ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN NETHERLANDS, 8 - 12 MARCH
Secretary-General Kofi Annan departed New York on Saturday, 8 March, and arrived in the Netherlands the following morning.
His first meeting in The Hague was with Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, the Permanent Representative of Jordan to the United Nations, who serves as the President of the Assembly of the States Parties to the Rome Statutes of the International Criminal Court. They discussed various issues relating to the Court, which was to be inaugurated the following day.
Later that afternoon and into the evening, the Secretary-General held a number of meetings relating to Cyprus. He first met with his Special Adviser on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, who briefed him on latest developments. Afterwards, Mr. de Soto joined the Secretary-General for separate, back-to-back meetings with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece, George Papandreou, and Ugur Ziyal, Under-Secretary at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A statement attributable to the Secretary-General’s Spokesman was issued that evening, which said that “the Secretary-General’s plan represents the best and last opportunity for Cyprus to sign the EU accession treaty reunited. The Secretary-General hopes that the leaders will agree to put the plan to referendum and allow their people to decide on their future in a united Cyprus”. (See Press Release SG/SM/8627.)
On Monday morning, at the Peace Palace of The Hague, which serves as the seat of the International Court of Justice, the Secretary-General began another round of meetings on Cyprus.
On 28 February, he had asked the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, and the Greek Cypriot leader, Tassos Papadopoulous, to come to The Hague to tell him whether or not they were ready to enter into a binding commitment to putting the plan for a comprehensive settlement, as revised on 26 February, to separate simultaneous referenda on 30 March 2003.
At the Peace Palace, the Secretary-General first met with Mr. Papadopoulos, and then with Mr. Denktash. Before leaving the Palace at the end of the morning session, the Secretary-General met again with Mr. Ziyal of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Upon his return to the Peace Palace on Monday afternoon, the Secretary-General paid a courtesy call to the President of the International Court of Justice, Judge Jiuyong Shi.
He then resumed the negotiations on Cyprus with a meeting of the guarantor Powers, the United Kingdom, Turkey and Greece. Their respective delegations were headed by David Hannay, United Kingdom Special Envoy for Cyprus, Mr. Ziyal of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Skopelitis of the Greek Foreign Ministry.
The Secretary-General later gave a press conference, in which he pointed to the desire by people around the world for a peaceful resolution to the Iraq crisis. He emphasized that war must “always be a last resort”, and that the United Nations has “a duty to search until the very end for the peaceful resolution of conflicts”.
Security Council members, he said, “now face a great choice”, adding, “If they fail to agree on a common position, and action is taken without the authority of the Security Council, the legitimacy and support for any such action will be seriously impaired.”
He added that the success or failure of the international community would crucially affect its ability to deal with other problems in the Middle East, the Korean peninsula and Africa.
The Secretary-General noted the importance attached the world over to the Security Council and the United Nations, and said, “As they approach their grave decision, I must solemnly urge all members of the Security Council to keep this in mind, and to be worthy of the trust in them that the world’s peoples have shown.”
Asked whether an attack on Iraq without Security Council authorization would violate the United Nations Charter, the Secretary-General said, “If the U.S. and others were to go outside the Council and take military action, it would not be in conformity with the Charter.”
The Secretary-General was asked about his discussions on Cyprus, and one reporter asked in particular about the difficulty in getting a “yes-or-no” answer from the Cypriot leaders on putting his plan to separate, simultaneous referenda on 30 March, and the Secretary-General responded that, “sometimes, to get to what you call a simple “yes” or “no” takes a lot of doing”.
Following the press conference, the Secretary-General then returned to the Cyprus talks. Beginning at 6:30 p.m. and ending almost 12 hours later, he and his Special Adviser on Cyprus, Mr. de Soto, held a number of meetings with the Guarantors, as well as separate meetings with the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, and the Greek Cypriot leader, Tassos Papadopoulos.
A joint meeting of the parties was organized at 2 o’clock in the morning and broke up more than an hour later. Immediately afterwards, the Secretary-General and his Cyprus team reconvened a meeting of the Guarantors, which lasted more than two hours. Soon after, at 6 a.m., the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser delivered a statement to the press announcing the talks had not reached a successful outcome.
In that statement, the Secretary-General said that Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos had told him that he was prepared to submit the 26 February plan for approval by referendum on 30 March, as long as “the people knew what they are being asked to vote on”. To that end, he wished to be sure that gaps regarding federal legislation and constituent State constitutions would be filled.
Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash told the Secretary-General that he was not prepared to agree to put the plan to referendum, and that he had fundamental objections to the plan on basic points.
The Secretary-General concluded that “we have reached the end of the road”, adding that it would clearly not be possible to achieve a comprehensive settlement before Cyprus accedes to the European Union on 16 April. That commitment is not in place at this time, he said, adding that the office of his Special Adviser on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, would be brought to a close in the coming weeks.
He said, “I share tonight with all peace-loving Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Greeks and Turks a deep sense of sadness. I am not sure another opportunity like this one will present itself again any time soon.” (See Press Release SG/SM/8630.)
Mr. de Soto told reporters afterward that this is the “sad culmination of a process that began in late 1999”. He would provide a detailed report in due course to the Security Council.
On Tuesday morning, the Secretary-General and his delegation met with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkanende and Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap G. de Hoop Scheffer for over half an hour.
The Secretary-General, in a press encounter afterward, said they had discussed the International Criminal Court, the question of Cyprus and Iraq. On Iraq, he said, he and the Prime Minister agreed that “what is needed is united international action, constant and persistent pressure on the leadership of Iraq to disarm”.
The Secretary-General cautioned that everyone, from governments to the people in the streets, is insisting on disarmament and “the public mood must not be misread by the Iraqi authorities”. He emphasized that a united Security Council, working with unity of purpose and direction, can make a difference, and he noted attempts that are being made by the Council to come together and move forward, as difficult as that is. Regardless of any vote on Iraq, he said, “at the end of the day, the UN is going to be as important as ever”.
Afterwards, the Secretary General attended a luncheon organized by the Dutch Government to mark the inauguration of the International Criminal Court.
The solemn ceremony of the inauguration of the International Criminal Court took place in the Knights Hall of the Inner Court, a historic square in the centre of The Hague. During the ceremony, which was attended by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, the President of the Assembly of the States Parties, Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, administered the oath to the 18 newly elected judges of the Court.
“It has taken mankind many years to reach this moment”, the Secretary-General stated. He asserted that the 11 men and seven women who were sworn in as the Court’s first judges “have made themselves the embodiment of our collective conscience”.
He told the judges that the honesty and efficiency of the Court’s administration must be beyond reproach, and he also told States Parties that, in the near future, they must choose a prosecutor for the Court.
He added, “The commitment shown thus far augurs well for the future.” (See Press Release SG/SM/8628.)
Immediately after the 18 judges were sworn in, they conferred in what was their first private meeting as a Court, and elected Philippe Kirsch of Canada as their first President. Two vice-presidents were also elected, judges Elizabeth Odio Benito and Erkki Kourula.
Mr. Annan met that afternoon with Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim.
The Secretary-General returned to New York on Wednesday, 12 March.