Press conference after meeting with President Festus Mogae (unofficial transcript)

Your Excellency the President of the Republic of Botswana, Mr. Festus Mogae

Your Excellency the Secretary-General of the United Nations Mr. Kofi Annan

Honorable Ministers

Excellency Head of Missions

Distinguished Guests including the media 7

We have our guest here today and we are going to be here for approximately 15 minutes or less and the questions will center mainly, I hope, on the visit that his Excellency is here for. With that I am informed that his Excellency the Secretary General is going to make some opening remarks which will answer most of your questions in advance and I know you will like it. Thank you very much –Over to you Sir.

SG: Thank you Mr. President. Ladies and gentlemen of the Press.

I have had a very very good visit to your country. This is the first time I have been here but in a very brief period I have been able to get a sense of what is happening here. I had a chance not only to have discussions with the President, but also to attend the Trade Fair, visited Princess Marina Hospital, saw for myself your efforts to combat HIV/AIDS and was able to see first-hand the President's leadership and the commitment of the entire population to fight the scourge.

I think Botswana is offering leadership in this area, which is appreciated around the world.

And prior to my arrival here we often referred to your example here, now I can speak from first hand knowledge. I am also encouraged by the economic strides such that you have been making. The good economic management of your resources as well as the strengthening of democratic institutions and the rule of law in this country. And I think you should be proud as Botswana that you are making strides and you have attained achievements, which other African countries would like to emulate.

I have also this morning been able to talk to the President about the drought and famine situation in the region. We have talked about UN/Botswana relationship and increased involvement of Botswana in UN peacekeeping operations. The men and women from your armed forces who participated in the previous operations did extremely well and we would want to see them become re-engaged.

We have discussed the new African Initiative for Development and the importance and the promise it holds for our continent as well as the African Union and attempts by African Governments to come together to co-operate and hopefully emulate what has brought Europe and European countries such prosperity and stability.

I will take your questions:

Q: Your Excellency, the Government of the United States of America, in particular the Senate, has passed the American Service Member for tracking act as part of its efforts in opposing the International Criminal Court. I was astonished to learn that the US intends to attack the International Criminal Court in the Hague to rescue Americans who would have been held in custody of the court. I would like to ask what we should expect from the United Nations and indeed the World community and indeed from you Mr. Secretary General? (Mmegi Reporter Mr. Letshwiti Thutwane)

SG: I believe that the establishment of the International Criminal Court is an important development in international law, for the first time the missing link has been put in place and now criminals and people who commit crimes against humanity can be brought to justice. The 78 countries who have ratified the Rome treaties are determined to go ahead with the establishment of the court. I support the establishment of the court and I think the discussions in the Security Council made it clear that most members of the organization support the establishment of the court.

The court should be up and running next year in the Hague and I hope that in time once the credibility of court has been established and it continues to deliver justice. Even countries, which are hesitant today, will come on board and I hope the US position is not immutable.

Q: There is rising concern that there appears to be no distinction between the United Nations and some countries like the US when it comes to issues of conflict, resolution and the fight against terrorism. What is the United Nations doing? What practices are in place to save the credibility of the UN and confidence of other countries in the UN as it is? Have you considered; don't you think it's time that the UN should have its own army? (Radio Botswana Mr. Laone Segaetsho)

SG: Let me start with your first question, I think there is a very clear difference between the US and the UN on many issues. On the issue of terrorism, the UN position its been very clear that we need to face that fight on law, on cooperation between countries and in fact the resolutions the UN Security Council passed is predicated on international cooperation. We believe that the most effective way to fight terrorism is for governments to work together, to share information, to refuse to protect terrorist, to refuse some financial and logistical support, in other words create an atmosphere where they have nowhere to hide and they get no support from any country and in fact the Security Council has set up a counter terrorism committee which is working very well and has got reports from many countries around the world and we believe that approach would yield longer term results that can be sustained over time.

There are also 12 General Assembly resolutions on terrorism and now the members are working on a comprehensive one and I think these conventions provide a common legal framework for our fight against terrorism and all members of the UN have signed on to that. And we will continue to proceed along these lines and encourage international cooperation and stress the rule of law and I had also have a chance to indicate that we need to be very careful as we seek to fight terrorism. Yes, we must take effective action against terrorists and but we also have to be careful not to trample on the rights and freedoms of citizens, there can be no trade off between an effective action against terrorism and human rights and civil liberties.

Q: Your Excellency, I just wanted to ask you the position of the United Nations currently regarding Iraq. America has been widely viewed as being trigger happy, can you tell the current position of the UN regarding Iraq or whether Iraq is really refusing to allow the inspectors or they are strings attached? (Correspondent Mmegi Newspaper Mr. Edgar Temane)

SG: I think the UN position is that these resolutions must be implemented. As you know, I myself have been in discussions with Iraqi authorities about the return of UN inspectors. The last discussion we had was in July in Vienna. We were not able to convince them to allow the inspectors but recent letters from them indicated that they may want to continue the discussion but we would want to see action, we do not want to get involved in discussion or discussions for their sake. So the UN position is that resolutions must be implemented and the inspectors should go as soon as possible to continue their work to ensure that Iraq does not possess any weapons of mass destruction.

Once the inspectors certify that is the case then the sanctions would be lifted. The UN has no policy or decision for a regime change or to remove Saddam Hussein. That is a US national policy; it's not a UN policy.

Q: I would like to find out if in your discussions/talks this morning if you have touched on the two issues of conflict diamonds in the region and also the relocation of the Basarwa from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and if so, I would like to find out the impressions of the Secretary General on the two issues (Botswana Television Ms. Seamogane Mosanako)

SG: The first one, we didn't discuss this morning the diamonds, but we have had a chance of discussing it earlier and I know the President's position on this issue of blood diamonds and the need to ensure that the industry is clean and its reputation is not tarnished by areas of conflict where ruthless people use the diamonds for war. I think the President may want to say something about that himself.

We did discuss the second issue of Basarwa and the President has explained to me the actions the Government has been taking and the fact that they have been treated fairly and the Government will continue to treat them fairly and respect their rights. And I think that is important.

Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen.