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.

**Secretary-General’s Statement on Allegations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in MONUC

I’m going to start with a statement by the Secretary-General, who met earlier today in Dar es Salaam with the Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, William Swing, and they discussed the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse in the UN Mission in that country.  And the Secretary-General’s statement goes as follows: 

“I have had a detailed briefing here in Dar es Salaam from my Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, about the investigations which the UN initiated some time ago into allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by both civilian and military peacekeeping personnel in the DRC.  I am afraid there is clear evidence that acts of gross misconduct have taken place.  This is a shameful thing for the United Nations to have to say, and I am absolutely outraged by it.

“Many of these allegations came to light last spring, and have since been looked into both by MONUC itself and by the Office of Internal Oversight Services.  I am glad to say that the allegations concern only a small number of UN personnel.  But it is vital that the investigations be speeded up.  We cannot rest until we have rooted out all such practices from MONUC, from any other peacekeeping operation, and indeed anywhere in the Organization they might occur.  And we must make sure that those involved are held fully accountable.

“I have long made it clear that my attitude to sexual exploitation and abuse is one of zero tolerance, without exception, and I am determined to implement this policy in the most transparent manner.  Last July, with this in mind, I asked Prince Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the Permanent Representative of Jordan to the United Nations -- who is himself also an experienced UN peacekeeper -- to act as my Adviser on this painful issue, and he graciously agreed.  I am now actively considering additional measures which need to be taken.  In the meantime, I have instructed the Department of Peacekeeping Operations to send a special investigation team to the DRC, with the greatest urgency, to examine the outstanding cases.”

And in that connection, on Monday we’re expecting senior officials from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations to join us, to brief on this issue, in the DRC.

**Secretary-General in Tanzania

The Secretary-General today told delegates to the conference in Tanzania on the Great Lakes Region that there is a glimmer of hope as the region’s leaders have made a strategic decision to pursue peace.

He told the International Conference on Peace, Security and Development in the Great Lakes Region, which began today in Dar es Salaam that a declaration, expected to be adopted tomorrow, will be a major step forward.  He said it “symbolizes a newfound political will to adhere to fundamental principles, to put in place confidence-building mechanisms and to promote a spirit of mutual trust”.

The Secretary-General told the assembled leaders that it is in their power to give their people hope by demonstrating a commitment to live as good neighbours and by taking steps to bridge the suspicion gap.  He warned, “We cannot afford to write this process off as a theoretical exercise.”

We have copies of his statement upstairs.

Following a lunch break, the conference participants met in a closed session to discuss the draft declaration.  This evening, the Secretary-General and the other leaders in attendance will attend a state dinner hosted by Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa.

**Secretary-General - Bilateral Meetings

In the margins of the Great Lakes conference, the Secretary-General is holding meetings this afternoon with several of the African leaders in attendance, including the Presidents of South Africa, Burundi and Sudan.

After he met with South African President Thabo Mbeki, the Secretary-General discussed the transitional process in Burundi with that country’s President, Domitien Ndayizeye.  The Secretary-General reinforced UN support for that process, and he also stressed the need for increased donor support for Burundi’s rebuilding process.

The Secretary-General then met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and told him, as he told the Security Council a day earlier in Nairobi, about the urgent need to complete the Naivasha peace process.

A successful completion of the Naivasha process would not only benefit north and south Sudan, he said, but would also be an essential step in moving forward the peace process in Darfur.  The President accepted this premise.

They also discussed the situation on the ground in Darfur.

**Security Council

A memorandum of understanding was signed at 10 a.m. in Nairobi by the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army committing them to reach a final comprehensive agreement by 31 December 2004.

The Security Council then unanimously adopted a resolution on Sudan, which strongly endorses the parties to fulfil that commitment.

We just received a press release on that, with details, that you can get upstairs.

**Security Council - Somalia

The Security Council in Nairobi also discussed Somalia today and was expected to adopt a presidential statement on that subject.

The Secretary-General, in his remarks to the press while in Nairobi, said he was encouraged by the recent developments in Somalia, “where they came together, set up a parliament, named the President and the Prime Minister and are determined to go back home and rebuild their nation”.

He said the Somalis are going to need lots of help from the international community and from their neighbours, but in the final analysis, it is only the Somalis themselves who can stabilize their country and live in peace.

**Uganda - South Sudan

According to the UN refugee agency, there has been a marked increase in the number of refugees crossing from southern Sudan into Uganda in recent weeks.

Refugees cite a growing number of raids by the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army, from its bases in south Sudan as the main reason for taking flight.

The agency has launched a series of initiatives to assist the hundreds of thousands of people who have already returned to south Sudan.

**Côte d’Ivoire

The UN mission in Côte d’Ivoire reports that the situation in Abidjan and the rest of the country is calm, but unpredictable. 

UN peacekeepers continue regular patrolling in various parts of the city both during day and night.

On the humanitarian front, the water supply has been restored to virtually all parts of the north.

Gross violations continue to be reported throughout the country, in the Government-controlled and Forces Nouvelles-controlled zones, respectively, as well as in the zone of confidence, the Mission reports.  They include cases of summary executions and extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, forced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, illegal and incommunicadodetentions and the destruction of houses and other property.

In line with its mandate, and despite its drastically reduced staffing, the UN Mission continues to investigate allegations of human rights violations, in particular, those allegedly perpetrated over the last two weeks since the outbreak of hostilities in Abidjan and in towns and villages in the north of the country. 

Meanwhile, humanitarian agencies in north-eastern Liberia are struggling to cope with the arrival of thousands of refugees from neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire.

**Iraq

The United Nations continues to deal with the Iraqi Interim Government and the humanitarian community to coordinate and provide emergency assistance to civilians both inside and displaced around Falluja.

The UN Children’s Fund, the UN refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration have provided emergency stocks that are being mobilized for distribution in and around Falluja.  The supplies include chlorine, soap, jerry cans, tents and winterization supplies.

Also, the World Health Organization has sent medical supplies, including blood bags and dressings, to Iraqi Ministry of Health facilities in the area.

These activities have taken place despite constraints in obtaining access to people in need.  As access improves, UN agencies and partners stand ready to provide additional services, including water trucking, medical supplies and technical assistance.

**UNRWA

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East today launched an emergency appeal for $185.8 million.  That money is intended to allow the Agency to carry out crucial relief operations for the 1.6 million refugees in the West Bank and Gaza throughout 2005.

The Agency said that this year has seen the worst levels of destruction of the four year intifada.  More than 2.2 million people in the occupied Palestinian territory are now living on less than two dollars a person each day.

We have a press release upstairs with more details on that.

**Haiti - SRSG at Summit

Juan Valdes, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Haiti, has stressed the importance of a quick implementation of projects in Haiti so that the population can see improvements on the ground, as well as build trust in the UN Mission there.

Valdes did this at a presentation he made for foreign ministers yesterday at the fourteenth Ibero-American Summit of heads of State and government -- this was attended by several countries which have troops taking part in the peacekeeping mission in Haiti.

Prior to the ministerial meeting, Valdes attended a workshop on Haiti, chaired by Brazil and attended by several Group of Rio representatives.

**Sanctions - Humanitarian Implications

Today the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is launching a new initiative to assess the potential humanitarian implications of sanctions.

The UN wants to ensure that such measures won’t worsen the living conditions of civilian populations in targeted areas.

So OCHA has started developing a system to determine how sanctions might harm instead of help.  Among other things, it will take into account the status of humanitarian conditions in countries before sanctions are imposed.

The project has seen the publication of two documents:  a Sanctions Assessment Handbook and a complementary set of Field Guidelines.

And we have a press release from OCHA on that.

**Locusts

An update on the desert locust situation.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned various Middle Eastern countries about the possibility of swarms arriving from Egypt, but says there is no reason to panic.

The alert went out to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

FAO says crop damage is expected to be limited.

And we have more in a press release.

**Secretary-General’s Message on Sierra Leone

We also have the text of a message by the Secretary-General to a conference on Italian cooperation for West African children.

And we have the Week Ahead. 

That’s all I have for you.  Any questions? David?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  In the press conference, just a short while ago, the Iraqi Ambassador said that there were further increases for Iraqi staff members in the pipeline.  To what extent is the United Nations considering raising the staff level beyond the already increased level from a week or two ago, which he said was 59?

Spokesman:  We intentionally didn’t go public with that figure.  The Secretary-General did raise the ceiling, allowing additional elections monitors to go into the country.  Again, I don’t think we want to go into specific numbers.  I did say, a couple of weeks ago, our target on election personnel was 25.  Carina Perelli feels that with 25 good international staff members there, we can probably carry out what remains to be done in advising the Iraqis on the organization of the elections.  I’m not aware that there’s been any subsequent decision by the Secretary-General to raise the ceiling further.  Yes?

Question:  I’m wondering if you could comment on the issue of the votes, this afternoon, of the United Nations Staff Union.  How worried is the Secretariat about it and does it have any legal implications for the Secretariat?

Spokesman:  I think I told you earlier this week that, at the time that the Department of Management had submitted its report to the Secretary-General on the allegations raised by the Staff Union against the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), that we briefed the Staff Committee leadership on the results of that investigation, and I also issued a statement on the Secretary-General’s behalf, summarizing his conclusions.  The Staff Committee was not happy with that result, which I believe may be what they’re considering adopting a resolution on this afternoon.

Overnight, there was a bit of an unfortunate misconstruing of this action they’re planning to take as a vote of no confidence in the Secretary-General.  The Staff Council President assured us that that was not the intent, although they are dissatisfied with senior management, particularly in the way this whole OIOS matter was dealt with.  We assured her this morning that we were prepared to meet with her next week to review their complaints about the Department of Management investigation.  And I understand that to correct this misinterpretation overnight about their intentions, regarding the Secretary-General, they’ve issued a new press release sometime just before noon today.  So you might ask them for their latest press release.

I don’t think there are legal implications.  The Staff Union tries to represent staff views; we try to interact with them to take their views into account as we formulate our policies.  It’s been a bit of an up and down relationship in the past years, but it’s certainly our intention to work with them as fully and responsibly as we can to deal with these issues.  And, as I’ve said, we’ve offered to discuss with them next week their complaints about this particular report.  Nick?

Question:  The report out of Nairobi quoting spokesmen in New York, saying as part of the resolution on Sudan there would be more than 10,000 peacekeepers and more than $500 million in humanitarian aid.  That language was not in the resolution but courts say that’s what the Security Council has decided.  Can you confirm those numbers?

Spokesman:  I think the two United Nations officials in New York cited in the report claim they were either misquoted or never used those figures.  So, I cannot confirm those figures.

Question:  Are there any figures?

Spokesman:  There may well be planning figures.  I’m not aware of what they are.  But we have nothing official to put forward at this time.  Mohammed?

Question:  Fred, two questions.  Do you have any figures on how many children were victims of Iraqi sanctions?  And my second question is how many cases of misconduct were reported to the United Nations, and is there any allegation of involvement of female staff?

Spokesman:  There was quite a bit of debate over the years regarding the impact of United Nations sanctions on Iraqis generally, and there may have been separate figures on the numbers of Iraqi children [affected].  I’m not sure if UNICEF or we would have those numbers.  I’d have to look into the file to see.  The oil-for-food programme, of course, greatly improved the nutritional intake of all Iraqis, particularly children.  And I think that’s probably what we’re proudest of.

On your second question, if you don’t mind waiting until Monday when the peacekeeping officials come in to brief you on this matter because it isn’t just the Congo Mission that they’re concerned about, it kind of goes across the board.  There were something like 70-plus cases investigated by OIOS, and I don’t know how many of those were considered actionable.  I think less than 30 in the end.  But these are details that I think would be put out on Monday.

As for whether there were any complaints against women for sexual abuse, I’m not aware of any.  David?  

Question:  Fred, regardless of if any Staff Union action results in no-confidence or simply noting dissatisfaction, how seriously would the Secretary-General take such an action.  And what practical impact would it have on the Secretariat?

Spokesman:  As I said, we heard them out.  Their initial reaction to the OIOS report was negative.  This morning we invited them to sit down with us next week to go over it.  The idea is to keep dialogue going to sort out our differences so that it isn’t necessary to adopt resolutions saying they have no-confidence in senior management.  We’d certainly like them to have more confidence in us and we hope that we can achieve that through dialogue.

Question:  Does the Secretary-General take it that decisions of the Staff Union are representative of the entire United Nations staff here in New York and elsewhere?

Spokesman:  That’s a judgment call.  These people are either elected or nominated by their peers to serve as staff representatives, and we accept them as the legal representatives of the staff.

Question:  Why was the Staff Council not consulted?  As I remember in your statement about the conclusion of the [inaudible] investigation, on some charges, there was not adequate information.  So why was the Staff Council not consulted, since they were the people who complained about [inaudible] in the first place?

Spokesman:  That’s one of the things that I think we’re prepared to talk to them about next week.

Question:  But isn’t that a completely inadequate investigation, if the people whose complaint needs to be investigated aren’t asked and then the result comes back and they say there’s not enough information?

Spokesman:  One of the things that was brought forward initially was an unsigned letter making all kinds of allegations against the head of OIOS and OIOS generally.  If you can’t get a person to come forward to say, “This is my complaint”, how can you investigate it?  

Question:  But subsequently there was a Staff Council resolution, which seems to reflect the complaints brought forward in that letter, and it was after that resolution that Kofi announced his investigation.  It seems extraordinary that you didn’t go back to the body that initiated, that provoked, the investigation to ask, “Come up with the goods, where is the evidence?”

Spokesman:  Well, I don’t know for a fact that none of those members of the Staff Council were consulted in the course of this investigation.  If they say they were not consulted, I think that’s definitely something we’d like to discuss with them next week.  That does not seem right.

Question:  And when you said today that they assured you it wasn’t a vote of no-confidence against the Secretary-General, in what context was that?  Who was that in the Staff Council?  And how was that assurance made?

Spokesman: Well, first you should look at the press release issued by the subsequent…

Question:  The press release is even more bizarre than all the rest of this.  The press release says that the draft resolutions proposed by the Staff Union expresses a lack of confidence in the senior management.  At the same time, two sentences later, it says “but it doesn’t express a desire to hold a vote of no confidence against the Secretary-General”.  So we have a lack of confidence in senior management but not a no-confidence in the Secretary-General.

Spokesman:  Well, you had a wire service story in the middle of the night saying that this action was a vote of no confidence in the Secretary-General, which was a misunderstanding on someone’s part based on the position explained to us this morning by Rosemary Waters, the President of the Staff Council.

Question:  Who did she explain it to?

Spokesman:  She explained it to Iqbal Riza, the Chief of Staff.  She indicated that to clarify their position they would be issuing a subsequent press release, which I understand they’ve now put out just a few minutes ago.  So let us try to talk this out with them next week and see if we can’t resolve this.

Question:  When you talked to Rosemary Waters, because she’s been unavailable to us so far today, did she say that because of your promise to meet next week, this resolution wouldn’t be adopted until you had further discussions?

Spokesman:  No, that’s not my impression.  That particular thing wasn’t discussed.

Question:  Cause we’re expecting this resolution to be adopted by now.  Is that what you’re expecting?

Spokesman:  My understanding is that they intend to hold a meeting, as you say, in about an hour’s time and to vote on this draft resolution.  Yes.

Question:  In the meeting with the Staff Council on Tuesday, was a full copy of Ms. Bertini’s report given to them or just a summary of their findings?

Spokesman:  No, that was considered confidential from Catherine Bertini to the Secretary-General, but the elements of her report were discussed, more details were given to the Staff Council than were given to you. 

Question:  In the draft resolution, there were a number of other issues raised, including Mr. Annan’s failure to accept the offered resignation of Louise Fréchette over the Baghdad security failures, and including the Secretary-General’s failure to “hold accountable the head of UNHCR for alleged sexual harassment”.  And also, additional allegations made, which hadn’t surfaced before about “the failure to hold accountable the Chef de Cabinet, whose son was employed with the Secretariat in contravention of staff rules”.  That’s Mr. Riza, who was the person [inaudible] today.

Spokesman:  If you look at the staff rules, and you look at the circumstances of Mr. Riza’s son’s employment, you’ll see that there’s no contravention of the staff rules.  We’ve said this over and over again, and why these allegations keep coming forward I don’t know because the rules are clear…

Question:  As I understand, Mr. Riza’s son is employed in the Middle East.  Is that right?

Spokesman:  Yes, he is seconded from a specialized agency where he works…

Question:  Which one?

Spokesman:  I don’t have the details of that in front of me so if you come to my office afterwards we’ll dig all this old stuff out of the file and give it to you.  I don’t think I need to go over those other two issues, we explained why the Secretary-General took the decision on Louise Fréchette that he did.  He considered it a collective responsibility.  He appreciated it that she took responsibility and offered her resignation, but he said it wasn’t her responsibility alone.  It was a group failure and he sent letters to every member of that group expressing his concern.  And, on Mr. Lubbers, we’ve been over that more recently.  He [the Secretary-General] reviewed the OIOS report, he reviewed Mr. Lubbers’ response, and he found that the allegations against Mr. Lubbers could not be sustained.

Question:  Is that now closed, the Mr. Lubbers part?  I mean that’s not part of this dialogue with the Staff Council?

Spokesman:  The Secretary-General considers this matter closed.  We did not offer to discuss, it did not come up in the discussions with Rosemary Waters this morning.

Question:  So the talks [inaudible] specifically on the Nair case?  Is that correct?

Spokesman:  That’s my understanding.  And the Staff Union, of course, is free to raise whatever issues they want with us.  But it was our understanding that they were concerned about the lack of consultation on the OIOS report.  Nick? 

Question:  Fred, on cloning, it now looks like there won’t be a convention or a resolution to seek a worldwide treaty that would ban cloning.  Can I get the Secretary-General’s reaction to what seems to be a weaker statement…

Spokesman:  That’s still working its way through the General Assembly and so, before I would even ask him for a reaction, I would like the Assembly to complete their deliberation on this matter, and whether he would want to enter that debate I can’t tell you.

Question:  But he does approve some cloning for stem cell research.  I think he’s said that before…

Spokesman:  I don’t want to discuss his views while the General Assembly is deliberating on this matter, if you don’t mind.

Thank you very much.

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