Secretary-General's press encounter upon arrival at UNHQ

Q: Thank you for taking our time this morning. Concerning Mr. Ahtisaari's report, how much do you personally believe you deserve or should accept blame for any of the failings and decisions that were criticized in that report?

SG: First of all, I am very grateful to [Mr.] Ahtisaari, who knows the system well, for having taken on the challenge. His report will be taken seriously. It requires reflection and action and we will do that. As you realize, I've just come back and I haven't had time to study the report in detail and that is precisely what I will be doing with my colleagues who have been looking at it whilst I have been in Madrid. We do take the report seriously. Over the past 50 years, the United Nations has been working around the world under a system of security, which has served us well. But the world has changed and we will have to change our way of doing business to be able to protect our staff around the world. We will need to focus on our operational objectives, but at the same time take measures to protect our staff. I hope we will be able to do that and we are not limiting our review to Iraq, we will be doing it globally.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, in this review, one of the things that President Ahtisaari said at the news conference he held was that one of their key recommendations was that the United Nations deal with the issue of personal accountability and responsibility. Is this something that you plan to address as you go into your assessment of the report? And could you tell us about the next steps and whether your assessment of whether staff goes back to Iraq is going to be made on completely different circumstances than the last time?

SG: Yes, I think, obviously that is one issue of accountability - what happened, who did what and did not do what, and as we move forward and introduce new plans, changes will have to be made. On the question of return to Iraq, obviously we are operating in a new environment, which we are assessing very, very seriously. So [after] the two bomb attacks against us, we have had to rethink our own approach and our own presence and that would be a factor in our decision to increase our staff in Iraq. You know that we haven't pulled out completely. I decided to keep the core staff there to work with the 4,000 national staff and they are doing their work with the national staff. Yesterday, I did see Mr. Bremer, in Madrid, as well as the representatives of the Iraqi Governing Council and we did talk about the UN role. Of course, they were all conscious that security was very much a part of it. And the new resolution also requires a multinational force to provide security for the UN and these are aspects that we need to work out, to see exactly what kind of security, what arrangements, who is going to do what and what we will do ourselves.

Q: Were you surprised by anything you read in the report?

SG: As I said, I'm going to study the report in detail and once I've studied that, I will answer your question.

Q: Sir….

SG: I said once I've studied it in detail I will answer your question.

Q: The Madrid Conference is not yet over, but how would you characterize the response of the international community to that Conference in terms of donations and pledges?

SG: I think that we will know that at the end of the day. Yesterday was an opening day. Today is a day when governments will announce their pledges and I think, by the end of the day, we will know what has happened. But, as I stated in Madrid, one shouldn't expect governments to indicate all that they are going to do for Iraq today in Madrid. It's a process and, over time, governments will do more. I also indicated that security was a constraint and we need to do something about that issue, and I think everybody agrees with that. And so we should not judge the success of Iraqi reconstruction by the contributions that are announced today. It is only a beginning of a process.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, you've got… despite two recommendations cited in the report, you didn't ever go in to Phase 5 evacuation in Iraq. Will you now maybe consider taking that step?

SG: I think, as I have indicated, that I did not agree that I should pull everybody out. I accepted Phase 5, but I made an exception and kept some of the staff there. That is why we pulled out most of staff, otherwise they would be there. The staff was reduced drastically, but in strict Phase 5 terms, all staff must leave. I felt it would not be wise for the UN to withdraw completely, pull out all stumps and leave. So I decided to keep a core staff there. It was my decision. It was a correct decision and I'm glad some staff stayed on to carry on the work with the 4,000 Iraqi staff.

Thank-you.