body has now been recovered from the rubble?

Spokesman:  I don’t know if that’s the case.  There’s still the problem of identifying some of the bodies.  Check with me after the briefing.  I’ll check upstairs whether all the bodies have been recovered now or not.  Thank you very much.  [He said afterward that the search through the rubble for bodies is continuing.]

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