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,

**Statement Attributable to the Spokesman

We are going to start with a statement attributable to the Spokesman on Myanmar:

“Mr. Razali Ismail, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General, visited Myanmar from 1 to 4 March to continue his efforts to facilitate national reconciliation and democratization based on the participation of all parties concerned in the country’s process for a democratic transition.

“Mr. Razali had discussions with government officials, including Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt and Foreign Minister Win Aung.  He also met with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), as well as representatives of various ethnic nationality groups.

“During these meetings, the Special Envoy emphasized the need for all the parties, in the name of the people of Myanmar, to turn over a new page so as to make the democratic transitional process all-inclusive and credible.  In this context, he was encouraged by the expressions of commitment of the Prime Minister to implement, in an all-inclusive manner, the Government’s seven-step road map, starting with the reconvening of the National Convention.

“During Mr. Razali’s discussion with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, she indicated that she and her colleagues from the NLD’s Central Executive Committee should be released and allowed to resume political activities, and for the offices of the NLD to be reopened.  Despite the unfortunate events of Depeyin on 30 May of last year, she also indicated her willingness to work for a “harmonized” relationship with Prime Minister Khin Nyunt’s government in order to move process ahead.”

**Statement Attributable to the Spokesman

The second statement regards Venezuela:

“The Secretary-General is following with concern the latest developments in Venezuela.  He is dismayed at the violence that occurred since last week.

“He welcomes the support given by the Organization of American States and the CarterCenter to the work of the National Electoral Council (CNE), an important element in ensuring a peaceful, electoral and constitutional solution to the country’s political impasse.

“The United Nations will continue to be engaged in supporting the Government and other parties in seeking peaceful solutions to resolving their differences.”

**Haiti Update

An update on humanitarian situation in Haiti:  The overall security situation is starting to return to normal in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Some banks and stores have reopened for business.  Commercial flights have resumed there, and the World Food Programme has begun operations.

As well, UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, a group of NGOs and the Red Cross are making deliveries to hospitals and health centres in Port-au-Prince.

Outside the capital -– the UN is working with local authorities and the Multinational Interim Force to open up other areas for the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

The World Food Programme has a ship with 1,200 tonnes of food sailing off the shore of the northern city of Cap-Haitien to deliver supplies there when conditions permit.

**Security Council

Demetrius Pericos, the acting Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, better known as UNMOVIC, briefed the Security Council this morning on its sixteenth quarterly report issued earlier this week.

Following that item, Jan Egeland, the UN Emergency Coordinator and top humanitarian official, briefed on the humanitarian situation in Haiti.

The Security Council President for March, Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sablière of France, is expected to go to the press stakeout after consultations have ended.

**Weapons of Mass Destruction

Earlier this morning, the Secretary-General addressed a conference on weapons of mass destruction, hosted by the InternationalPeaceAcademy.

In remarks prepared for the conference, he noted that ever since its creation the UN has been seeking the global elimination of weapons of mass destruction.

While treaty regimes have great potential, he stressed that reliable verification measures are needed and that the world must strengthen its resolve to enforce such commitments.  We have the full text of his remarks available in my Office.

**Canada

One item we did not mention in the announcement of the Secretary-General’s trip to Canada, which begins on Monday.

On Tuesday, he will have the opportunity to meet with 10 to 15 leaders of Canadian non-governmental organizations.

He will deliver brief opening remarks after which he will have an off-the-record discussion with them centred on the Millennium Development Goals. 

**Cyprus

The Secretary-General’s Adviser for Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, is in Ankara today for consultations with Turkish officials.  And Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast has returned from Cyprus where he observed the talks for a few days and is reporting to the Secretary-General today.

**Peacekeeping Budget

According to the latest overview of the UN’s peacekeeping budget, $2.6 billion was spent between June 2002 and June 2003 on 11 peacekeeping missions.

In terms of manpower, the annual report shows a growth trend in the numbers of peacekeepers, military observers and police.

For the 2000/2002 budget biennium, some 38,500 men and women served in uniform under the UN flag.  We expect that number to jump to about 52,700 for the 2004/2005 biennium.

At the same time, the number of actual missions has decreased from 15 to 12 for the same time frame.  But as you know, it’s on the rise again rather rapidly.

**Libya/OPCW

Today in The Hague, a delegation from the Libyan Government submitted a complete initial declaration of all chemical weapons and relevant information to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).  Libya’s declaration includes approximately 23 metric tons of mustard gas, one inactivated chemical weapons production facility, and two chemical weapons storage facilities.  Libya has now fulfilled one of its most important initial obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention -– and this paves the way for the inspection and verification of its declaration.  The OPCW will begin conducting inspections at all declared sites and facilities in Libya shortly.  There is a press release on that.

**Human Rights

Bertrand Ramcharan, the Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, released this morning a summary of his annual report, which will be presented in full in second half of the month in Geneva.

The report assesses the state of human rights in the contemporary world and looks at some of the key building blocks for international cooperation; examines the state of human rights protection; and makes suggestions for strengthening international protection.

In fighting terrorism, Mr. Ramcharan says, States must recommit themselves to their responsibilities to respect, protect and fulfil fundamental human rights.

He also makes a special plea for the Commission on Human Rights to act on the problem of trafficking of young women.  We have a press release on that upstairs.

**Western Sahara

This morning, a plane belonging to the UN Mission in Western Sahara left Tindouf carrying a group of Saharan refugees for a five-day visit to Laayoune, in Western Sahara.  The same plane is then to depart from Laayoune today to take another group of Saharans to Tindouf.

Both groups are travelling for the first time in more than a quarter of a century to visit their relatives on the other side, as the Family Visits Programme begins.  That programme is an effort by the UN refugee agency to improve the lives of the refugees in Tindouf through weekly, reciprocal family visits.

The UN Mission expresses its appreciation to all the parties for the high level of cooperation and goodwill that has made the family visits possible.

We have a note from the UN refugee agency with more details upstairs.

**Cameroon/Nigeria

Starting today, a tripartite delegation from Cameroon, Nigeria, and the United Nations will visit several countries to mobilize further diplomatic and financial support for the work of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission.

The Commission is helping implement the October 2002 judgment of the International Court of Justice related to the border dispute between these two countries.

This trip follows the conclusion of the first field visit by the Mixed Commission to the BakassiPeninsula.  We have a press release with more details.

**Sierra Leone

The Special Court for Sierra Leone announced today that it would be sponsoring a fund-raising football event called “Play for Justice”, which will feature a pre-game demonstration match by the Sierra Leone amputee team known as the Single Leg Football Club.

As you’ll recall, amputations of civilians by the rebels became the brutal hallmark of the war in Sierra Leone.

**ILO/Women Report

Women are entering the global labour force in record numbers -– but they still face higher unemployment rates and lower wages, and represent 60 per cent of the world’s 550 million working poor.

Those are some of the key findings of "Global Employment Trends for Women 2004" –- a new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), prepared for International Women’s Day, which is this coming Monday.

The ILO says that unless progress is made in taking women out of poverty by creating productive and decent employment, one of the Millennium Development Goals –- that of halving poverty by 2015 -– will remain out of reach in most regions of the world.  We have more on that upstairs.

**Photo Exhibit

The World Press Photo Contest exhibit will open this afternoon at 6 p.m. in the Visitors’ Lobby.

The exhibit is sponsored by the Mission of the Netherlands and the Information Department here at the UN and showcases award-winning images by photojournalists from around the world, as selected by an international jury from the World Press Photo Foundation.

The event will be officially opened by Nane Annan, Ambassador Dirk Jan van den Berg of the Netherlands, Peter Bakker, Board Member of the World Press Photo Foundation, and Shashi Tharoor, the head of the UN’s Department of Public Information.  We have a note to correspondents on that upstairs.

**Guest at Noon on Monday

Our guest at the noon briefing on Monday will be Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the UN Development Fund for Women, and she will be here to talk about the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day, which is “Women and HIV/AIDS”.

**The Week Ahead at United Nations

And we have the Week Ahead for you to help you plan your coverage of the UN next week.

That’s all I have.  Erwin?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Fred, does the Secretary-General have any comment on the delay in the signing in Baghdad of the interim constitution?

Spokesman:  No.  No.  It’s been signed, hasn’t it?

Question:  It was supposed to be signed at 9 this morning and it was delayed.  I hadn’t heard that that it was.

Spokesman:  Okay.  No, he has no comment.  Yes?

Question:  Will we have access to Mr. Egeland some time today or is he going to come to the stakeout?

Spokesman:  We can ask him to come to the stakeout after his briefing.  You’re not the only one to have asked that question this morning.  So, we’ll do that.  Yes?  [The Spokesman later announced that Mr. Egeland would speak to correspondents at the stakeout as requested.]

Question:  Will you comment on the UN’s decision to hire an outside security firm for security?

Spokesman:  I believe that you’re referring to a wire service report of earlier this week mentioning that a tender had been sent out for security services?  All I can say on that is that we’re looking at many different ways of improving our security system worldwide.  I wouldn’t comment on that particular tender, but it is part of a rather sweeping overview with a view to overhauling our security system fundamentally.  Yes?

Question:  How many days is Alvaro de Soto going to stay in Ankara?

Spokesman:  I don’t have that information, sorry.  I’ll try to find out for you and will get back to you after the briefing.  Yes?  [He later said he would be returning to Cyprus today or tomorrow.]

Question:  You’ve provided some interesting statistics about peacekeeping and my question is:  Has the peacekeeping ebbed and flowed, do you see and does the Secretary-General see an evolution of the UN’s role in which peacekeeping takes on a more prominent position or is this just cyclical?

Spokesman:  There has been something of a cyclical nature to peacekeeping as far as the number of missions and the number of peacekeepers deployed.  But the overall trend, of course, is up.  The latest trend points to a significant increase in peacekeeping both in the number of missions and in personnel deployed.  I don’t know that we would surpass the peak, which might have been 1993 when we had between 70,000 and 80,000 peacekeepers.  At that time, there were three huge missions:  Bosnia, Cambodia and Somalia.  But we’re moving in that direction. 

Since the early 1990s when we were struggling so desperately to administer all those personnel and all those missions with just a handful of people here, there’s been the Brahimi report recommending the expansion of the Peacekeeping Department; and that’s under way.  The Department will be considerably larger.  They’re still struggling to fill the vacant posts, as we mentioned in yesterday’s briefing from the OIOS report, but I think we’re in a much better position today to manage the volume of work. 

That said, the sudden start-up or prospective start-up in the near future of so many missions is going to put a strain even on the expanded Peacekeeping Department.  Having the number of planners needed is a stress, and I think that Mr. Guéhenno made some comments to you at the stakeout Sunday night when he came out of the Council meeting on Haiti.  Yes, Mark?

Question:  Reginald Dumas, the Special Envoy, is in Haiti now, is he or isn’t he?

Spokesman:  No.  We announced that he went to Jamaica yesterday and I was told a few minutes ago that he is still in Jamaica today.

Question:  Do you know when he might go to Haiti?

Spokesman:  I believe, I don’t want to predict, but I think sometime next week you might see him in Haiti.  That’s our plan.  Lee?

Question:  The PeaceAcademy meetings are usually off-the-record meetings; can we quote from the Secretary-General’s statement?

Spokesman:  Yes.  We put that out, or we will be putting it out shortly.  We need to amend the text to put in a few of the changes he made in delivery, but you may quote from it.  Irwin?

Question:  Just as an update, it still hasn’t been signed, but on another matter, I am wondering if the Secretary-General has had a few days now to chew over the recommendations of the report from Mr. Walzer, and I am wondering if he has been able to make any decisions yet on reforms or personnel changes that he might make because of that, and if he is having any second thoughts on not making public a little bit of what the report might have found?

Spokesman:  He has asked a small number of his advisers to review the report.  He himself will most likely not be able to read through the 170 pages or whatever it is until the weekend.  The reading will be the easy part.  The tough part will be deciding where existing arrangements and procedures might have failed; and, therefore, need to be changed or fixed, and judging the performance of his own staff.  So, I think you’re rushing it a bit to say that a report as comprehensive as this can be digested in 24 or 48 hours.  And I think I made clear, I hope I made clear, why we can’t go public with this.

We’ve already gone public with the Ahtisaari report, which was about as dramatic as you would get.  He said the UN’s security system is dysfunctional.  So, we know there are things that need to be fixed.  This second accountability panel looked at the actions of individuals, what they did and how they did it.  And that’s just to help the Secretary-General correct any flaws there are in the system; and we know there are flaws, fundamental flaws, from the Ahtisaari report.

But because this report goes into great detail of interviews, who said what, who did what, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour; and because there is the possibility that disciplinary action will be taken, in order to protect due process, we have to keep this confidential.  Now, once the Secretary-General makes decisions, if he does, about changing our security procedures, we will announce those.  If individuals eventually are relieved of their responsibilities, we will announce that.  But this document has to be kept confidential, and not suppressed.

Thank you very much.

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