HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPOKESMAN'S NOON
BRIEFING
BY FRED ECKHARD
SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
UN HEADQUARTERS,
NEW YORK
Thursday, March
31, 2005
ANNAN ENCOURAGED BY RWANDAN GROUPS RENUNCIATION
OF FORCE
Secretary-General Kofi Annan is
encouraged by the statement issued today in Rome by the Forces
démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR) by which the FDLR has
renounced the use of force, condemned the 1994 Rwanda genocide, and has
accepted to voluntarily disarm, return peacefully to Rwanda and to also
cooperate with international justice mechanisms.
The Secretary-General calls
on the Governments of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda to take every action
necessary to cooperate in order to ensure the voluntary disarmament and
peaceful return to Rwanda of FDLR combatants in the DRC. He has directed the
UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) to
do everything possible within its means to facilitate this process.
It is believed there are
between 13,000 and 15,000 such fighters in the DRC.
MONUC has designated six
temporary gathering points to help process those fighters seeking repatriation
to Rwanda for themselves and their families. The UN mission will also ensure
their safe transportation to the border where Rwandan authorities will insert
them into the national demobilization and reintegration programme.
The mission hopes that the
repatriation will help improve relations between the governments of Rwanda and
the DRC, as well lead to a significant improvement in humanitarian aid access
in the areas these Rwandan fighters were based.
In addition, the mission
says the repatriation will lead to an improvement in security ahead of the
DRC’s presidential elections later this year.
NO
EXTENSION TO DISARMAMENT DEADLINE FOR MILITIA IN ITURI, D.R.C.
The
UN Organization Mission in the DRC says, meanwhile, there is no extension
to the disarmament deadline for militiamen in the
Ituri district, in the country’s northeast.
The Mission say that reports
which have appeared today in some newspapers in Kinshasa claiming an extension
has been granted are wrong, and the deadline of 1 April for taking part in the
Disarmament and Community Reinstatement Program for Ituri remains in place.
The Mission says the
militiamen must disarm by tomorrow at the latest – otherwise they expose
themselves to the consequences of their refusal – namely, that they will be
considered outlaws and will be dealt with accordingly.
U.N.
SPECIAL ENVOY LEAVES FOR MIDDLE EAST TONIGHT
The
Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the implementation of Security
Council
resolution 1559, Terje Roed-Larsen, will
depart this evening for Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
He
will have discussions with senior officials of those governments and others
related to the implementation of the resolution 1559 in preparation for the
Secretary-General's report to the
Security Council in mid-April.
In
Damascus and Beirut, Roed-Larsen will deliver personal messages of the
Secretary-General to President Bashar Al-Assad of Syria and to President Emile
Lahoud of Lebanon, respectively.
Yesterday, Roed-Larsen
visited Washington, D.C. and met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. They discussed all relevant
issues related to the full implementation of the resolution and decided to
remain in close contact.
SECURITY
COUNCIL TO CONSIDER DRAFT RESOLUTION ON SUDAN
The
Security Council has scheduled two formal meetings today at 5:00 p.m.
The first meeting is being
held to adopt a Presidential statement in connection with the situation in
Guinea-Bissau.
That will be followed by a
formal meeting to consider a draft resolution on
Sudan.
Today is the last day of the
Brazilian presidency of the Security Council.
China assumes the presidency
for the month of April.
Asked about the
Secretary-General’s response to the Sudan resolution, the Spokesman said
that the Secretary-General had been involved with various parties in the
debate on that resolution, and may have a statement later this afternoon once
the Security Council meets.
U.N.
PEACEKEEPERS CURB ETHNIC CLASHES IN COTE D’IVOIRE VILLAGE
The
UN Operation in Cote d’Ivoire reports that its peacekeepers yesterday
moved in to curb an ethnic clash between two groups in a village located
inside the zone of confidence.
It also issued a
press release deploring the grave violations of human rights in the
country.
Meanwhile, a humanitarian assessment mission sent to an area near the border
with Mali found a food shortage. A number of households had sold off their
crops and produces at cheap prices to traders from Mali, Burkina Faso and
Niger who last year suffered from poor harvest due to locust swarms.
MARBURG
VIRUS HAS KILLED 127 PEOPLE IN ANGOLA
Regarding an outbreak of the
rare
Marburg virus in Angola, the
World Health Organization
reports today that, as of yesterday, 132 cases – including 12 health care
workers – have been reported. Of these, 127 have been fatal.
This is the largest number
of fatalities ever recorded during an outbreak of this rare, but extremely
severe disease, which is related to the Ebola virus.
FLOODING
AFFECTED AFGHAN CITY OF GHAZNI
The
UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
says that flooding has affected the city of Ghazni and other villages in
the province after a dam gave way on Monday evening.
The UN mission, coalition
forces and the Afghan Government have set up five working groups to respond to
the flooding, including by assisting 70 families whose houses were destroyed.
The water has now decreased significantly, and the situation is described to
be under control.
EVENT ON
MONDAY TO MARK ANNIVERSARY OF DAG HAMMARSKJOLD’S BIRTH
Monday, the
Dag Hammarskjold Library will hold the first in a series of lectures and
conversations to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of former
UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld.
Titled “Dag
Hammarskjöld’s legacy and its relevance to the UN today,” the event will
feature a conversation with Sir Brian Urquhart, former Under-Secretary-General
and a close colleague of Dag Hammarskjöld, and Jan Eliasson, Sweden’s
Ambassador to the United States and the endorsed candidate for the Presidency
of the 60th
General Assembly.
The conversation will be
moderated by Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public
Information, Shashi Tharoor, and the
Secretary-General is expected to launch the event.
ALLEGATIONS
AGAINST DILEEP NAIR TO BE REVIEWED BY THIRD-PARTY
A so-called charge letter
was
issued yesterday against
Dileep Nair, Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services,
based on the adverse finding made against him in the report of the
Independent Inquiry Committee.
Separately, we are
initiating an independent, third-party review of allegations made against him
by the Staff Council to determine whether a full, external investigation is
warranted.
We are also today announcing
the shortlist of candidates of
Office of Internal Oversight Services to replace Nair at
the conclusion of his non-renewable five-year term, which concludes on 23
April 2005.
Asked about the charge
letter, the Spokesman said the letter refers to the adverse finding made
against Nair in the Volcker report. The United Nations has asked Nair to
provide a defense within a week, which would end next Thursday. On issues
raised by the Staff Council, the United Nations is giving the matter to a
third party to see whether it should be investigated.
He noted that Nair has
little time left on his five-year term, but added that the United Nations is
committed to the investigation. If the third party feels that a full
investigation is required, the United Nations will pursue it whether Nair is
still on staff or not.
Asked why it took so long to
investigate Nair, the Spokesman reviewed the sequence of events, noting that
an earlier review into his management practices had found that Nair had
followed the appropriate procedures. Following a request by the Staff Council
to reopen the investigation, the United Nations asked the Staff Council to
submit any further information, which it reviewed, and also gave Nair time to
respond.
Eckhard also noted the
constitutional issue of whether Nair could be investigated by the Secretariat,
given that he reports to the General Assembly.
In response to questions
about the Staff Council’s complaints, the Spokesman noted that their charges
about Nair’s hiring practices had been about the hiring of certain
nationalities. The United Nations had looked into every hiring practice in the
department and found that Nair had followed appropriate procedures.
In the Volcker report,
Eckhard said, Nair was accused of using oil-for-food money for one person to
work under him, who, the report said, did not work on oil-for-food issues.
SHORTLIST
ANNOUNCED FOR NEXT HEAD OF INTERNAL OVERSIGHT OFFICE
Under the new senior
recruitment procedures, the
Secretary-General has today decided on the shortlist for the incoming
Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight.
The following candidates
will be called for interview in the next few weeks:
Claus Andreasen (Denmark),
Director of Audit, UNICEF
Inga-Britt Ahlenius
(Sweden), Auditor-General of Kosovo; former Auditor-General of Sweden
Franz-Hermann Bruener
(Germany), Director-General of the European Anti Fraud Office
David McDonald (New
Zealand), Former Auditor-General of New Zealand
Rafael Muñoz (Spain), Former
Director of the Office of Internal Audit and Inspection, IMF
The criteria that these
candidates will be evaluated against at interview will include:
Exceptional integrity,
recognized stature and proven independence, with a record of substantial
achievement (i.e. as his/her country’s Auditor-General or as a leading Auditor
or Investigator at international level;
Expertise in accounting,
auditing, financial analysis and investigations, management, law or public
administration;
Proven skills in the
management of complex organizations and good knowledge of UN system and a
commitment to pursuit of reform;
A leader who will
unstintingly champion fight against corruption, cause of transparency and good
governance;
English required; French
highly desirable; other UN languages an asset.
The candidates will then be
interviewed by a panel of senior management officials, who will refer the
finalists to the Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General for final
interview. The Secretary-General will then forward his nominee to the General
Assembly.
The Secretary-General feels
that this is a very strong shortlist of candidates and looks forward to
selecting the right person for the position.
IQBAL RIZA
HAD WRITTEN TO U.N. AGENCIES ON DOCUMENT PRESERVATION
Yesterday I said that Iqbal
Riza had approved his secretary’s request to shred his "chron" files two
months before the documents preservation order was issued. I was referring at
the time to the
Secretary-General’s documents preservation order, which was indeed issued
on June first 2004, two months after Riza had approved the secretary’s request
on the 22nd of April that year.
I should have noted that
Riza had, on April 12th, written to UN agencies, funds and programmes to
request that they preserve all related documents. This is, of course, all laid
out in the report of the
Independent Inquiry Committee.
Asked about the Volcker
report’s findings concerning former Chef de Cabinet Iqbal Riza, the Spokesman
said the United Nations was looking into those findings, but he had nothing to
announce yet.
The Spokesman, responding to
questions about the report’s findings that chron file documents had been
shredded, said that UN offices, including his own, shred documents daily.
Eckhard explained that the
classic sense of a chron file is that it contains a copy of everything that
goes out of an office on a given day. The UN administrative instruction is
that chron files should not be kept for more than a year.
Asked about what could have
been in the shredded chron files, the Spokesman said that the chron files for
the years from 2000 onward, which were not shredded, were provided to
Volcker’s team, so they should have a good idea of the type of documents
contained in those files.
Chron files, the Spokesman
added, should not have anything original in them, but are duplicates of other
documents, which could also be found in the hard drives of computers. The UN
hard drives were made available to the Volcker panel, the Spokesman said,
adding that he did not think Riza believed there was anything in the chron
files that could not be found elsewhere.
Asked whether Riza could
collect retirement, given that he also has a dollar-a-year contract, the
Spokesman said that retirees can work for the United Nations, but there was a
limit to what they could earn per year and still collect their pensions.
In response to questions
about the dollar-a-year status, the Spokesman said that, if people have UN
contracts under that status, they would have the right to have a visa in the
country where their duty station was located. The dollar-a-year status did not
have tax implications. If people with that status were required to travel,
they would receive travel costs and a daily subsistence allowance for that
period.
HEAD OF
POLITICAL AFFAIRS TO REVIEW CASE FOR ELECTORAL CHIEF
Asked why action had not
been taken on an internal management study concerning the
Electoral Assistance Division and its Director, Carina Perelli, the
Spokesman said that the matter had begun as a routine management exercise, but
an outside management consultant had turned up serious issues. The report by
that consultant had been given to Perelli, and the United Nations was awaiting
a response. She was given a specific deadline, which would end soon.
Kieran Prendergast, the head
of the
Department of Political Affairs, would review the management study and
Perelli’s response and decide whether to refer the matter on to other UN
departments for further action.
Asked why Perelli was
recently named a UN manager of the year, the Spokesman noted that she has had
a strong reputation for her electoral work.
SECRETARY-GENERAL
TO SPEAK TO STAFF NEXT WEEK
In response to a question,
the Spokesman confirmed that the
Secretary-General intends to meet with UN staff next week, probably on
Tuesday, in an event that the Spokesman believed would also be open to the
press.
Asked why he was talking to
staff, the Spokesman said that Kofi Annan has in the past paid courtesy calls
to different departments. The second term has been more difficult than the
first, but even in the first, the Secretary-General made such staff visits. He
would welcome questions from staff.
The Secretary-General, he
said, would give staff encouragement as they focus on the work ahead.
Asked whether the
Secretary-General can focus on reform given the oil-for-food issues, the
Spokesman said that the initial Volcker reports have focused on the
Secretariat, which is a small part of the oil-for-food investigation. The next
report, he said, would be one in which the oil-for-food issue could be looked
at in the larger context, although he added that the
Independent Inquiry Committee has indicated it would still look into some
questions concerning Benon Sevan and Kojo Annan.
Asked about opinions from
members of the Volcker panel that the report did not vindicate the
Secretary-General, the Spokesman said that the Secretary-General had conveyed
his views about the panel’s findings. The Secretary-General, he said, feels
the report vindicated him, and he’s pressing on.
The Spokesman said that the
Secretary-General was focusing on the summit of world leaders this September,
which would be the ultimate test of whether his reform agenda is accepted or
not.
Asked about support for the
Secretary-General, the Spokesman said that he had support from the Member
States, adding, “He feels he has the confidence of his bosses.” He has made an
ambitious proposal, Eckhard said, and would now meet with regional groups to
advance the reform agenda.
Asked whether he would meet
with people, not just governments, on the reform agenda, the Spokesman said
that the Secretary-General meets with citizens’ groups and university
students, and has done more than anyone to bring the United Nations closer to
non-governmental organizations.
SECRETARY-GENERAL’S
SON HAD U.N. COURTESY PASS
Asked about access to the UN
premises, the Spokesman said that someone with a courtesy pass, as is
routinely issued to the children of Secretaries-General, would be allowed to
go anywhere on the premises.
He noted that Paul Volcker
had looked into Kojo Annan’s access to UN offices. He added that it was
clearly not permissible for anyone to use that access to go into UN files.
Asked why a UN staff member,
now in procurement, had babysat Kojo Annan, the Spokesman said that the person
was a very close friend of Kojo’s mother, and not of the Secretary-General.
Asked about what job that
person held in Iraq, the Spokesman noted that the Volcker report said she was
a procurement officer in Iraq for several years.
Asked whether Kojo Annan had
visited the UN office in Baghdad, the Spokesman said that, if it was not in
the Volcker report, he would assume it had not happened.
OTHER
ANNOUNCEMENTS
IRRESPONSIBLE ATTACK ON
ANTIRETROVIRAL THERAPY ATTACKED: A recent advertising campaign is touting
the benefits of vitamin therapy above antiretroviral therapy and claiming that
antiretroviral therapy is toxic. These advertisements are wrong and misleading,
said the
World Health Organization, the
UN Children’s Fund and
UNAIDS, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, yesterday. The three UN bodies
have condemned the irresponsible linking of their names to claims that vitamins
and nutrition therapy alone can prevent
AIDS deaths.
ANNAN HAS VISITED RWANDA
TWICE: The Spokesman, in response to a question about complaints that the
Secretary-General had never visited Rwanda, noted that he had in fact done
so twice.
DELEGATION’S VISIT HAD BEEN
SCHEDULED A LONG TIME AGO: Asked about a visit today by a U.S. Republican
delegation, the Spokesman said the visit had been scheduled a long time ago, as
one of a series of visits to familiarize Congressional staff with UN work.
Assistant Secretary-General Robert Orr had set up the meeting, he added.
ROOT CAUSES OF HUMAN
TRAFFICKING IN SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE NOT BEING ADDRESSED: The root causes of
human trafficking are not being adequately addressed in South Eastern Europe,
says a new report launched in Geneva today. The report, called “Trafficking
in Human Beings in South Eastern Europe – 2004: Focus on Prevention,”
finds that anti-trafficking measures are still dominated by repressive
measures to prevent migration, prostitution and organized crime. It was
published by
UNICEF, the
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe.
ANNAN SAYS SPREAD OF
HIV/AIDS CAN BE TURNED BACK: The
Secretary-General today in a
message addressed the ministerial meeting in Moscow on “Urgent Response to
the HIV/AIDS Epidemics in the Commonwealth of Independent States.” Commenting on
the fact that 1.4 million people in Eastern Europe and Central Asia are living
with
HIV/AIDS, the Secretary-General stated that the spread of the virus “can
be turned back”, but that it requires a coordinated response from all sectors of
society, and leadership at every level.
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