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 Marie Okabe, Associate Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Good morning.

**Liberation

We’re starting the briefing half an hour early because in just a short while the Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly and the Permanent Representative of Israel, Ambassador Dan Gillerman, will make some remarks at the Security Council stakeout previewing next Monday’s General Assembly special session marking the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps.

The Secretary-General and the President will be joined by the permanent representatives of the countries which sponsored the resolution, namely, Israel, Australia, Canada, Russia, New Zealand, the United States and Luxembourg, on behalf of the European Union.

The special session will get under way at 10 a.m. on Monday.  As of yesterday, 148 countries had written in support of the event.  And that number, I think, is on the rise.

In conjunction with the special session, there are two exhibits in the public entrance of the Building.  One is called “Auschwitz -– the depth of the Abyss”, which is a collection of photographs and paintings from the Auschwitz and Majdanek camps.

The other is called “Afterwards, it’s just a part of you” and it is an exhibit of photographs taken by youth groups who have visited what remains of the death camps.  It also includes their written recollection of their visits and talks with survivors.

Our DPI colleagues will have a press release this afternoon.

**Tsunami Update

Turning to the relief efforts for the tsunami survivors, U.N. agencies are continuing their relief efforts in tsunami-affected countries, with the loss of survivors’ livelihoods becoming an increasingly important issue.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), some 600,000 people in the hardest-hit regions of Indonesia may have lost their sole source of income.  And Sri Lanka’s total number of unemployed may have temporarily risen by 55 per cent or more.  The ILO has, therefore, called for job creation strategies to be integrated into the humanitarian response.  The strategies’ main elements would include:  the reconstruction of employment-intensive infrastructure, social finance schemes, and employment-friendly investments.

Meanwhile, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today that rehabilitation of severely affected mangroves would help speed up the recovery process.  Mangroves contribute directly to rural livelihoods by providing timber, poles, fuel and thatch, as well as spawning grounds and nutrients for fish and shellfish.  We have all these press releases with more details upstairs.

**Kobe Conference Update

In Kobe, Japan, today, UN experts decided to create a global early-warning system to reduce the impact of natural hazards on vulnerable communities.

Launched on the second day of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction, the new International Early Warning Programme will bring together a host of organizations, rely on a wide information flow, and emphasize the importance of community education about disaster preparedness.

Working with the Early Warning Programme will be the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which is calling for greater integration of environmental issues into disaster preparedness and response, and the World Food Programme (WFP), which says that one of its beneficiaries are victims of natural disasters.

There are press releases on these subjects, as well.

**Security Council

And here at UN Headquarters, there are no meetings or consultations of the Security Council scheduled for today.

Yesterday afternoon, the Security Council wrapped up an open meeting on the work of the Counter-Terrorism Committee by issuing an urgent call to States to report to the Committee on their national efforts to defeat terrorism.  The Council, in a presidential statement, noted that 75 Member States had not yet reported to the Committee on these efforts.

The Chair of that Committee, Russian Ambassador Andrey Denisov, and the head of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, Javier Ruperez, will brief you here in this room at 12:45 today about the Counter-Terrorism special meeting that will be taking place in Almaty, Kazakhstan, from 26 to 28 January.

**Sudan

Turning to Sudan, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Jan Pronk, today completed a two-day trip to Rumbek, the provisional capital of southern Sudan.

Pronk met with the senior staff of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A) to discuss the future peace support mission and the continuing preparations for its deployment.  He also discussed the same issues with the UN country team staff who are deployed in the south.

Pronk is planning to return to Rumbek at the end of this week to meet with Dr. John Garang, the Movement’s head.

The Special Representative has now gone to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he will discuss current and future cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union once the full peace support mission has been deployed.

The overall security situation in Darfur has been relatively calm over the past two weeks, reports the UN Mission in Kharthoum.  Cases of general lawlessness and banditry in the states, however, remain quite frequent.

**ECOWAS

The Secretary-General said that West Africa continues to face daunting challenges, with the situation in Côte d’Ivoire remaining very tense, as some actors there have been unwilling to make the necessary compromises for peace.

In a message to the summit meeting of the Economic Community of West African States, known as ECOWAS, which is taking place in Accra, Ghana, today, the Secretary-General adds that the situations in Liberia and Guinea-Bissau also warrant sustained attention, especially reform of the security sector and the reintegration of former combatants.  We have copies of that message upstairs.

**UNHCR/DRC/Uganda

And finally, further to yesterday’s mention of refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo escaping from the eastern DRC, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees today says it has begun providing emergency aid to them.

A UNHCR team has met with local authorities to set up a plan of action, and another team is preparing the logistics of transferring refugees away from the border to a settlement.

At the end of last week, there were about 20,000 new refugees in western Uganda.

And that’s all I have for you.  I have nothing on press briefings or press conferences for tomorrow.  So, that should give you a break.

The Secretary-General, as I mentioned, will be at the stakeout in a few minutes.

Are there any questions for me?

Yes, Mark, and then Fox, and then Richard.

**Questions and Answers

Question:   Does the UN retain the confidence that the technical preparations for elections in Iraq remain on track sufficient?

Associate Spokesperson:  Yes.  The Secretary-General, as you know, addressed that question a short while ago on Monday, when he walked in, and our position hasn’t changed then. 

Yes?

Question:   The Justice Department mentioned yesterday, when they were talking about Samir Vincent, that he met with UN officials (inaudible).  Who was that official?  And also at the time, which was, I guess 1996, who would have been the key players at the UN working on the “oil-for-food” programme?

Associate Spokesperson:  You asked pretty specific questions about this event yesterday.  Mr. Samir’s activities, as relating to the oil-for-food programme as you know, are being examined by the independent enquiry led by Mr. Volcker.  And so, we cannot comment, therefore, on the specifics of this case while the inquiry is going on.

Question:   But who would have been the key players working at the United Nations at that time?

Associate Spokesperson:  Well, that you would have to ask the oil-for-food programme.  But, as I said, as long as this case is being examined at the moment, we’d prefer not to go into specifics.  As for who was leading the programme; you know who was the head of the programme.  But other than that, we would have to look into that for you.

Question:   In 1996, Benon Sevan is not appointed yet, though.  At least my understanding of his biography.  So, in 1996 who is in charge of the formulation and who would be in the driving seat and in terms of decisions and planning and processing?

Associate Spokesperson:  I’d like to look into that specifically for you, because before it became the oil-for-food programme, there was a humanitarian aid programme for Iraq administered by one of the departments here.  But I would like to double check that before I get back to you on that.  [She later announced that Gultiero Fulcheri of Italy succeeded Mohammed Zejjari of Algeria as the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, according to the timeline available on the Oil-for-Food website.  And she noted that, at that time, the Oil-for-Food Programme was administered by the UN’s Department of Political Affairs and the Department of Humanitarian Affairs (the predecessor of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.]

Question:   May I just ask one more question; the big thing on that?

Associate Spokesperson:  Sure.

Question:   Boutros Boutros-Ghali presumably is one of the people around then.  Am I right in assuming that?  And so was Kofi Annan part of the planning of the programme itself?.  Are those two...(Interrupted)?

Associate Spokesperson:  Well, the Secretary-General at the time was Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

Question:   And Kofi Annan at the time was doing what exactly?

Associate Spokesperson:  He was in 1996 the head of the Peacekeeping Department.

Question:   Marie?

Associate Spokesperson:  Yes?

Question:   Yesterday, your Office said that they were looking into it, and Paul Volcker (inaudible) talk to Mr. Vincent.  So, Marie why can’t the UN at least come up with a bit of a paper trail on who met with Iraqi officials in ’95/’96?  I mean, we know the Security Council was involved in trying to get the oil-for-food programme under way.  I think the UN, and in future we’re (inaudible) to hear about more transparency, like files be opened.  I mean, why can’t... has a decision been made in the UN not to cooperate or give any information out to the media about staffing or past historical events relating to this story?

Associate Spokesperson:  I think if there are factual questions that can be answered, we will be answering them.  I think in terms of the aspects of the enquiry that Mr. Volcker is looking into, we’re not commenting at the time.  But if it’s factual questions, yes.  I mean, that’s why I will look into that for you.  I just don’t want to identify the department before I double check.

Yes?

Question:   In terms of access to documents in this new era of transparency and openness that we’re promised, senior officials have to file declarations of potential conflicts of interest and what their relations with companies, all the rest is.  Are those publicly available?

Associate Spokesperson:  I am not quite sure what you are referring to.

Question:   Well, when senior officials get appointed, they do need to file some kind of statement as to any potential conflicts of interest or other such issues.  It’s very standard procedure in governments and administrations around the planet, and the UN is no exception.  Are those filings of statements publicly available and can you make them available?

Associate Spokesperson:  I’m going to look into that for you.  I am not familiar with those documents.  Yes?  [She later told the correspondent that the United Nations required senior officials to file financial disclosure forms, which are confidential.]

Question:   Is there a policy on UN officials meeting with private citizens and whether they have to be registered with any government or with the UN to identify themselves as representing a government?  What is the policy regarding meeting with private citizens through maybe lobbying or maybe giving some kind of compensation on behalf of a government?  Should any UN official be meeting with them?  What is the policy of the Organization?

Associate Spokesperson:  We’d have to look into the staff rules on that for you.  [She later told the correspondent that all staff members sign a written declaration, which, among other things, says they will not seek or accept instructions from any government or other source external to the United Nations.]

If there are no other questions, have a good afternoon and the Secretary-General and the General Assembly President and the other permanent representatives will join together for a press event at noon at the Security Council stakeout microphone.

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