United Nations Daily Highlights, 02-12-19

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From: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.org

OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY FRED ECKHARD

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN

HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Thursday, December 19, 2002

SECURITY COUNCIL DISCUSSES IRAQI WEAPONS DOSSIER

The Security Council today held informal consultations on Iraq with briefings by Hans Blix, Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), and Mohamed ElBaradei, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Secretary-General Kofi Annan attended the discussions.

[Blix and ElBaradei spoke to reporters after consultations ended, and both asked Iraq to provide more information on its weapons programs. Blix said that so far, there has been "relatively little given in the evidence" concerning weapons of mass destruction, and that lack indicated that "one cannot have confidence that there do not remain weapons of mass destruction." He noted in response to queries that many questions about Iraq's weapons dating from the end of 1998 -- including those on anthrax and munitions -- have not been answered in the Iraqi declaration.

ElBaradei said the inspectors were making good progress in gaining access to sites but that they need more cooperation from Iraq in terms of substance. He noted that he and Blix would meet with the Security Council again in January to discuss the inspections, which he said were still in their initial phase.

In a statement to the press, Security Council President, Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso of Colombia, said that members of the Security Council took note of the contents of this briefing, and expressed their intention of having a further discussion early in January 2003 after all Members of the Council finish their own analytical work of the Iraqi declaration, and to hold more regular briefings from UNMOVIC and the IAEA.

]

This afternoon, the Security Council is scheduled to receive a briefing in an open meeting from Ambassador Ole Peter Kolby of Norway on the Council mission to Kosovo and Belgrade, which he led, following consultations at 3:00 p.m. on that subject.

UN TEAMS INSPECT MISSILE ACTIVITY SITES, GUESTHOUSE, DRUG CENTER

In Baghdad, two teams of inspectors from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) visited separate locations involved in missile activity.

An UNMOVIC multidisciplinary team also inspected a guesthouse in the Al Rashidiya region. The team entered the site, following a 20-minute discussion on procedural matters at the gate. The team leader, accompanied by an UNMOVIC interpreter and an Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate official, entered two buildings at the site and completed the inspection.

Meanwhile another UNMOVIC team inspected a veterinary drug research production center, located northwest of Baghdad.

The International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEA) sent a team of inspectors to the Mosul area in the north of Iraq over the last three days. These teams broke into sub-teams and carried out multiple inspections. Visited sites include irrigation and electricity projects.

CYPRUS: SECURITY COUNCIL NOTES UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY

On Wednesday afternoon, the Security Council was briefed by the Secretary-Generals Special Advisor for Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, on the recent efforts of his Good Offices mission.

In a statement to reporters afterwards, the President of the Security Council, Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso of Colombia, said the Council felt that revised proposals put forward to the two sides on December 10 offered a unique opportunity to reach a settlement in the coming weeks.

While regretting that the Turkish Cypriot leadership had not responded in timely fashion to the Secretary-Generals initiative, the Council welcomed the willingness of both sides to continue the negotiations in the period ahead.

De Soto also spoke to the press after briefing the Council. He told journalists that the Secretary-General had written to the two leaders, Rauf Denktash and Glafcos Clerides, as well as the leaders of Greece and Turkey, setting out the road ahead as he sees it and the work that needs to be done.

SECURITY COUNCIL VOICES CONCERN OVER GUINEA-BISSAU IMPASSE

In addition to discussing Cyprus, the Security Council on Wednesday afternoon also discussed the situation in Guinea-Bissau and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during closed consultations.

After receiving a briefing from the Secretary-Generals Representative in Guinea-Bissau David Stephen, the Council issued a press statement in which the members expressed their concern at the constitutional impasse and the increasing political instability in the country and stressed the need to organize early elections.

Council members also received a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Tuliemeni Kalomoh, on the recent agreement on political transition in the DRC. Following the meeting, the Council President told the press that Council members welcomed the agreement. They called upon the Congolese parties to ratify the agreement as soon as possible within the framework of the so-called Inter-Congolese Dialogue.

ARMED HIJACKERS SEIZE UN VEHICLE ON ROAD FROM KABUL

In Afghanistan Wednesday afternoon, unidentified armed men hijacked a vehicle belonging to the UN Mine Action Centre (MACA). At the time, the convoy of two Mine Action and one UNHCR vehicles was on its way from Kabul to Kandahar.

After passing Ghazni, some armed men on the side of the road tried to stop the convoy. Two vehicles continued, and the men fired shots in the air and stopped the third vehicle. The armed men took the vehicle and drove it some distance before leaving the four staff members riding inside the vehicle on the side of the road unharmed. The hijackers then drove the vehicle towards the Pakistani border.

The Ghazni Police Department has launched an investigation. So far there is no indication whether the attack was criminally or politically motivated.

UN ENVOY ADDRESSES CONFERENCE ON JUSTICE IN AFGHANISTAN

The Conference on Justice in Afghanistan opened today in Rome, Italy. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the countrys top judicial officials, and Special Representative of the Secretary-General Lakhdar Brahimi attended the conference.

In his address to the conference, Brahimi underscored the vital role that the judicial system has in Afghan society. The security of Afghanistan will require that the judicial police extend the rule of law to an area where it is now controlled by the rule of gun, he said. True security will mean that every Afghan, man and woman, must feel that the law is a refuge, which is there to protect them against the arbitrary rule of the strong, he added.

The Conference will last two days and end Friday.

COTE DIVOIRE CRISIS MAY CONTRIBUTE TO RISE IN AIDS, UNAIDS SAYS

The latest UN humanitarian update on Cote dIvoire says that people are continuing to flee the fighting in that country and that all activities to control the AIDS epidemic in rebel-held territories are blocked.

UNAIDS notes that estimates based on countries that have experienced similar population movements and displacement indicate that the risk of infection is five times greater during such crisis periods due to erratic sexual behavior, sexual violence and prostitution. This means that the current crisis could cause the HIV infection rate in Côte dIvoire to increase from the current estimation of 10 percent of the adult population to more than 30 percent over the next year.

Meanwhile, UN Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees Kamel Morjane has been in the region to tackle the refugee dimensions of Cote dIvoires crisis.

GLOBAL FUND TO GIVE $66.9 MILLION TO HAITI OVER FIVE YEARS

The United Nations Development Programme announced today that Haiti is to receive $66.9 million over the next five years from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The money will provide anti-retroviral therapy for a pioneering project for more than 1,200 people living with HIV/AIDS. The new approach involves members of the wider community who will help ensure the treatment regime is followed. The project will also launch an awareness and prevention campaign and will distribute 15 million condoms.

More than 30,000 Haitians died of the disease last year and about six per cent of those aged 15 to 49 are living with the disease.

MORE THAN 2 MILLION ANGOLANS PROJECTED IN NEED OF FOOD AID

The World Food Programme (WFP) warned that its ability to provide urgent food aid to a skyrocketing number of people in Angola will be seriously hampered unless new donations are received soon.

WFP conducted a study over the last few months that revealed that between 2.1 and 2.4 million Angolans may need food aid until the next harvest in April and May 2003. This is up from the 1.5 million beneficiaries projected in the appeal launched last October.

So far, WFP has only received one third of the $241 million it is seeking through the appeal and says the food stocks are dwindling just as the number of people needing aid is growing. If new donations are not pledged soon, WFP says its stocks of maize will run out by March, putting nearly two million people at risk of starvation.

The agency is facing funding shortfalls throughout Africa, where 38 million people are at risk of starvation.

UN TRIBUNAL WELCOMES SECURITY COUNCIL STATEMENT ON COOPERATION

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) welcomed Wednesdays Security Council Presidential Statement that stressed the importance the Council attaches to the full cooperation by all States, particularly those directly concerned, with the work of the International Tribunals.

The Tribunals registrar also announced the formal recognition of an Association of Defence Counsel for the Tribunal.

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