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

Our guests at the noon briefing today will be UN Development Programme Administrator Mark Malloch Brown and Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs José Antonio Ocampo, and they’ll be here to brief on the International Year of Microcredit 2005, which will be launched tomorrow here at Headquarters.

**Secretary-General’s Statement on Margaret Hassan

“The Secretary-General is shocked and deeply saddened by reports of the brutal execution of Ms. Margaret Hassan, Head of the CARE International office in Iraq, who was taken hostage on 19 October.  Ms. Hassan, who had been an aid worker in Iraq for more than 25 years and had acquired Iraqi citizenship, devoted her life to helping the Iraqi people.  The Secretary-General condemns this abhorrent crime.

“Under the direction of Ms. Hassan, CARE International had become a close partner of the United Nations, particularly of UNICEF, in alleviating the needs of the Iraqi people.  The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest possible terms the targeting of humanitarian aid workers and organizations and reiterates that such acts of terror are indefensible.

“The work of Ms. Hassan in Iraq will be remembered by all in Iraq and beyond as an example of human solidarity.  The Secretary-General expresses his deepest sympathy and condolences to the family and loved ones of Ms. Hassan.  He shares their grief and sorrow.”

**Iraq

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, today held talks with President Ghazi al-Yawar, in which they discussed the situation in Falluja following the military operations in that city.  They focused on humanitarian conditions in Falluja and the impact of the hostilities on the civilian population.

They also discussed the preparations for national elections, scheduled for late January, and efforts to create a political and security environment that is conducive for the holding of credible and comprehensive elections.

The UN Assistance Mission in Iraq has been closely monitoring the situation in Falluja, and has provided medical and other essential supplies to the civilian population there, in cooperation with non-governmental organizations and Iraqi ministries.

Qazi has also been meeting with various Iraqi officials and political and civic activists to explore means by which the United Nations can contribute to advancing the political process in Iraq, in line with Security Council resolution 1546.

**Côte d’Ivoire

The overall situation in Côte d’Ivoire is reported to be relatively calm.

The UN mission says that 10 days after the start of the crisis, none of the international radio stations have been allowed to resume their broadcasts.  None of the opposition newspapers have reappeared, and the Government continues to hold the monopoly over the media.

The mission says that, while official reaction to the Security Council resolution adopted this week has been a resolute desire to comply, these messages are interspersed with calls for the Young Patriot militants to remain mobilized.

The UN Radio, meanwhile, is broadcasting peace messages, along with features and interviews on the economic and humanitarian effects of the crisis.

UN peacekeepers continue to patrol sensitive areas in Abidjan to pre-empt any security risks to the civilian population.  UN police have resumed their outreach activities with the local population.

In the north, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that all checkpoints in Bouaké have been dismantled.  Electricity was re-established on Monday night.

**Security Council

There are no meetings or consultations of the Security Council today either here or in Nairobi, where Council members arrived ahead of a two-day meeting on Sudan.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Sudan, Jan Pronk, will participate in that meeting.

In line with the unanimously adopted resolution 1569, the Council decided to take the opportunity of its presence in Nairobi to discuss other peace efforts in the region.

The Council’s discussions are expected to focus on the civil conflicts engulfing the Sudan, including the crisis in the Darfur region, as well as the long-running civil war in the southern part of the country.

According to the Security Council presidency, this will be only the fourth time in its history that the Council is meeting away from United Nations Headquarters in New York, and its first formal meeting in Nairobi.

The United Nations Information Centre in Nairobi has accredited more than 400 national and international reporters to cover the event.

**Sudan-Darfur

The UN mission in Sudan reports, based on accounts from internally displaced persons, that, over the weekend, police units at Kalma camp in South Darfur started firing indiscriminately.  The residents speculate that shooting took place as a warning following the visit of the Commission of Inquiry on Saturday.

According to the Government, rebels within the camp fired on Sudanese police positions, forcing an exchange of gunfire, according to the UN mission.

The mission also reports that residents in camps around El-Geneina are increasingly concerned about the presence of armed men in and around the camps.  They report that gunshots are being fired during the night.

Also in West Darfur, UN agency workers conducted a one-day training workshop for 60 members of the African Monitoring Force in El-Geneina.  The subject was on sexually transmitted diseases and gender-based violence.

**Condoleezza Rice

The Secretary-General yesterday evening spoke by telephone with US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.  He congratulated her on her appointment to become the next Secretary of State.  As he told reporters on Monday, he is looking forward to a constructive and collaborative relationship with the US administration and the next Secretary of State.

**SG Travels to Nairobi

The Secretary-General is travelling today.  Tomorrow, he will address the Security Council’s public meeting on Sudan, which will take place in Nairobi.

**Appointment of DSRSG for UNMEE

Ms. Sissel Ekaas of Norway has been appointed Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).  Immediately prior to this appointment, Ms. Ekaas served as the Director, Gender and Population Division, Sustainable Development Department in the Food and Agricultural Organization.  She is expected to take up her duties in Asmara by the end of this month.

We have a bio on her upstairs.

**Kosovo

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Kosovo, Søren Jessen-Petersen, has welcomed the formation of a coalition government there.

He said he counts on all parties to play an active role in the democratic process.

He also said he trusts that the new custodians of the provisional institutions will honour their commitment to work closely with minority communities, and towards building a stable multi-ethnic society.

We have a press release on that.

**UNICEF/Nigeria Polio

UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, notes that Nigeria aims to immunize every child there against polio, during the upcoming National Immunization Day, which kicks off on 20 November.

There’s a lot riding on this campaign, with UNICEF adding that the polio eradication campaign in Nigeria was on track until the Oral Polio Vaccines controversy, stemming from some Nigerian States resisting the use of polio vaccines.

As of last Friday, the World Health Organization has confirmed that 682 Nigerian children, in 31 states, under the age of five, have been paralysed by polio this year –- and that’s up from 335 cases in 19 states last year.

We have more details on that upstairs.

**UNESCO and Microsoft

UNESCO and Microsoft signed a cooperation agreement today to help bridge the digital divide.  Together, they will work towards using information technology to improve education and development worldwide.

And we have a press release with more on that.

**UNTV

The United Nations TV programme “World Chronicle” will be shown today.

The topic will be landmines and the guests will be Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch, President of the Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World, and Martin Barber, Director of the United Nations Mine Action Service.

And that can be seen on in-house television channel 3 or 31 at 3:30.

**Guest at Noon Tomorrow

And finally, our guest at the noon briefing tomorrow will be Vincent McClean, the New York Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and he’ll be here to talk about the Afghanistan Opium Survey 2004.

That’s all I have for you.

Questions and Answers

Question:  We haven’t heard much about the “Translator”, the film.  It was to come out in November.  Is there any word on that and, perhaps not so frivolously, what impact will its arrival have on the current climate?

Spokesman:  I’d have to refer you to the Information Department, which facilitated the filming of the “Interpreter” here at UN Headquarters.  As you know, I think, it was the first time ever that we granted a commercial film company [permission] to do shooting here on the premises.  I don’t know when the film is going to come out or if it has come out.  But DPI would know.  Anyone else?

Question:  I heard on television news this morning that Saddam Hussein, with the “oil-for-food” programme, they made it a whole case where he had hoodwinked the United Nations and got all this money.  And he used it to pay suicide bombers to bomb Israel.  And there was going to be a congressional investigation and the UN said no, it doesn’t look good for the UN.  Do you have a comment?

Spokesman:  There were press accounts that Saddam Hussein had paid [compensation to] the families of suicide bombers but to our knowledge this matter was never taken up by the Security Council’s 661 Committee on Iraqi sanctions.  As you may know, there were hearings in Washington on the oil-for-food programme, or more broadly, on Saddam Hussein and the skimming of oil money for a variety of purposes, that took place on Monday in the Senate and will take place this afternoon on the House side.  In the Senate hearings, there was a revelation on Monday that the amount of money that had been diverted totalled $21.3 billion.  Senator Levin, one of the two co-chairs holding those meetings, pointed out that a substantial portion of this money pre-dated the oil-for-food programme so this is not all money that is linked to the oil-for-food programme.

As for the oil-for-food money, none of it was to have gotten into Saddam’s hands.  It was to go into a UN escrow account to be used for meeting the humanitarian needs of all Iraqis.  My last comment would be just to recall what the Secretary-General said to the Security Council in March 2001:  that oil money deposited in any other account, besides the UN escrow account, was illegal and a breach of sanctions.  So the whole purpose of the Volcker investigation is to find out the extent of that breach, and who was responsible.

Question:  What effect has Ms. Hassan’s death had on UN international staff, and what is the UN Security Coordinator [inaudible]?  And my other question is do you think that 110 Fijian soldiers are enough to protect your staff?

Spokesman:  On the first, I would limit myself to the statement I read out on Ms. Hassan.  We’re not discussing numbers but the Fijians are being recruited as close protection experts.  So they are responsible for protecting our premises and our staff working in Iraq.  And, as you know, there are three rings for security foreseen, with the middle and outer ring being drawn from the multinational force.  So it’s going to be much more than just these Fijians, who are assigned to close protection.  That’s the inner ring.  The total protection element, for our people, will make up the three rings that I just described.  Yes, sir?

Question:  Is there any other announcement that the Palestinian [inaudible]?

Spokesman:  I’m having great difficulty understanding you.

Question:  [Inaudible] January.  Is there any reaction or comments from the Secretary-General?

Spokesman:  I do have something on that.  As part of the process of reform of the Palestinian Authority, a project funded by the donor community, a project since 2002, the UN served as the lead technical adviser in the formation of a new Electoral Commission for the Palestinian Authority.  The UN’s assistance there included training, drafting of plans of operations, registration projects and so on.  Until earlier this year the UN’s Chief Technical Adviser had been Carlos Valenzuela, who is now in Iraq.  His post has now been filled by an electoral official from the European Union.  This new Commission is now ready to go, and we are waiting for a further request of assistance, which may be needed to plan the elections for January.  So that is the extent of our involvement in the Palestinian elections.  Yes?  Rita.

Question:  Can you give us a sense of the Secretary-General’s reaction to Mr. Volcker’s letter, and his decision to refuse the Senate Subcommittee’s request for documents and access to certain employees of the United Nations?  Does he think it’s the right decision to make at this time, especially since a lot of people -- the US media and Government -- are using it to fuel speculation about a cover up?

Spokesman:  Don’t forget that it was the Security Council itself that approved the Secretary-General’s recommendation to set up an independent commission under Paul Volcker and to allow Mr. Volcker to look into all aspects of the oil-for-food programme, not just allegations against UN staff, but all actors, including Member States.  So the 15 members of the Council voted for that.  The UN turned over to Mr. Volcker all documentation on oil-for-food, and Mr. Volcker said, right from the beginning, that he was going to control that documentation and he was going to control his investigation.

So his letter merely reaffirmed his position from the outset, and the Secretary-General approved of that arrangement from the outset and approves of it today.  It is the only way that Mr. Volcker can conduct an orderly and a thorough investigation.  And to view this as somehow covering up, when all of the relevant information, all of the people working for the UN have also been told that they must cooperate with Mr. Volcker in his investigation, all of that information has been turned over to a very trusted individual who has enormous integrity and who is expected to get to the bottom of all questions raised about oil-for-food.  So I don’t think, I would say it’s perverse to describe this as a cover up.  Yes?

Question:  In the letter, unless I’m confused, is Volcker not making the commitment to turn over the internal audits, or to release the internal audits, at some point?  And there’s a reference in the letter... “we anticipate these disclosures will include...”

Spokesman: I’m not authorized to speak for Mr. Volcker, so you will have to ask him to interpret his letter for you.  I’m aware, because the Secretary-General was also sent a copy of this letter, I’m aware what the letter says, I’m aware of the references to the internal audits.  But exactly what he means by that sentence you’ll have to ask him.

Question:  As a follow-up, can you also tell us whether you’re going to release the Secretary-General’s letter to Senators Coleman and Levin?  Has that gone out?  And can you make that public to us?  And can you describe the chronology of discussion that the Secretary-General or Deputy Secretary-General have had with the Senators over this issue of the last couple days?

Spokesman:  I’ll see if we can release the letter.  I believe it went out last night [He later said it had not yet gone out.] and it merely responded to the Senator’s letter to the Secretary-General saying that Paul Volcker has now made his position known to you through a separate letter to you from him.  I’m not aware of any contacts the Deputy Secretary-General might have had with the two Senators or members of their staffs.  I’m only aware of what I’ve already told you, that the Secretary-General called each of the Senators, Senator Levin and Senator Coleman, over last weekend to assure them that he wanted to get to the bottom of this and he did not want to obstruct their investigation but that he also has, as head of this organization, obligations to 190 other countries.  So, I will ask the Deputy Secretary-General if she’s had any contacts, but I haven’t heard that she has.

Question:  One of the big issues apparently between the Senators and Mr. Volcker and this inquiry is the question of UN staff and contractors testifying before of all of the Congressional Committees.  Does the Secretary-General support Mr. Volcker’s statement, which basically says that he expressed concern about this idea, that it could interfere with his investigation, if all of these UN people were forced to waive immunity and go off and testify in Washington?

Spokesman:  The Secretary-General supports Mr. Volcker’s position on testimony by UN staff members as expressed in his testimony.  Yes.

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