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.

**Guest at Noon

As you can tell from the PowerPoint, we’re having a guest at the noon briefing today.  It’s Johan Schölvinck, the Director of the Division for Social Policy and Development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.  He will brief you on the findings of the World Youth Report 2003.  This is the first comprehensive UN publication to examine the global situation of young people since the UN adopted the World Programme of Action for Youth in 1995.

He will be coming up here in just a minute.

**SG’s Press Conference Tomorrow

Also on the subject of press conferences, the Secretary-General will give a press conference tomorrow in this room at 11:30 a.m. This is one of his periodic press conferences that you are always pressing him to do.  As usual, we will not have a noon briefing tomorrow.

The Secretary-General’s last such periodic press conference, by the way, was on 19 January.  And he also met with you on 13 February on the subject of Cyprus.  [He later corrected that to say the 19 January press conference was Iraq-specific.  The last periodic one was, therefore, 18 December.]

**South Africa

The tenth anniversary of democracy in South Africa is a day that gives concrete meaning to the abstract concepts of humanity and of hope, the Secretary-General said today.

Speaking at an event to mark the anniversary this morning, the Secretary-General says that today, the international community rejoices to see South Africans of all colours, ethnic groups and creeds, working together to forge a common future.  South Africa now occupies a key position and has a strategic role in regional and international affairs, he added.  We have copies of his remarks available upstairs.

**Security Council

The Security Council held consultations on Western Sahara today.

A draft resolution was introduced after Hedi Annabi, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, briefed members on the latest report of the Secretary-General on Western Sahara, which came out as a document this morning.

**Western Sahara – SG’s Report

In his report on Western Sahara, which was issued today, the Secretary-General notes that the issue of sovereignty continues to divide Morocco and the Polisario Front and to prevent a negotiated solution.

The Secretary-General says he sees only two options for the Security Council to consider:  the first would be to terminate MINURSO –- that’s the UN peacekeeping mission there -- and return the issue of Western Sahara to the General Assembly, acknowledging that 13 years of deployment and $600 million will not solve the problem unless one or both of the parties are required to do something they would not voluntarily agree to do.  The second option, he says, is to try once again to get the parties to work towards acceptance of the Peace Plan.

The Secretary-General favours the second option, and he calls upon the parties to work towards acceptance and implementation of the Peace Plan and recommends that the mandate of the UN mission be extended for 10 months.

**Security Council – Part II

The second item on the agenda of this morning’s Security Council consultations was a briefing by the Chairman of the Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Heraldo Muñoz of Chile.

And scheduled this afternoon at 3:30 p.m. then, is an open meeting at which Lakhdar Brahimi will brief on Iraq.  And that will be followed by closed consultations on the same subject.  Mr. Brahimi will come to the stakeout after the consultations to speak to you.

**Iraq

The Iraqi Governing Council announced yesterday that it is adopting the proposal for the formation of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq.  This follows the proposal put forward by the UN Electoral Assessment Mission, headed by Carina Perelli, during its recent visit throughout Iraq.  The task of this Independent Electoral Commission will be to oversee, prepare and conduct the elections according to the Iraqi legal framework and international standards.  This commission will be headed by an eight-member Board of Commissioners, of which seven will be Iraqis and one will be an international member.

There will now have to be a large public information campaign to encourage qualified Iraqis to be nominated to serve on this commission.  Candidates will have to submit a package that will include, among other items, references and a personal essay.  Once nominations are received, the candidates will be assessed through a multi-step technical evaluation process undertaken by the UN.  More details are available in a fact sheet that we have upstairs.

**Georgia – SG’s Report

The Secretary-General’s latest report on the situation in Abkhazia, Georgia, is out on the racks today, and in it, he says there’s reason for cautious optimism in the long term.  The Secretary-General says he is encouraged by the new Georgian leadership’s public commitment to pursuing a comprehensive settlement by peaceful means.  He also calls on the Abkhaz side to review its position and use the opportunity of the changing political climate in Tbilisi to start meaningful negotiations on the substantive issues of the conflict.

The Prime Minister, Zurab Zhvania will brief in an open meeting on Thursday.  Security Council members will then hold consultations on Georgia.

**North Korea

The train explosion in the North Korean city of Ryongchon last Thursday appears to have destroyed nearly two thirds of the city centre, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said today.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator and the regional director and country director for the World Food Programme visited the city on Sunday to assess the situation and to deliver food aid.  According to the local authorities there, the most important needs of the affected people are medicines, food, building materials and utensils.

OCHA was told that, as of today, the death toll stands at 161, with more than 1,300 people injured.  In many cases, the injuries appear to be very severe, with the majority appearing to be injuries to the eyes and face, as a result of the blast.

The World Food Programme says it had delivered seven tons of food to the location of last week’s train disaster where food aid was distributed to the most severely affected victims.  WFP’s goal was to distribute at least 1,000 tons of food amounting to 1 million dollars to those affected by the disaster.  A new flash appeal was expected to be issued soon to meet the pressing needs.

**Darfur - Missions

The UN fact-finding team that was dispatched to look into the human rights situation in the Darfur region was in Al Fasher today in northern Darfur.

The team was expected to return to Geneva early next week and to submit their report shortly thereafter to the acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan.  The report would be transmitted to the Secretary-General and to the Commission on Human Rights.

Meanwhile, James Morris, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, and leader of the humanitarian assessment mission to Darfur, arrived in Khartoum with his team today.  He hopes to get into Darfur tomorrow.

**Darfur - Refugees

The UN refugee agency is investigating reports of a new influx of Sudanese refugees into north-eastern Chad, an area already hosting earlier waves of refugees facing food and water shortages.  Local authorities estimate that each week, some 200 to 300 people have been crossing the border from Darfur into Chad since the beginning of the month.

**FAO – Locust Swarm

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN is warning that despite intensive control efforts, the threat of desert locusts in west and north-west Africa remains extremely serious –- the most serious locust situation in the region for 10 years.

FAO says $17 million is needed to continue the current locust control programme during the spring and extend it to breeding areas during the summer.  We have a press release on that.

**WHO – Measles Reduction

The World Health Organization and UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, today announced a 30 per cent global drop in the number of deaths from measles between 1999 and 2002.  There was a 35 per cent drop in measles deaths in Africa, which is the region with the highest number of people affected by the disease.

WHO says the progress is due to the adoption of the comprehensive WHO/UNICEF measles strategy, which is based on routine immunization coverage.  The UN’s goal is to cut global measles deaths in half by the end of 2005.  We have more in a press release on that upstairs.

**CSD – High-Level Meeting

A reminder now that the Commission on Sustainable Development continues this week with the High-Level Ministerial Segment starting tomorrow.  The Secretary-General will address the Opening of the High-Level Segment, which is expected to be attended by over 80 ministers.

Tomorrow at 2 p.m., the Commission’s Chairman, Norway’s Environment Minister Børge Brende, will brief the press here on the outcomes of the main Commission session and his expectations for the High-Level Segment.

**NPT Prep Com

The third and final phase of preparations for next year’s review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty began here yesterday, with States that are party to the Treaty discussing recent challenges to the Treaty and its effectiveness.

Among the events being held in conjunction with the preparatory session, I’d like to highlight a press conference tomorrow at 1:15 p.m., in this room by the group, Mayors for Peace, a coalition of mayors from around the world who are opposed to nuclear weapons.  The president of the group, Tadotoshi Akiba, who is the Mayor of Hiroshima, and its vice-president, Iccho Itoh, who is the Mayor of Nagasaki, will address the press.

**Press Conferences Today

And finally, press conferences this afternoon, 12:45, Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), will be here to talk to you about the eleventh UNCTAD conference, which will be taking place next June in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

And then 3:30 p.m. this afternoon, the Prime Minister of Sweden Göran Persson will be here to brief you, as well.

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

Questions and Answers

Question:  Fred, on Western Sahara and the SG’s report on it, the second option that the SG gave, how optimistic is he that a consensual solution will be found within the 10-month extension period for MINURSO?

Spokesman:  I don’t think it’s a question of optimism, but of tenacity.  I think he feels that as long as there is at least a slim hope of reaching some kind of agreement, that we ought to keep trying.

Is that it?  Okay, then I will ask Johan Schölvinck to come forward and take this chair.

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