Secretary-General

Noon briefing of 15 February 2005


HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPOKESMAN'S NOON BRIEFING

BY FRED ECKHARD
SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

ANNAN: HARIRI’S LOSS NEEDS TO BE ANALYZED
FOCUS SHOULD NOW BE ON FINDING THOSE RESPONSIBLE

  • Secretary-General Kofi Annan was asked this morning by reporters about the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and said that he considered Hariri “a friend, a man who has done a lot for Lebanon, and a great patriot.”

  • He said that “a great political leader has been removed from the scene,” and the impact of his loss would need to be analyzed.

  • The Secretary-General said he trusted that every effort woul

  • He said that he had also recently sent his envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, to the region to discuss the implementation of Security Council resolution 1559.

  • The Secretary-General said that Roed-Larsen had carried a message from him to Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which mentioned that “we needed to see more progress and hope that there will be actual action and clear signs of withdrawal by the time I submit my next report to the Security Council.” That report is due in April, he added.

SECURITY COUNCIL ASKS ANNAN TO REPORT URGENTLY ON HARIRI KILLING

  • The Security Council held consultations today on Eritrea and Ethiopia and the Middle East.

  • The Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, briefed on the Middle East, in response to a Council request following yesterday’s assassination of former Prime Minister Hariri. The Secretary-General joined the Security Council discussion on Lebanon.

  • [In a statement read at a formal meeting following consultations, the Security Council President, Ambassador Joel Adechi of Benin, the Council condemned the terrorist bombing in Beirut that killed Hariri, and requested the Secretary-General to report urgently on the circumstances, causes and consequences of this terrorist act.]

ANNAN THANKS U.N. NUMANITARIAN STAFF FOR WORK ON TSUNAMI RELIEF

  • The Secretary-General met this morning with the staff of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to thank them for the work they had done after last December’s devastating tsunami.

  • Noting that many of them had given up their winter holidays to deal with the disaster, the Secretary-General said that that was what the UN was all about.

  • In addition to personnel in New York, OCHA staff from Geneva participated in today’s meeting – through a video link. OCHA representatives in Indonesia and Sri Lanka were patched in by telephone.

  • Responding to questions from OCHA staff members, the Secretary-General said Bill Clinton, his new tsunami envoy, would help promote natural disaster reduction strategies. He also voiced concern that various governments were arguing over where to establish a center for disaster preparedness.

  • Asked about involving the private sector in humanitarian relief efforts, the Secretary-General said he was committed to improving cooperation.

  • He added that the United Nations was being flexible when it came to channeling monetary donations, noting that some companies did not want their contributions to go towards administrative costs.

NEW JUDGE ELECTED TO INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

  • Shortly after 11:00 a.m., the Security Council began a meeting on the election of a member of the International Court of Justice.

  • The announcement of the results of the vote was awaiting completion of the same election in the General Assembly. Just before noon, the Council suspended consultations to announce the results.

  • The Security Council announced that Judge Ronny Abraham has received a majority of votes, and has been elected to the International Court of Justice. He will serve out the remainder of Judge Gilbert Guillaume’s term, which ends on February 5, 2009.

U.N. ENVOY TO ATTEND MINI-SUMMIT ON DARFUR, SUDAN

  • The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan, Jan Pronk, will be travelling tomorrow to N'Djamena where he will be attending, at the invitation of the Chadian Government, a mini-Summit to be held on Darfur, on Wednesday. The participants to the Summit are the Presidents of Chad, Nigeria and Sudan. Alpha Oumar Konare, the Chairman of the AU Commission will also take part in the Summit.

  • Pronk will also attend the meeting of the Ceasefire Joint Commission which will held on 16 and 17 February.

  • Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) says that the lack of funds was limiting WFP's ability to provide a complete food basket to displaced families in Darfur and to preposition food stocks ahead of the rainy season in July and August. WFP had asked for more than $440 million to feed 2.8 million, and it had only received $240 million so far.

  • The Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, Wendy Chamberlin, was in the south of Sudan where she was looking at The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees operations there and the enormous needs which had to be met if 500,000 Sudanese refugees were to be able to return home.

  • Asked if there could be a compromise on the question of whether the International Criminal Court or another court would investigate alleged atrocities in Darfur, the Spokesman said that the matter was being discussed in the Security Council.

CAMEROON AND NIGERIA AGREE ON CALENDAR
FOR DEMARCATION OF THEIR BORDER

  • Cameroon and Nigeria have agreed on a calendar for the demarcation of their border, as well as a work plan under which concrete barriers will be placed at mutually agreed points along the border.

  • The UN Office for West Africa reports that the two countries adopted that plan following a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, last week. It adds that the placement of pillars is to begin in 2006.

  • Also, the Secretary-General’s latest report on ways to combat sub-regional and cross-border problems in West Africa was issued today. In it, he says he is pleased by the growth of a constructive partnership between the UN system and Governments and communities in the region. He also cites areas where more efforts could contribute to conflict prevention and peace-building in West Africa.

UP TO 35,000 ADDITIONAL DISPLACED PERSONS REPORTED IN EASTERN DR CONGO

  • UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, says that the number of civilians uprooted by fighting in the Ituri district, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo since the beginning of this year has risen dramatically over the past week.

  • Although some 50,000 civilians had fled attacks on their villages by the first week of this month, monitors had reported an additional 30,000 to 35,000 displaced since then.

  • UNICEF is undertaking a major relief operation to assist the estimated 50,000 people who have managed to reach the safety of four sites, which are currently being guarded by UN peacekeepers.

GLOBAL FUND TO FIGHT AIDS APPROVES FUNDING WORTH $119 MILLION

  • The Board of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria today approved funding worth up to $119 million for the first batch of grants that have reached their two-year renewal point.

  • The Global Fund approves funding for five years, but initially commits money for only the first two-year phase, so that it can review the performance of the projects it has funded.

  • With today’s approval, grant recipients in sixteen countries will receive money for the second phase of their five-year programs.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

ANNAN SOMETIMES MEETS HIS CHILDREN DURING TRAVEL ABROAD: Asked whether the Secretary-General met during his recent travels with his son, Kojo Annan, the Spokesman said that the Secretary-General sometimes meets with his children during his travels to Europe or Africa. He declined to give specific details of when those meetings occurred or what was discussed.

ANNAN URGES RETURN TO SIX-PARTY TALKS ON NORTH KOREA: Asked at the press encounter about the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Secretary-General said that all sides should work to bring the country back to the six-party talks. He said he remains hopeful that they will come back to the talks.

DOWNWARD TREND IN AGRICULTURAL COMMODITY PRICES THREATENS FOOD INSECURITY: According to a report released today by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the long-term downward trend in agricultural commodity prices continues. This threatens the food security of hundreds of millions of people in some of the world’s poorest developing countries, where the sale of commodities is often the only source of cash.

U.N. ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME URGES NATIONS TO GO BEYOND KYOTO: The Kyoto Protocol, which aims to combat global warming, comes into force on 16 February. Klaus Toepfer, the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, said today that Kyoto is just the first step, and that more has to be done to deal with rising world temperatures. He also underscored the importance of combating global warming in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

*** The guest at today’s Noon Briefing was Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette who briefed on two issues addressed in the interim report of the Independent Inquiry Committee on the UN Oil for Food Programme -- UN procurement and reform of audit and oversight.