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 Marie Okabe, Associate Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

      Good afternoon.  Today’s guest will be Joseph Chamie, Director of the Population Division in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and he will be here shortly to brief you on international migration policies.

**Tripartite Summit

I have a statement attributable to the Spokesman on the tripartite summit meeting between the Secretary-General, President Paul Biya of Cameroon and President Obasanjo of Nigeria.

“At the invitation of the Secretary-General and in his presence, President Paul Biya of Cameroon and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria will meet on

31 January 2004 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva in the framework of the work of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, which is chaired by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah.  The purpose of the meeting will be to discuss the progress achieved so far by the two countries with the assistance of the United Nations in the implementation of the ruling of the International Court of Justice of 10 October 2002 on the land and maritime boundary between both States and to consider the remaining tasks within the mandate of the Mixed Commission.

“The 31 January 2004 summit is the third in a series of meetings between the Secretary-General and the two heads of State.  It is designed to facilitate a peaceful settlement of the border issues between Cameroon and Nigeria.  The first one took place on 5 September 2002 in Paris and the second was held on 15 November of that same year in Geneva.”

We also will have copies of a background note on the Commission and that will be available to you upstairs.

**UN Headquarters

Here at UN Headquarters today, there are no Security Council meetings or any meetings actually, scheduled today.  UN Headquarters is officially closed due to the inclement weather.  But as you know, we are here and so are the essential personnel throughout the Building.

**Secretary-General in Brussels

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General is in Brussels, Belgium, today, where he is holding meetings with several senior European Union officials, as well as with the Foreign Minister of Ireland, which currently holds the EU presidency.

Earlier today, before leaving Paris for Brussels, the Secretary-General met with Chinese President Hu Jintao, telling reporters afterward that they had discussed Iraq, Afghanistan, African-Chinese cooperation and the President’s upcoming visit to Africa.

They also discussed UN reform, and President Hu expressed his strong support for the United Nations and its work, as well as the need to adapt it and make it stronger.  The Secretary-General added that he had invited the President to come to the General Assembly this year, while the President had invited him to come to China.

“You’ll be seeing me there”, he promised.

Upon arriving in Brussels, the Secretary-General met one-on-one with European Commission President Romano Prodi, after which he met with the EU College of Commissioners for an exchange of more than an hour.  They discussed the EU’s relations with the United Nations, UN reform, the Doha round of trade negations, the fight against AIDS and a number of European issues.

Continuing over a working lunch, they discussed migration -- which will be the subject of a major speech that the Secretary-General is scheduled to give tomorrow, and which is why Mr. Chamie is here -– as well as Cyprus, Iraq, the Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan and other conflict zones.

The Secretary-General spoke at a press stakeout afterward, and we hope to have that transcript very soon.

**Iraq

And briefly, a few notes before I turn the floor over.  The Secretary-General’s Acting Special Representative for Iraq, Ross Mountain, is in Jordan today.  This is his first trip to Jordan since his being named to that post.  Earlier today, he met with Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan.

Mountain expressed the UN’s thanks and deep appreciation for all the assistance provided to the UN staff members in the aftermath of the 19 August bombing.  Mountain will also be meeting with other senior Jordanian officials as well as UN staff in Amman.

**Middle East

Earlier today, the UN Middle East Envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, issued a statement in which he deplores the loss of life in Gaza City.  The full text of the statement is upstairs.

**Afghanistan

We also have from the UN Mission in Afghanistan a statement today in which it today voiced its deep shock and outrage at the two attacks that took place against members of the International Security Assistance Force today and yesterday.  You can pick that up upstairs.

**Deputy Secretary-General in India

Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette today continued her official trip to India and visited a project created by the National Institute of Information Technology and the UN Development Programme to train educators in raising awareness about HIV/AIDS in their communities.

**Protocol against Smuggling of Migrants

A landmark United Nations Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Air and Sea has entered into force today.  The Protocol has been designed to strengthen the international community’s countering of transnational organized crime groups and their sophisticated migrant smuggling networks, which exploit human misery and make sizeable criminal profits in the process.

**Rwanda

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has adjourned all trial proceedings until tomorrow, while Tribunal officials seek to meet with defence attorneys who have declared themselves to be on strike.  Tribunal officials dispute any validity to the attorneys’ claims that they are unable to obtain a fair trial, but say they are ready to engage in dialogue with the attorneys.

We expect a press release from the Tribunal shortly on the subject with more details.

And then finally, before I turn to Mr. Chamie, tomorrow at the noon briefing, our guest is going to be Feride Acar, Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, who will join us to brief you on the work of the Committee’s 30^th session, which began on 12 January and runs until 30 January.

That’s all I have for you.  Do you have any questions for me?

Questions and Answers

Question:  Do you have anything on the accusations regarding Benon Sevan and the oil-for-food programme?

Associate Spokesperson:  All I have on that at the moment is that we have seen reports of these unconfirmed allegations.  The oil-for-food programme, which Mr. Sevan was charged with, has been satisfactorily audited many times both internally and externally.  The Secretary-General is fully satisfied with Mr. Sevan’s performance and integrity in administering what was a massive and unprecedented humanitarian programme.  We have no further comments at the moment on this.

Question:  Do you have anything on the Iraq security assessment?  Have they reported back or has there been any evolution of the Secretary-General’s decision to send an electoral team to Iraq?

Associate Spokesperson:  As you know the security team to assess the security arrangements for an electoral assessment team arrived yesterday.  They are doing their work and that’s all I have for you.

Any other questions?  If not, here is Mr. Chamie.

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