United Nations Daily Highlights, 02-12-23

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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

Monday, December 23, 2002

MIDDLE EAST QUARTET CLOSE TO FINALIZING ROAD MAP

On Friday afternoon following their meeting at the State Department in Washington, the members of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet met with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney at the White House.

In addition to the Secretary-General and Secretary of State Colin Powell, the Quartet also includes Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

The European Union is represented by the current President of the European Union, Danish Foreign Minister Per Steg Moeller; Denmark currently hold the Presidency of the European Union, EU High Representative for a Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana and European Commissioner for External Affairs Chris Patten.

Speaking to reporters at the start of the meeting, the Secretary-General said the Quartet was very close to finalizing a road map, which can help bring about the vision of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side. It will require sacrifices from both sides, Annan added, and it will demand parallel steps by both states for us to be able to move forward.

The road map, he said, must not only be performance driven, it must also be hope-driven. I believe, the Secretary-General told reporters, that this vision of two states, living in peace and security, will be the dream that will keep that hope alive.

Afterwards, a joint statement was released by the Quartet which called for an immediate, comprehensive, cease-fire. All Palestinian individuals and groups must end all acts of terror against Israelis, in any location, the statement said. Adding that as calm is established, Israeli forces should withdraw from Palestinian areas and the pre-Intifada status quo on the ground should be restored.

The Quartet also expressed concern at the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank and called for increased effort by the Government of Israel to ease the humanitarian situation in those places.

In conclusion, the Quartet members said a further meeting of the Quartet principals in the near future would take place to adopt the roadmap and present it to the parties.

UN CARRIES OUT 150 INSPECTIONS IN IRAQ SINCE 27 NOVEMBER

According to our regular UN briefing in Baghdad, the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have carried out roughly 150 inspections up to now.

Some sites were visited several times due to their size and their complexity.

As for personnel movement, there has been a small rotation of staff over the last few days, with some IAEA and UNMOVIC inspectors leaving while others arrived.

There are currently 102 UNMOVIC inspectors and 6 IAEA inspectors, a total of 108.Even though the number of current IAEA inspectors is small, they have specialized expertise and are now conducting detailed quantitative assessments of Iraqi declarations. They are studying procurement records, factory inventories, and consumption records in an attempt to verify Iraqi declarations about critical dual-use materials.

In terms of inspections, today and over the weekend, IAEA and UNMOVIC teams conducted a number of visits at a wide variety of sites, including an industrial scrap yard, a pesticide research center, a baby formula factory, a missile propellant plant and a metal and ceramics research plant.

Asked about reports of contingency planning by the United Nations for military action in Iraq, the Spokesman said that any well-run organization has to be prepared for developments which may occur, while hoping that they will not. The United Nations often engages in such contingency planning, particularly when there is reason to fear a complex humanitarian emergency, he added.

In the case of Iraq, the Spokesman went on to say, the United Nations hopes that there will be full compliance with the provisions of Security Council Resolution 1441 (2002) and that, consequently, there will be no new humanitarian crisis. But we must plan for the full range of possible scenarios.

Asked about a recent meeting in Geneva with the donor community, the Spokesman confirmed that the United Nations had met with representatives of the donor community and had asked for $37.5 million dollars to fund the contingency planning, which includes the pre-positioning of food and other essential items.

Asked for more details of the planning, the Spokesman refused saying the planning process was being done quietly so as not to excite the political environment.

UN FACILITATES HANDOVER BY IRAQ OF KUWAITI PROPERTY

The Secretary-General notes, in a statement issued through his Spokesman, that on 22 December, in Umm Qasr, Iraq handed over to Kuwaiti officials items of Kuwaiti property not related to its national archives (the list of these items was annexed to the recent report of the Secretary-General, S/2002/1349).

The UN Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission facilitated this hand-over.

DURING FRIDAY VOTE, SECURITY COUNCIL FAILS TO ADOPT MIDDLE EAST RESOLUTION

On Friday night, the Security Council failed to adopt a draft resolution that would have condemned the killing by Israeli forces of UN employees, as well as the destruction of a World Food Programme warehouse in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The vote was 12 in favor to one against (U.S.) with two abstentions (Bulgaria and Cameroon).

No meetings or consultations are scheduled for Monday.

Asked for the Secretary-Generals reaction to the vote, the Spokesman said he would not comment on a Council decision once it has been taken.

COUNCIL DISCUSSES COTE DIVOIRE, HUMAN RIGHTS TEAM SENT TO THE COUNTRY

Prior to that vote on Friday night, the Security Council held back-to-back formal meetings to adopt two presidential statements -- one on the protection of civilians in armed conflict and the other on Cote D'Ivoire.

It was the first time the Council took up Cote D'Ivoire as an agenda item.

In its statement, the Council called on the warring parties to resolve their differences through talks aimed at achieving a negotiated political solution. It welcomed, in particular, the commitment of the President of Côte dIvoire to submit, in the coming days, a comprehensive plan to end the crisis, stressing that such a plan was a crucial step towards achieving a peaceful solution. It also welcomed the decision by the Secretary-General to request an urgent human rights mission to assess the situation.

The mission, led by Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan, was scheduled to have left Geneva today.

It will spend a week in the country and prepare a report on its return for the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General.

UN ATOMIC AGENCY REGRETS KOREAN TAMPERING OF SURVEILLANCE EQUIPMENT

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued two statements over the weekend, expressing deep regret at the Democratic Peoples Republic of Koreas (DPRK) disruption of IAEAs Safeguards Implementation equipment in the country.

On December 21, the DPRK cut most of the seals and impeded the functioning of surveillance equipment installed at the Nyongbyong 5 Megawatt reactor, and the next day it removed seals in the reactors spent fuel pond which contain some 8,000 irradiated fuel rods.

IAEAs Director General Mohamed Elbaradei said: As the spent fuel contains a significant amount of plutonium, the DPRKs action is of great non proliferation concern and represents a further disruption of the IAEAs ability to apply safeguards in the DPRK.

AFGHAN NEIGHBOURS SIGN DECLARATION OF NON-AGGRESSION

Yesterday in Kabul, at a Conference on Good Neighbourly Relations, representatives of Afghanistan's six neighboring countries signed a declaration of non-aggression. The six signatories - China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as well as Afghanistan reaffirmed their commitment to constructive and supportive bilateral relationships.

In message read out by his Special Representative, Lakhdar Brahimi, the Secretary-General said that peace in Afghanistan could only be achieved with the help of neighbouring States and the wider international community. Highlighting that Afghanistans neighbours had already done much to help bring back stability to that country, he said he hoped that the Kabul Declaration would not be seen as an isolated event, but the basis for a further series of regional agreements and initiatives to promote cooperation.

President Hamid Karzai, in his speech, stressed that Afghanistan would not allow its territory or bilateral relations with any other nations to harm another country and it its expected the same from others.

The Secretary-General, in a statement issued in New York through his Spokesman, welcomes the signing of the Kabul Declaration on Good Neighbourly Relations.

He sincerely hopes that the Declaration will not only strengthen the peace process in Afghanistan but also promote political and economic progress in the entire region.

He calls on the signatories of the Kabul Declaration to do their utmost to respect the principles of territorial integrity and noninterference in each others internal affairs, and to work together to solve the problems of terrorism, political extremism and drug trafficking.

He extends his congratulations to President Karzai and his government on this important day, as well as to the people of Afghanistan.

He expresses the hope that the Kabul Declaration will complement the Bonn Agreement to ensure a peaceful and prosperous future for Afghanistan and its neighbours.

At the same time, the Secretary-General believes that much progress remains to be achieved in Afghanistan, particularly in improving the security situation, as has been demonstrated by a number of recent incidents throughout the country.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Two United Nations Human Rights bodies have found violations of civil and political rights and torture treaties in eight countries. The Human Rights Committee concluded that in seven of the 14 complaints from individuals, the provisions of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights had been violated. The Committee against Torture also found a violation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in one case against Yugoslavia.

The UN Development Programmes Administrator, Mark Malloch-Brown, welcomed on Friday the establishment by the General Assembly of a World Solidarity Fund.

Asked why the Secretary-General had not held his traditional year-end press conference, the Spokesman said recently the Secretary-General had had lots of contact with the press, most notably in the morning as he enters the building so it did not seem to be necessary to hold a press conference at this time. However, the Spokesman added, there may be a press conference at the start of the year.

Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General United Nations, S-378 New York, NY 10017 Tel. 212-963-7162 - press/media only Fax. 212-963-7055

All other inquiries to be addressed to (212) 963-4475 or by e-mail to: inquiries@un.org

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