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.

**Japan Trip

The Secretary-General is scheduled to leave on Friday on an official visit to Japan.  He is due back in New York the middle of next week and details of the visit will be made before the end of the week.

**Haiti – SG Comments

The Secretary-General was asked by a reporter, on entering the building today, about the situation in Haiti, and said that the United Nations was extremely concerned.

He said that the UN has been in touch with the Caribbean Community CARICOM, and the Organization of American States in reassessing its own participation and how it should become more actively engaged.  He added, “I may have some announcements in the next few days.”  We have the transcript of that press encounter upstairs.

**Iraq

Lakhdar Brahimi, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser, is in Abu Dhabi today where he is scheduled to meet the Emir.  Over the weekend, he was in Kuwait where he attended the meeting of Foreign Ministers from Iraq, its neighbours and Egypt.  Brahimi is expected back in New York tomorrow.

The rest of the team, which had stayed longer in Iraq, is expected to arrive in New York this afternoon.

In his comments to the press this morning, the Secretary-General said he expected to decide on the team’s conclusions before he travels to Japan.

**Monitoring Board

The International Advisory and Monitoring Board for Iraq has set up a Web site where you can find its press releases, minutes of meetings and other relevant information.  The address is www.iamb.info.

During its last meeting in Washington on Thursday, the Board received a briefing by the Coalition Provisional Authority on the financial functions and operations for the Development Fund for Iraq.

The Board was also told that the CPA had invited proposals by 18 February for external audits.  The IAMB will then have to approve duly qualified external auditors.  More information can be found in a press release that I have in my office.

**Cyprus

Alvaro de Soto, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Cyprus, is expected to land on the island in just a few minutes.

On his way to Cyprus, de Soto held a series of meetings with European officials in Dublin and Brussels.

As the Secretary-General said on Friday, the talks will reconvene in Cyprus on Thursday with direct meetings between the two parties in the presence of the Special Adviser.  The technical committees on laws and treaties will reconvene on that same day.

**Security Council

The Security Council is holding an open meeting today on the recommendations of the Security Council mission to Central Africa that took place in June 2003.

Tuliameni Kalomoh, the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, summarized advances attained in addressing the recommendations made on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and the international conference on the Great Lakes region.

He mentioned the arrival of the UN multi-disciplinary reconnaissance mission in Bujumbura today to examine the situation on the ground and assess how the Transitional Government could best be supported to ensure the successful conclusion of the peace process.

We have Mr. Kalomoh’s remarks, as well as a press release from the UN office in Burundi on the assessment mission.

On a related note, tomorrow Security Council members will receive their periodic briefing on the situation in the Middle East.  And delivering that brief will be the UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed Larsen.

**Eastern Europe/AIDS

Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States have some of the fastest growing rates of HIV/AIDS in the world and the disease threatens the region’s prospects for economic growth and human development.  Those are some of the findings of a UN Development Programme report released today.

The report is the first comprehensive study of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 28 countries of East and South Eastern Europe, the Baltic and the Commonwealth of Independent States.  The report finds that the impact of HIV/AIDS is compounded by still insufficient public awareness, frequent stigmatization and the lack of adequate policy instruments to cope with the disease.  We have more on that upstairs.

**Kosovo - Arrests

Turning to Kosovo, four people were arrested yesterday in Kosovo in connection with serious crimes, including the murder of Kosovo Albanians.  All of the suspects are members of the Kosovo Protection Corps, and one senior officer is among those detained.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Kosovo, Harri Holkeri, has informed top leaders in the province of the arrests, telling them that the action in no way constitutes an indictment of the Kosovo Protection Corps.  We have copies of the press release from the mission available in my office.

**Georgia/Geneva Meeting

Representatives from Georgia were in Geneva today, for the third meeting of the “Group of Friends.”  The talks are aimed at taking stock of the peace process in Georgia and plan for next steps.

The meeting is being chaired by the UN and the “Group of Friends” is made up of representatives of France, Germany, Russia, the UK, and the US.  The meeting ends tomorrow, and we expect to have more on it then.

**Afghanistan

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Jean Arnault, condemned the brutal and cold-blooded murder last Saturday of four Afghan mine clearance workers, the first deminers to be killed in the country since October 2001.  He said the deminers are invisible heroes, who, without any thought of self, put their own lives at risk every day, and he urged the authorities to investigate their killing.

We have details in the weekend’s briefing notes from Kabul, which also mentions the continuing efforts to boost voter registration among Afghan women.

**Libya

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei will visit Libya on the 23rd and 24th of this month, to meet with senior Libyan officials and review progress in the Agency’s work.  Libya has asked the IAEA to ensure through verification that all of Libya’s nuclear activities are placed under safeguards and are exclusively for peaceful purposes.

The Director General’s February visit is the second in three months to Libya, following a trip last December.

**Sudanese Refugees

The UN refugee agency today started daily flights to bring more than 250 tons of relief aid to 110,000 refugees along the Chad-Sudan border, where local resources are being stretched to the limit.  On Tuesday, an Ilyushin cargo plane set off with non-food supplies from Mwanza, Tanzania, for Abeche, the main city in eastern Chad.

**Cuba – UN Report on Human Rights

A report just issued by the Personal Representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Cuba points out that political dissidents sentenced to heavy prison sentences in Cuba are being held in very trying physical and psychological conditions.

French judge Christine Chanet notes with concern that her calls for clemency in these cases have gone unheard.  In addition, she is critical of the April 2003 execution of three people accused of hijacking a ferry in spite of Cuba’s moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

The report will be submitted to the next session of the UN Human Rights Commission.

**Colombia/Rapporteur

The Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Ambeyi Ligabo, will visit Colombia from 22 to 29 February at the invitation of the Government.  During his visit, Ligabo is expected to meet with senior Government officials dealing with the media sector, representatives from the press and legal systems, as well as representatives of the UN system and other intergovernmental organizations.

**Ethiopia/Rapporteur

And while on the subject of special rapporteurs, Jean Ziegler, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, is in Ethiopia at the invitation of the Government.  Ziegler’s visit began yesterday and ends on the 27th.  He’s expected to present his preliminary findings to the Commission on Human Rights in April this year and a full report will be submitted in 2005.

That’s all I have for you.  Yes?

Questions and Answers

Question:  Fred, when the Secretary-General said that he’d make an announcement on Haiti, is it in relation to what Mr. de Villepin said at the press conference, that the UN will send a mission to Haiti?

Spokesman:  No.

Question:  No?

Spokesman:  He had decided some time ago, and I think he hinted to you at least once before, that he is looking at ways to increase the UN’s humanitarian activity in Haiti and looking at ways to keep the UN more fully plugged in to what’s happening on the political side, while supporting CARICOM and the OAS.  I don’t think what he said today had any direct relationship to the comments by the Foreign Minister of France today.

Question:  He did not react to what Mr. de Villepin said?

Spokesman:  He did not react, no.  He wasn’t asked and he didn’t react.

Question:  Okay.

Spokesman:  Bill?

Question:  How does he envision being more plugged in on the political side?

Spokesman:  Well, let’s see what he announces.  Whether he intends to appoint someone to be his eyes and ears in Haiti or something of that sort, we’ll have to see.  Yes, sir?

Question:  Any reaction from the Secretary-General on the findings of the Chanet report on Cuba?

Spokesman:  No.  I have nothing on that.  Yes?

Question:  Fred, when will Brahimi be briefing Annan?  Is it tomorrow?

Spokesman:  We don’t know yet.  He only flies in on Wednesday.  They have spoken on the telephone, but we really don’t know yet how things are going to play out at the end of this week, before the Secretary-General leaves for Japan on Friday.  It’s pretty tight.

Question:  So, it could be before or after?

Spokesman:  We just don’t know.  We haven’t worked out the choreography.  But the electoral team is arriving this afternoon, as we said –- that’s one half of the report.  Brahimi gets in tomorrow afternoon -– that’s the other half.  The technical, the political.  Those two then have to be merged.  The Secretary-General has to consider the findings, decide what to recommend to the Iraqis and to the CPA and then decide how and when to do that.  Yes?

Question:  Will there be an opportunity for Mr. Brahimi to brief the press?

Spokesman:  We’ll be asking him about that when he gets in tomorrow.  We’ll be having a preliminary discussion of that today.  So, we’re still thinking about the press aspects of this, even as the Secretary-General’s top advisers are trying to decide how to handle it and get it all done by Friday.  Yes, Mark?

Question:  Fred, how are the SG’s recommendations going to be presented?  Is it going to be in the form of a formal letter to the Governing Council or...

Spokesman:  That’s one of the things that they are still discussing now.  I mean, the assumption now is it will be a letter, yes.  Yes, David?

Question:  Let me just make sure I understand it.  Your expectation is that this will be a settled matter before he leaves on Friday?

Spokesman:  I am just telling you what he said this morning coming into the building that he hoped to be able to do it before he leaves for Japan on Friday.  That’s a tall order.

Question:  But the “it” is talking to Brahimi and...?

Spokesman:  Formulating the recommendations and presenting them to the Iraqis and the CPA, who asked him for this advice.  Mark?

Question:  On what de Villepin said this morning, is there anything you can say now in response to his call for a peacekeeping mission, possibly under the auspices of the UN, in Haiti?

Spokesman:  No, not from the Secretariat side.  You might talk to the French to see whether they are contacting their colleagues on the Security Council to see whether there would be receptivity to that idea.  But I am not aware.  In fact, I know from the Secretary-General’s phone log that he did not speak to anyone in Paris.  So, I don’t think he is ready to say anything about this idea just yet.  Mark?

Question:  Fred, forgive me if I missed some of this, I was away for a couple of days at the end of last week, but there was a humanitarian mission that was en route or was already in Haiti.  Can you give us any information on that?

Spokesman:  That mission was to help him assess how we can increase our humanitarian efforts in Haiti.  I don’t know whether that mission has returned.  Let me check on the status of it and let you know after the briefing.  [He later said the mission had been in Haiti for eight days and would remain until the end of this week.]

Question:  Who is currently the Secretary-General’s top adviser on Haiti?

Spokesman:  It would be the Department of Political Affairs, ultimately, Kieran Prendergast and then, of course, advising Kieran would be the Director, Desk Officer and so on down the line in his Department.

Question:  Is the Secretary-General appointing a special adviser?

Spokesman:  I don’t want to anticipate what he might do.  I have given you some sense of what he is thinking about.  But let’s see what his final decision is.  He said in the next few days.  Yes?

Question:  Do you think that conclusion by Secretary-General Annan about the feasibility of holding elections will be at least public, or he might just send his conclusion to the CPA and then Iraq Governing Council?

Spokesman:  No, I assume he would brief the Security Council members and we are assuming that the press would be briefed after the Iraqis and the CPA had been given the recommendations.  We just haven’t worked out exactly how that would happen or when.

Okay, thank you very much.

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