Security Council business in April

 

 

                    We didn’t discuss any substance of foreign policy or the Council’s business

                    during this session this morning. We talked about our agenda and I’ll say a

                    word or two about that and we talked about Council procedures and how to

                    streamline our work and make it more pointed and results oriented. And I got

                    very strong encouragement from other Members of the Council in that sort of

                    pragmatic approach which perhaps you would expect from a British

                    Presidency. I must make it work.

 

                    On the agenda, you have seen – and if you haven’t it’s on the UK website –

                    the schedule for the month. Tomorrow we will have a briefing on the

                    UN/Iraq/Kuwait observer mission (UNIKOM) but I expect the discussion to be

                    confined to that sort of area and not to wander into wider policy on Iraq. I think

                    that is for rather later in our business. The Great Lakes discussion tomorrow

                    morning will be about the intention to send a Security Council mission to the

                    Great Lakes area, perhaps in May. We will be talking about possible Terms of

                    Reference for that and possible timing and logistics. There again it won’t

                    necessarily be, and I don’t think will be, a discussion of deep policy on the

                    Great Lakes. We will have that further down in the month, perhaps on the 17th

                    April. On Thursday there will be a public meeting, a briefing by the Secretariat

                    to update us on East Timor and a discussion on UNTAET's work in East

                    Timor and that will be in the main room and open to the press. At the moment

                    we have no business for Friday. The Secretary-General’s return is of interest

                    to us, but he has indicated that he will keep us briefed on his travelling when

                    he sees us for lunch on the 10th.

 

                    Then the schedule is as you see it. There are things coming up that are

                    attuned to the dates of reports that are coming in or mandates that need to be

                    renewed. Western Sahara is an important item for the end of the month in that

                    respect.

 

                    I just wanted to point out to you that on the schedule for the 27th of April there

                    is a new event – an initiative taken by the United Kingdom - to bring the

                    Council together with the Bureau of the Economic and Social Council

                    (ECOSOC) with the agreement of the Presidency and Bureau of ECOSOC, to

                    have a discussion about co-ordinating our respective approaches to conflict

                    management, conflict prevention, the role of disarmament, demobilisation and

                    reconciliation (DDR) in peacekeeping operations and in post conflict

                    peacebuilding. The Security Council is conscious that its work interacts with

                    the work of other parts of the UN but we don’t often talk with them about it.

                    And it’s time to do that. I do that, I hope it will be agreed that that will be an

                    open meeting, that is open to you. That we will have a discussion and a

                    brainstorming on that subject in front of other members of the UN and with

                    you to take the issue of co-ordination forward. There are, of course, many

                    other important things being done. I won’t go through them all. We’ll take

                    them as we come along.

 

                    My intention is to brief you, on mike, as soon as the Security Council is

                    finished. The intention there is to finish no later than 1.15 every day. And I will

                    also be trying to brief other members of the United Nations, with my

                    delegation, at more or less the same time so I will come and spend 5 or 10

                    minutes with you and then go into that room for other members of the UN, and

                    then be available probably for a few more minutes on background if you need

                    me. That is the intention of the Presidency during the course of this month.

 

                    Any questions on the programme?

 

                    Question about the possible attendance by Xanana Gusmao at the Security

                    Council meeting on East Timor.

 

                    We hadn’t made any arrangements to bring anybody extra in. That is an

                    interesting development in itself. I think it will be a more routine briefing on

                    Thursday as far as East Timor is concerned.

 

                    Question about the briefing on Kosovo.

 

                    Yes. That will be an updating briefing again. Open to interested delegations

                    outside the Council to contribute to. I don’t expect that to be a special event

                    in any way. It’s just our next checking of where we have got to on the

                    implementation of 1244. But there are some important developments in that

                    region and we want to keep a close eye on them. But it's not a special event

                    in any way. It’s just an updating and a discussion of where we have got to.

 

                    Question about the Middle East Peace Process

 

                    Nothing on the programme. I think you can expect some quiet diplomacy on

                    that for a bit. So I won’t be saying very much to the press unless we bring

                    something back to the Council. But the issue is certainly not dead. But I think

                    some background discussions are needed first before we see the possibilities

                    of further action.

 

                    Question about the arrest of Slobodan Milosovic

 

                    We haven’t discussed that in the Council. I don’t expect that we necessarily

                    will. From the point of view of the United Kingdom the arrest of President

                    Milosovic to face domestic charges is a welcome first step. We believe that

                    the indictment of President Milosovic by The Hague Tribunal stands is

                    important and must be followed. We are pleased that this first step is now

                    taking place and let’s watch developments.

 

                    Good. Thank you very much.