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.

**Guest at Noon

Joining us in a few minutes will be Palitha Kohona, the Chief of the United Nations Treaty Section, and he will be here to talk about “Focus 2004”, the ratification drive on treaties dealing with the protection of civilians.

**Security Council

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is Chairman of the African Union, briefed the Security Council this morning on the situation in Darfur, Sudan.

The Secretary-General, in his remarks at the start of that meeting noted that civilians are still being attacked every day.  “The humanitarian emergency in Darfur is growing”, he said, “and much, much more needs to be done to mitigate it”.  He renewed his urgent appeal for international support for the African Union’s mission to help protect the people of Darfur and for strong backing to the AU leadership role in the political process.

The Secretary-General concluded by saying, “the unspeakable violence that is still killing the long-suffering people of Darfur is not simply an African problem.  It concerns the international community.  Whatever name we give it, it imposes responsibilities on all of us”.

**Sudan-Other

The High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour and the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Juan Méndez, have wrapped up their mission to Darfur and are in Khartoum, where they will meet with government officials, and with the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Jan Pronk.  They will brief the press there early Sunday.

Meanwhile, the High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers arrived in the Chadian capital of N'djamena last night on the first leg of his five-day mission to Chad and to Sudan to see UNHCR's operations in those two countries, which are to protect and assist hundreds of thousands of refugees and people displaced by the Darfur crisis.

Louise Arbour and Jan Pronk are expected to be in New York next week.

**DR Congo

Civilian police from the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo yesterday assisted the DRC national police in an operation conducted in a village west of Bunia, in the North Kivu province.

Police raided the village of Medu, which is populated by the Ngiti ethnic group who is suspected of involvement in a massacre in the village of Lengabo.  15 people were killed and more than 90 houses burned in an attack on Lengabo on Monday.  10 suspects, including two minors, were taken into custody and transferred to Bunia.

Simultaneously, searches were conducted within the “Front de Résistance Patriotique pour l’Ituri” or FRPI’s camp situated at the centre of Medu.  Documents, uniforms, pieces of armaments and ammunition were seized.

**UNRWA

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (or UNRWA) today protested to Israel following new restrictions on UN staff moving in and out of the Gaza Strip.

The Agency says that the new, and constantly changing, restrictions have in effect barred UN international staff from crossing into and out of Gaza.  Israel has asked UN staff holding valid UN laissez-passers to cross on foot through the Palestinian labourers’ terminal, a form of travel that is prohibited under current UN security rules.

In a press release, which we have upstairs, the Agency’s Commissioner-General, Peter Hansen, says that the freedom of movement and safety of UNRWA staff need to be respected in full.

**Haiti/Update

The United Nation’s aid efforts continue in the northern Haitian town of Gonaives.

The UN Mission in Haiti is working with NGOs and humanitarian agencies, and they have established four health centres in the city.  As we mentioned yesterday, 40 tons of food has arrived for distribution, and security at food distribution centres remains a top priority.  Members of the Mission’s Argentine and Brazilian military contingents are spread throughout the city in order to provide the necessity security measures and logistic support for both the local population and the humanitarian agencies.

Also, members of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination team, the last batch of which arrived yesterday, have been deployed to Gonaives, where they will concentrate their activities, before expanding to surrounding areas.  And we have more on that upstairs.

**Haiti/Disaster Reduction

We also have upstairs a press release from the Geneva-based International Secretariat of Disaster Reduction, on the events in Haiti.  The ISDR says that vulnerable conditions have been allowed to grow there to the extent that any natural hazard inevitably leads to tragedy – - and it calls for thinking ahead and investing in prevention.

It points to the fact that the rains in Haiti were less strong than the ones that struck the Dominican Republic, but nevertheless the loss in lives and livelihoods was much higher in Haiti than in the rest of the Caribbean.  The Secretariat adds that effective and low-cost systems could be put in place easily with the help of the international community.

**WHO Iraq

Out of Geneva, the World Health Organization said it had sent Hepatitis E testing kits to Iraq.  These are to be used in the town of Allatefyia, near Baghdad, which has reported a possible outbreak of the disease.  Hepatitis E, WHO says, can spread quickly through contaminated water and in places with a deficient sanitation environment.

**FAO

The Food and Agriculture Organization’s Committee on World Food Security yesterday wrapped up two years of difficult negotiations by adopting voluntary guidelines supporting the right to adequate food.

The guidelines, FAO says, cover the full range of national actions that need to be taken to enable people to feed themselves in dignity, and to establish appropriate safety nets for those unable to do so.  FAO’s General Legal Counsel, Giuliano Pucci, called their adoption “a major breakthrough”.  We have a press release with more information.

**UNEP/Toxic Hazards

14 new hazardous chemicals and pesticides have been added to an initial watch list of 27 substances subject to a UN-backed treaty aimed at helping developing countries more effectively manage the dangerous materials.  The move was agreed to yesterday in Geneva at this week’s ministerial conference of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade.  We have a press release on that upstairs.

**Press Conferences this Afternoon

Press conferences this afternoon, 12:45, Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos Cuyaube of Spain.  And 7 o’clock tonight the regular briefing by the Spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

**Press Conferences on Monday

On Monday, we have one at 11, the Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of Malaysia will brief you following his address to the General Assembly and then at 12:45, Ambassador Mihnea Motoc of Romania, Chairman of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1540 of 2004, which is on arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.  And will be briefing you on the work of that committee.

**The Week Ahead at the United Nations

And, as every Friday, we prepare “The Week Ahead” for you, the key events taking place at the United Nations next week.  And I will now take any questions you have.  Yes, Laura?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  You said Louise Arbour and Jan Pronk are going to be back here next week; are they going to give a press conference or is Louise Arbour going to give a press conference?

Spokesman:  We can ask her if she will meet with you, yes.

Question:  And the second thing is -- is there going to be any interaction between Louise Arbour, Juan Mendez and the African Union on what they found, or what they have seen in Darfur?

Spokesman:  I believe she has had meetings in Sudan, but let me double-check on that she had, and I will also check whether she plans any meetings here in New York.  Yes, Liz?

Question:  Can you comment on the Wall Street Journal’s story on the Kojo Annan, Cotecna connection?

Spokesman:  The only new information in that article was that Kojo Annan was on a retainer for Cotecna through 1999.  And, we understand, this is not unusual for a competitive company to put a departing employee on such a retainer with the pledge not to compete with the company.  Kojo Annan was, at that time, setting up his own company.  It does not change our assessment that in awarding the contract, the United Nations contract to Cotecna in 1998, there was no knowledge, even on the United Nations Committee on Contracts or the Procurement Officer handling that contract, that Kojo Annan had any link to Cotecna.  And that was a finding of the Under-Secretary-General for Management, Joseph Connor, in early ‘99, when this link became a subject of a press account.

Question:  Wasn’t the United Nations only recently saying that the relationship ended with the official real beginning of the Oil-for-Food Programme?  And also, the article says that it wasn’t just an agreement, but that he was receiving money.

Spokesman: His last contract with Cotecna ended in the end of 1998.  This retainer agreement then continued through ‘99, but the contract, which went to Cotecna in late ‘98, I repeat, was done without knowledge of Kojo’s relation to that company, which, at the time, involved responsibilities in West Africa.

Question: Was Kofi Annan aware, though, of this particular continuing connection?

Spokesman: I’m not sure the Secretary-General knew that detail.  As I said, the bidding process here went on with no knowledge that that was the case.  I would have to double-check with the Secretary-General whether he knew about this retainer or not.

One more thing.  If there is any lingering doubt about Kojo Annan’s link to Cotecna and the contract process, this will be looked into by Paul Volcker, who I hope will get to the bottom of it.  Thank you.

Ok. Well, if there are any questions on the General Assembly, we have Djibril Diallo’s assistant here.  If not, I’ll ask Palitha Kohona to come up to the table.

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