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.

**Security Council

The Security Council will hold consultations on the Middle East at 12:30 today.  Those consultations follow discussions that took place at the expert level, today and yesterday, on a response to the killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza earlier yesterday.

The Security Council then will hold consultations on Haiti at 3 this afternoon, in which it will receive a briefing from Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Danilo Türk on recent developments in that country.

The Council was also expected this afternoon to discuss Iraq, to consider the draft text of a presidential statement.  It is possible that a formal meeting to adopt that statement may be held after the consultations end.

Tomorrow, the Council will hold an open meeting, followed by consultations, on Afghanistan.

**Haiti Update

In Haiti, the UN team led by Hocine Medili, which is assessing the requirements for a peacekeeping operation, is wrapping up its work on the ground.  Members of the team are starting to return to New York.  The Secretary-General’s Special Advisor, Reginald Dumas, is expected to leave Haiti tomorrow in order to attend a meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in Saint Kitts and Nevis.

On the humanitarian side, in Port-au-Prince, efforts are continuing to re-open health centres that ceased to function during the height of the crisis.  UNICEF is distributing obstetric health kits to assure safe deliveries and train midwives.  Even though medical supplies are available, it is reported that fear is still keeping attendance low at health centres that have reopened.

UNICEF is reporting that 80 per cent of schools in the capital and the provinces are now open and that school supplies will be distributed in Cap Haïtien and Saint Marc this week.  In the coming days, UNICEF will be launching a “Back to School” campaign targeting more than 1.5 million students and 50,000 teachers nationwide.

**Statement Attributable to the Spokesman for Secretary-General on Nepal

We put out a statement late yesterday afternoon, which said that the Secretary-General is disturbed by the recent escalation of fighting in Nepal, where the continued instability and conflict is having an increasingly devastating impact on the lives of ordinary people.

The Secretary-General does not believe there is a military solution to the conflict.  He appeals to His Majesty’s Government of Nepal and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) to take immediate steps to end the fighting and resume the peace process with the participation of all political and civil forces in the country.

The full text of the statement is available upstairs.

**Somalia – Death of Aid Worker Condemned

The international humanitarian community is condemning an attack in Somaliland at the end of last week, which left one aid worker dead and two others injured.  The staff of the German Agency for Technical Assistance (GTZ) were ambushed on 19 March outside Berabera in Somaliland.

In a statement issued today, Jan Egeland, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator said that this killing “is a tragic reminder of the risks humanitarian workers face every day”.  “Such attacks cannot be tolerated”, he said.  We have his full statement available in my office.

**Kosovo

Harri Holkeri, the head of the UN Mission in Kosovo, yesterday evening spoke to the press in Pristina, and said that the assistance the Mission has received from NATO has enabled it to resume its full functions.

The top priority now, he said, is to restore law and order following last week’s violence, stabilize the situation and bring the perpetrators to justice.  Holkeri said that some 28 people had died, while some 30 religious sites had been destroyed and nearly 300 homes burnt or damaged.  We have the text of his opening remarks upstairs.

**UNHCR

Also on Kosovo, the UN Refugee Agency said today that more than 3,200 minority people –- mostly ethnic Serbs and Romas -– have been evacuated by the NATO-led Kosovo Force since clashes erupted last Wednesday.  Some of them have returned home as the situation has calmed down, but most are still living in KFOR bases with host families.

We have more details in today’s UNHCR briefing notes.  Those notes also include information about reports from Zambia’s Government that some 1,000 Congolese have crossed into Zambia since 18 March, following fighting in the south-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

**FAO warns of serious locust situation in North-West Africa

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization is warning that despite control operations, the desert locust situation in North-West Africa is still extremely serious.

FAO is asking for donor assistance to prevent a plague from developing and extending from Morocco into Mauritania and Algeria.

FAO warns that if control operations slow down or are interrupted during this spring, more swarms will form and spread at the beginning of the summer growing season.

The last locust plague in 1987 lasted several years and cost more than $300 million to end.  We have a press release on that.

**Press Conferences Tomorrow

Press conferences tomorrow:  At 10:30 a.m., here in 226, Sarbuland Khan of the UN Information and Communications Technology Task Force and Daniel Aghion of the Wireless Internet Institute, will hold a join press conference to announce a joint programme to accelerate the adoption of broadband wireless internet in underserved areas around the world.  They will be joined by Marcel Boisard, the Executive Director of the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and representatives from Intel Corporation and IBM.

Then a half hour later at 11:00 a.m., Joseph Chamie, the Director of the UN’s Population Division will be here to brief you on the 37^th session of the Commission on Population and Development, which is taking place this week.  He will be joined by two of the session’s keynote speakers, Brunson McKinley, Director-General of the International Organization for Migration and Riad Tabbarah, Director of the Centre for Development Studies and Projects in Beirut.

**Guest at Noon Tomorrow

And finally, our guest  -- if you wouldn’t have had enough by then –- our guest at the noon briefing tomorrow will be Ahemdou Ould-Abdallah, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa.  And he will be here to talk about the situation in that region.

That’s all I have for you today.  Abdurrahim?

Questions and Answers

Question:  Fred, on the letter from Ayatollah Sistani, how much is the position that he took in his letter calling on the UN to repudiate the intra-constitution? How much of a problem is that for the UN?  And has the SG formulated a position to that yet?

Spokesman:  No, there will be no response to that letter, and I don’t think Mr. Brahimi wants to enter into that debate on one side or the other of it.  If he can help Iraqis work out their differences on the issues, not just of the fundamental law but the whole of the transition process, he will be a happy man.  Bill?

Question:  Has the Secretary-General received the adequate security assessment of the situation in Iraq yet to allow him to go ahead and take the next step of scheduling the return of the electoral team?

Spokesman:  I’d have to double-check that, but I assume that the assessment was completed, yes.

Question:  Thus, is there anything you can tell us about the schedule of who’s going when and where?

Spokesman:  We would not, as I told you, announce the departure of either the electoral team or the political team headed by Mr. Brahimi.  We’ll have to wait until they safely arrive in Baghdad to announce to you that they have gone.  And that’s... (interrupted)

Question:  And can you confirm, can you say that their departure has been scheduled?

Spokesman:  I can’t say anything at this time, Bill.  Yes?

Question:  Have you two separate teams?  A political and an electoral?  Last time sort of Brahimi left... (interrupted)

Spokesman:  Brahimi heads the whole team, but Carina Pirelli heads an electoral team that has a technical mission separate from Mr. Brahimi’s political mission.  He is the head of the entire team, but they’d be going at different times.  Yes, Mark?

Question:  I’m sorry if I missed this, on Kosovo there was a call for a lot of thinking and so forth.  What’s happening here in the Secretariat?  Is there a rethink about how the mission should operate, what its mandate should be?  Is there any of that kind of level discussion going on?

Spokesman:  I am not aware of that, but I could easily ask someone from the Secretariat to brief you if you want to; brief all of you if there is general interest.

Question:  I’d be interested.

Spokesman:  Okay, we’ll make a phone call for you after the briefing.  Mark?

Question:  Fred, you said the security assessment you believe was completed, was that completed before the assassination of Sheik Yassin?  And if so, was anything new?  Was any security review ordered after that?  And is it the SG’s feeling that that development would perhaps cause him to rethink when (inaudible) might be deployed (inaudible)...?

Spokesman:  I don’t know that we go into those kinds of details Mark, on our security thinking or security planning.  I don’t know whether the security assessment was completed before yesterday morning.  I’d have to ask for you to see if it’s something I could tell you.  Bill?

Question:  On the “oil-for-food issue”, has the Secretary-General yet received any reply from the Governing Council to his request for information or any documents from the CPA that he’d requested?

Spokesman:  I haven’t checked with them this morning.  I think when you asked me yesterday I said that there had been a letter from the CPA, signed by Mr. Bremer and promising support or help to OIOS.  And I believe OIOS was satisfied with that response.  They didn’t tell me what was in the letter specifically, but they said that they were convinced that they would get his full cooperation.  On the Governing Council, I’d have to check, but there was no response as of yesterday.  And that’s after two requests by the head of OIOS for documentary evidence that’s been written about in the press and that related to our own staff with the oil-for-food programme, specifically Benon Sevan.  We want to investigate that.  We want that evidence.  We don’t know why we’re getting no answers to our letters.

Question:  Is the Secretary-General waiting for an organized response from the Security Council concerning his letter to them on the Friday before he appoints the independent panel to investigate or what is the timing of that appointment going to be?

Spokesman:  It is always risky to predict, but I think it’s the Secretary-General’s intention to form the panel this week and to finalize its terms of reference.  And when he’s done that, he will send that information to the Security Council, most likely in the form of a follow-on letter to the initial letter he sent them Friday announcing his intention.  So, as I say, we hope that by the end of this week...  David?

Question:  Can he do that with or without any response from the Security Council to his letter Friday?

Spokesman:  I don’t know that he is expecting a response to that letter.  That letter just told them that it was his intention to do this and that he would be getting back to them with further details.  Let me take Louis.

Question:  Fred, anything new on the black box?  And if not, have the agencies that are looking into this giving you any sort of a timeline as to when they will be able to say definitively whether or not this is the black box that everybody has been insinuating that it might be?

Spokesman:  Well, last we checked, which was yesterday, the firm in Ottawa listening to the tape was still working on it.  And I was told that it was not unusual for these kinds of assessments to take weeks.  So, I don’t know when they are going to report their findings to ICAO.  So, all you have is the initial reaction that I gave you from when the NTSB listened to the tape in Washington -- that it appeared not to be linked to the air crash in Rwanda in ’94.

The only little twist to this story came out in a CNN television programme, Richard Roth’s programme on Saturday, where a more senior official from the UN Peacekeeping Department said on camera that he’d already sent the black box to Washington, to the NTSB, in ’94 and was told in ’94 that it was not linked to the Rwanda plane crash and that’s why he put it in the drawer.  In looking at the paper trail that I described to you initially, we saw no record of it having been sent to the NTSB; so that was news to us.  This person -- Dennis Beissel is his name -- was the acting head of the field administration division of the Peacekeeping Department in ’94 and is the most senior person to date to say that he knew about the black box.  Anyway, that’s something that Mr. Dileep Nair will have to look into for OIOS -- how far this information moved up the chain and what was done in ’94 -- and as soon as we get a reaction from the people doing the testing of the box now we’ll give it to you.  David?

Question:  Fred, in connection to Bill’s question, the French Ambassador said yesterday afternoon that he would expect to meet with the Secretary-General about his letter on oil-for-food.  I don’t see that scheduled for today.  Do you expect before the SG leaves that they will have that meeting?  Beyond that on... (interrupted)

Spokesman:  You’d have to ask the French Ambassador.  All I can say is I can confirm what you’ve said:  we’re not aware that any appointment has been set up to date; either for today or sometime later this week.  That’s not to say it won’t happen; the Secretary-General would be happy to speak to the Ambassador should he ask to see him.

Question:  You laid out a little bit earlier the steps we understand might change.  Is it fair to say the SG might wait for that meeting before forming a panel in the terms of reference?

Spokesman:  I don’t think he’s aware that this meeting is being talked about.  I am not sure that that’s being discussed.  But anyway, no, I don’t think there’s necessarily a link between that meeting and his final letter to the Council.  I think it’s a matter of how quickly can he assemble a panel and finalize the terms of reference and his goal is to do that by Friday.  Yes, Evelyn?

Question:  I am still a bit confused as to how he can have an independent commission with a wider investigation which will involve companies and a whole pile of countries without some kind of mandate from the Council since some of its own members are mentioned, I mean some of the companies that belong to it that reside in Council members…?

Spokesman:  I think the whole point of his consultation with Council members over the last two weeks was to convince them of the need for such an independent investigation in the hopes that he would get their support.  Without government support this investigation is not going to go very far.  So, he is hoping for some kind of signal from the Council that they support this effort.

Question:  But he won’t get any resolution that makes it mandatory?

Spokesman:  I don’t think he feels it has to be a resolution.  It can be a statement; it can be a letter.  Yes?

Question:  Who then, when you say who needed convincing and why wouldn’t he go for a direct resolution since it seems that would give him the greatest mandate and the most support?  Did he fear that there would be resistance, possibly a veto that would make him look bad and possibly weaken the authority of the investigation?

Spokesman:  That’s a valid question but I can’t get into the confidential consultations that he’s had over the last couple of weeks.  His position now is that a resolution is not necessary.  He will take a statement or a letter.  And how he arrived at that position; I don’t want to comment on.  Yes, Serge?

Question:  On the humanitarian issue regarding Haiti; the Cuban Ambassador (inaudible) ... organization a few minutes ago before you arrived; complaining that you have failed to recognize the assistance of his Government to the problem of Haiti.  Do you have any reason for that?  He said that there was a flyer and the flyer was not mentioned; and Cuba is providing the greatest assistance to Haiti.

Spokesman:  I know that in this room, in the course of a briefing, someone mentioned the assistance to Haiti of a large number of Cuban medical personnel.  I don’t know anything about a flyer.  I’d have to ask OCHA about this complaint.  I am not sure it’s been brought to OCHA’s attention, but I am happy to ask after the briefing.  Mark?

Question:  Fred, just a clarification.  You said that there were two requests from the head of the OIOS to the Governing Council.  Was the second request identical to the first?  In other words, the letter that you said was still awaiting a response to the previous request or was it different in substance?  And when was that sent?

Spokesman:  I don’t have those details.  I haven’t seen the letters.  My understanding is that the second letter merely echoed the initial request of the first letter.  They were about month apart.  The second letter was sent the week before last, I believe.  I can get the specific dates for you after this briefing.  [He later said the letters were sent on 6 February and 11 March.]

Question:  When you said that there was no response, did you not even get a letter acknowledging receipt of the request?  Or was it just you got that but didn’t...?

Spokesman:  My understanding is there was no response either from the CPA or the Governing Council to the first letter; that a response from the CPA came in after the second letter was sent.  But let me double-check that with OIOS.  Louis?

Question:  Housekeeping:  Do you know if Reginald Dumas is due in New York any time soon?

Spokesman:  I don’t believe so.  I just mentioned that he is on his way to Saint Kitts and Nevis or will be tomorrow to attend the CARICOM meeting.  So, I don’t know when the earliest he could come to New York would be.  Probably next week, but I’d have to check with him.  Yes?  [He later said Mr. Dumas was expected in New York next week.]

Question:  Just a clarification Fred, on the first question that was asked here about the response to Ayatollah Sistani’s letter.  What did you say about the UN response?

Spokesman:  There would be none.

Question:  Does it not require some response?

Spokesman:  Not in Mr. Brahimi’s view.  The letter was addressed to Mr. Brahimi.  He said he looks forward to engaging all the parties when he gets to Iraq, but he did not feel that he needed to respond to this particular letter.  Yes?

Question:  On oil-for-food; just curious about the fact that today a spokesman for Ahmed Chalabi said that the Governing Council will start its own investigation.  The United States is starting its own investigation.  The UN has an internal investigation.  And now the Secretary-General is announcing a larger independent panel.  Is he paying attention to these other investigations to try to sort of focus his a little more specifically?  And how much is the fact that there are now four investigations out of various sources into the same issue influencing the mandate that he is going to lay out for his own investigation?

Spokesman:  Well, there will not be two UN investigations.  So, once the panel is set up to look into the oil-for-food programme, OIOS as I understand it, will be asked to turn over to that panel whatever evidence they have gathered on UN personnel.  And the high-level panel will then look at UN personnel and the programme as a whole.  It’s a UN programme, the Secretary-General as I said has been working for several weeks to get this broader investigation going.  I think he would welcome any additional light that others could shed on the situation; either out of Baghdad or out of a national capital.  But I think he feels it’s his responsibility to launch a UN-based investigation of this UN programme.

Thank you very much.

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